Tips and Tricks [Community Driven]

Overview

I’m trying to peel back the layers in this game. As with any good rogue-ish game, knowledge is very often power. I’m no expert, but I’ll try to keep a list of useful tactics I find. Please feel free to add things in the comments – I’ll add them into the list with credit to you.Please note that this guide is likely not 100% accurate. I’m logging and refining thoughts as I go. I try to make notes on where things might be less than accurate.

General Tips

• First try crouching every time you either hear an enemy breathing, or you see one. It’s pretty interesting to see how much combat you can avoid by crouching.
• If you are on fire, the quickest way to put it out is to jump back and forth. You can put it out fast enough that you will take very little damage if you do this.
• Combat is often inadvisable. It is often better to run away instead. Enemies dont stay aggressive forever, however you need to break line of sight before they will have a chance of losing you. The best way to disengage from a monster is to dash away, go around a couple of corners, and then crouch down and wait. If successful the monster will often run right by you, often having turned back into its object form. If that doesnt happen, simply listen for it to be moving away from you.
• Monsters will also give up the chase much faster if they are currently afflicted with any type of status ailment.
• Enemies can be lured into traps to hurt/kill them. This is best done in a hallway. (Thanks to Mr. Octopicake!!) Note that traps have a cooldown though. If you pass over a trap just before a monster does, the trap will not activate on the monster.
• There are two types of keys in the dungeon. Normal keys, which are what you need to use to exit the floor, and golden keys, which are used to open locks in the hub world. Unlike all other items, golden keys are NOT shown on the map, so pay attention as you explore each floor.
• On some floors, grabbing the last key for the floor will cause the entire floor to enter a sort of berserk mode, causing every mimic to transform and rush towards your position. To deal with this, dont just grab keys the moment you see them. Take note of which key is closest to the exit, and save that one for last. Dont try to fight when escaping during this, just keep running and jumping to dodge foes.
• You don’t have to kill Fatties (meat doors), you can just go through them. (Thanks to adriartilol!!)
• If you want to test a consumable by throwing, the best time to do it is when you’ve opened the locks and are standing right at the exit. That way, if it is an “attracts monsters” effect, you can immediately exit to safety.
• Be warned that “clouds” caused by throwing consumables dont discriminate between targets. Not just monsters, but NPCs as well can be affected and even killed by this. Worse, Fatties can be killed this way too. Note that bosses do not seem to be immune to status effects, so using that to your advantage can be a big help.
• Dont jump up and run just because you hear a rampaging monster. Look around first; the monster may be running towards and/or attacking something else, or running away from something else. Wait for the cacaphony to die down before resuming your exploration.
• The only way to open a locked door in the dungeon is to smash it down. If you dont have a melee weapon, you can use a gun to do this, but it will only put a small hole in the door. Shoot once near the bottom of the door, and you can crouch and go through that hole, instead of trying to shoot down the entire door and wasting ammo.
• Maps can be technically used as weapons, however they are so weak that this is mostly pointless. Use them for attacking only as a last resort.
• It isnt just props that can be mimics… weapons and consumables can be mimics as well! Unlike real items they do not show up on maps.
• Bosses such as Carre actually do show up on maps, using the same ? symbols that items use. However, you can see them moving around the map in real time, or see the symbol rotated into an unusual position.
• There is always a map nearby when you enter a new floor. Always find and look at it before proceeding.
• It is generally a good idea to periodically hit yourself with your weapon in order to help control the Gut’s anger. If you are going to eat a weapon (preferrably a dead one, instead of one that produces a status effect) it might be a good idea to smack yourself once just before eating it.
• Status effects on weapons can eventually wear down, reducing the weapon to the default “dead” state even before they actually break.
• Be careful of picking up too many mementos. There are a couple of them that are absolute game-enders… the more mementos you collect, the more likely you are to be stuck with one of these.
• The biome known as “The Cage” does not have a normal entrance. To get there, you must die in the hub zone. The mushroom monsters are what can kill you there.
• In the hub zone, look for a maze that is near one of the big gates. In this maze you will find a huge meat hole. Jumping down there is how you access survival mode. This mode drops you into a big floor with no exit, and constantly escalates the danger until you are overwhelmed by monsters. Once you are in here, you cannot get back out without dying!
• If you pick up a note and the letters start vanishing, throw it away quickly. If too many letters vanish, the note will pop and you will be given a negative status effect.
• Always pick up notes that you see. Some of them will identify consumables for you.
• Status “clouds” start out small, but spread very rapidly, eventually covering a huge area. Because of this, when you test consumables by throwing them, always do so into a far corner of the dungeon, and only into an area that does not contain NPCs or Fatties.

