UNLOVED

UNLOVED

283 ratings
From Mercy to Unearthly - UNLOVED progression guide
By potterman28wxcv and 1 collaborators
UNLOVED is an amazing shooter with surprising depth, but the game provides little information. This guide explains the core mechanisms and offers helpful tips for progressing in the game.
12
2
   
Award
Favorite
Favorited
Unfavorite
Introduction
Some Memories of an old Fool..
UNLOVED is an especially difficult game, which by its design neither holds your hand or introduces anything to soften the steep difficulty curve. In fact, as you progress, the game will get exceedingly more difficult - making for more enemies as well as giving them an edge against you with certain abilities, 'Rotten' enemy counterparts, higher damage and bigger spawn amounts..

This game is a pain simulator. Make no mistake, it is designed to be unfair. UNLOVED gaslights, even confuses the most sane and most analytic of minds. However.. fear not! The Big Sharkowski and Potterman, together with many helpful souls from the community, has decided to extend the proverbial olive branch and give you, our dear Fool, some Hope where there is none. With some ancient knowledge and tips, you'll find that there is more depth to this game than what meets your eye. With strength and patience, you might see the end of the Longest Road..


This guide follows a step-by-step structure:
  • 1) The very basics for your first game - HUD, goal, monsters, items, weapons
  • 2) Trinket Menu, Heat, Weapon Mods & Totems
  • 3) Early progression - Rank 1, Rank 2, Rings*
  • 4) Mid progression - Rank 3, Demon Chests, Rubies
  • 5) Endgame - Rank 4.The Abyss. [TO DO]
  • 6) Some advanced tricks you might not know about

I would also like to thank Blue (the UNLOVED developer), who provided us with much of the information shown here and on the wiki, for the great support, and for making a truly awesome game that kept us busy for hundreds of hours.

Without waiting any further, let's get started!
How to Play [IMPORTANT]
Disclaimer: While you are free to select any settings, it is highly advised you follow the below settings for an optimal first time experience. This will help you learn better, pause the game and avoid distractions. Multiplayer is an integral part of UNLOVED and we fully encourage playing and working together. As you acquire basic gameplay information, you'll learn the many benefits of having teammates and also its' potency for chaotic gameplay.

If you wish to play online for your first time, it's recommended to host the game, not play as a client, to ensure that lagging, 'desyncs' or disconnections don't happen for you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starting your first game

Go to Play, then click New Game. Configure the following :
  • Max Players: Just Me
  • Difficulty: Sliver of Mercy
  • Location: Any (Apartments is a good pick.)
  • Area Size: Small or Medium
  • Game Mode: Ultra-Violence (Default way to play.)
  • Challenge: No Challenge
Finally, click on Start Game. You are now in your first game. This will be your first of many, many journeys..

Next up, we'll take a look at your HUD and explain what each element generally means.
The HUD
The picture below describes the different elements of your HUD.

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/102853135262942490/E35F2A61374D17DA4700AF954FEB93519A9A6EE1/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|256:*
  • 1 - This is the map. By default, it is oriented to the direction you're facing, but it can be changed in the Options to be static. It shows the rooms, as well as the positions of the other Players. Crosses indicate an impassable door.
  • 2 - Each slot corresponds to a red/blue/yellow key. You need to collect them to enter the rooms of the corresponding color.
  • 3 - The current Difficulty
  • 4 - This is your current objective. In UNLOVED, the objectives are as following..
    • I) Find the Blood Crest (in white rooms)
    • II) Find Moon Crest (in red rooms)
    • III) Find Sun Crest (in blue rooms)
    • IV) Activate the blood machines (in yellow rooms)
    • V) Elevator or "Green" tile. You start here.
  • 5 - These are your Side Objectives. If you progress them enough, you will get a bonus amount of Karma. They re-roll every time you start a new game.
  • 6 - This is the amount of Collectibles you have found; Ink Bottles, Photos and Silver Keys.
  • 7 - How many Card Pieces you have collected. Find all three of them (one in white, one in red, one in blue) you get an extra trinket at the end of the level. Changes behavior on higher difficulties.
  • 8 - Your weapons, with a bar indicating how much ammo is left, and red squares indicating how many Mods are attached to them.
  • 9 - The detail of the Mods for the current weapon
  • 10 - Ammo for the current weapon
  • 11 - Armor, Health, and Stamina. Health is your most important stat - if it reaches zero you die. Armor protects you from almost all instances of damage. Stamina is a resource to run faster and to use Melee, it regenerates over time.
  • 12 - The Totems you have found.
  • 13 - The chatbox. It's used for :
    • Messages from you and other Players
    • White messages, display useful information such as how much ammo you just picked
    • Yellow warnings, indicate an increased chance of getting a bigger horde on next interaction/pick-up.
    • Red warnings, indicates a spawn has triggered from an interaction/pick-up.
    • Purple messages, printed from you or other Players who are 'marking' objects or enemies.
    • And Death messages, indicating what killed who.

Gameplay Loop
The Gameplay Loop of UNLOVED

The main goal and win condition is rather simple: activate the 7 Blood Machines located in the Yellow Rooms and escape through the Elevator in the Green tile, the very same you started in. The game finishes and you win rewards if you manage to get out after using the Elevator Button.

When you start the game, you need to acquire the Crests to pass through the respective Crest-locked Doors..
The first Crest is the Blood Crest, then Moon and finally the Sun Crest, located respectively in White/Red/Blue rooms. This is always the same each time. You cannot find a Moon Crest in White Rooms.

The Area Size decides how many rooms there are. A Crest will be in one of them, so you must look carefully! Perhaps you simply missed a Wooden Door in a previous room you searched. If you play Large, you will have *two* Yellow Rooms to look for the Blood Machines. By using the minimap, you can 'rule out' if you've missed a tile. You cannot go through 'black' or 'chained up' doors, and if these are on any of the sides of a tile then looking at it will mark it with an 'X' on the minimap.

Not that complicated, yes?
Well.. Each Crest makes the game considerably harder, ramping the Heat up, UNLOVEDs mysterious and in-depth spawn mechanic, (see 'Heat' section for more info) where enemies will aggressively seek you out or roam the level. They have only one goal: putting you down for good. The enemies only spawn from your pickups and any doors you open, meaning you've far more control of the game than you might think..

As you traverse and explore rooms, you may find items to help you survive such as Totems and Weapon Mods. Extra supplies like ammunition, health, Armor and other Weapons. You can also find Collectibles such as Silver Keys, Photos and Ink. Silver Keys are used to open a box of Totem and later, Demon Chests.

Once you have siphoned your Health 7 times to the Blood Machines, the game will immediately unlock the Elevator Button and the text 'GET BACK TO THE ELEVATOR' will flash on the screen. The Players must now escape through the same way they came.
To win and end the game, you must reach the Elevator Button and press & hold it for 5 seconds. If you are playing online, then *all* Players must be close enough to the Elevator to be allowed to leave. If you die, you can be Revived by another Player if the lobby is allowing for more than 1 player. Leaving has consequences.

Death is often not the end in multiplayer. If you fall, the Resurrection Orb is spawned on the location you died at. Another Player can revive you by interacting with it for 5 seconds.
If you happen die next to the Elevator or inside of it, and your friends manage to end the game, you will still be rewarded in full. Leaving the game, solo or online, forfeits most rewards. Ink Bottles, Photos, Karma earned, Q and Trinkets earned through Card Piece completion is instantly awarded - whereas any Rubies, Trinkets, Demon Chests or Abyss Chests are gone forever.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did you win?

Good, lets talk about those Trinkets you've earned. This is a very important core of the game and progression..
Progression, Upgrading Trinkets, Equipment Slots
After your first win(s), you'll have Trinkets you can equip to become stronger. You will also have Karma, an essential currency that is used to upgrade Trinkets and unlock Memories.
Trinkets are the bread and butter towards reliably winning higher difficulties in UNLOVED and they are your main power components. In 'Trinkets' you will see a screen where you can equip any and all Trinkets you currently have. Any Trinket you have earned is visible in the respective "lane." (See below image for two trinkets in the Gloves slot, which is locked and costs -75 Karma to use)

If you for example earned an Evidence trinket, it will be in the Evidence slots' lane. The Evidence slot is always unlocked, but the other slots require Karma to unlock. You only need to do this once per slot. The cost for each Equipment Slot scales in Karma cost. Choose wisely.

Further below, we will explain how to Upgrade and Break Trinkets, but before that we want you to pay attention to this screen first, as it has one important feature to consider..


The "Random Trinket Button"
Let me tell you why you would bother with this feature. It costs -77 Fragments or 7% of your Fragments when you have a specific amount. Fragments are only given by breaking Trinkets and Ink Bottles. In early game, this is of coursea lot of Fragments, but It cannot be understated how good this thing can be for you. Here is what you can get from it and why you should care:
  • It can give Rank 1 or 2 Trinkets, fully leveled. Duplicates can give back good resources.
    And more importantly..
  • There is a 7% chance to get a random Ring, unlocking an insane wealth of power early..
Alright, back to basics..

Selecting Trinkets
Choose the slot you have a Trinket for, unlock it, then select the Trinket and press 'Equip'. You now have it in the respective Equipment Slot and it will always be with you for next Game. If you click the Trinkets, you can read about the stats they provide.

Type of slot and Trinkets
There are 10 slots, each will be very important for your survival odds. I will list each and explain briefly what they tend to do for you. An experienced Player will recognize most of these words, but 'utility' is a loose word I choose to use, meaning reload speed, max ammo, ammo pickup bonus, interaction speed/range and other less obvious stats like Ghost Reload.
"Sustain" refers to ammo, health and armor conservation, also alludes to 'Heat' management, something Kukri builds can excel at.

  • Evidence: Starting Weapon, governs weapon damage & utility or high sustain melee
  • Figurine: Core strengths, governs health/armor prot./movement/weapon damage, some utility
  • Gloves: Utility, governs stats to item pickups, interaction and weapons.
  • Case: Ammunition, governs max ammo, Ghost Reload, Armor Protection, Movement Speed.
  • (Weapon) Customization: bonuses and playstyle differences (eg. Magnum vs. Tactical Kit)
  • Ring: The heart of choices; governs almost ANY stat and even unique ones!
Now lets look at the other, equally important page..

Upgrading & Breaking Trinkets, "Trinket Manager"


Your Inventory holds all UNEQUIPPED Trinkets and Demon/Abyss Chests that you own.
If the Trinket does not appear here, you have to go back and 'Unequip' it.

To Upgrade or Break a Trinket, select it on the right, then click on "Fill Slot". You should now see two options: either Upgrade or Break Apart. Pressing Upgrade will consume Karma and Fragments to upgrade to the next Level. Here, upgrading would cost me 100 Karma and 18 Fragments. Pressing Break Apart will destroy the trinket, but provide you with Karma and Fragments in return. The values are based on the Rank and Level.

Once you've Upgraded and feel happy, go back to Trinkets and select your new shiny Trinket. You will notice that the border of these change depending on Rank and Level. Just remember that you must equip them to have effect. You can never upgrade a Trinket to another Rank, you must find them through winning or special conditions..

Need more Karma or Fragments?
For Fragments.. The Ink Bottles can be traded for +3 Fragments each. Extra Trinkets you don't need can also be broken for Karma and Fragments.

For Karma, you can use Photos to gain Karma in the Unlockables menu. Ink Bottles can also roll Color Schemes in 'Character' menu which can be sold for +5 Karma. For more information on Karma during gameplay and wins, check out the part further down.
Karma Rewards
How it is gained
Winning games award Karma based on a number of conditions related to which Game Mode, Area Size and Difficulty you play. Breaking Trinkets and unlocking Memories with Photos in the Unlockables menu are two other ways of gaining Karma. Interestingly, a large source of Karma tends to come from Trinkets awarded at higher difficulties rather than the Side and Area Size-based completion rewards. This is because higher difficulties have a higher chance to award Rank 2 Trinkets, which may be up to Level 3 already.

Here are a bit more details to better understand how Karma works and is awarded..

Side Objectives and their Karma factor
Each Side Objective grants an instant Karma reward when it reaches one level.

The formula is K_obj = olvl * 5 * (difficulty + 1) where olvl is the combined levels of your Side Objectives. olvl ranges from 0 (no progress) to 6 (max progress on both objectives).
Finally, difficulty is a number starting at 0, and increasing by 1 for each difficulty (No Hope is 1, Kill 'em' All is 2, etc..)


Example: A win on No Hope, Ultra-Violence, and 4 combined objective levels, grants 4 * 5 * 2 * 1.5 = 60 Karma from the secondary objectives. If you did not win, you would have had only 40 Karma. And if you had played on Arcade Style, you would have had only 30.

Area Size-based Karma factor
If you win, an additional Karma amount is applied based on the number of sizes your level had: K_size = rooms * 7 * (difficulty + 1) ; where rooms is the total number of rooms (including green room) of the map.
Game Modes & Challenges
This guide is primarily written for the standard Game Mode; Ultra-Violence (UV)

However.. there are other ways to play the game, each with its pros and cons, to spice up gameplay and even offer a different advantage or offer new ways to use trinkets. It is highly recommended to try them all, especially if you're feeling stuck!

Arcade Style (AS)
Pros:
  • Instant interactions on *everything*, go speed greed!
  • Item spawns are more frequent
  • Maximum Stamina is increased
  • Base enemy Health values reduced by -25%
  • Allows for some strategies and fastest wins unlike any other Game Mode

Cons:
  • You earn half as much Karma compared to Ultra-Violence
  • The base chance to find Demon Chests is reduced by -50% (does not affect Demon Card chance)
  • Enemy spawns occur more often from pickups/interactions, leading to an onslaught of forces..
  • Ruby drop rates are decreased by -25%
  • On Abyss difficulty, the number of required enemies to spawn an Abyss Wanderer is raised to ~49

Arcade Style is a popular choice, not just for a different experience but also for efficiently gaining trinkets, Rubies and even Demon Chests as you are unhindered by any stoppers with interaction speeds/buffers.. provided you do not linger for too long..

Classic Horror (CH)
Pros:
  • Monster counts are severely reduced and it takes more pickups to start spawns
  • Karma rewards doubled
  • Ruby drop rate is increased by 50%
  • On Abyss difficulty, the number of required enemies to spawn an Abyss Wanderer is decreased to ~16, meaning less enemy juggling...

Cons:
  • Enemy Damage raised by 250% used to be 300%..
  • Items spawn much less frequently. Survival horror fans, rejoice!
  • You move much slower (~-20% Movement Speed)
  • Area size increased; enforcing double Yellow Rooms (ex. UV 'Small' size is 7, CH is 11)
  • On Abyss difficulty, the lowered threshold also makes it easy to get Abyss Wanderers into the game, which can mean less setup time to prepare..

Classic Horror makes UNLOVED go far more into a 'survival horror' experience, reducing ammo and items in exchange for less enemies that deal more than twice the damage.

Among some veterans, it is deemed to be part of the hardest challenge possible in the game. If you seek maximum bragging rights, try to play this on Abyss difficulty and put on 'The Rotten Challenge'. Go ahead, I dare you.


Challenges
"As if this game wasn't challenging enough.."

UNLOVED offers Challenges that can change core parts of the gameplay. Generally speaking, playing any Challenge is deemed harder than playing without them, but there are exceptions. Trinkets can dictate what Challenges are harder or easier.

Challenges allow a currency called Rubies to spawn. These always have chance to drop when you kill an enemy of any kind. Rotten and higher tiers of enemies such as Witches have a higher chance to drop Rubies.

All Challenges have their own Maximum Ruby count allowance, modified by a Daily Ruby Modifier (ranging -25% up to +200%) and lastly by difficulty level. Higher difficulty means more Rubies can be acquired per game. Difficulty level also controls how many Rubies you get per pickup.

For example:
- Playing on Sliver of Mercy and choosing 'Pistol Only' allows for 5 Rubies, where each Ruby gives 1 Ruby.

- Playing on Kill 'em All on the same Challenge allows for 10 Rubies, where each Ruby gives 3 Rubies.

You can increase or decrease Ruby spawn chances such as..
  • filling Blood Machines (+0%-+70%)
  • Playing Classic Horror (+50%)
  • Playing Arcade Style (-25%)
  • Playing Challenges that only spawn higher tier enemies such as Faceless, Doctors or Clowns


    Below are a few Challenges we felt worth discussing.


    Quad Damage is quadrupling the damage enemies do to you, but also the damage you do to them.

    This implies that, assuming you don't take a single hit, you can tackle a higher difficulty than you were able to. Damage isn't much of a problem anymore - all enemies die in 1 hit, except the fatter ones that are likely to die in 2 shotgun hits.

    One con of Quad Damage is that it requires to specialize your loadout in a completely different way. You will spend Karma on equipment that might have been switched to other equipments in regular mode. Typically, you are likely to emphasize survivability a lot more over damage - so if you take your Quad oriented build in regular mode, you might find yourself not dealing enough damage.

    However if you would like to specialize in Quad challenges, you should look at maximizing Reload Speed (for decreasing reaction time), Armor Protection (gives you more damage reduction), Armor and Health pickup bonuses (easier time refilling the armor/health bars), Life Leech (to replenish health easier). You should also have a bit of damage bonuses of course - but the damage bonus provided by your weapon specific trinket should be enough, so that you can use your Figurine and/or Gloves for survivability.

    Heavy Weapon challenge
    This is another well known challenge.

    The pros:
    • With almost infinite ammo of Railgun and Nailgun, you are sure to have enough firepower to deal with whatever the game spawns at you

    The cons:
    • Railgun and Nailgun ammo is expensive (in terms of heat), so the game will spawn big stuff at you
    • To make proper use of that challenge, you should have good Nailgun/Railgun trinkets
    • The probability for DC is halved

    Despite the cons, even with a regular loadout, that challenge actually tends to make it easier to win a difficulty. In fact, before the DC probability got halved, people were playing this non-stop. It can help you reach difficulties you would not be able to win otherwise.
'Heat' - how to control pace and difficulty
I've already mentionned that Heat is created by picking up items. Let's detail it a bit more.

You can think of Heat like an air baloon. It gets inflated whenever you pick items - but the Unloved game master don't deflate it straight away. Instead, they keep their fingers on the extremity - or regulate the deflation.

The more you will step up in difficulty, the more unpredictable the deflations will be. Meaning the UNLOVED game master will love to retain the air so they can spawn stronger waves.. If you see a Red message appearing in the Chat, it means there's just been a major deflation, and you will face a big wave in the coming seconds.

The amount of generated heat depends on:
  • The type of item. A full box of ammo costs more than a few shells. Blood machines give a high heat (hence the big wave you have at the end).
  • The color of the room. An item in yellow room costs more than one in blue room. Yellow > Blue > Red > White = Green. A single door in a Blue room actually costs a lot, that's why you have the impression that the game throws more and more monsters at you as you advance through the game.
  • Items that are on the ground (dropped by monsters) cost less heat, afaik regardless of the room color.

So how do you minimize the amount of generated heat?
  • Don't take ammo for weapons you don't have. If you take for example all the Railgun ammos, but there is no Railgun in the map, you will have picked them for nothing.
  • Don't take twice the same weapon. For example, if you already have a Pistol, don't take another Pistol. It will only add you few pistol ammo for the heat cost of a Pistol. Such maneuver should only be in desperation, when you've got nothing else to take.
  • Prioritize taking the items on the ground dropped by enemies - they add less heat than the other items.
  • Avoid taking e.g. a full box of ammo when you miss only a few shells. That's a waste of heat.

There's also all the extras to take into account.. Photos, Ink Bottles, Card Pieces, they give you more rewards. Totems and Weapon Mods can help you in your run if you're feeling unlucky. But if you're already on the verge of dying.. Is it really worth to take more, only to get yourself killed?

There are two major points to consider in UNLOVED:
  • Should you explore another room? Say you already have Blue key, and there's still one Red room to explore. Should you do it? What would you gain from it? More health perhaps? Or Railgun? Or wouldn't it add too much heat in an already barely sustainable condition? Also, it would create new places for enemies to spawn in.
  • Should you really pick that 4th weapon? Or do you have enough with 3? Taking an Ink Bottle when you're at 10 health.. 3 more fragments, but perhaps at the cost of your game?

Heat is something unpredictable. You never know when the game is going to spawn the wave. Maybe taking the extra item won't do anything bad. Maybe it will unleash a deadly second wave after you barely defeated the first.

There is no optimal strategy there. But when you die, it's good to take a step back, and try to understand why you died, so that you can adjust your game later on. Generally, if a wave brought you down to 20 health, there's very little chance that you'll survive the next, so you'd better take survivability tactics.

If you feel confident in your health, armor and ammo you can continue exploring - but if you are barely alive, you should be very careful on what you pick, which door you open, where you go.. Particularly if you are the last member alive of your crew!
Weapon Mods and Totems
Weapon Mods and Totems in general make your game significantly easier. But they do generate heat - so should you take them or not? Here is a few things you should consider in order to determine whether you take them or not.

Weapon Mods
A weapon Mod will attach to a random weapon that you already have. Say you have a Shotgun, a Nailgun and a Railgun - then a weapon mod that you take will be attached randomly to your shotgun, nailgun or railgun (exclusive).

A weapon mod can add significant bonus to the weapon it's attached - it can be bring more ammo (ammo pouch), increase reload speed, increase damage, magazine size.. It can help you defeat monsters you have trouble with.

The downside is the heat that comes with it. When it's in White/Red it's quite subtle, but when it's in Blue/Yellow you start to feel it more. I'm redirecting you to the Heat section to know whether you should take it or not - but my general feelings about this is that it tends to make your games easier, despite the extra heat, because in the long term you can face bigger monsters with ease. Especially in multiplayer.

However, if you're running very low on ammo/health and feel like you can't take another wave, you might want to delay the time where you pick the Mod. Also, maybe there is little to no reason for you to take the mod, if you feel like you have enough firepower already.

When taking mods you should also consider that since it applies to a random weapon, the less weapons you have, the more control you have on where the mod will go. If you go through the game with just 3 weapons, these weapons will be more buffed than if you had the full 6 weapons.

Totems
Same remarks as weapon mods regarding the heat - except that totems are much more powerful, especially since a recent UNLOVED update.

You can read here the list of totems: http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=785296295
2023 UPDATE: the guide linked above has been taken down unfortunately. Hopefully what we wrote below still makes sense.

This list is (at the moment) not in phase with the UNLOVED update ; now totems that increase damage/max health/max armor scale with difficulty.

Let's suppose you get Marine Armor + Iron Helmet. This boosts your armor protection by 50%, meaning you will have 75% armor protection (instead of 25%)! While wearing armor, you will take 4 times less hit than usual. That's perhaps the best combo you can ever find in totems, but there's also some very nice effects in there.

Some other great effects:
  • Demon weapon_name: boosts the damage of the weapon by a lot. This can really turn the situation in your favor.
  • Ace of spades: boosts damage of all weapons - great to have
  • Gemini laser: basically doubles the amount of railgun ammo you have, since one railgun ammo is used for 2 lasers!
  • Amulet of Chaos: helps a lot to provoke infighting between enemies = more breathing room for you!
  • Angel: converts a random enemy to fight by your side.. If you get it on a Rotten Clown, well you couldn't dream of anything better!

My personal stance on them is that they're definitely useful - and really shine in multiplayer. But as for weapon mods, don't take them if you're already in a bad-almost-dying situation.

By the way, it should be noted that in multiplayer, each player gets a potentially different totem.
How to deal with specific monsters
I'll be detailing here what are all the possible monsters, and how to deal with them.

All the images are from UNLOVED wikia[unloved.wikia.com]

Salem Servant

The weakest enemy in the game. You should kill it before it takes a shot at you ; especially early on there tends to be a lot of them, and they can take down your armor/health pool bit by bit. They're very squishy though, so one shot does the trick usually. They're especially dangerous when you're at low health and busy fighting over monsters.. Stay alert!




Nurse

The Nurse appears weak - but she loves to stab you in the back. And you can lose quite a lot of Armor/Health in the process if you're not careful.. It's a good idea to be checking your back whenever you hear the noise of a Nurse.

Bloody Nurse is an augmented Nurse that can also shoot red fireballs at you. These two red fireballs (well, fireballs in general) are fine to dodge when there's only one fireball-monster, but when there are several of them, it can become more complicated. A good rule of thumb when you see a fireball monster is to either take him down ASAP or take cover.




Cutter

The Cutter behaves a bit like a nurse, but I find it "less vicious" than the Nurse. It shoots fireball, and like to corners you to prevent your movement while stabbing you.

The Dark Cutter (dark version) has a purple homing fireball. In order to avoid it, you need to make it crash into a wall. You will never be able to outrun any homing projectile in this game.

A good tactic is to hug the wall so that once it's gone past you, it won't come back, but crash into the wall instead.




Butcher

The Butcher is one of the least dangerous foes. It's very predictable. However, it's the first "HP bag" you will encounter, and it takes more hits than usual to kill him, so beware that it doesn't close your route.

The Bloody Butcher also shoots fireballs.




Clown
For some reason I can't upload the image. But it's there, and it's easily recognizable.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/unloved/images/b/b3/20160326234400_1.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160327072020

This one is going to be your worst enemy for a while. Imagine the viciousness of a Nurse, with a higher health pool than the Butcher, with an even more deadly homing missile than the Dark Cutter, and with a devastating melee? Well, here's the clown for you.

A clown should be regarded as a relatively dangerous threat. You need to take it down as fast as possible before it gets your health down.

His projectile can be avoided by hugging the wall - but his speed is quite high, so it's not evident to do in all situations. The "cha-cha" dance can help here - first, move towards him to proc his melee, and go back immediatley after so you don't get hit by the melee animation. You can also stun him with the shotgun right before he fires a missile, or you can use SMP for a more permanent stun. If you're a pistol user, it's slightly more complicated - you will need to burst him down and focus on avoiding his missile.

Doctor

This one acts a bit like a "moving wall". It forces you to relocate, and is annoying because it takes a lot of hit to take down, but his melee isn't all that strong (compared to some other tanks - it's still higher than say a Cutter's melee), and his fireball is easy to avoid.




Faceless

This is one of the most dangerous foes. He is a bit like a moving turret - as long as he doesn't fire you can move around him, but when he starts firing his fireballs you'd better be covered!

He launches 3 consecutive sets of 2 fireballs, making it very hard to dodge. You have to use what the Touhou fans call "streaming" to avoid them - move only slightly to avoid the first fireball but not hit the second, and avoid getting cornered. But it's way more secure if you're simply covered when he starts fireballing.

His fireballs deal a lot of damage, so the threat should not be taken lightly, and actually act like an Area Denial to prevent you from escaping.




Drowned Faceless

Like a Faceless, but this one doesn't shoot Fireballs. Instead, he is a massive HP bag, moves quite fast (faster than a Doctor), and his punches hurt so much!!!

He is one of the monsters that force you to relocate because you can't take him down before he and the others take you down. You should take him down as soon as you have the possibility before you're taken in sandwhich.




Witch

Remember when I told you the Clown would be your worst enemy? Well, forget it. That is your worst enemy.

A Witch inflict 100 damage bypassing any armor. Yes, as a lvl 1 character, that's pure death.

It goes without saying that you should consider them as the worst possible threat you can encounter in UNLOVED, and should take it down ASAP.

How it works: it casts a spell by staring at you. While staring at you, your screen gradually fades to black. If you're still in its line of sight when it's done casting, you take 100 damage. If not, its cast fails and it will usually run around to stare at you again.

It is fast at running, which makes it all the more scary. If it stares at you, don't ask yourself any question, just run until you're out of its sight. If you're currently defending a room, a good tactic is to stand in the doorway (all the while shooting at it) to prevent it from entering your room - then when it starts casting, get out of the doorway. If it isn't dead, repeat the process.

If he enters your room, you have to get out. If you can't get out, your last chance of survival is to burst him down as quickly as possible..
Rings
Rings belong to the special Equipment Slot.. Ring There are 24 Rings in total, all obtainable through two means; Random Trinket Button in Trinkets menu (7%) or Demon Chests (10%)

Rings always start at level 1 and do not affect your Level and max out at level 200. Rings require Rubies and Karma to upgrade.

Rings typically come with three positive stats where many of the 'categories' of Rings, eg. 'Demon', 'Light', 'Unholy' and 'King', comes with three variants.
Typically, two of the three variants will lean strongly for 2 of the stats and one is 'neutral', giving a balance of all 3 stats. An exception to this is Ring of Sacrifice, which has one positive and one negative stat.

To further make an example, let's look at the King category.

The 'Plated King Ring' favors higher Maximum Armor and Armor Pickups (max +315%), but less Pistol Damage (max +105%).
The neutral 'King Ring' will give +210% to all three stats for a balanced approach.
Finally, the 'Merciless King Ring' favors Pistol Damage (max +420%) but has far less Max. Armor and Pickups (max +105%)

The importance of having a Ring is extreme, becoming enormously helpful at early game and a necessity at late-game stages. The sooner a Player acquires a Ring, the better. Albeit all Rings in UNLOVED are viable, you should pick your Ring wisely. I encourage you to read the page on Rings on the UNLOVED Wikia[unloved.wikia.com] to get yourself an idea of what Ring you should invest in.


The cost of upgrading a Ring is arithmetic - lvl 2 costs 20 Karma and 1 Ruby, lvl 3 costs 40 Karma and 2 Rubies, and so on. A full table of cost is available on the above webpage.

To upgrade a Ruby from lvl 1 to lvl N, you need N * (N+1) / 2 rubies. The cost therefore grows quickly - so it's much more efficient to upgrade a Ruby from lvl 1 to 50, than it is to upgrade from lvl 150 to 200.

Leveling Rings and opening Demon Chests at the same time is very expensive, as you will be limited by Karma. It is recommended to get all max leveled Rank 3 trinkets before upgrading your Ring to lvl 200. The first 50-75 levels for a Ring is far more achievable and gives very strong benefits regardless of which Ring you pick.
How to avoid being overrun, and what to do when you are
In all your UNLOVED playtime, you will live at some point a situation where you're surrounded by all sides.. Monsters everywhere, you don't know what to dodge anymore, you take hits from everywhere, and then you do THE final mistake that make you die, with nowhere else to run..

The most typical overrun case encountered by newbies is when they are in the middle of two monsters lane.

Any monster who spawns will seek out the shortest route to you. Say monsters spawn in A and C, and you are in B, in a room map like this: A - B - C

The monsters in A will go to B. Those in C will go to B. You will be surrounded by both sides, which means you won't be able to backpedal and kite them effectively, so that will lead you to your only remaining choice: be a Chuck Norris, dodge everything and kill them all until they're all dead.

Spoiler: that doesn't work ;)

If such a situation arises, you need to crawl your way back to some defendable room. Typically, a room with only one entrypoint, so you can reduce their flow and manage them more effectively.

If you can't find any straight away, that's where the situation becomes complicated - you will have to go in reverse of the monster flow. The goal here isn't to kill them all, but to kill enough of them so you can actually move in-between them. Then you eventually find some defendable position. You usually get hurt while doing this, so it's not a recommendable situation..

So how to avoid these situations?
  • During the game: make sure you don't open any unnecessary doors. You want to have a "snake" pattern so that 1) monsters take a lot of time to reach you, and 2) you only get one flow of monsters, and can defend properly.
  • Right before the wave hits (so when you read the Red message): brace for impact. If you're in a big vast empty room, retreat to corridors where you'll be able to actually defend yourself.
  • Watch out your ammo!! There is nothing worst than being empty-ammo in the middle of a wave, since it forces you to relocate, losing health in the process.

Oh by the way, did I mention sprint-running? That's like bunny hopping - you press Shift to sprint, then you immediately press jump and release Shift. Your character will keep its inertia, allowing you to travel at running speed without (or barely) consuming your Stamina bar. Very effective!

Crouch jumping can also be used to get on top of otherwise unreachable places, or just get away entirely through a window. This gif is courtesy of zenon
Multiplayer survivability
When you're in solo, you're in control of the heat, and you can play the game at your own pace. When you're in multiplayer, other players accumulate heat too.

Joining a game where you have difficulty surviving is fine. However, if you have difficulty surviving, really try to stick close to your partners. When you see you're about to die or get surrounded, make a run to reach your partners. Or if you can't, die in a small defendable room so that your partners will be able to relocate towards your location and rescue you.

