~~ WITHOUT ANY SPOILERS ~~

First things first I suppose. I should probably introduce myself. My name is Aaron, I'm a well seasoned gamer and I enjoy playing and collecting all kinds of games from AAA titles to Indie games of all shapes and sizes. Today though, I'm going to share some of my insight and what I think to be important points that are in some way helpful to anyone that's starting out with playing The Swords of Ditto.

I'm going to do my best to give you some of the more important things that would be nice tidbits for starting and remaining productive in the game. Since it's pretty much a different ride for everyone and the fact that there's no clear cut way to explain the game from start to finish, I felt that sharing through my experiences with the game that it would hopefully give someone else a more enjoyable journey. I'm going to avoid getting too specific, since I don't want to spoil anything. As the title here implies, I'm going to assume that you're a beginner looking for some of the absolute basics.

While this is definitely an rogue-like adventure game, it can also have the 'casual' tag as well and you'll see why. I'll explain that more as we go along here.

Welp! That's enough of the blathering. There's a good amount to cover here so let's get to it, shall we? :)

So, yeah. Let's start off with the topic of death and dying, since this is going to play a major role in your quest to success and it's basically one of the main parts of the game as it would seem, though definitely not the intent or the goal. I'm not going to draw any comparisons to other games out there; however, definitely expect to die -- ALOT!

Admittedly, this is something that kinda frustrated me alot when I first started playing. I'm the type of gamer that really doesn't enjoy dying and starting over if it can be avoided. That statement can probably include many gamers out there though.

Typically, death in a rogue-like (lite) means << that's it >> and you have to start everything over again from scratch...in hardcore modes at least. The great thing about this game though is, when you die even though you're given a new random hero, you still retain some of the details from your previous run. Things like your strength/character level, money, stickers and some of your inventory.

It also helps to know that since the span of time between heros is 100 years, the world is also going to be considerably different than it was. Not necessarily different in terms of difficulty, but things like the layout of the map, special areas (like dungeons and such), as well as, side quests and treasure spots are all going to be nothing like what you just went through. Not even a little bit.

TL;DR: Expect to die alot. Don't let it discourage you since you'll at least get to keep a few things. It's a learning experience and things will get better the more you play.

I felt like including this mention just as quick statement to say that the game does an excellent job with keeping within your progression curve. It doesn't become any easier -- there's no white flag or mercy rule from the bad guys' side of things...BUT they don't become ridiculously difficult either.

You're going to notice that the swarms do gradually start getting larger and the variety of baddies will expand as you move through the different eras and world levels, like I say though, you're not going to really run into anything that's impossible for you to kill or get passed with a big of tact and ingenuity.

The best piece of advice relating to this would be to always keep a generous amount of food in your inventory. I can't say for certain, but I don't think you have a limit to the amount of things you can carry with you...I personally haven't run into any issues yet with having too much stuff, but if there is a limit someone please correct me here if I'm wrong.

This is where time management will play a bit of a role in how you play the game and what you intend to accomplish with each hero as you go along. The old saying of "choose your battles wisely" rings true when it comes to the amount of exploring you'll want to do. The rest of this section will sound like a contradiction to that, but I'm here only to offer insight. My goal isn't to demand that you play the game a certain way. I explore alot, but still keep my sense of urgency most of the time.

Let me continue on with saying again that I don't want you think that exploration is something that you want to avoid, that would be a fairly crazy and bold statement. Just do things at a healthy pace, since you'll also find the more you play the more the game tries to nudge you in the direction to battle more so as to gain experience points and level up.

Much to the mercy of the dev team and (polite and ruley) outcry from the community, they were gracious enough to raise the time "limit" from three days to five...so we have that to be unendingly thankful for since it gives us more of a chance to see and do more without having the blood curdling sense of impossibility (lol). It definitely added more fun to the game.

Moreover, while traversing the map it'd be wise to keep in mind that while you're fighting the baddies to chop through as many small bushes and tufts of grass since that's where a good majority of your money will come from (plus, there's always the possibility of getting free food for healing your health when needed and you can even find other things like bombs, sticker packs and so on). Don't get too carried away if you're in a zone with an active clock, but if you're somewhere that has a red 'x' on the clock (top center of the GUI) that means it's untimed...so you can take as long as you want to get every nook and cranny. Most commonly, these 'timeless' areas are dungeons, caves, towns, traders and other friendly places. You'll notice when you see it.

Another thing to add before wrapping this section up, if while you're slicing and dicing your way through tufts and bushes (or even in houses) if you happen to come across a round hole in the ground jump into it! These are rare-ish findings that often contain good loot or other environmental things that will help your quest tremendously.

Also, don't be afraid or shy to use your kazoo to get around quicker to save on your countdown cost. If you're anything like me, I'm personally not a fan of fast travel since you can potentially miss out on some pretty cool stuff; however, with this game I had to convince myself that fast travel can sometimes be necessary since time is a factor. Once you progress there are other options that become available to help with time, but I won't get into that here. Discover it :)

There's alot that can be said about the different types of dungeons that you'll encounter throughout your adventures, for the purposes of this guide I won't be going into any kind of painstaking detail. After all, this is a bare basics guide after all and with the extent and scope of the topic, it'd be worthy enough to have a full-fledged guide all on it's own.

Primarily, one thing that needs to be considered each time is what the rules of any particular dungeon you enter might be and that the rules can't be changed just by exiting and going back in (trust me, I tried lol) if it's something that creates an additional challenge that might not be all that favorable (for example, "foam sword"...where which, the damage dealt by your sword is cut in half). There's quite a long list of these types of detrimental factors, but there's also a good amount of things that are positive as well.