On Navigation

• You can attack the map on the wall to knock it down! Carry it with you! Eat it for health!
• Big question marks are for weapons, edible/throwable items (a.k.a. ‘left hand’ items), keys, and meatholes (which may contain a key). (Thank you C.E.T.I.O.!!!)
• The small ones are for unique characters: She, Huggs, Glutton, Juke, etc. (Thank you C.E.T.I.O.!!!)
• Locations of notes, ammo and gold are not displayed on the map. And maps are not shown on the map either. (Thank you C.E.T.I.O.!!!)
• Walls can be destroyed, however this will use up a lot of weapon durability. Sometimes items can be found within destroyed walls. Destroyed walls seem to sometimes cause large fires for some reason. It is possible that destroying walls angers the Gut, not sure just yet. Throwing explosive consumables will usually destroy many walls at once, so be careful.

On Items

• What an item does will be randomized each run.
• Throw an item (‘T’) to find out what it does.
• Right-click to zoom in on notes to read them. They often tell you what an item does for that run.
  Effect

  If Consumed

  If Thrown

  Inflict Fire

  Burns you

  Throws a fire bomb

  Love

  gives Love status (you can’t fight)

  Bewitches enemy to fight for you

  Heal

  Heals you

  Heals monsters/NPCs

  Poison

  Poisons you

  Causes poison cloud

  Regeneration

  Regenerates your health

  Creates bed of flowers

  Explosive

  Hurts you instantly

  Is a powerful bomb

  Attract Monsters

  Attracts monsters to you

  Attracts monsters to where projectile hits

  Panacea

  Cures any status ailments

  Cancels out status clouds

  Bone Chill

  Status that damages you unless you keep moving

  Slows down monsters that pass through it

  Blood

  Causes bleeding, take constant damage over time

  Creates blood “cloud”, causes bleed status to anything in it

  Gold Hunger

  Status that drains your gold. If you run out of gold, lose health instead

  Cloud that causes gold hunger. Seems to damage monsters

  Attract Monsters

  Attracts monsters to you

  Attracts monsters to where projectile hits

On NPCs

• Jukebox seems to give a full ammo clip when you pay it (depends on the gun; i.e. can be 6 or 9 bullets, etc.).
• Huggs repairs weapons.
• Crown/big golden bird thing upgrades your weapon by adding meat/life to it.
• Kissing She gives chance for a random status effect on you (thanks dev!).
  • If She is killed, it drops a Memento but yields ‘warning whisper’ which is a heavy reputation loss; better to try to lure an enemy into killing her. (Thank you C.E.T.I.O.!!!)
  • On -7 you can give SHE one of your eyes; it makes the Eye Taker ignore you. This also impairs your vision.
• Glutton/vending machine either wants gold (gives item) or is a fetch quest. Either will result in him giving you a consumable, which will be identified for you. If he asks for an item, that item will be found somewhere on the floor. However, it doesnt take into account whether or not you may have found and already used/eaten the item.
  • When Glutton asks for a particular ‘left hand’ item, they also reveal the current effect of this item. (Thank you C.E.T.I.O.!!!)
• Pile of Meat wants gold (typically a good bit) for a key.
• Meat Hole – stick your hand in for various things to happen; I’ve gotten hurt, a key, and I think a Memento.
• SHE proper (regular healthy She) just teased me, had rust stars falling, and had a nice pistol sitting next to her.
• Pipe Snake/toilet – give it money to heal yourself.
• Condemned – Found in the Factory. They tend to remain stationary most of the time. Wherever a Condemned is present, the surrounding area will be blacked out on any maps. Every now and then they get up and wander around. They wont attack you without provocation but it is best to stay out of their way when they are walking around.
• Cult Members – Weird meat blobs with giant skull heads. Stationary. These guys appear in a large group, and are always sitting within a status cloud of some sort. Talk to the correct one and he will offer to let you join the cult. Do so and you will become immune to that status effect, and gain a minor power (producing status cloud sometimes when getting hit?).

