Welcome to the guide for completing all gold challenges in Desktop Dungeons!

The gold challenges are among the toughest dungeons you can encounter in the entire game. Some of them even match Vicious-level dungeons in terms of difficulty and require quite a bit of experience and skill to complete. This guide is aimed towards making that task easier.

Each challenge dungeon is randomized in terms of layout and enemy/item placement, but several things are constant. You will always encounter the same boss, the same fixed enemy types (usually) and sometimes even the same spell glyphs.

Most gold challenges are unlocked simply by completing the respective silver challenge once. Others have extra requirements, such as unlocking a certain dungeon, completing a quest or discovering certain gods. These requirements are listed next to each challenge.

Unlike the bronze and silver challenges, the gold challenges grant no rewards for completing them. Instead, for every time you complete all the gold challenges in any of the four class buildings, you unlock an extra veto slot in the Bazaar, up to four slots total (as long as you have the LV3 Bazaar built).

With one exception, none of the gold challenges have the option of using preparations. This means that you'll be relying almost purely on your skill and, to a lesser extent, useful items that can be found in shops. However, unless specifically mentioned otherwise, these challenges CAN be completed without buying any shop items.

Extra requirements: none
Race pick: Halfling
Available preparations: Alchemist, Blacksmith, Witch


Boss: Mister Goat (LV10 Goat, 67 damage, 357 HP, fast regen, 25% physical resist)

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=271433300
This is one of the most unique challenges yet. Instead of a regular dungeon, you start in a small arena with new waves of monsters constantly spawning as you kill them until the boss himself finally appears.

You start with Platemail (your reward from the silver challenge) already equipped (-2 damage taken per level, always strike last). There is also an item hidden in each of the corners of the map: a Sword (+2 base damage), a Bear Mace (+25% knockback damage), a Slayer Wand (kill any non-boss monster on use) and a Cracked Amulet (+5 XP on use).

Each wave (with the exception of the first one) consists of one random monster and a higher-level monster. The first wave always spawns three LV1 monsters and a LV2 monster. As soon as you kill the highest-level monster on the map, a new wave appears. Each of these "mini-bosses" also drops a glyph upon death. The type of glyphs is always fixed, but they drop in a random order.

The main difficulty in this challenge is the fact that you can't anticipate which monsters or glyphs will appear and therefore can't really plan ahead. There are also only a few tiles of blackspace to use for regenerating your health and mana, which may become an issue. On the plus side, all enemies have their base damage and health reduced by -12% from the outset.

Prepare a Slayer Wand at the Blacksmith before attempting this challenge. You may also prepare potions if you want, but they're not needed if you play smart. The start of the challenge is easy thanks to the damage reduction from Platemail. When you get either the ENDISWAL or PISORF glyph, try to make your way to the items in the corner by punching your way through the walls. Ideally, you'd want to eventually get them all.

The glyphs that can appear here are WONAFYT, IMAWAL, GETINDERE, BURNDEYRAZ, BYSSEPS, LEMMISI, PISORF, ENDISWAL. Most notably, GETINDERE is virtually useless, because the drawback of Platemail means that higher-level enemies will still hit you regardless of your first strike.

The key here is reaching LV6 so you could tank one hit from the boss thanks to Platemail. Use your Slayer Wands to kill the LV8 and LV9 mini-bosses. Using the Wand still gets you experience (capped at your level) and the glyph. Once the boss appears, use the BYSSEPS glyph to knock down his physical resist as much as you can. Heal up between the hits with LEMMISI and use up all remaining blackspace. You can't regen-fight him anyway thanks to his fast regen trait. Once you're done knocking down his resists, use a catapult to level up to LV7.

Boss fight:

Fairly straightforward. If you brought stuff like the Can of Whupaz, Quicksilver Potion or Reflex Potion, now is the time to use them. Ideally, you'd want to position the boss in such a way to get the extra knockback damage from Bear Mace as well. Convert all your glyphs for more potions and cast BYSSEPS until you're out of mana, then convert that one too. With those potions and your layer of Death Protection, you should be able to beat the boss down fairly easily. If you prepared the Witch potions as well, you shouldn't even break a sweat.

Note: alternatively, you can prepare the Really Big Sword to completely bypass the boss' physical resistance altogether. Because you're already wearing Platemail, the sword's only real drawback is essentially negated. This means that you have to kill the LV8 enemy instead of using the Slayer Wand, but have an easier time against the boss. The choice is yours.



Extra requirements: complete the "Confusion!" quest and unlock Mystera Annur
Race pick: Gnome
Available preparations: none allowed


Boss: Antimony (LV10 Warlock, 98 damage, 870 HP, 95% physical resist)

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=271433562
This is a somewhat funny challenge and you'll realize the reason as soon as you start. Namely, you'll need to play as a dedicated spellcaster to beat the challenge. As a Berserker. Yep.

The deck is stacked against melee characters in a ridiculous way. None of the enemies have magic attacks that would benefit your 50% magic resistance. Plus, nearly all of them have traits that make direct combat difficult, such as physical resist, weakening blow, poison, death gaze... And to cap it all off, the boss has a ridiculous 95% physical damage resist. At least your goal is clear: kill the boss with a huge BURNDAYRAZ damage spike.

The altar for Mystera Annur always appears close to your starting position, so find it as soon as possible. Your first priority is to find a glyph that you could spam to increase your piety with the deity. If you can't find a glyph shortly after starting the challenge, it's best to restart. Your main goal here is to reach 60 piety as soon as possible to take the Mystic Balance boon, which gives your spells a much more manageable mana cost.

