Shattered Pixel Dungeon Guide (2024)

Last update : 16/7/2022 (This page will no longer be updated)

Introduction

This is my basic guide for Shattered Pixel Dungeon (which is nutshelled to high hell of course). Applies to v1.3.1.

For an even more detailed guide, here's a guide on Reddit by sorlock_dm (still a WIP, but extremely detailed).

Disclaimer

• This guide contains spoilers.
• This guide is only meant to cover the basics.
• While Wiki links are available, they may be obsolete, as they are community-edited.
• The guide may be updated following Shattered Pixel Dungeon updates, so it'll always be a WIP guide.

1F - 5F : Sewers

The 1F is the only floor that does not spawn additional mobs... if we're not counting the Ascension quest.

Sewers Mobs

• Marsupial Rat : Available from 1F to 4F. Basic mob with no special ability to note. Won't attack the player if Ratmogrify is the armor ability.
• Albino Rat : Rare variant of Marsupial Rat, with higher HP & a chance to inflict bleeding on attack.
• Sewer Snake : Available from 1F to 4F. It's as evasive as a late game mob, but goes down quickly to surprise / magical attacks.
• Gnoll Scout : Available from 2F to 4F. Basically a tougher Marsupial Rat.
• Sewer Crab : Available in 3F & 4F. A tough Sewers enemy, with 150% movement speed & high stats (for Sewers' standards).
• Slime : Available in 4F. Takes reduced damage with custom scaling, which could also prevent it from getting OHKO'd by a heavily upgraded T5 (before factoring in Ascension buffs).
• Caustic Slime : Rare variant of the Slime, may apply caustic ooze on hit.
• Swarm of Flies : Available in 3F & 4F, but may also spawn on 6F. Will split in 2 copies when taking physical attack as long as there's an empty tile next to it. Keep an eye on the main swarm, as it's the only one to drop EXP. May drop Potions of Healing.

Side Quest : Sad Ghost

The Sad Ghost can be encountered in 2F - 4F. Depending on which floor you encountered him, he will give you one of these quests:

• 2F : defeat the Fetid Rat

An even stronger Marsupial Rat, its bites may inflict caustic ooze & its stench is so strong they paralyze anything on the tile with the stench (except the Fetid Rat itself). Fight on water to negate the ooze, & keep moving to avoid the stunning stench.

• 3F : defeat the Gnoll Trickster

A darker Gnoll Scout with a satchel, its behavior is similar to the Scorpio, where it can only use ranged attacks & run away from melee distance. Its ranged attacks may inflict either Burn or Poison.

Either try to corner it, or ambush it as it opens a door whenever possible.

• 4F : defeat the Giant Crab

A bulkier but far slower (in terms of movement speed) Sewer Crab, it takes no damage from non-surprise attacks - even magic. It's also vulnerable to 3rd-party attacks - attacks made by someone it's not attacking at the moment.

While stealth attacks work, a good alternative would be DoT (Damage over Time) from poison (Sorrowmoss / toxic gas) / fire (Firebloom / potion of liquid flame) (or whatever DoT provider you got at the moment).

Once the mini-boss gets slain, the Sad Ghost will rush towards you to give you these rewards :

• Dried Rose can be equipped as an artifact (rose not provided, you'll have to find it)
• Randomly generated & identified weapon / armor of choice. (may come upgraded and/or enchanted)

Boss : Goo

Wiki

The Goo is a bigger & tougher Caustic Slime with a new mechanism : charge attack. The attack takes 2 turns to execute & hits only 1 target, but you know it's going to go off when the black particles cover a 5x5 square, which happens on the 2nd turn. Bringing its HP down to 50% gives it the "enraged" buff, enhancing its attack, accuracy, & evasion. The Goo also regenerates when it's on a water tile.

Optional encounter : Rat King

In 5F, you may be able to discover the Rat King, sleeping in a hidden room with multiple chests containing a tiny bit of gold. Don't worry about awakening him, he won't bite - once you awaken him, he'll just rush around the floor, running his kingdom. As for the chests... well, just get them. They won't be much, but they'll be handy for the merchant in 6F.

You could also not awaken the Rat King if you'd like to use Ratmogrify as your armor ability.

6F-10F : Prison

Starting with 6F, every floor at the start of a stage will have a merchant room, which contains merchants. It is advised to buy Ankh, potion of healing, & any item-specific bag they offer.

Prison Mobs

• Skeleton : Available from 6F to 9F, nothing noteworthy except that it explodes on death, damaging everyone in the 3x3 vicinity.
• Crazy Thief : Available from 6F to 9F, has 150% attack speed. On each attacks, it may steal a random item in the Hero's main inventory. After a successful steal, it'll attempt to run away. Don't let it out of your sight for too long, or your stolen item is permanently lost.
• Crazy Bandit : Rare variant of Crazy Thief, will cripple, poison, & blind the Hero after a successful item theft.
• Prison Guard : Available from 7F to 9F, this mob is tougher than the average Prison mobs & has a 1-time chain pull, which cripples their enemy & pulls them to melee distance.
• DM-100 : Available from 7F to 9F, this mob has a basic electric shock ranged attack; which doesn't arc to any nearby characters. Somehow too weak for the caves, yet too cruel for the prison.
• Necromancer : Available in 8F & 9F. Unable to directly attack, this mob instead summons & empowers skeletons to fight in their stead. Their skeleton gets an adrenaline buff if healed while the skeleton is at full HP. Killing the necromancer also kills their summoned skeleton.
• Spectral Necromancer : Rare variant of the Necromancer, summons up to 3 wraiths at a time.

Side Quest : Old Wandmaker

The Old Wandmaker can be found on the entry of 7F to 9F. Interact with him & he will ask you to help him get one of these 3 items:

• Rotberry Seed

The floor with the Wandmaker has an extra locked room that houses the Rotberry plant. In that room, there are Rot Lashers, tall grasses, & the Rot Heart. The Rot Lashers cannot move & dies when the Heart dies, but cripples its target on hit & regenerates every turn. The Rot Heart emits toxic gas when attacked. If the Rot Heart dies to a fire-based attack, it will not drop a Rotberry Seed.

The Rotberry Seed is arguably the most useful item the Wandmaker does request, because :

• The Warden can repeatedly plant & trample the Rotberry bush to gain temporary Strength boost. She'll end up giving the seed late (if at all) - but by then the game's basically over.
• Anyone can brew the rotberry seed with the blandfruit to create a Rotfruit, which is essentially a Potion of Strength - though at the cost of denying the Wandmaker his requested item.
• Corpse Dust

The floor with the Wandmaker has a barricaded room with a skeleton, some remains, & a floor full of bones. One of the remains will spawn the Corpse Dust & a wraith. Upon picking up the Dust, wraiths will keep on randomly spawning in your field of vision until the item is given to the Wandmaker.

• Elemental Embers

In the floor with the Wandmaker, 4 ceremonial candles are scattered around the floor, & a room with a 3x3 tile with a red star symbol are available. Throw the candles on the 4 corner of the red star, & a Newborn Fire Elemental will spawn (it's a Fire Elemental, with 50% HP). Kill it (Cold attacks, such as Frost & Icecap will 1-shot it) & it'll drop the ember.

The Elemental Embers can be combined with an Arcane Catalyst in alchemy to create 5 Summon Elemental spells, allowing you to summon an elemental at the cost of denying the Wandmaker's wand quest.

After giving the item to the Wandmaker, he will reward you with an upgraded wand (mostly +1, but sometimes can go higher), randomly generated.

Boss : Tengu

Wiki

Tengu has a long range shuriken attack & a melee attack. The former is more accurate, & neither inflicts any status effect. Tengu also has immunity to blindness.

Tengu's fight is divided in 2 phases:

• 1st phase : 100% - 50%

Unlock the southernmost door with the key found in 1 of the cells & step inside the cell to begin this phase. Tengu warps around the chamber, activating a series of poison dart traps. These traps fully camouflages themselves after a turn, will never target Tengu, and only triggered by getting stepped on by the Hero. He will teleport after receiving some damage, & fully warps off the phase once his HP hits 50%, ending Phase 1.

• 2nd phase : the rest of his HP

This phase begins when you enter the northernmost door. Tengu hits you with a ranged attack, & the level morphs into a big arena. Tengu now gets to spam these gizmos every several turns :

• A 5x5 bomb that explodes in 3 turns (there's a countdown) & inflicts heavy damage
• A shocker that arcs electricity in a + / x pattern within a 3x3 area
• Moving steam that ignites after 1 turn & spreads forward. Will inflict Burn on anyone who stood / landed on the steam as it ignites.