Environmental Effects

• If you see stars falling from the sky, this is a zone that will rust weapons (thanks to tmanman4!),
• Flower patches allow you to regenerate health.
• Gold Hunger are yellow clouds that will appear if a cult is nearby, if a Meat Trap is triggered or if a Bartering Mimic (Golden Pile of Meat/Pile of Meat) or Golden Eye Taker get hurt

Gut Mechanics

• The Gut (dungeon) has an anger level; the more you kill the harder the experience gets; this includes NPCs having higher costs and either more enemies or harder enemies (I’m sure there is more to this, but this is where I am at right now)
• The Gut’s anger level seems to have “tiers”. When its anger level crosses into a higher tier, you will get a “whisper” message. Check your notebook’s whisper tab to see it.
• The Gut loves when you hurt yourself, so this is a way to keep its anger in check. Hit H to strike yourself with whatever weapon you are holding.
• Killing monsters of any sort angers the Gut.
• The more time you spend lurking on a floor, the more monsters there are (thanks devs!).
• Killing Fatties (meat-blob “doors” that you can pass right through) causes an enormous increase in anger, so never attack them
• Joining a cult also causes a massive increase in anger, so decide carefully when presented with an offer to join.

How to Identify Mimics

• You can hear them breathing when you are near.
• Mimics arent always just stationary, and can roam around if they feel like it. They wont actually transform when they do this unless something aggravates them, so if you see a potted plant or something suddenly wander down a hallway and smash through a door, chances are its a mimic. This also means that a mimic you snuck by earlier might be somewhere else when you get back to that area.
• The more time you spend on a floor, the more monsters (thanks dev!).
• More Mimics spawn if The Gut hates you.
• Mimics are attracted to sound. Sneaking makes very little sound, walking makes a bit more, running is very loud. Combat is always loud, but guns are much louder than melee weapons.
• Mimics are always upright. So if you see something like a potted plant that is lying on its side, it is not a mimic.
• Mimics can sometimes be standing on top of other objects. That pile of books standing on a computer? Yep, that’s a mimic.

On Getting Health

• Eat weapons (hold ‘F’); you can always knock the map down and eat that!
• Eating weapons or the Map removes bleeding effect, like any source of direct healing (Thank you Faust!!).
• You can stand still in flower spots for a few seconds to get the regen effect/blessing
• Eating a consumable will always heal you for a small amount even if the consumable’s effect is negative.