You'll need to rack up piety as much as you can. As long as you avoid getting mana burned off the Thralls, there is no actual way to lose any piety. Just keep casting those glyphs. You'll want to eventually use most of Mystera's boons. Feel free to use your health potions, because you won't be attacking the boss directly anyway. You can also ignore the curse stacks from Golems, because there are no enemies with magic attacks.

Prepare a level catapult at LV7. You should have Mystic Balance, Refreshment and two levels of Magic at this point. Right before fighting the boss, also pick the Flames boon. Then go to the Pactmaker's altar (always appears here), take Consensus for the piety boost and choose the Alchemist's Pact. This allows you to level up during the boss fight without attacking a monster and losing your all-important burn stacks. You will also want to save as many glyphs as possible for mid-fight conversion and mana restoration via Refreshment.

Boss fight:

1. cast as many fireballs as you can
2. drink a spare health potion to level up
3. cast as many fireballs as you can
4. convert a glyph for an extra mana potion and mana restoration
5. alternate casting fireballs and converting glyphs for mana
6. once you're out of glyphs to convert, start drinking mana potions
7. grab an extra mana potion from the apothecary if needed

The boss should die before you run out of mana potions. As long as you maintain the burning stacks, your fireballs do ridiculous damage. Any items that improve spellcasting are worth a purchase. Pretty much anything from a Crystal Ball to a Battlemage Ring can make this challenge much easier. I managed to beat it on my first try with only a simple Pendant of Mana. Of course, any items that you can use as conversion fodder for extra mana potions are also welcome.

Extra requirements: complete the "Desert Rose" quest
Race pick: Gnome
Available preparations: none allowed


Bosses:
Tower of Bleat (LV10 Goo Blob, 75 damage, 318 HP, 75% physical resist)
Bleaty (LV10 Goat, 75 damage, 397 HP)
Tormented Bleat (LV10 Wraith, 75 damage, 238 HP, undead, bloodless, mana burn, magical attack, physical resist 59%)
Super Bleat Man (LV10 Meat Man, 48 damage, 954 HP)

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=271433710
This is one of the hardest gold challenges for one simple reason - there are four LV10 bosses you must kill to beat this challenge. You read that right. Four.

Some other unique features of this challenge are as follows:

Every time you level up, two random wall tiles will turn into Revenants (same monster as in the silver challenge). They serve no real purpose other than as fodder for the IMAWAL glyph, because unlike in the silver challenge, these Revenants thankfully won't follow you around. Also, the ENDISWAL glyph always appears in this challenge to make exploration easier. There are also three unique plants here that leave behind a goat horn when killed (+5% damage) and cause either mana burn, poison or corrosion. Remember to clear at least the poison and mana burn plants every time you're about to level up.

The altars for the Earthmother, Dracul and Jehora Jeheyu can appear in this challenge. Each of these gods is incredibly powerful in their own right, although when I played this challenge, I picked Jehora Jeheyu (one of my favorites and kind of ridiculously good). This guide is written with that in mind, although the Earthmother is also very well suited for this challenge. The Revenants make for an ideal and steady stream of targets for the IMAWAL glyph, granting 10 piety for every petrified Revenant. Greenblood and Vine Form make the leveling process a lot easier, whereas Entanglement and Clearance enable you to tackle enemies several levels above you. It's best to keep most Clearance casts for the boss fights, though.

Dracul is a pretty terrible choice for your initial deity, because you'll be relying on CYDSTEPP a lot to level up and he doesn't take too kindly to that. However, he's a great god to convert into once you no longer use CYDSTEPP and need the boons for the boss fight. Blood Curse, Blood Tithe and Blood Swell are all excellent end-game boons that can make boss fights a lot easier.
Speaking of the bosses, you'll want to start fighting the first boss at LV6 with a level catapult ready to use for a mid-fight level-up. Bleaty is probably the easiest choice for your first target.

Boss fight:

1. hit the boss
2. hit the boss again to trigger Death Protection
3. recast CYDSTEPP and attack again
4. use the level catapult
5. attack
6. recast CYDSTEPP and attack
7. drink mana potions (or use Clearance) for another CYDSTEPP and attack
8. score the final hit with either Entanglement or GETINDERE

Depending on your exact stats and items, you might be able to kill him before even needing to drink any potions. Jehora's health and mana boons make this entirely possible. Using a large number of goat horns can also boost your damage considerably during the fight. Once you kill him, prepare for another level catapult to take on the remaining three bosses. The Tormented Bleat is likely the best bet because of his low hit points.

Boss fight #2:

1. cast BURNDAYRAZ twice (or thrice, depending on your mana situation)
2. use the level catapult
3. cast BURNDAYRAZ two (or three) more times
4. drink mana potions or use Clearance for more BURNDAYRAZ

If you are still short of damage, GETINDERE or Entanglement should once again help deliver the killing blow. Jehora worshippers should have enough mana, though. You will next tackle two bosses at the same time. Since another level catapult will likely be unfeasible (albeit possible), this is the point where you want to either take Blood Curse (if you switch to Dracul after the second boss) or prepare to use Chaos Form (if worshipping Jehora). This is also the point where you can get rid of CYDSTEPP.

Boss fight #3 and #4:

1. spam BURNDAYRAZ at the Tower of Bleat
2. drink a mana potion and attack the Super Bleat Man (getting the +30% damage boost from your class trait)
3. cast another BURNDAYRAZ and hit the Super Bleat Man again

Now is the ideal time for a Chaos Form. Don't forget to clear away all the plants first, because their debuffs will be removed by the boon. If you're instead worshipping Dracul, you should have a ton of resources to heal your health at this point. Extra mana potions should also be easy to come by thanks to the Gnome's racial bonus. Just keep smacking the bosses.

4. when low on health, drink a health potion / use blood pools or Blood Swell
5. repeat steps 1-4 until bosses are dead

I consider myself lucky to have beaten this challenge on my first try. I didn't buy any items during my successful run, so anything you can scrounge from the shops will make the challenge that much easier. The Schadenfreude Potion in particular is a good purchase while fighting the last two bosses, as it instantly refills your mana after taking a hit from the Super Bleat Man.

Extra requirements: unlock Mystera Annur
Race pick: Orc
Available preparations: none allowed


Bosses:
Super Meat Man (LV10 Meat Man, 48 damage, 954 HP)
The Iron Man (LV10 Golem, 75 damage, 318 HP, 75% magic resist)

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=271439031
This challenge is a slightly modified version of the alpha level called Factory ("... hidden in the Alphae Nostalge mountains"). The basic premise is the same: two common dungeon bosses and three types of common monsters. The problem is in the fact that they're all among the worst enemies the Wizard can encounter, so it really pushes your spellcasting skills to the limit.

Mystera Annur's altar always appears in this challenge near your starting location. Find it and start worshipping. Keep casting BURNDAYRAZ whenever you have mana for it (even if you can't kill anything with it), so you rack up piety as much as possible. Remember that Animated Armours have magical attacks, so killing them reduces piety with Mystera. You should still end up with quite a huge amount of piety, but it's still worth mentioning just in case.

There are only three types of enemies here. These are Meat Men, Golems and Animated Armours. The first two are among the worst enemies for a spellcaster, because their large health pool and magic resist makes the standard fireball spam ineffective. The Armours require a ton of fireballs to knock away the Death Protection layers.

You'll just need to do some effective regen-fighting against the Golems and Meat Men. Try and time your glyph conversions in such a way that you can get a high-level (3-4 levels higher) kill out of the Refreshment boon. Don't be afraid to convert as many glyphs as you can after you've found them all.

The PISORF glyph is especially great in this challenge, because it bypasses the magic resist of Golems and in case of Orc Wizards, eventually surpasses the damage-for-mana ratio in comparison to BURNDAYRAZ. For example, a LV9 Orc Wizard with 15 mana, no items and four glyph conversions will deal 120 damage with BURNDAYRAZ (including the double burn stacks), but 170 damage with PISORF (by hitting walls). PISORF also allows you to reach inaccessible blackspace, which can be vital for the Super Meat Man fight. On the other hand, it can be hard to keep punching the enemy through walls and if the boss spawns at the edge of the dungeon, you're basically screwed.

Boss fight:

The two bosses in this challenge are actually common dungeon bosses, but just about the worst bosses that the Wizard can encounter. And you need to kill both. Oh, joy.

Try to save all your mana and health potions for these fights. The Super Meat Man is very tough to kill if you've explored too much blackspace before the fight. You'd ideally want to be at LV9 (after a level catapult) as you engage him. You should have 3-4 levels of the Magic boon from Mystera (other than Refreshment, none of the other boons are worth it).

It should be noted that PISORF is NOT a guaranteed spawn here, so if you don't find it, you best hope to find something like BYSSEPS or HALPMEH, because otherwise it's damn near impossible to kill both of the bosses.

In my case, during my first try of this challenge, I actually didn't get PISORF and was unlucky enough to find The Iron Man with only 6 tiles of blackspace remaining. Therefore, I had to buy an extra health potion from the apothecary to beat the challenge. Other than that, I bought no extra items, so once again, if you find something that could help you, buy it. You have a ton of extra space anyway thanks to the Wizard's "glyphs are small items" trait.



Extra requirements: none
Race pick: Gnome
Available preparations: none allowed


Bosses:
The Undefeatable (first form) (LV10 Animated Armour, 999 damage, 48 HP, magical attack, revives, 33 x Death Protection)
The Undefeatable (second form) (LV10 Animated Armour, 999 damage, 159 HP, magical attack, 33 x Death Protection)

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=271438009
The altars for Binlor, Tikki Tooki and Mystera Annur can appear in this challenge. The early strategy is much the same as with the Wizard challenge: find Mystera, worship her and begin casting glyphs to increase your piety. Unlike the Wizard, you need to first find a glyph to use.

Since the Sorcerer is very powerful at lower levels, try to get a few decent high-level kills early on. Use Mystera for Mystic Balance and two levels of Magic. Don't despair if you don't find her early, because you'll still get an initial piety bonus for every glyph you cast before worshipping her. Try to save as many popcorn as possible for the boss fight (preferably around 20).

Boss fight:

Start the fight at LV6 with a level catapult ready.

1. use BURNDAYRAZ four times (use blackspace if you haven't found all mana boosters yet)
2. hit popcorn do ignite a burn stack
3. level catapult to refill mana
4. alternate between using BURNDAYRAZ and hitting popcorn

Animated Armours make for excellent popcorn for the boss fight in this challenge, because you can ignite the burn stack multiple times off a single monster. Once you've taken off about half of the Death Protections, heal yourself up in blackspace to start fighting the boss straight up, because his damage will have dropped to a manageable level. Each hit will take out two layers of Death Protection thanks to your Mana Shield trait.

5. kill the boss by tanking his hits and healing yourself up with BURNDAYRAZ (avoid killing more popcorn)

Once the second form appears, heal yourself up in the remaining blackspace and set up another level catapult to LV8. Start the fight the same way as the first form.

6. use BURNDAYRAZ four times
7. level catapult to refill mana
8. alternate between using BURNDAYRAZ and hitting popcorn

Start using your mana potions to refill your mana at this point. Each potion should restore 8 mana, so there are more than enough resources. If you should run out of potions, the Gnome's racial bonus grants you another mana potion per full conversion. Plus, you should have enough piety by this point that you can take the Refreshment boon and instantly refill half your mana for each conversion. You should have a ton of resources left after the fight. No shop items needed. One of the easier gold challenges.

Extra requirements: complete the "Troll Toll" quest
Race pick: Dwarf
Available preparations: none allowed


Boss: The Immovable (LV10 Animated Armour, 121 damage, 453 HP, magical attack, retaliate: fireball)

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=271438202
The strategy here is to use PISORF against the boss. As always with the Bloodmage, your first goal is to find BURNDAYRAZ as quickly as possible. If you don't find it early (less than half the map explored), restart the challenge.

Prioritize Wraiths and Goo Blobs as enemies to level up on. You can usually use BURNDAYRAZ and BLUDTUPOWA to kill enemies like Goo Blobs one-two levels above you. Wraiths in particular make the best targets, with 4-5 level higher kills entirely possible with the use of a couple of blood pools. Completely avoid Cave Snakes with their huge health pools.

Unlike the normal Bloodmage strategy that mainly relies on a large amount of bloodpools for healing during the boss fight, you must use up all the blood pools as you're leveling, because the boss has an unlisted ability which basically means that he drinks your blood pools to heal himself if you damage him past a certain point. There should be no blood pools on the map as you begin the fight.

You will be using PISORF as your only spell during the boss fight, so convert the other glyphs before attacking the boss. As a sidenote, whenever you have spare mana during your leveling process, try to position him in such a way that you would be able to hit him through as many walls as possible (use either PISORF or WEYTWUT to do so).

Level up to LV6 and prepare a catapult to LV7.

Boss fight:

1. cast PISORF repeatedly to hit the boss through walls
2. if you have blackspace left, use BLUDTUPOWA for more PISORFS
3. use a level catapult once you're out of mana
4. use up any blood pools you created during the catapult before attacking the boss again with PISORF (you can soften up some tougher popcorn and heal off the pools)
5. keep using PISORF and use up all your mana potions (to make future blood pools more effective)
6. when you run out of walls, try to line the boss up with a monster and keep knocking him into it

By the time you're out of mana, the boss should be down to less than half his health. Don't forget to convert BLUDTUPOWA if you still have it, because more max health means more efficient blood pools and health potions.

7. Tank one hit from the boss (as a Dwarf, you can manage it)
8. Start killing popcorn and instantly drinking up the pools
9. whenever you have enough health to tank a hit, do so
10. whenever you have enough mana to recast PISORF, do so

The boss should go down before you even need any health potions. I managed this without any shop items, but anything that increases your base damage (and thereby PISORF damage as well) is wonderful here. Also, ways to increase your maximum mana are also fantastic (anything from a Pendant of Mana to a Mage Plate). You may also buy an extra mana potion from the apothecary for more initial PISORFs and increased Sanguine effectiveness. Not the hardest gold challenge, but definitely tough if you're not comfortable playing with the Bloodmage.

Extra requirements: unlock the LV3 Bank upgrade
Race pick: Human (fixed race)
Available preparations: none allowed


Boss: Sillyname (LV10 Goblin, 120 damage, 150 HP, retaliate: fireball)

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=271434984
You start with a journal scroll and the Balanced Dagger (the reward from the silver challenge). You'll be fighting same-level enemies pretty much exclusively throughout this challenge. Each enemy you encounter has a debuffing attack of some sort (either poison, corrosion, mana burn or weakening). You'll want to mainly fight the corrosive ones and only kill the poison / mana burn monsters as the last enemy before a level-up. Try to avoid taking too many hits of weakening if at all possible.

There are also trapped chests, each containing either a glyph, item or a potion. Like the chests in previous Thief challenges, they deal damage to you when opened. The contents are:

GETINDERE glyph in LV1
IMAWAL glyph in LV3
ENDISWAL glyph in LV5
Pendant of Health in LV7
BURNDAYRAZ glyph in LV9
Burn Salve (corrosion cure) in LV2 and LV6
Fortitude Tonic (weakening cure) in LV4 and LV8

The LV1 chest notably contains GETINDERE, which makes this challenge almost trivial, as you'll be able to avoid a ton of damage and debuffs thanks to it. IMAWAL is nice to use on higher-level enemies (LV7-9) that you won't be fighting anyway. The XP bonus from your Balanced Dagger and IMAWAL adds up nicely. Don't even bother with BURNDAYRAZ, because the boss will just retaliate you to death.

ENDISWAL is helpful in bypassing corrosion pools and helps you balance the corrosion debuff itself with added physical resist. It also allows access to more blackspace to help you regenerate mana. It's also needed to kill the boss. Essentially the only glyph you absolutely must get.

Keep leveling up until you reach LV7, although the boss can be killed even at LV6 because you will have a ton of potions to finish the job. Once your corrosion stacks become unbearable (around 10 or so), use a Burn Salve to rid yourself of those. Lap up all the stray pools before you do, so you'd have an easier time bypassing them. Also clear away any weakening stacks with the Fortitude Tonic before the boss fight.

Boss fight:

1. use ENDISWAL to get your resists to 60-65%
2. hit the boss once
3. use ENDISWAL three more times with the help of a mana potion
4. hit the boss a second time

At this point, you should have a huge number of potions remaining and the boss exactly one hit away from death. Either grab GETINDARE and finish him, or simply chug potions, recast ENDISWAL and finish him. This challenge is probably easier than the silver Thief challenge.



Extra requirements: unlock Tikki Tooki
Race pick: Orc
Available preparations: none allowed


Boss: Yohoho (LV10 Orc, 145 damage, 515 HP, first strike, curse)

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=271435215
You start this challenge in a sealed room with three Wall Crunchers nearby. These Crunchers will be your main means of navigating the dungeon, because the dungeon consists of multiple isolated rooms that you must break open. Killed monsters randomly drop more Wall Crunchers as well, so you should have a steady supply.

The altars for Tikki Tooki, the Pactmaker and Binlor Ironshield can appear in this challenge. While Binlor can make navigation much easier, he is entirely useless against the boss. The boss' curse counters any stone skins and Binlor's magic resistance stacking has no effect against him.

Find Tikki Tooki as soon as you can. Earn enough piety to take the Tikki's Edge (Learning) boon at the first opportunity. Feel free to use your gold to get more piety. You should try and get a second level of Tikki's Edge as a priority. Next take the Dodging boon and start saving piety for the Reflex boons.

Use WONAFYT to gather up low-level enemies to fuel piety for Tikki Tooki and rack up experience thanks to your Learning boons and the +1 XP from the slowing debuff. Animated Armours are to be avoided because of the piety loss. If you find the IMAWAL glyph, use it to petrify the Armours for extra experience.

Boss fight:

With effective use of Tikki Tooki, you can reach LV9 without ever needing to fight higher-level enemies. At this point, you should have been able to convert three of your health potions into Reflex / Quicksilver potions.

After converting all of your glyphs for extra damage, you should end up with enough damage to straight up hit the boss three times and kill him thanks to dodge and double strike.

In case you get horribly unlucky and your 80% dodge chance doesn't kick in, hit a low-level Animated Armor to re-roll the dodge prediction from the Quicksilver Potion. It's always best to check whether or not you actually dodge the hit before drinking the double strike potion as you're about to attack the boss. Otherwise, your double strike potion might be wasted on a random enemy as you attempt to re-roll the prediction.

Extra requirements: complete the "Cult of Personality" quest
Race pick: Goblin
Available preparations: none allowed


Boss: Draugr (LV10 Vampire, 56 damage, 954 HP, poisonous, blink, undead, bloodless)

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=271437651
You start the challenge with a journal that can be converted for 100 points. There is a subdungeon on the map that leads to the boss. You can't leave once you enter, so your goal is to completely explore the main map and get as much experience as you can before heading down.

Some unique things about this challenge: each Berserker will level up alongside you, meaning that you will never encounter Berserkers who are lower level than you. Make sure you don't kill them all early on, because they're excellent candidates for your "poison for extra damage and finish them off with first strike" strategy for farming XP later on. Most other monsters here are undead, so they can't be poisoned anyway.

There is also a bridge that's protected by a LV5 troll with 75% physical resist, meaning that you need to reach LV6 to kill the troll with Swift Hand and reach the other side. You should eventually reach LV8 without too much trouble. Picking the Goblin makes even reaching LV9 before the boss fight completely feasible.

The altars for Dracul, Taurog and Binlor can appear in this challenge. The best choice by far is Dracul, although wait until you've cleared the entire map before converting to him, because half of the enemies are undead. Binlor's altar makes an excellent desecration target, because the punishment (-50% to your resists) doesn't affect you anyway. Before heading down to the subdungeon, take three stacks of Blood Tithe after desecrating Binlor.

Boss fight:

You will instantly encounter the boss as you go down. You will also see the outline of the dungeon (a particularly nasty maze). The boss has blink, which means that you need to explore most of the maze before you can really start fighting him. There are also two unlisted things that you need to consider.

First, every time you damage the boss, he will spawn two enemies at random points in the maze. This can make navigating the labyrinth extremely hard and can get out of hand really fast. The enemies he spawns are:

Thrall (LV9, 47 damage, 147 HP, undead, bloodless)
Berserker (LV10, 56 damage, 159 HP, berserks at 50%)

The Berserkers drop Wall Crunchers upon death, which will make the maze more manageable.

Second, every time the boss takes damage, he switches from undead to non-undead, which means that he can't be poisoned half the time. However, the poison remains on him even when he toggles back to undead.

As you enter the subdungeon, cast BURNDAYRAZ on the boss to remove his undead trait, find him wherever he blinks and cast APHEELSIK on him. You will be able to keep using APHEELSIK to increase his poison stacks as you explore the maze. By the time you reach about 100-150 tiles worth of poison on him, start blasting the boss with BURNDAYRAZ.

You will want to reach LV10 as soon as you can, so you can one-shot the Thralls, which makes navigation much easier. You'll basically be chasing the boss through the maze, killing his entourage on the way and tossing fireballs at him. Every time you reach a new level threshold, you will restore your health and mana, so try to time your glyph casting and combat accordingly.

As you progress, the map will become filled with enemies, but you should have a ton of Wall Crunchers to bypass them. Unfortunately, you can't really hit the boss because of his "poisoned" trait. The indulgences from desecrating Binlor's altar technically allow you to use health potions without a piety penalty if you want, but the fireballs will wear him down eventually. I ended up using no mana potions or shop items, but if you find something in a shop that makes your task easier, go for it.

Extra requirements: unlock the Pactmaker
Race pick: Dwarf
Available preparations: none allowed


Boss: The Triad (LV10 Wraith, 450 damage, 1 HP, magic immune, undead, bloodless, first strike)

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=271433875
There are three identical bosses in this challenge, all of whom have the stats listed above. You start the challenge with the Stone Sigil (gain 1 piety for each kill) - your reward from the silver challenge. The Pactmaker always appears in this challenge near your starting position.

