Death Must Die – Basic Guide for Beginners

You are going to die, a lot. This game is rogue-like, so multiple attempts are expected to have happen. That’s okay!

So let’s start this off with an important statement: Hello, my name is Fritz and I am an auto attack user. I know, horrible decision for someone trying to maximize their run. But my terrible decisions aside, what is the deal with auto attack? Let’s look at it.

Auto attack, as the name implies, attacks for you automatically and targets the closest enemy possible (Please correct if wrong). This is normally not an issue, however in Death Must Die when you attack this will affect your movement speed! You will be slower as you attack, making you an easier target and resulting in you using more time to move around.

“Well, how can I view this absolute travesty of knowledge you revealed to me Fritz?!”
Calm yourself my friend, it’s easy. When viewing your inventory, you will see the stats for your character on the left. View the Defensive Category (see image) and look for the statuses Move Speed and Attack Move Speed. Attack Move Speed will be a percentage of your Move Speed, so it will always be lower.

Again, I do not advise, I leave that to the experts. I do what I want to have fun and enjoy the game my way, so if you want to use auto attack, go for it. I personally do and have a blast with it. Ultimately it is your decision!

The first class you will have will be Avoron, the Knight. As you unlock more characters you can switch between them at the campfire area. The following are the classes you will unlock with more runs under your belt. Next to them will be listed their armor types:
• Avoron – The Knight – Heavy
• Merris – The Sorceress – Light
• Nixi – The Assassin – Light
• Kront – The Barbarian – Heavy
• Skadi – The Warrior – Medium

As you can see in the image above, there are Signs you need to complete to unlock these perks that can improve your characters and give you an edge in combat.

As you continue to play you will unlock 2 other areas that are of some use, the Library and the Scriveners.

The Library is used for storing books that you may come across from Bookshelves in the runs. These books contain lore and are useful for delving into the backstory of the game.

The Scriveners are just the Achievements you can see in game but also show what perks you can unlock for each class and a description of the unlock requirements for them.

Each run consists of 20 minutes at most (Not counting time after the Baron Fight begins). The following is the timetables of when events will occur in your run:

• 00:00 – Run Begins.
• 04:00 – Black Square Trap & Green Ooze Horde spawns.
• 07:00 – The Hand Barons Bosses spawn. (Left and Right)
• 12:00 – Blue Ooze Horde spawns.
• 14:00 – Necromancer Boss spawns.
• 17:00 – Black Square Trap & Shielded Enemy Horde spawns.
• 19:00 – Massive Skeleton Horde spawns.
• 20:00 – Baron Boss Spawns.

Dice are used to help you in your run. They are added from armor/weapons in their descriptions and are used at your discretion. They refresh upon each run your partake in. There are 3 types of dice you need to be aware of:

• Banish Dice – Banish dice prevent a god blessing of your choice (from the three that appear) from popping up in your feed again for that attempt. But you need to know, it prevents all rarities from doing so as well. So, if you banish a Novice level of Execution, you will not see any other levels of Execution for the remainder of that run.

• Reroll Dice – This is the number of times you can reroll the gods blessings before you and get potentially three new choices.

• Alteration Dice – This is the number of times you can select a new gods blessings in your run. This is important to know as you can only have three unique gods of your choice (Along with the Fates, but we will cover that more shortly) in a run at one time. These dice help you adjust the run more to your liking and leave it less to chance.

Below are the Gods and Goddesses that can appear in the game.
• Krom, God of Conquest
• Lady Justice
• Leigong, God of Lightning
• Moirai, Goddesses of Fate
• Mort, Daughter of Death
• Summer, Goddess of Fire
• Time
• Winter, Goddess of Cold

Below are the spell levels you will see on the abilities you choose from the god or goddess that is supporting you. The higher the level, the more beneficial its abilities are.

• Novice (Lowest)
• Adept
• Expert
• Master (Highest)
• Legendary (Only spawn on Master Skills)

Here in the shop there is a lovely trick that took me some time to realize personally (as I am special to say the least). At the bottom of the shop there is a tab called Reserved (See Image)

This Reserved shelf allows you to save items you want to pick up but do not have the coin for yet. Reason for this is because after every run attempt you make the shop refreshes and new stock appears to replace the old! As you can see, I have several items I am saving currently as I am broke at the time of writing.

This section is displaying the abilities of each god or goddess. It is broken down to the type of Spell or Attack that it is and grouped with the secondary category as well (all Autocast spells should be together for example). This is still being worked on currently.

• Rampaging Strike – Attack – Your attacks become stronger and knockback enemies.

• Charge – Spell, Dash – Your dash damages and knocks back enemies.

• War Pact – Spell, Buff – You deal more damage to enemy barriers.

• Blades – Spell, Autocast – Rotating blades spawn away from you, rupturing and damaging enemies and they are pulled back to you.
• Chains of War – Spell, Autocast – Your attack hits have a chance to create a chain that rotates around you for a limited time, damaging, rupturing and knockbacking enemies.
• Shurikens – Spell, Autocast – Enemies you hit shoot out rupturing shurikens.

• Merciful Strike – Attack – Your attacks become stronger and apply weakened.

