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Part 0 - Tutorial



Sproggiwood was released in October of last year by Freehold Games (represented by Unormal and Hand of Luke on SA, who are also responsible for Caves of Qud). The design hits the same design goals as other modern roguelikes, with two halves to the gameplay: the procedurally generated dungeon crawling (where dying means starting over from the beginning of that dungeon with new levels), and a meta-game where you can use gold from successful dungeon runs to upgrade your town to give future adventures starting supplies/bonuses to make things easier.

I bought this game when it came out for PC, played the tutorial and first dungeon, then forgot about actually finishing it. However, there was a recent patch which added a difficulty called Savage, and I figured now would be as good of a time as ever to get back into it!



I'll be starting a new game, and on the Savage difficulty. Savage difficulty changes the enemies to have new abilities compared to Easy or Normal difficulty, as well as have enemies spawn earlier than when they would normally show up. With the exception of the tutorial and the first level, I'm going to be blind to whatever changes there may be. If anyone else has played Sproggiwood, feel free to weigh in on what the original monsters are like!

For now, let's start with the story!



:Look! Over here! A Cloghead sleeps...
:So I see. Anyway...my work here is done. The rest is up to you.
:Thank you, Raako! By the power you've granted me, I will save my realm!
:If you say so.
:Look! The Cloghead awakens...away, away! Before it sees you....



:Hey, you with the pitchfork! Yes, you. Cloghead.
:Are you surprised to meet a talking sheep? Why don't you take a closer look?

Here is Cloghead, our character! We also have our HUD, which displays our current gold, attack damage range, HP, a yellow experience bar, and the blue stars which represent our stamina (the mana equivalent in this game). We also have a sword and magnifier button, as well as a movement circle (for click/touchscreen interfaces) at the bottom right. I'll eventually remember to turn off the movement circle and the XBox buttons



The magnifier allows you to examine enemies, often with funny little descriptions. Unfortunately, these descriptions usually fail to give meaningful information (unless you can puzzle out some occasional keywords), so I won't be using this that often.

:I told you. Now, follow me! I want to show you something marvelous.



For the moment we are restricted to obeying the mysterious talking sheep.



:We are doomed! It's hopeless, Cloghead. Let us lie down and accept our fate.

The tutorial has us follow this talking sheep right into a yellow slime, taking a hit. HP in Sproggiwood does not come back naturally: you need to find items, shrines, or abilities that let you recover your health instead. Likewise, all attacks are 100% accurate (no missing); the only variance in combat is that the player always goes first, and your weapon can sometimes do more damage (but not that much). Finally, in addition to not being able to move diagonally, you can not make a normal attack diagonally (and neither can enemies). There are abilities that can let you do different types of attacks, but they cost stamina, which only comes back when killing enemies.

Another nice touch is the yellow bar that you can see on the enemy's HP bar. This indicates how much damage your current attack (whether it is a normal attack or a special ability) will do to an enemy. This helps for judging whether or not you will kill an enemy during an attack (and thus whether or not you will suffer getting hit back).



I slay the slime with extreme prejudice.



:Yikes, another jelly! This one is twice as big, twice as cute...

There's another jelly up ahead, and like the talking sheep says, is a large jelly. I remember that these jellies actually split into smaller jellies when you kill them, as well as leave residue on the ground, but the tutorial doesn't have that happen.



I level up from the kill! Levels give you an increase in your damage, some extra HP, and a skill point. Skills work kind of like abilities in a MOBA: you have three normal skills, and one ultimate skill (all based on what class you pick). You can only level up the ultimate skill at levels 5 and 10 (but it is usually very powerful and worth it). Additionally, each of your normal skills has a skill cap of your current level divided by two (with no remainders). For example, choosing Pitch Fork here at Level 2 means that I can't choose it again until Level 4. Likewise, if I level it again at Level 4, I have to wait until Level 6 to max it.

The first level of a skill consists of the basic skill, and more levels make it more powerful (but doesn't raise the stamina cost, located below the picture of each skill). When you kill enemies, you get stamina stars back, which usually makes the one star powers very stamina efficient, but every power can be useful in the right situation.

I'll explain more about the skills of different classes as I reach them after the tutorial.



This right here is a chest! Chests can contain weapons, armor and accessories for your character! However, there is no inventory; as soon as you open the chest, you need to choose whether you want to keep the old equipment or ditch it for the new stuff. All equipment goes away the moment you leave a stage, so don't worry about getting attached!



In this case, the starting pitchfork does nothing special, and is worth ditching immediately.



Here, the sheep is hinting at the sword icon on our screen.



This allows you to look at your inventory, just in case you forget what you have!

:How mighty you are to behold, Cloghead. A true adventurer!



I smash through the remaining jelly with ease. This one leaves slime on the ground, which I remember is slippery (you will keep sliding through slime until you hit a wall or land on a tile that has no slime).



:Let's enter it heedlessly!

Not quite yet sheep, I've got some unfinished business.



There we go!



I jump through the ending door and into the mystery realm...



:We were transported to a wonderful place! The rivers are so blue! The forests are so green! But I must confess something...
:I...I...fooled you. I'm no sheep. No sheep at all.



:I AM SPROGGI...DARK LORD OF THIS REALM!



:FOR I AM YOUR MASTER NOW!
:YOU WILL SPEND THE REMAINDER OF YOUR DAYS IN MY REALM, SPROG...TOILING AS I SEE FIT. NOW LET US VISIT THE MEAGER PEASANT VILLAGE WHERE YOU WILL LIVE...



:LOVELY, AREN'T THEY? NOW, MY THRALL, IT IS TIME TO TEST YOUR METTLE...
:IT IS TIME TO PUT YOU TO WORK!



The village is where you can buy your meta-game upgrades, making it easier for future adventurers to get through the dungeons! Here you have your city (passive) boosts, which improve your:
-XP gain
-starting HP
-Item cost
-Cryptic shrines in dungeons
-Special vases in dungeons



You can also buy any weapon or armor that you have previously found in the dungeon as a starting item when entering a new dungeon! These are class-specific, so this flaming shovel can only be used with the Farmer class.



There's also consumable items for your character (though you can only hold one). Once it is unlocked here, you can always choose to start with it on any character.



If you ever forget what you may have bought, you can look at your storage in town as well.

For the purposes of this blind run, I'm going to see how far I can get without buying equipment (I'll still be dumping my money into the passive upgrades) before the game becomes impossible to progress without starting with something better, in order to recreate the true roguelike experience of having to deal with the gear you've got for as long as possible. This is probably a very bad idea that I will regret.



Finally, there's a decoration button! I throw some buildings around and install a bridge for fun.


NEXT TIME: Dungeon 1, Ickykolo!