On Enemies

• Gut Jumper – Extremely dangerous. It uses a dashing attack similar to that of Carre, but unlike Carre it doesnt roam around randomly, but instead keeps attacking over and over. It is very fast. Seems to spawn only if the Gut is enraged.
• Meat Giant – vending machine/bookshelf/pile of books mimic.
• Meat Trap – tile-based mimic that spawns badness when you step on it.
• Hand trap – Found in the office. Looks like a corroded floor tile, hands can be seen underneath it. Stepping on it causes them to pop upwards like spikes, doing damage. There is a small delay before the hands spike up though. The way to pass over these traps successfully is to jump forward the moment after you first step on them. If you try to jump forward before stepping on them they often will manage to hit you. With a bit of practice these are easy to deal with. Enemies can trigger them too!
• Dor – door mimic. Unlike normal doors, this one appears to jut out from the wall it is attached to, so pay attention. It will reach out and strike if you walk in front of it. Causes bleeding if it hits. Unlike other mimics it cannot chase you.
• Cringe – door-frame monster that hurts you if you try to pass through while it is screaming. Wait for it to calm down before moving through.
• Mr. Blade – small enemy with big fin. Extremely fast, there is no point in trying to run from it. Dont attack it immediately though, as sometimes these explode without you having to do anything, I dont know why yet. If they dont do this after a couple of slashing attempts, attack them.
• Mr. Legs – bottom half of a torso. Quick but fairly weak.
• Moocher – Bouncing face that says “KILL ME” as it leaps around. Moves slowly but never stops chasing you, seems to always know where you are no matter what. Has very low health but causes poison if it bites you.
• Eyetaker – a miniboss of sorts; lure him over traps once he hones in on you. Extremely dangerous, does high damage and can permanently restrict your vision. Dont fight it unless you absolutely have to. Sacrificing an eye makes Eyetakers neutral – unless agitated by damage. (Thank you Faust!!)
• Meater – an aggressive Mimic type that mimicks items (thanks to Nasty Interesting Man), once triggered for the first time they become extremely fast if they hear the player.
• Gobber – Meat monster with a pair of giant eyeballs on top Moves extremely slowly and heads towards your position. Unlike most monsters this one can attack at range by shooting weird eyeball things at you. It will typically shoot every time it is hit by something, so if you attack from a distance, fire at it and then dive around a corner to avoid the retaliatory attack. For the most part, it’s best to just steer clear of these, since they cant really chase you very effectively anyway.
• Bumeat – Found in the Backstreets. Looks like a manhole cover on the ground, surrounded by four odd lumps. Touching the manhole or any of the 4 lumps will cause blades to fly out and stab you, causing poison. Think of this monster as more of a trap, as far as I can tell it cannot be destroyed. It is very hard to avoid the blades, so steer clear of this whenever possible.
• Treeter – Blue tree that holds you, giving other monsters a chance to attack. Looks like a normal tree until you get close.
• Deeeeeeeeer – deer head on wall becomes snake-like and attacks you. Very aggressive. Pay attention to its movement, if you time your jumps carefully you can dodge and then run by it while it is preparing to attack again.
• Mr. Window – Window Mimic, it appears exclusively in the Backstreets, watch out for its breathing.
• Mr. Pole – Pole Mimic, deals considerable damage.
• Boss: Carre – Consists of a floating “core”, which is followed by a trail of flying hand things, effectively forming a long “snake”. Movements are very erratic. Produces freaky music whenever it is nearby. It attacks by rushing at you and is very fast, attack with guns when possible. If you get too close to the trail of hand things, they can break off from the group to attack you, but they wont chase you very far. After Carre takes enough damage it will produce a rust aura which covers a very large area. Carre cannot pass through Fatties.
• Boss: Meall – Effectively a giant mimic. Unlike normal mimics, this one actually mimics a big section of wall instead of a random object. It produces sound from some sort of strange recording, as if from a loudspeaker, when it is nearby. The closer you get, the louder this is, use this to find the boss. You can tell where it is by the fact that it is the only wall that can be at an unusual angle. The moment you attack it will go berserk and charge at you, so fire at it and be ready to run. When it calms down a bit it will shift back into wall form similar to normal mimics. Be warned that its wild rampage can set off nearby Condemned, causing them to become aggressive.
• Boss: Gut Diver – Currently the easiest of the bosses. Unlike Carre and Meall, this one will always simply come directly at you no matter what, and wont lose interest, though it can be distracted by other monsters briefly if something hits it, however it will soon resume chasing you. Gut Diver is very slow, and attacks by a sort of repeating lunge into and out of the ground. All you need is a melee weapon of some sort… an axe will do fine here. Slowly back up while turning and swinging, moving in a circle and occaisionally hopping backwards if needed. Keep this up until the boss goes down. The main danger in this fight isnt the boss itself, but other monsters or Meat/Bumeat traps. Seems to be resistant to fire damage even though the burning effect shows up on it. It’s best to have an undamaged weapon going into this fight, since if you run out of ways to attack when the boss is still around, finding another one will be much harder with it constantly following you around.

Useful Videos

Credit to YouTuber Christian. I think this showcases the power of simply running and not fighting anything. It’s a more successful strategy than I would have guessed.