The Huntress has the easiest time dealing with Tengu, as she could just fire off things & move away from Tengu's toys on the 2nd phase. The Mage does well too, although he will eventually run out of magic charges & have to melee Tengu afterwards. Warrior & Rogue generally fight melee, therefore they don't have an easy win here, unless they have access to some ranged weaponry.

Some good stuff to have when fighting Tengu :

• Literally any ranged weaponry, preferably as much as possible. Good for when you move just to avoid Tengu's gizmos. In phase 1, you don't really need to move as long as you have these ready.
• Potion of Levitation / Stormfruit allows you to bypass Tengu's phase 1 traps as long as its' levitation buff is active.
• Seed of Swifthistle helps you cover the distance between you & Tengu in both phases. However, be careful where you're planting it, especially on phase 2 where Tengu's toys could land on your Swifthistle plant. Stone of Blink is a better alternative.
• Seed of Icecap - on the 2nd phase, plant it next to Tengu (or below him) & throw anything (that's not a seed) on the Icecap plant. It'll freeze Tengu, preventing him from doing anything, including spamming his traps (until he takes damage - which means don't pair Icecap with fire / poison).

Unlocking the subclass

After his defeat, Tengu drops the Tengu's Mask. Since using the mask takes quite a while (in terms of in-game turns), I recommend using it now, while we're in 10F. As for which subclass you should pick, it generally depends on your preference & your class of choice.

At this point, it's a good idea to also open the subclass section.

11F - 15F : Caves

Caves Mobs

• Vampire Bat : Available from 11F to 14F, but may also spawn in 9F. Moves fast & may recover its HP when attacking.
• Gnoll Brute : Available from 11F to 14F; gains "enraged" buff when HP reaches 0, allowing it to keep on fighting for a few turns, deal more damage, & die afterwards.
• Armored Brute : Rare variant of Gnoll Brute, with higher armor & longer "enraged" buff.
• Gnoll Shaman : Available from 11F to 14F; casts magic bolts when the target's not in melee range, debuff inflicted depends on the caster's mask color. Red weakens attack, blue increases damage taken, & purple reduces accuracy & evasion.
• Cave Spinner : Available from 12F to 14F. Can fire webs to block their enemy's movements & root them if stepped on, & may inflict poison on attack. After inflicting poison, they will run away while also shooting webs behind them. These webs can be broken by throwing an item on it / getting trampled by anything that's not a Cave Spinner / burning it. This is the Caves' most annoying mob IMO.
• DM-200 : Available in 13F & 14F. Big, bulky, & tough, these mechs can't enter tunnels, but they could vent toxic gas at enemies beyond their reach.
• DM-201 : Rare variant of DM-200 that trades all mobility for durability & attack power - it can't even move a tile. Will fire corrosive gas only when attacked from a distance.

Side Quest : Troll Blacksmith

The Troll Blacksmith can be found in either 12F / 13F / 14F. After interacting with him, he will lend you his Pickaxe & give you one of these quests :

• Mine 15 dark gold ores. These can be done by selecting the Pickaxe given by the Blacksmith & selecting the Mine option near a wall with a gold vein. As you mine, you might waste a few turns.
• Kill a bat with the pickaxe. Equip the pickaxe as a melee weapon, find a Vampire Bat, & kill it with melee attack.

Once either is done, return to the Troll Blacksmith. He'll take back his pickaxe (and all dark gold ores you've mined, if he asks you to mine). Now, you have the right for a one-time reforging.

The Troll Blacksmith takes the item on the left box / with the most upgrades & enhances the level of said equipment by 1, while the other is consumed. Both equipments have to be the same kind, identified, & not cursed.

Boss : DM-300

Wiki

The battle is initialized after checking out one of the 4 power pylons on the corner of the floor.

On paper, the DM-300 is a stronger & fartier DM-200 (it'll release toxic gas whenever it wants to, even if the player's not in a tunnel). It could also trigger a rockfall, which paralyzes the player if they're hit. In addition, the exposed wirings scattered in the arena gives the DM-300 shielding whenever it steps on it.