Pick Consensus and take the Warrior's Pact (+1 max HP per kill) as soon as you can. The Stone Sigil helps offset the piety loss from the pact while racking up your health. The main thing that makes leveling difficult here (in addition to the narrow labyrinthine passages) is the large number of poisonous enemies, which requires you to time your level-ups carefully. Feel free to use potions while leveling to get kills 2-3 levels above you. It's also worth noting that there are no shops in this challenge.

The solution to beating the three bosses is simple, although it's possible that the dungeon layout makes this challenge literally impossible to complete. Namely, you need to find the ENDISWAL glyph and use it to get your physical resist high enough to survive one 450-damage hit from the boss. However, the glyph may be inaccessible when it spawns behind one of the bosses in the narrow tunnels, forcing you to restart (as it happened to me on my first try).

With 65% resists from ENDISWAL, the boss deals exactly 158 damage, so you need at least 159 health to survive a hit against the boss and kill him. When you cast ENDISWAL only three times (for 60% resists), you need at least 181 health to tank a single hit. With the Warrior's Pact, the Priest's Good Health trait and the Dwarf's racial bonus, this is entirely manageable by LV7. Unless you get screwed over by the dungeon layout making ENDISWAL inaccessible, this is one of the easiest gold challenges.



Extra requirements: none
Race pick: Orc
Available preparations: none allowed


Boss: Superduper (LV10 Meat Man, 58 damage, 2280 HP, physical resist 25%)

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=271433991
This is a fairly difficult gold challenge. As a Monk, you'll always want to avoid fighting enemies with curse, corrosive attacks or weakening blows. Unfortunately, all of these types of enemies appear in this challenge, which makes finding suitable level-up targets difficult.

Another unique thing about this challenge: once you kill 10 monsters, all Meat Men gain poisonous attacks. After you kill 20 enemies, Meat Men also gain corrosive attacks. You will see a message on screen both times this happens. It doesn't really affect the challenge too much, but it's something to bear in mind so you don't accidentally get a debuff when you're not paying attention.

The altars for the Earthmother, Taurog and Jehora Jeheyu can appear in this challenge. For this challenge, the Earthmother is likely the best choice thanks to Greenblood and Vine Form greatly improving your regen-fighting abilities. Try to find her altar as soon as you can. Pick one of each of those boons early on and hopefully convert a glyph or two for extra damage as well.

Focus on putting points into Greenblood, as it benefits you more in the long run than Vine Form, which is only really useful at lower levels. You'll want about 5-6 boons of Greenblood eventually, with 1-2 boons of Vine Form thrown in as well. You can also use the IMAWAL glyph to petrify monsters with frustrating abilities, especially the higher-level ones that you won't be fighting anyway. The XP boost is not to be underestimated.

With the Orc's racial bonus and the Earthmother's boons, you should be able to regen-fight and kill enemies two (and even three) levels above you with relative ease, especially if you find BURNDAYRAZ or HALPMEH.

Start fighting the boss between LV7-8, ideally with a level catapult. Monk's regen-fighting benefits him more when he's high-level, because each tile of blackspace heals him for more health. If you can manage it, try to fight the boss between LV8-9, but only if this doesn't use up too much blackspace before the boss fight.

It's also worth mentioning that BYSSEPS is absolutely fantastic against this boss, as it will quickly reduce his physical resist to zero and greatly speed up your progress. I accidentally converted mine before the boss fight and cursed myself for it, although I still managed to win.

Convert any other glyphs except BURNDAYRAZ (or HALPMEH, if you have it) before you engage the boss. The problem with this challenge is that because you must start the boss fight before you explore too much, you can miss out on boosters and glyphs that could otherwise help increase your damage sooner, but there's really nothing to be done about it.

Boss fight:

1. begin regen-fighting with either HALPMEH or BURNDAYRAZ
2. use a level catapult as soon as possible
3. once you're out of blackspace, use up your mana potions and Clearances for extra BURNDAYRAZ / HALPMEH
4. use the Plantation boon for more piety
5. use up the rest of your Clearance boons and your remaining health potions

This should be enough for beating the boss. There are no shops in this challenge and preparations aren't allowed, so a very skill-intensive challenge as you don't have a fallback option. Compared to some of the more devilish challenges, though, it isn't that bad.

Extra requirements: unlock the Earthmother
Race pick: Elf
Available preparations: none allowed


Boss: Ssseth (LV10 Naga, 90 damage, 570 HP, weakening blow, 95% physical resist, 95% magic resist)

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=266045924
This is the hardest of all the gold challenges. In fact, it can give even most Vicious-level dungeons a run for their money. While the challenge may seem insurmountable at first, I'll try my best to give you some useful advice to hopefully lessen the torture that is Holy Ground.

This challenge is centered around the Earthmother, whose altar always appears near your starting position. Find it and worship her as soon as possible to maximize the piety gain from IMAWAL. Petrify high-level (LV8-9) enemies that you won't be fighting anyway (such as Zombies and Wraiths, who are bloodless and therefore useless for the Plantation boon, or Meat Men and Goo Blobs, who are just plain terrible as popcorn).

Start exploring, using IMAWAL where possible for the extra piety and XP bonus that helps you level up considerably faster. Keep taking more and more Greenblood boons to rack up corrosion stacks on all enemies. You might also benefit from 1-2 boons of Vine Form early on, but you'll eventually want around 10 stacks of global corrosion via Greenblood.

As you use more Greenblood, you can also start petrifying the plants spawned by the boon if you don't have better targets or if you don't want to waste mana regeneration while exploring. Mana burn and poison plants are unfortunately magic immune.

With the added corrosion from Greenblood, extra survivability from Vine Form, your innate 25% physical resist, the HALPMEH glyph and the Entanglement boon, you should be able to constantly kill monsters at least 2-3 levels above you. With the XP boost from IMAWAL, you will gain levels very quickly. Avoid using Clearance, because you'll be needing all those mana refills for the boss fight.