• Celestial Wings – Spell, Dash – Your dash gives your reduced attack movement penalty for a limited duration.

• Consecration – Spell, Autocast – Whenever an enemy damages you, you heal back a percentage of the damage you were dealt and deal the enemy’s damage back to it multiplied before reductions.
• Divine Shield – Spell, Autocast – Prevents the next time you would take damage. The cooldown of this blessing is reduced by your damage resistance instead of cooldown reductions.
• Reprisal – Spell, Autocast – Whenever an enemy starts attacking you, there is a chance your attacker becomes Smited.

• Protection – Spell, Buff – Your armor is increased.
• Inner Peace – Spell, Buff – You regenerate life every second.
• Purification – Spell, Buff – You restore more life from heals.

• Wrathful Strike – Attack – Your attacks become stronger and have a chance to trigger an additional attack.

• Ball Lightning – Spell, Dash – Your dash turns you into a damaging ball of lightning. You can’t attack during this state.

• Lightning Bolt – Spell, Autocast – Whenever you traverse a certain distance, lightning bolts fall onto nearby enemies.
• Lightning Orbs – Spell, Autocast – Lightning orbs spawn on the battlefield that explode after a limited duration or immediately if you attack them.
• Chain Lightning – Spell, Autocast – Your attack hits have a chance to cause a chain lightning.

• Brevity – Spell, Buff – Your spell speeds and cooldowns are faster.
• Haste – Spell, Buff – You move faster.

• Vigor – Spell, Buff – Your life is increased.
• Fortune – Spell, Buff – You gain more dice to alter your god offers.
• Critical Strike – Spell, Buff – Your attacks have a chance to deal 300% damage.
• Elusion – Spell, Buff – Your evasion is increased.
• Sprint – Spell, Buff – Your dash is increased.
• Fury – Spell, Buff – You attack faster.
• Curiousity – Spell, Buff – Pick ups drop more often.
• Might – Spell, Buff – Your attack hits a wider area.

• Deadly Strike – Attack – Your attacks become stronger and resolve cursed statuses immediately.

• Ravens of Pestilence – Spell, Summon – Spawn ravens that attack enemies, applying cursed.
• Soulstealers – Spell, Summon – Your attack hits have a chance to spawn phantoms. Any enemies they pass through become cursed and lose a percentage of their current life.
• Necromancy – Spell, Summon – You raise skeletons when you kill a number of enemies. Skeletons raised from cursed enemies last longer.

• Execution – Spell, Curse – Whenever you kill an enemy, there is a chance that it spawns a weak experience shard. Cursed enemies have a higher chance of dropping experience shards.

• Sickles of Mort – Spell, Autocast – Every few attack hits, shoot out sickles. They deal damage equal to a percentage of your attack damage and apply your attack statuses.

• Mayhem – Spell, Buff – When an enemy dies from Cursed, gain permanent damage.
• Serendipity – Spell, Buff – You are luckier.

• Vengeful Strike – Attack – Your attacks become stronger and apply burning.

• Trail of Fire – Spell, Dash – Your dash leaves a path of fire.

• Meteor Shower – Spell, Autocast – Meteors fall from the skies damaging enemies and burning the ground.
• Breath of Fire – Spell, Autocast – Every few attack hits, you breath fire that damages and burns enemies in front of you.
• Flare – Spell, Autocast – Whenever an enemy starts attacking you, there is a chance you shoot out a firebolt against your attacker.

• Incineration – Spell, Curse – Burning enemies leave a fire where they die.
• Combust – Spell, Curse – When you kill a number of burning enemies, an explosion damages and knocks back nearby enemies.

• Vehemence – Spell, Buff – Your spell damage is increased.

• Warped Strike – Attack – Your attacks become stronger. Enemies you hit shoot out experience shards behind them.

• Vortex – Spell, Dash – Your dash leaves a vortex that pulls enemies in.

• Wisdom – Spell, Buff – Your gain more experience.
• Alteration Ritual – Spell, Buff – Whenever you gain a level, gain a random boon for a limited time.
• Gem High – Spell, Buff – Whenever you take an experience shard, you gain Movement, Attack, & Skills Speeds for a limited duration. Refreshes duration on stack.
• Force – Spell, Buff – Your experience pull area is increased. Whenever you pull an experience shard through an enemy, it takes damage based on the experience in the shard.
• Deadlock – Spell, Buff – Your spell durations are increased.

• Time Field – Spell, Autocast – Create a time field at your position that slows all enemies and missiles in it.

• Chilling Strike – Attack – Your attacks become stronger and apply chilled.

• Dive – Spell, Dash – Your dash throws ice shards that deal damage and apply chilled.

• Path of Frost – Spell, Buff – You leave a trail of frost wherever you go that chills enemies.
• Thaw – Spell, Buff – You gain attack damage for each Immobilized enemy.
• Wintertide – Spell, Buff – Your spell area is increased.

• Frost Ring – Spell, Autocast – Every few attacks, a frost ring spawns from you that freezes.
• Blight – Spell, Autocast – Frost zones spawn at random, that damage and chill enemies.

• Icebound – Spell, Curse – Immobilized enemies take more damage.
• Frozen Treasure – Spell, Curse – When you kill a frozen or chill immune enemy, there is a higher chance that it drops an item.

Sometimes you have to be Legendary in your conquests. Others? Eh, its an added bonus. Legendary Skills only can appear on Master Skills. The more often Master Skills appear, the more likely you can pick up a Legendary one.

• Pandemonium – Spell, Buff – All your blessings’ rarities are upgraded.

• Temporal Lord – Spell, Buff – If you would die, instead go back in time.
• The Taste of Time – Spell, Curse – Enemies age.

Some of the abilities you chose from the selected God or Goddess will have unique attributes that feed into their other abilities. These are listed below (and also are listed on the abilities themselves by using the show more button, ALT for K&M users):

• Age – Takes damage over time.
• Burning – Affected takes 30 damage and loses 1% of its life per second.
• Chilled – Affected is slowed by 10%. If chilled stacks reach 7, remove all stacks of chilled and apply frozen.
• Cursed – Affected takes 66 damage after 1.6 seconds. Cursed damage scales 3x from spell damage bonuses.
• Frozen – Affected can’t do anything. After this status expires, the affected can’t be chilled or frozen for 3.5 seconds.
• Knockback – A knockbacked enemy is pushed away from the source knockbacking it.
• Ruptured – Affected takes 30 damage for every 1 range they move and 300 damage for every 1 range of knockback.
• Smited – Affected takes 30 damage and becomes stunned.
• Stunned – Affected can’t do anything.
• Weakened – Affected deals -30.0% less total damage.

• Alms– +4.2% Luck
• Ancient Chest – Item inside.
• Bonfire – +3 Max Health.
• Bookshelf – Holds lore/books to read.
• Bronze Brazier – +3.2% Spell Duration.
• Clover Garden – +4.2% Luck.
• Dark Brazier – +2.4% Spell Damage.
• Fallen Hero – May contain an item, may receive a curse too. (Slight loss of Luck)
• Obelisk of Greed – Provides a gold amount. (increases by 30 per each activation in same run (Thanks to @Abalador de Nah Degas))
• Sacred Well – Provides Healing.
• Seeking Orb – +9% Pick Ups.
• Shrine of Tracking – +60% Pick Ups.
• Stone Brazier – +4% Spell Area.
• Tomb – May contain an item, may receive a curse too. (Slight loss of Luck)
• War Totem – +4.8% Attack Damage.
• Well – Provides Healing.

• Stone of Power – Temporary 100% Damage Boost.
• Stone of Stamina – Temporarily increases movement speed while attacking to normal speed.
• Stone of Experience – Temporary +60% Experience
• Stone of Collecting – Temporary Collection of Experience Shards from wide range.
• Obelisk of Sanctuary – Temporary Invincibility.
• Mineral Spring – Temporarily performs healing over time

Shrine to the Oni Demon
o Laugh Back – Gain -16% Adept Offers, -5.3% Expert Offers and +4% Master Offers.
o Rude Gesture – Gain +20% Damage against enemies above 50% Life.

Shrine of Writing
o Borrow Book at Alter – Gain +12% Spell Speeds.
o I Don’t Read Books – Gain +12% Attack Damage.

Shrine of Mjolnir
o Powerful Grip – Gain +8% Attack Critical Chance.
o Thunderous Wrath – Gain +4% Spell Critical Chance.

Shrine to the Many-Handed One
o A Thousand Cuts – Gain +14% Attack Speed.
o Legion – Gain +1 Spell Projectiles.

Shrine of Hunting
o Finish the Hunt – Gain +8% Attack Critical Chance.
o The Hunt Awaits – Your attack hits have a 13% chance to recharge a dash.
o Hunters Hurry – Gain +20 Movement Speed.

Shrine of Music
o Magpie Song – Gain +600 Pull Area.
o Mocking Bird Hum – Enemy Barries are reduced by 24%.
o Raven Gwah – Gain 0.9 Experience per second.

Forge
o Forged in Ice – Gain +20 Armor.
o Forged in Fire – Gain +24% Attack Damage.

Gremlin Roothouse
o A Teacup of Coffee – Heal 25 Life. Gain +50% Attack Speed and + 50 Movement Speed for 60 seconds.
o Tiny Biscuits – Gain -3% Dash Cooldown.
o A Huge Wheel of Cheese – Heal 15 Life. Gain +15 Max Life
o Politely Refuse

Necronomicon
o Black Magic – Become Stunned for 1.5 Seconds. Gain +24% Spell Duration.
o Occultism – Lose 9 life. Gain +18% Spell Damage.
o Summoning Ritual – Ghosts attack you. Gain +40% Summon Damage.

Sacred Tome
o Practice – Gain +20% More Heals.
o Learning – Gain 24% More Adept Offers.

Shrine of the Swan
o Test Virtues – Gain +6% Luck if no Tombs or Fallen Heros are looted (Still testing)
o It’s Just A Dumb Bird – Nothing. (Please correct if wrong)

Wandering Ghost
o Ghost Matters – Gain +36% More Adept Offers.
o Ghost Does Not Matter – Nothing.