DM-300's fight is generally done in 3 phases. In between each phases, the DM-300 gets powered up, gaining invulnerability & faster movement speed, in addition to being able to destroy the wall to chase the player. In that time, a pylon will be activated, rendering it (the pylon) vulnerable & emitting electricity. The activated pylon will be indirectly shown by the electricity flowing from the water & the wirings to the direction of the pylon.

16F - 20F : Dwarven Metropolis

Metropolis Mobs

• Dwarven Ghoul : Available from 16F to 19F & may also spawn at 14F, this mob generally travels in pairs. On defeat, will rise again after a few turns if there's another living Dwarven Ghoul nearby.
• Dwarf Warlock : Available from 16F to 19F, has a ranged attack that may inflict Degraded, lowering the upgrade effectiveness of all equipments.
• The Elementals : Available from 16F to 19F, & there's 4 variants, all listed below. All of them levitate & have melee & ranged attacks.
• Fire Elemental : The common elemental, melee & ranged attacks may inflict Burn. Getting hit by anything related to Frost inflicts damage equal to 50% of its max HP. Should not be fought on any grass / door tile.
• Frost Elemental : The other common elemental, melee & ranged attacks may inflict Chilled, & eventually Frozen. Getting hit by anything related to Fire inflicts damage equal to 50% of its max HP.
• Shock Elemental : The somewhat rarer elemental. Long range attacks blinds its target, melee attack may bounce to an adjacent enemy / ally.
• Chaos Elemental : The rarest of all elementals. Their ranged attacks are similar to melee attacks, as both applies a random cursed wand effect.
• Dwarf Monk : Available from 17F to 19F. Upon noticing an enemy for the 1st time, it'll immediately gain the Focused buff, negating any & all physical attacks. Over time, as long as it recognizes an enemy, it will gain focus (faster while moving). Has 150% attack speed.
• Senior Monk : Rare variant of the Dwarf Monk, gains focus in less turns.
• Stone Golem : Available in 18F & 19F. Cannot move through tunnels or narrow areas, but may teleport its enemy to melee range. May also teleport around, so be careful when entering a recently unlocked door, as the Golem may find itself chilling in the room.

Side Quest : Ambitious Imp

The Ambitious Imp may be found somewhere in 17F-19F, being invisible. If you can see him, he will call you stealthily. After interacting with him, he'll ask you to kill either 4 Golems / 5 Dwarf Monks & take the Dwarf Token they drop as proof.

After taking the dwarf tokens to the Imp, he will give you a randomly generated, cursed, upgraded (mostly +2, up to +4), & identified ring. He will also be available as the final shopkeeper, located in 20F, beyond the King of Dwarves' throne room.

Boss : King of Dwarves

Wiki

The arena is a circular throne room & there are 4 pedestal in the corners that summons dwarf mobs. Upon being activated, it takes 3 turns to spawn the mob. After spawning, the mob can immediately act.

Summoned minions & indicators:

• Dwarven Ghoul : bone particles
• Dwarf Monk : green particles
• Dwarf Warlock : black / curse particles
• Stone Golem : electric particles (only in Badder Bosses)

The King of Dwarves' fight is divided in 3 phases:

• 1st phase - 300-50 HP

The King of Dwarves will fight the player, summoning mobs every 10 - 14 turns (or less when he's attacked). He can cast Life Link, which makes the minion take 1/2 of the damage dealt to the King of Dwarves. He may also teleport a minion between him & his enemy, stepping back in the process if necessary.

• 2nd phase

Upon reaching 50 HP, the King of Dwarves teleports to his throne, becoming invulnerable & instantly killing all active minions. He then proceeds to summon 3 waves of enemies:

1. 4 Dwarven Ghouls, summoned one at a time every 3 turns. This technically means you have 3 turns to defeat a Ghoul before it gains its self-revival ability.
2. 3 Dwarven Ghouls, with 1 Dwarf Monk / Warlock, summoned at a 1 turn interval. If the Warlock gets summoned, try getting to its melee range before it has a chance to fire a magic attack.
3. 2 Dwarven Ghouls, 1 Dwarf Monk & 1 Dwarf Warlock, all summoned at once.

The King of Dwarves return to fight the player once more, rapidly spamming mobs. All damage dealt to him in this phase are dealt as deferred damage. However, once he dies, the mob goes down with him.