Next, switches, switches and MORE SWITCHES! Yep, that's alot of switches...there's also crystal balls in some of them, which act in a similar nature, then other things get introduced as you progress further as your level increases. These are crucial to get a good understanding of quickly because it's part of the whole puzzle in getting to the end to collect your reward.

In every dungeon type there's going to be two keys that you'll need to collect. A small key and a larger skull shaped key. These are won by completing some sort of challenge room, but in some cases it's something as simple as finding a way into the room where it's being held and picking it up. After you win the large key, the room will typically have two "psychedelic floor tiles" (for lack of a better description lol) and these will teleport you back to the beginning of the dungeon, since in a high majority of instances, the large door that the key unlocks is closer to the beginning...so it makes the trip simple and danger-free. It's not a trick or something harmful, so you don't have to be worried about that ever. They're honest tiles and will always teleport you safely to where you need to be.

Once you get into the big key room, however, it becomes a completely different story. Once there, you'll have to fight a boss and they're typically rather powerful. Not always difficult, but they absorb a good amount of damage so it can sometimes take 10 or 15 minutes to win. Beware though, if you die that still counts as a 'regular death' and you'll have to start your qame over again with a new hero.

Another thing worh noting is that sometimes you'll encounter a large robotic octopus. This guy is a jerk, for real. The good news though is that you don't have to kill him...I don't even think he can be killed though to be honest. He's usually just around to cause a ruckus with the switches and will flip them just to get on your nerves. Apart from that, he'll also spawn baddies. These, you'll have to kill since typically if you're in a key room, the doors will be locked and won't open again until you fulfill some kind of condition.

Equally annoying are the twin bomber kittens. These contemptible little creatures can't be killed simply by striking them with your sword or other weapons usually...the trick to getting these things to die is actually with your nerf gun (which you should always have assigned to a quick slot, along with your torch and kazoo). What you need to do is wait for them to be holding a bomb up over their head but before they throw it at you, you have to shoot them repeatedly with your nerf gun until the bomb explodes (roughly three shots). This keeps them stunned in place so that they don't disappear into their little floor portal and the explosion from that will cause them damage. In most cases you'll only have to get them with three or four bombs each.

One thing you'll quickly notice is that there are quite a few baddies with elemental and buffed attacks that stick with you and drain your health over anywhere between a few seconds to a few minutes. These are things like corrosively poisonous zombie vomit, ethereal attacks from wizards, flying skull clusters and the like, burning from fire or other magic.

While there are stickers and antidotes for alot of these things, you're going to need a massive supply of health replenishers such as food, snacks and other medications. The quickest and easiest way to get a decent amount of these replenishers is from Ditto Mart, the hot dog stand and other random shops or side quest rewards that show up 'here and there'. What I typically do is buy out everything that I can afford whenever I can...this way I'll be covered for a good portion of my excursion.

As previously mentioned in another chapter, an additional great way to get all of this kind of stuff is by chopping through the tufts of grass and small bushes when you're not near a town or other location with a shop or other means to purchase supplies. Aside from that, a good place that I always like to check for these types of items is along the beach in washed up crates. You'll have to take these crates to the lighthouse to get them pried open but they're always well worth it.

One good tip to know that might not be assumed since not all games allow for it is that you can still safely access your inventory bag while in an active battle to eat something quick so as to replenish your health. It's something that I didn't know right away when I started playing, so it's probably safe for me to assume that someone else out there might not figure it out right away. Well...now you know :) You can even put snack stacks on your quick access list. I think that part is mentioned in the game though. There isn't really any benefit to doing it that since once the stack is gone the slot stays empty until you assign something else to it, but it's a helpful thing to keep in mind if you have alot of a few things and you assign them just before a big fight.

Lasly, you'll sometimes run into chests, large wooden kegs or pottery in peoples houses, in dungeons or just randomly scattered about. Don't be shy in terms of breaking these things open no matter their location, none of the NPCs will get angry about it or anything. There seems to be a free-for-all mentality with these things so dig in when you can to reap the free rewards. Also, when concerning stickers, don't forget to go in to the Stickers page for your hero and assign them to different areas on your costume, otherwise they won't be doing you any good.

This is going to be the end of my guide for you today, for now at least. I hope you found something useful in these words that will better help to improve or enhance your experience with the game. If you feel that there's something I've missed or have have questions, don't be shy. I'll do my best to answer any questions to the best of my ability.

On top of that, if there are other things that I think of that would fit the context of this guide I'll keep updating it as the ideas the flow through. Also, if you'd like to contribute anything from your own experiences with the game and want those ideas to be shared in this guide, please feel free to send me an email at {}{gagniera{}{/at/}{}gmail.com}{} (without the squigalies or slashes).

To sum things up for the time being, I'd like to say thanks for checking out my little guide! Let me know how or if it helped you in any way in the comments below and I'll happily waive the $200 dollar automatic instantly charged fee and save one baby seal for every sentence posted, lol...just kidding. Well, I mean, not that I WOULDN'T save a baby seal if I had the chance, but I don't think I would even know where to go to accomplish something of this nature. I'm open to ideas for that as well (haha)

Cheers!


P.S. I may end up throwing in some pictures to help illustrate different ideas more clearly. If this is something you'd want to see happen then let me know in the comments :)

P.P.S. Is there something that isn't here that should be? If you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments.