Pixel Dungeon

Progress has been made on the next update to Shattered Pixel Dungeon, and it's time for me to start showing things off!

v3.0.0 will feature the game's second new hero: The Cleric! This blog will go over some of my design thoughts and early implementation work.

Read The Full Post Here!

I am reporting an odd placement on the floor that looks like a hidden wall but its inactive or doesn't exist though I am not sure if it's a design error and so sharing for Evan to look into it.

Seed:JRC-BKF-RVB Challenge: Barren Land Floor: 16

Here's the video recording of the floor

https://we.tl/t-eTk1VPPkJi

Shattered Pixel Dungeon- v2.5.2, desktop Linux version, github version

I prefer to play on desktop instead of mobile. On desktop, I usually get along fine just clicking to move. But sometimes I feel like using the arrow keys instead.

The arrow keys are fine for going up, down, left, and right. But moving diagonally is very important in this game. What is a comfortable way to configure my controls so that I can comfortably move diagonally? I would prefer a way that does not require the keyboard to have a numpad.

Also, is there any way to hook up a joystick / videogame controller to the desktop and use that for movement instead?

Thank you for your suggestions.

Hey folks, I'm just about ready to release a new blog post that'll share a bunch more Cleric info! Expect it early this coming week. I'm afraid I won't be releasing a beta with that post, but that's not too far off either.

In the meantime, here are two more innate spells that the Cleric gets: Holy Weapon and Holy Ward! These spells grant temporary enchantments to weapons and armor, slightly boosting damage dealt and damage blocked. They last for a little while too, perfect for casting right before a drawn out fight.

The effects these spells give don't stack with existing enchantments and glyphs though, so their usefulness falls off as the game progresses.

When I first heard about trinkets I was intrigued: they sounded like a fun way to inject some extra variation and challenge into a run and make it feel different from other runs with the same class. Now having played with them a bit they feel a lot more situational than I thought.

In many cases they seem like I’m just spending resources to make the game more challenging and the rewards from it aren’t commensurate. Since my mindset shifts into “survival mode” after I leave the character select screen and start the game, I generally avoid even creating most of the trinkets.

However I have seen a few cases now where beginners go into trinkets with gusto and it ends up costing them the run. This is leading me to suspect that trinkets may have a “beginner trap” effect where the lure of additional rewards is not being properly offset by an informed assessment of the risks. Of course, my view of this is only anecdotal!

So I have a question for everyone: how do you see trinkets fitting with your experience in the game?

I think one danger for any roguelike — when developed over a long period of time with a stable long term community — is for development to lean too far in a direction that favours providing new challenges to experienced players. Perhaps the most infamous example of that is NetHack, a game with a sheer cliff of a learning curve. I don’t think SPD is in much danger of that any time soon. Having said that, I do still worry about beginners because of their role in growing and maintaining the health of the community for the game.

Thoughts, anyone? Evan: can you share any insights from your analytics? I am particularly concerned about mimic tooth, wondrous resin, and chaotic censer. Do beginners use these trinkets differently from experienced players? Do they impact beginners’ success rate differently from experienced players?

Currently in the king fight but it won't let me move or take any actions, it's just letting the earth golem fight. Anyone know what is going on?

I bet I won't remember it when I find some means of opening it.

(Evan can't answer)

I've noticed in a couple games that I'll find a magical catalyst outside of the room with the alchemy pot, and sometimes I'll also discover a hidden secret room with an extra alchemy pot and usually two bonus energy crystals in it.

Is it implied that when you find a loose catalyst there is probably also an alchemy pot room in that level?

Usually, on level 10, if I don't have a magic spell holder, I just drop all my spells before opening the door to Tengu. At the end of the battle, my spells are there (along with Tengu's mask) for me to pick up.

This time, I forgot to drop the spells before the first phase of the fight. Fearing getting caught in one of Tengu's firewalls and losing some spells, I dropped them on the hallway before opening the door to the second phase. However, only the upgrade scrolls were there after the fight! I lost several spells, including a couple of remove curse and identify.

Is this intended, or is it a bug?

Been looking for a while, but I cannot seem to find the original high-resolution (.WAV) music files which were uploaded to SoundCloud. The game itself only has lossy MP3 transcoded versions.

Here is a snapshot of the SoundCloud page... https://web.archive.org/web/20131219163958/http://soundcloud.com/cube_code

If anyone has please let me know. Not even archive.org has it saved!

The songs would be...

• PD
• Pixel Dungeon Main Theme
• Ascended to Surface

As mentioned last week, Shattered Pixel Dungeon's upcoming Cleric hero has a variety of unique spells which they can access via their holy tome. The first of the Cleric's spells is a simple supportive ranged option: Guiding Light.

Guiding Light is an innate spell (no talent needed to unlock) and does some damage while 'illuminating' the target. This guarantees that the next physical attack made against that target will hit.

(Image Description: a short GIF showing off the guiding light spell. The Cleric casts it on an enemy, which begins to glow. The Cleric then waits for the enemy to approach, and attacks them.)

That's not a mimic and there haven't been any weird teleports either.

Here's how Shattered Pixel Dungeon's mobile hero select screen will look with the upcoming Cleric added to it. Some visuals are still a WIP, (the cudgel's sprite in particular is very rough) but all the important bits are in place.

You can see the info window for the Cleric here too, showing off some info about their abilities. Just like the Rogue, the Cleric has a unique artifact that lets them access class abilities.

Unlike all the other heroes though, the Cleric gains a wide variety of active abilities (spells) via the talent system! I'll be sharing more info about some of the Cleric's spells in the coming weeks!

(Image Description: A screenshot from Shattered Pixel Dungeon showing the hero select screen and the Cleric selected. On the left the screen is shown with no info window open, on the right the hero info window is open, showing various information relating to the new hero. Most notably: "The Cleric starts with a unique holy tome, which they can use to cast various spells. Most of the Cleric's talents are focused around learning or upgrading spells.")

I was too busy shitting myself and running from this ball of energy that had a huge range

I was sailing through what looked like my first six challenge mode win. Warlock with vampiric greatsword is fantastic, coupled with both the chains and the hourglass mean easy get out trouble and for zapping with a wand of lightning. Was looking like You would be easy, and it was, until somehow i quaffed a potion of speed and thought i would have two turns at least to escape Yogs attack. Somehow i didn't have two turns, not sure why but gutted to die at the last when it was gonna be my first six challenge win. I dont even think I've died against Yog before as i usually have so many stones and potions that i always find a way to win. I doubt ill ever get a better run than this thats for sure 😭

The best item of this run was actually the Cape Of Thorns, but I took it off at the end of the run.

I used a Scroll of Transmutation on a +10 Alchemist's Toolkit and it returned me a +0 Dried Rose. Is this intentional? I would have expected a +10 Dried Rose. (EDIT - This concerns Shattered v2.5.4)

Did you know that in a way the Cleric is the first hero ever to appear in the original Pixel Dungeon?

Pixel Dungeon had a different default hero sprite for about 6 days after its first release in 2012. This was back before the game even had hero classes, and this sprite was quickly scrapped and replaced with the Rogue's sprite. I saw a screenshot of this design back in 2015, and it was my initial inspiration for the Cleric in Shattered Pixel Dungeon! The design has changed a lot since, but it's neat to think that in a way this hero is about 12 years in the making!

Also, I now have an account on Bluesky! While it isn't my first choice, I have been happy to see that Bluesky has been replacing Twitter for many people in the last little while. If you'd like, you can now find me there as well: https://bsky.app/profile/shatteredpixel.com

(Image Description: A screenshot from the original Pixel Dungeon circa 2012. Several graphical elements are outdated compared to the current version of Pixel Dungeon, and compared to Shattered Pixel Dungeon. Most notably, the hero sprite is completely different in this screenshot, using a design that was scrapped shortly after.)