Do not die while jumping or crouching! It's much harder to resurrect you because others can't "stick their heads" in the resurrection sphere, and have to aim either downwards of upwards which is extremely unconfortable

A lot of party wipes in multiplayer happen because players are scattered around. Sticking together is surviving!

Now that this is said, a good coordinated multiplayer game could consist of the following possible strategies:
  • All scatter - the most common among newbies. Each player is on his own, exploring and dealing damage to the monsters as they encounter it. This is fine to have when there's little to no monster around, or when each player can handle himself just fine.
  • All defend - the opposite of All Scatter. Players stick together at all costs and clear out monsters. During a big wave, that's what your configuration should be. Best chance of survivability
  • Explorer + Clearer - one explores while the other one clears monsters in the vicinity of the Explorer. That's a very good configuration to have when it's in-between a massive wave and no monster. The Explorer can focus on exploring, while the clearer assures its back

It's a good idea to stay within proximity of each others regardless (say 1-2 rooms away from each others max) - unless you know what you're doing. That way, if others need help, you can come help them quickly without having to go through a ton of enemies as you try to cross the map.

As for when you're overrun, you have different possibilities:
  • Make a stand - stay where you are and defend the room. It's good if you have enough ammo. As soon as monsters start filling out the room, you have to change your strat ASAP
  • RUSH B - you all make a run together towards another defendable position, killing monsters in your path. That's usually the best strat to adopt if you're being overrun in the room you were defending. That's also a valid strategy to make a run for Green Room right when you filled all the blood machines.
  • Everyone run - that's a bit of a panic strat, but sometimes you have to scatter yourselves in order to split the monster queue, and that one of you manages to recover. Most of the time that's what happens, because chaos can very easily instaure itself in a multiplayer UNLOVED game.

You shouldn't keep on exploring if one of the players died. Because whatever killed him, you're next - and if you're the only one left alive, if you die it's game over. Resurrecting dead players should be at the upmost priority.
Exception: if you've already filled the blood machines, and all the dead players are in Green Room. You can just attempt a rush to the elevator and end it..

How to resurrect effectively?

There's a tactic to resurrect a player effectively. With this tactic, while waiting the 5 seconds, you can also shoot at monsters, making the task way easier. For this to work, you need to literally stick your head inside the blue resurrection sphere. Use Crouch command so that your heat is at the right level ;) when it's inside, you'll be able to activate the sphere and face whatever direction to shoot at the same time!

Pro tip: try not to jump while dying. There's nothing harder to revive than someone who died in the middle of the jump, since you have then to aim upwards..
Beware the Rotten!
While farming for Rank 2 you should be starting to encounter Rotten monsters.

These are much stronger equivalent of the monsters you're facing. They are very deadly, and are your "next level" of "worst foes".

Rotten Servant
Still squishy. But can take you down very easily with his pistol!

Where the Servant fires a weak shot occasionally at you, this one will fire his pistol in a succession of 3 deadly shots that will take out a lot of health from you. Take him down before he takes you down!




Rotten Cutter & Nurse

These are not very dangerous (compared to the other Rotten) - they are predictable, and their fireballs are easy to dodge. However, they take more hits to take down than regular Cutters/Nurses, so don't let your guard down.



Rotten Butcher

The Rotten Butcher is a predictable but dangerous foe. It takes a lot of hit to take him down - but the worst is his homing missiles. It fires a salvo of 4-5 homing missiles that slowly come towards you. There is no way you can dodge them by wall hugging because their speed is slow, meaning you really have to make a wall stand between you and them (or any other obstacle).




Rotten Doctor
This one is a lot more dangerous than the Doctor. He has more health, and fires 3 fireballs instead of 1 (a bit like the Faceless). His melee is insane as well..

Just keep kiting him until he dies. If he's alone he's not much of a threat - when there's other folks around, he's more of a problem though. Avoid getting hit by his fireballs because it really hurts.




Rotten Faceless
This is just a Faceless on steroids. It's the same than a Faceless, except that it has way more health, and his fireballs deal even more damage.. Stay cautious.

He also fires 3 waves instead of just 2 compared to the non-rotten version : 3 fireballs, then 2 fireballs, then 3 fireballs

In terms of dangerousity, it's like a Rotten Doctor but with more fireballs. So same tactic - kite him and stay calm. He tends to fire his fireballs more often than the Rotten Doctor too.

Rotten Clown

You will die against that one.

He is one of the two most dangerous foes of UNLOVED. He is fast, has an even more devastating melee with a very high attack speed (don't even think of cha-cha'ing with him), and he fires not one but TWO devastating and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fast homing missiles. Wall hugging, as always.. But against that speed, it can only save you that far. Oh, and it has a lot of HP too.

When you have strong trinkets you can burst him down. With R2 or low level R3 it's another story.

When he appears, you need to focus on him before he decimates you all. Railgun is very useful against him - and you should always be keeping a few Railgun rounds with you in case he appears. Usually 2-3 Railgun shots do the trick.

What I do usually for bursting him:
  • Railgun shot, followed by..
  • Full shotgun shot, followed by..
  • Pistol/SMP Burst

If he's not down after all that, reload railgun and shoot at him again.

If you only have your primaries when you face him, keep calm. It is actually possible to defeat him without taking a single hit - but you need to not make any mistake, and stand ready to avoid his homing missiles at all time.

It should be noted that SMP and Shotgun (not sure about pistol) can stagger your enemy ; the Rotten Clown is no exception, and a double shotgun shot can stagger him. The trick is then to wait until he is about to fire the missiles, and stagger him to reset his cast. With SMP you can burst him and try to paralize him. In multiplayer it's really useful because the others can then take him down while you're staggering him. In solo you can use the stagger time to find a proper cover.

You should be prepared to face at least one Rotten Clown per Unearthly game. In Beast mode, he is more rare, and spawns mostly because of heavy heat.

Rotten Witch

I think this one is the most dangerous foe. One mistake and you just die.

He works the same way as the Witch, but with way more HP (so any Burst is useless against him), and he kills you (does infinite health damage).

The danger with him (compared to rotten clown) is that you don't see the death coming. You think you're all safe and you're gonna handle him all right, but then you do the mistake, he enters the room, you get cornered, and game over.

All cheap tactics are good to stay out of its sight in desperate situation. Including hiding behind the table (crouching).

The strategy to take it down is the same than with the witch - stand in the doorway and shoot, then retreat, and repeat until it is dead.
=== Milestone I - Rank 1 lvl 5 trinkets ===
The trinkets are divided into three ranks:
  • Rank 1 are the most common trinkets and the least expensive to upgrade. You should start with them

  • Rank 2 are more rare, and cost a lot to upgrade. You should only care about them once you completed Step 1

  • Rank 3 are trinkets that are only obtainable by Demon Chests, and cost way more than Rank 2 to upgrade. More details on that later! ;)

  • Rank 4 are the latest addition, and are exclusive to the Abyss difficulty. This is very endgame stuff and isn't covered yet here.