The Paladin's "-20% boon cost" trait makes repeat uses of Greenblood much more viable than with the other classes. This trait also means that the Earthmother can't punish you for piety dropping below 0, so whenever your piety is as close to zero as possible, feel free to clear away some plants that block your path, as it doesn't cause any repercussions from the Earthmother. You can also use PISORF, WEYTWUT and ENDISWAL to get around plants and chokepoints.

Once you find the boss, you will quickly notice his ridiculous resists. There is a BYSSEPS glyph that's guaranteed to always spawn in this challenge. You must literally beat the boss down to a manageable resist level, 3% at a time, so you could fight him straight-up. Considering the fact that the boss also has weakening blow, your damage output will drop like a stone. You should start attacking the boss between LV7 and LV8.

Boss fight:

1. Convert all glyphs other than IMAWAL, BYSSEPS and HALPMEH before the fight for extra mana
2. Set up a level catapult
3. Hit the boss once with BYSSEPS
4. Use the level catapult

This is where you will start exploring the remaining blackspace and whittling down the resists on the boss. You will want to get another level catapult to reach LV9, which should be entirely possible thanks to those early XP boosts from the Earthmother. Your goal is to get the resists down to as low as possible before leveling up to LV9 and actually fighting the boss straight up.

5. Hit the boss with BYSSEPS
6. Heal up via blackspace / HALPMEH
7. Repeat steps 5-6 until you're out of blackspace

You will use most (if not all) of your potions during this phase. Try and time their usage to counteract the poison / mana burn plants you'll inevitably need to clear in order to reach more blackspace. Once you've expended all your blackspace and potions, as well as your health and mana, catapult yourself to LV9. Purchase a Fortitude Tonic from the apothecary to remove the twenty or so weakening stacks you have accumulated by this point. The real boss fight begins now.

8. Hit the boss with BYSSEPS
9. Heal up via HALPMEH
10. Use as many Clearances as you can to restore your mana (save at least 5 piety for Plantation)
11. Keep recasting HALPMEH and hitting the boss with BYSSEPS until you're out of mana
12. Use the Plantation boon to skyrocket your piety (should be around 90-100 after Plantation)
13. More Clearances, more HALPMEH, more BYSSEPS, more punches to the face

Your resources should be enough to take the boss down. I only realized near the end of the fight that BURNDAYRAZ is not even needed. Definitely convert that glyph for extra mana before the boss fight. Other than the Fortitude Tonic, I also didn't buy anything from the shops, so any useful item that you can get your hands on is more than welcome here.

I am aware that there is a strategy that basically requires you to explore the entire map and take a ton of Greenblood boons before attacking the boss at LV1 and trying to kill him only through corrosion damage (which isn't reduced by the resists) by spamming BURNDAYRAZ. Theoretically, you should level up with IMAWAL's XP boosts and Entanglement, restoring your mana after each level-up, so you could cast more fireballs and repeat the process. That strategy was actually my first attempt at this challenge and I failed miserably. My second attempt is described and shown above. Good luck!

Extra requirements: none
Race pick: Dwarf
Available preparations: none allowed


Boss: Crusher (LV10 Golem, 300 damage, 222 HP, fast regen, cowardly, retaliate: fireball, 3 x death protection)

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=271434713
This is a tricky challenge. As always, start by casting LEMMISI several times to reveal any useful items on the map. Taurog's altar always appears in this challenge, so finding it is your main priority (hence, LEMMISI). Unfortunately, Taurog is one of the worst deities for the Transmuter, because this class heavily relies on casting glyphs to reach conversion thresholds, whereas Taurog punishes for casting glyphs.

Avoid killing enemies before you find Taurog to conserve as much potential piety as possible. Convert LEMMISI for the piety bonus to get the Blade as soon as possible and start leveling. You will eventually need to amass the full set of Taurog's equipment. The glyphs are always the same - WONAFYT, BYSSEPS, IMAWAL, ENDISWAL and BURNDAYRAZ. Ideally, you'll want to use WONAFYT as much as possible before worshipping Taurog to set up a popcorn bowl and then converting it to set up a higher-level kill.

Just use Taurog's gear to level up and get as much piety as you can. Take care with Bandits and their curses, as it negates your damage reduction from Taurog's equipment. Feel free to use the occasional glyph, health potion or Spirit Sword if it helps you get decent higher-level kills, but otherwise just use Taurog's equipment to bash enemies into a pulp.

You need to carefully consider which items and glyphs to pick up, because your inventory space is limited. I suggest leaving Taurog's helm (+15% magic resist) on the ground until you need it to start using Unstoppable Fury. Also ignore BURNDAYRAZ and IMAWAL until the boss fight.

Boss fight:

Save 80 piety for the boss fight, so you could use Taurog's Unstoppable Fury three times. You should also have three extra glyphs (ENDISWAL, IMAWAL and BYSSEPS) to convert into Spirit Swords during the fight, which will also boost your piety if you're a bit short of the required amount. You'll also need BURNDAYRAZ. Fight the boss straight up at LV8, because a level catapult won't help you here. Also save three mana potions.

1. cast ENDISWAL three times to survive one hit from the boss

Note that any race other than the Dwarf will not be able to tank one hit from the boss at LV8, because you will have 104 HP (80 base health, plus the three health boosters, no room for health-boosting items) and after your 65% damage reduction and the -5 damage from Taurog's Shield are applied, the boss will deal exactly 104 damage, because the Shield's reduction is calculated first, with the resulting damage (103,25) rounded up to exactly kill you. I found that out the hard way.

2. cast BYSSEPS to boost your damage
3. hit the boss once with a Spirit Sword (either from triggering it through ENDISWAL/BYSSEPS casts or converting IMAWAL)

If you have found all the attack and mana boosters, your attack should do 111 damage (exactly half of his health). Explore every tile before attacking the boss, because his fast regen trait makes any regen-fighting unfeasible anyway.

4. convert ENDISWAL into a Spirit Sword
5. equip Taurog's Helm and take the first Unstoppable Fury boon from Taurog
6. drink a mana potion and recast BYSSEPS
7. hit the boss again with a Spirit Sword, triggering your Death Protection and breaking one of his
8. take another Unstoppable Fury boon
9. hit the boss again, breaking your Death Protection and his second one
10. take the third Unstoppable Fury boon (convert BYSSEPS for extra piety)
11. pick up BURNDAYRAZ
12. regenerate 6 mana through two mana potions
13. cast BURNDAYRAZ on the boss, triggering his retaliation ability and removing your last death protection

You and the boss are now both out of Death Protections, he is at 1 HP and has one stack of burning on him. Just ignite the stack by attacking any other monster or by casting BURNDAYRAZ on a random monster. There are shops in this challenge, so if you find something like Badge of Courage, feel free to buy them during the boss fight to help you out.

I actually first attempted this challenge as a Human, but after realizing that I would not be able to tank that first hit, I had to get really creative with a Schadenfreude Potion and a Platemail after converting half of Taurog's equipment and using up all my potions to kill him. It was a whole big mess. The strategy above works just fine with a Dwarf, though. I still managed to mess it up a bit during my successful Dwarf run, but still won.



Extra requirements: none
Race pick: Goblin
Available preparations: none allowed


Boss: Foyter (LV1 Fighter, 4 damage, 9 HP, revives)

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=271434542
Like all of Tinker's challenges, this one is also highly luck-based. It's actually probably the most random challenge of all and it may become impossibly difficult depending on whether you get useful items or not. To make matters a whole lot worse, all monsters have +65% more damage and health than normal. Have fun.

The boss grants no XP, but drops a random item when killed. He revives and levels up each time you slay him. You'll be killing him constantly while exploring and leveling up, rather than taking him on as the last enemy. His improved stats are as follows:

LV2 (11 damage, 24 HP)
LV3 (19 damage, 42 HP)
LV4 (29 damage, 64 HP)
LV5 (41 damage, 89 HP)
LV6 (54 damage, 117 HP)
LV7 (69 damage, 148 HP)
LV8 (85 damage, 183 HP)
LV9 (103 damage, 221 HP)
LV10 (123 damage, 262 HP)

His item drops are what either make or break your chances for success.

These items can range from junk (Burn Tonic, Agnostic's Collar) to great items (Tri-Sword, Elven Boots). The more items you have unlocked, the more options you have. There is also a secret subdungeon on the map. However, your main problem is the fact that there are no shops on the map, which immediately negates your usual strategy. You're basically going into this challenge unequipped and relying on lucky drops from the boss.

To be honest, there is nothing to be said about this challenge, other than just keep trying until lady luck smiles on you. Since you will have multiple uses of your racial conversion bonus, the Goblin is the best choice, especially considering the fact that you will likely be unable to kill most of the higher-level monsters thanks to their ridiculous stats (really, anything above LV7 is virtually unkillable without spending a ludicrous amount of resources). The Goblin's XP bonus balances that out somewhat.

I completed this on my second attempt thanks to some great luck. Here are the drops I got from the boss:

(LV1) Plate Mail, (LV2) Stone Sigil, (LV3) Elven Boots, (LV4) Battlemage Ring, (LV5) Amulet of Yendor, (LV6) Mage Plate, (LV7) Dwarven Gauntlets, (LV8) Venom Dagger, (LV9) Badge of Honour

The Amulet of Yendor in particular is probably the single best item drop you can possibly get. The extra free +50 XP is such a huge advantage that you'd have to try really hard to actually lose.

Extra requirements: unlock the Goblin race
Race pick: Goblin (fixed race)
Available preparations: none allowed


Boss: Ra'at Seid (LV10 Ratling, 67 damage, 121 HP, fast regen, death protection, retaliate: fireball)

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=271434848
Compared to the Crusader's diabolic silver challenge, the gold challenge is basically a walk in the park. It's actually comparable to the bronze Crusader challenge in terms of difficulty, especially because you should be fairly familiar with the Crusader at this point.

The dungeon contains lots of monsters and you need to begin building momentum and leveling right off the bat. Make sure you use WONAFYT and WEYTWUT as much as possible, especially on Gorgons and Goblins to negate their first strike. As always, BURNDAYRAZ is useless for Crusaders and PISORF is fantastic. You will again have the Pactmaker's altar appear here, so take the Consensus and Scholar's Pact at around LV4-5. There are no shops in this challenge.

Boss fight:

The boss in particular has laughable stats and is indeed quite easy to kill, but there is a catch to this challenge. Namely, you need to kill all the Ratlings in order to win, not just the LV10 boss. Each ratling also drops a piece of treasure (25 gold), which serves no real purpose.

What makes this challenge somewhat tricky is the fact that the rats all have Death Protection, which means that you can't just one-shot them. It's also important to note that if you have less than a 30% momentum bonus, you can't knock away their Death Protection at all, regardless of your damage output. If you play it smart, that shouldn't even be an issue.

I actually didn't even realize that restriction was in place the first time I played this challenge, because it was quite easy to maintain at least a 30% momentum bonus all the time. I only got the on-screen prompt the second time I played this challenge while fooling around and trying different things. All in all, not a difficult gold challenge by any means.