Upon defeat, the King of Dwarves will drop the Dwarf King's Crown. Equip your best armor (if you haven't already) & choose your preferred unique armor ability (or go all the way back to 5F to find the Rat King for Ratmogrify). At this point, it's a good idea to also open the unique armor abilities section.

21F - 25F : Demonic Halls

On this stage, as you go deeper, the stage gets darker, reducing your sight distance. Having as many torches as possible is recommended. If you have completed Ambitious Imp's quest, get as many torches from him as possible. If you haven't, go back & clear his quest, then buy the torches before heading to 21F.

Stuff you want to take with you as you enter the Halls:

• As much Scroll of Magic Mapping as possible, up to 4. Alternatively, a Talisman of Foresight could work as a lesser alternative that sometimes detects enemies. Pair with Ethereal Chains for a quick getaway if possible.
• As much Potion of Mind Vision as possible - they'll be useful especially in 23F & 24F where there's Scorpios, as well as in 25F when the ranged fist reaches 50% HP.
• Healing potions in case the Evil Eye's deathgaze leaves you with barely enough HP to survive another fight, or the Scorpio sniping has shaved off too many HP. Of course, good luck if you're on Pharmacophobia.
• Literally anything that provides Invisible buff, in case sh*t gets too serious to handle.
• Torches. You probably could get away without using one at 21F (and 22F, unless you're unlucky enough to tank several deathgazes), but starting with 23F, you really should start using one (or more, since torch buff stacks), unless you're a fan of getting sniped in the dark.

Halls Mobs

All halls mobs have the Demonic trait.

• Succubus : Available from 21F to 24F & may spawn at 19F, they can randomly teleport forward (and/or towards their target). May inflict the Charmed debuff on attack, & heals themselves (shields instead if HP is full) when attacking Charmed enemies.
• Evil Eye : Available from 21F to 24F & levitates. May fire off deathgaze after a 2-turn charge, inflicting powerful damage to anything within its line of sight (& not behind a wall / door). If you can see it charge up, get away from its sight ASAP.
• Scorpio : Available from 23F to 24F, will always try to move away from melee range, firing potentially crippling spikes from a long distance.
• Acidic Scorpio : Rare variant of the Scorpio, it also inflicts caustic ooze in addition to the crippling debuff the common Scorpio inflicts. Will also inflict caustic ooze if taking melee attacks.
• Ripper Demon : Available wherever a Demon Spawner is, since they're spawned by it. Yog Dzewa may also spawn them if at least 1 Demon Spawner stands. Attacks quickly & could jump, inflicting Bleeding on the enemy it lands on.
• Demon Spawner : Available from 21F to 24F, these are found in an unique room, 1 per halls' floor. They merely spawn Ripper Demons. Defeating them will make it less likely for Yog-Dzewa to spawn a Ripper.
A note for anyone running Berserker looking for some challenge : Leave the spawners alive - Berserkers could actually use the extra hits from the Rippers to gather rage faster.

Boss : Yog-Dzewa

Wiki

Yog-Dzewa (the eyeball) cannot directly attack. Instead, it relies on these abilities:

• Deathgaze 2.0 : Takes 2 turns. On the 1st turn, tiles in a line will be telegraphed. After a turn, Yog fires the deathgaze, damaging any Hero-aligned beings standing on the tile previously telegraphed.
• Summon : Spawns a larva at an adjacent tile. The larvae will be replaced with a Ripper Demon for each spawners left alive in 21-24F.

The fight is divided in 7 phases:

• 1st phase - 1000 - 700 HP

This phase immediately begins upon stepping away from the stairway & seeing Yog-Dzewa, which currently looks like an eyeball stuck in the middle of the floor.

• 2nd phase

Once Yog reaches 700 HP, it will spawn one of these 3 types of fists : ranged / tank / field. The fists will be invulnerable when it's close to Yog, which, in the even phases, are also invulnerable. In addition, the darkness pulls in closer, reducing the player's view distance by 1 (without the torch).

• 3rd phase - 700 - 400 HP

After defeating the 1st fist, Yog returns to being vulnerable.

• 4th phase

Once down to 400 HP, the 2nd fist spawns, & the darkness pulls in closer, now to 5x5.

• 5th phase - 400 - 100 HP

Similar to 3rd phase, but Yog fires the deathgaze somewhat faster.

• 6th phase

Upon reaching 100 HP, Yog-Dzewa spawns the last of the fist. Again, the darkness is even closer, limiting your un-torched sight to 3x3.

• 7th phase - 100 HP

On the last phase, Yog will spam summons & beams.

Fists it may spawn (all fists are immune to damage within Yog-Dzewa's "temple" area):

• (ranged) Bright Fist : On 50% HP, will warp away & blind the Hero. Long range attacks blinds its target & deals damage, no noteworthy effect other than damage on melee attack. Blinds the player on death.
• (ranged) Dark Fist : On 50% HP, will warp away & immediately remove the Hero's Illuminated buff if it's active. Long range attacks deals damage & reduces the Hero's Illuminated buff by 1 tile whenever applicable, no noteworthy effect other than damage on melee attack. Extinguishes the Hero's torch on death.
• (tank) Rotting Fist : Ranged attack is a toxic gas attack. Takes damage only in Bleeding, which gets refreshed every time it gets hit. Melee attacks may also inflict caustic ooze. Will regenerate HP on water tiles.
• (tank) Rusted Fist : Ranged attack inflicts Crippled. Cannot move through narrow sections. Takes damage in deferred form.
• (field) Soiled Fist : Has a permanent 3x3 aura that spawns furrowed tall grasses (will instantly overwrite water tiles), & takes less damage for every tall grass in its vicinity. Ranged attacks roots the Hero while also converting the field around the Hero into a trampled grass tile. Due to its furrowed grass, it hard-counters Huntress, who can't trample these tiles away.
Soiled Fist also counters Blooming enchantment, since Blooming occasionally grows tall grass on hit.

• (field) Burning Fist : Has a permanent 3x3 fiery aura that slowly evaporates any water tiles it's on, & burns anything on that tile. Ranged attacks is a fire attack that inflicts Burn & may also evaporate water tiles on the area around the target.
Any burning threat the Burning Fist has is completely neutralized by the Brimstone enchantment.


26F : Amulet of Yendor

It is a long way. It's been a short & difficult journey. But now, all you have to do is walk a long line & grab the Amulet of Yendor. Once obtained, you can either:

• Be done with the game (Let's call it a day)
• Keep on playing & travel back all the way to 1F for the happy ending (I'm not done yet)
For this one, please read on further. Shattered Pixel v1.3.0 has brought in some welcome changes.

With the first option, the game is over & challenges are unlocked if this is the first time you cleared the game.

Ascension

Before v1.3.0, ascensions were trivial, especially with Scroll of Passage and/or Warden's buffed Fadeleaf allowing you to quickly rush back to 1F. However, with v1.3.0, ascension difficulty gets ramped up, with these changes:

• With the Amulet in your inventory, teleports between floors are completely disabled. For example, Scroll of Passage will not work and Fadeleaf will not return the Warden back to the previous floor.
• Hostile mobs get powered up to keep difficulty relatively consistent during ascent. 1F will also spawn hostile mobs.
• Every time you reach a "boss" floor (20F, 15F, 10F, 5F), you will fully heal back up.
• You are subjected to a debuff that increases for every floor climbed; decreased by killing enemies.
• Level 0 : The amulet's curse has been weakened as much as possible.
• Level 1 : Distant enemies are subtly aware of your location.
• Level 2 : Distant enemies are hastened, allowing them to reach you faster.
Level 2 is the highest debuff level I could get with Berserker, due to a combination of boss floor & how I keep on taking melee fights as Berserker.
• Level 3 : Your movement speed is decreased & any attempt to increase it will be negated.
• Level 4 : You directly take damage.
• As you ascend with the amulet, you wil notice that some non-hostile NPCs has disappeared, removing access to their services.
Confirmed disappearances:

• Most merchants, except for Ambitious Imp
Unconfirmed disappearances:

• Old Wandmaker (I tend to complete his quest & he disappears from the dungeon afterwards, so I'm not sure if he will disappear if his quest is not completed)
• Troll Blacksmith (only confirmed with reforging completed, so considered unconfirmed)
Confirmed to not disappear:

• Ambitious Imp, if he becomes a merchant
• Rat King (at least without giving him the Dwarf King's crown, otherwise unconfirmed)

- Shattered Pixel Dungeon -

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