So now that you've completed your first game, you are good to go on your way to grind more! You have to play more and more games until you get a complete set of lvl 5 rank 1 trinkets, upgrading them one at a time.

A few guidelines :
  • The game does not care how much time you spend in a game - you will receive the rewards (trinkets and karma) regardless. Generally, this means you are much better off joining other people's games rather than playing on your own. Besides, games are completed much quicker when there are 4 people, so don't hesitate to join others and group up!

  • Read the guide How not to be a liability in Multiplayer, which contains very useful advices. In particular, try to follow the host's way of picking items. If the host asks you to not take any weapon mod/totem then don't take any.

  • Unlock slots as you deem necessary. For the order of the slot unlocking and trinket upgrading, I recommend :
    • First, the figurine. It provides significant bonuses.
    • Then, you should start upgrading your favorite weapon slot. It's important to maximize damage in this game.
    • Then it's all up to you really. Depends on what you prefer, and on what trinket you currently have. I have found that the Rank 1 starter weapon trinkets are not that important to upgrade as they do not increase damage - just equipping the one corresponding to your favorite starter weapon is enough.
    • You might start to get Rank 2 trinkets: feel free to upgrade these already if you found a very good one, even if you do not have an armada of Rank 1 level 5 yet. You will find that the bonuses provided by Rank 2 are much more powerful, yet cost a lot more to upgrade..

  • Don't forget to hunt for the Card Pieces. It's really worth the time - if you play on Small, it grants you 3 trinkets instead of 2! Remember, there is one in each room color.

  • Keep steady, rushing will only get you killed. Rush when you're confident enough in the game.

  • About the difficulty, play either on Sliver of Mercy or No Hope. No Hope is definitely winnable even on lvl 1 and gives more rewards, but Mercy is easier. Choose your difficulty depending on what you feel comfortable with!

  • Size of the map: I personally find Small maps to be more efficient - you complete them fast, you get the card pieces = 3 trinkets, and if you manage to complete both of your secondary objectives you get a decent amount of Karma. Bigger maps award more karma and trinkets, but dying after 30 minutes of playing can be frustrating. Huge maps are much harder to win than Small maps too: you are much further away from the Green room, you have two Yellow rooms to activate instead of just one and you tend to have bigger hordes too over time.

One last important thing when joining a game:

Pay attention to the difficulty you're joining! If you join e.g. an Unearthly game, two things will happen
  • You will spend your time dying and dying because you simply won't have the trinkets for it.
  • You won't deal enough damage, and spend your time picking more and more ammo - which will actually make the run a lot harder for the other players because of the extra monsters.

A good rule of thumb is that if you can solo the Nth difficulty (for ex. No Hope), then you can join up to difficulty N+1 (so here, Kill'Em'All). If you join higher than that, ask the host if it's ok for you to pick ammo/health/armor, or if he prefers that you stay low. If you stay at all times in the green room, you won't impede the game at all since your body will be there when they rush to the end (games can be completed even if people are dead, just as long as their bodies are in the green room). But you may not find it super fun to be carried without doing anything.
=== Milestone II - Rank 2 lvl 5 items ===
Once you got your complete set of Rank 1 items, you can start playing in the bigger leagues !

Try the higher difficulties. The higher the difficulty is, the more chance you have to get a Rank 2 item in return (and also you get a lot more Karma on higher difficulties).

It's all up to you to choose "a good difficulty" depending on how good you are at the game, and how advanced your trinkets are. You can even start chasing Demon Chests once you got a few Rank 2 with you..

That's perhaps the most boring part of the game (as of September 2017) because games start to become hard, and you're not strong enough for Demon Chest hunting yet. But don't give up, and don't hesitate to ask people in the UNLOVED Discord (link at the bottom of the guide) to help you out ;-)
=== Milestone III - Hunting for Demon Chests! ===
(credits to Unloved wikia for the image)

This is a Demon Chest. Just like a Totem, it requires a silver key to open. However, instead of giving you a bonus, it gives you a random Rank 3 trinket.. provided you manage to get out of here alive!

Demon Chests only spawn on Time to Die, Beast, Unearthly and Abyss difficulties. Time to Die has maximum 1 demon chest, while Beast, Unearthly and Abyss got 2 maximum. Depending on your luck, you might not find any demon chest - it's all random.

More precisely, it depends on the size of the area. The bigger it is, the more chance you have to find one (or two). Each DC has an individual spawn chance of 25%/50%/75%/100% if you play on respectively Small/Medium/Large/Huge.

It also depends on some specific modes - Heavy Weapon reduces the individual DC spawn chance by 33%, and Arcade mode reduces it by 50%.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14m3xKKLlppuwIV_veyXuFng1OTcHE7LytLmMxvOy1rg/edit#gid=0

They spawn a massive amount of heat when opened. So you should be very careful with them. I detail in the next section the various strat that exists when it comes down to opening them.

When you have a Demon Chest, you can either :
  • Break it, which awards you with a non negligible 1764 Karma and 324 Fragments !

  • Or open it. You spend 999 Karma, and get a Rank 3 trinket with a level between 1 and 7.

A Rank 2 lvl 5 trinket is much better than most of the Rank 3 of level inferior of 3. If you're lucky enough to get a Rank 3 lvl 7 trinket, it's by far worthier than any Rank 2. However, this will happen maybe 1 time out of 10. On the other hand, breaking a single DC allows you to gain roughly 2 levels on any Rank 2.

Whether you wanna break or try your luck is up to you. Personally, I preferred going the "steady" way and get a full set of Rank 2 lvl 5 trinkets by breaking Demon Chests. I then became more powerful and was able to farm them better.

Sometimes a Demon Chest will contain a Ring - more details about it in a further section.

It should be noted that on Beast, Unearthly and Abyss mode, picking all card pieces grant you 20% chance to get an additional DC!
Opening Demon Chests
There is a good question that arises when you encounter a Demon Chest. When should you open it? It all depends on your situation, and on the location of your Demon Chest..

  • Case 1 - the Demon Chest is close to the exit. Or it's between Yellow and Green room, meaning you can take it on your way back while you're making a run for the exit. In that case, avoid yourself the extra heat and open it after the blood machines. You won't even feel the extra heat, since you won't give the monsters enough time to spawn.
  • Case 2 - the Demon Chest is far away on an isolated room. That's a debatable situation..
    • Tactic 1 - Open it straight away. The good - once you make it out of yellow, you can just go to green and leave. The bad - you will be facing a non negligible amount of heat, making your run harder, especially if you are unprepared to handle it. (to give an idea, I once saw in Beast mode 3 rotten clowns spawn after a Demon Chest got opened)
    • Tactic 2 - leave it for the end. The good - the objectives will be more manageable. The bad - if you're getting overrun after having filled the Blood Machines, if you want to acquire that Demon Chest, you have to go open it while being overrun.

It also depends on the number of Demon Chests in the map! If there's only 1 DC, you can open it at the end. But if there are now 2 DCs.. Are you sure you would be able to open them one after the other, without having to face the extra wave?

In multiplayer, it should be noted that when you open a DC, only those that are present when you open it will receive the trinket. Some people prefer to leave the DCs at the end so that if you join them you get a free DC ;) I do that myself most of the time ; but there's sometimes situations where I feel like it could cost me the game to not open it straight away.

Either way, the decision is up to you. Balance the risks, and make up your mind! If you are not the host, ask whether it's ok or not to open it. The host is the one in charge - and you can actually throw up the game without knowing it by opening a DC too soon.
Ruby farming
You can farm rubies only by doing one of the available challenges. Based on which day it is, some challenges provide more or less rubies - from 50% up to 200%. When you take a ruby, the actual amount of rubies you get is multiplied by the "difficulty" modifier: 1 for Sliver of Mercy, 2 for No Hope, 3 for Kill'em'all, etc..

Rubies are spawned by monsters randomly when they die. Unlike a normal game where you want to minimize heat to spawn as least monsters as possible, if you want to reach the Max amount of rubies, you will have to get some Heat at some point so monsters can spawn and you can take their rubies.

Usually the best setting to do that is on AS mode - because interaction time is 0, so you have a lot easier time picking Rubies and resurrecting others. But then it makes it less prone to DC farming because of the reduced chance you have in AS games (DC games are better done on UV).

I've noticed several possible strategies in my games.
  • Rambo mode. Pick every Mods/Totems, let them spawn and kill'em, picking their rubies in the process! It's a good tactic if you're very confident in your ability to complete your run; and you feel badass while doing it ;p
  • Safe mode. Don't pick any Mod/Totem, complete the blood machines with minimal heat as you would do in UV. Let the Rubies stay where they are. Then, go for a Ruby run (grab them as fast as you can), and head for Green room. Survive for as long as you can, and get out when it starts to become impossible to survive.

In any case, Ruby games need you to be aware at all time of your chance of survivability, and possibly moderate your rate of picking Rubies. So you've barely gotten out of last wave alive.. Do you really want to pick more rubies?

Using the "safe" strat, it's possible to solo most of the challenges on Unearthly and get a significant portion of the max amount of Rubies. Even if you're not a godtier player it's doable (given you have a good enough Trinket set of course ;) if you can barely beat Unearthly, don't even think of Ruby farming it!)

If you don't feel confident in playing an Unearthly challenge, but still need Rubies, you can still play lower difficulties. They will give you less rubies though, and also less Karma.

If you play in Multiplayer, you have a lot more manoeuverability - especially in AS with the instant revive. A good rule of thumb is that as long as one player has full health+armor it's fine to go on farming. But whenever both of you have low health, you should consider ending your run before you get a wipe.
~~~ A couple of more tricks ~~~
Weapons
  • Pistol/SMG/Shotgun: the basic weapon of the game. You have to find the one that suits you the best, each one of them is able to take out small monsters as well as big monsters. With experience, you should find by yourself which weapon should be used in what situation.

  • Nailgun: It works really good against trash mobs (one nail = 1 kill), and it's the best weapon to deal with crowded rooms. Without any upgrade, the base Nailgun can penetrate up to 4 enemies before running out of energy. Against fat mobs, in my opinion you will only waste precious ammunition on them - but if you can align 2 or more fat mobs it may be worth the nail.

  • Railgun: Ideally, you want to keep it for fat mobs. It deals a huge amount of damage very fast. The secondary fire is of great use when you're surrounded or in panic. Just shoot a few burst and you should gain some breathing space. Having a Railgun can significantly increase your chances to win!

Marking monsters
You can "highlight" monsters and items, allowing you to show them to your mates, but also to keep track of them !


On this example, I got a Clown chasing me. It's a dangerous creature, so I highlighted him in order to know better his position.
(note: i screwed up the screenshot somehow - there is supposed to be a red aura around the clown. I will fix that soon)

The default hotkey for Highlighting is not very accessible. Personally, I have remapped it to Q. You can also use it to point out ammo/health/armor/demon chests to other players.

Random tips
  • Be careful when using Melee when you join another game. The lag is very badly handled when it comes to the melee weapon - you can't swing multiple times, and the impact of the blade is delayed in laggy games. If you are a Kukri specialist, consider switching to another Trinket when joining. Unless you know what you're doing ;)

  • Shift Jumping allow you to go fast while spending as little stamina as possible! Just press Shift, then jump and release. Since the jump keeps the inertia, Shift Jumping allows you to go as fast as just Shift, but without the Stamina consumption. It even gives some kind of dynamicity to the game :) Beware though, it does not work on low ceilings or in ascending stairs.

  • If you got a Railgun when rushing to the elevator, it's easy to finish the game! Just press the Elevator button and the Secondary fire at the same time. The bullets will ricochet to the elevator's cage and hit whoever is attacking you.
~~~ Further Readings ~~~
UNLOVED wikia, containing useful information: http://unloved.wikia.com/wiki/UNLOVED_Wikia

How not to be a liability in Multiplayer: http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=774688024
Bestiary, with pictures! http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=693172191
List of totem effects: http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=785296295
Hiding places in UNLOVED: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1370508629

It's not a reading, but it's a very friendly UNLOVED Discord community :-) https://discord.gg/Xk6hYyd
=== That's it folks ! ===
Thanks for reading the guide, and good luck for your adventure in UNLOVED!

Feel free to add me if you want some help with Demon Chests :-)

Also, feel free to ask questions below, or to add any remark regarding this guide!

Bonus: Solo Unearthly run of mine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0zMnOv_De4
87 Comments
Ken Takakura 15 Jan @ 3:01pm 
Thank you man! much love
Big fish  [author] 28 Dec, 2024 @ 5:27am 
Heya! Glad to hear. I've been meaning to rewrite the guide since December when I started touching up some of the first chapters, but I've procrastinated hard. It's definitely in need of some extra sections and updates, not least because of Abyss! Out of all things, Abyss will be trickiest - since it's a strange part of the progression curve and an enormously challenging/obfuscated one at that, but I figure *any* advice is better than none for it.
Sir Edward 27 Dec, 2024 @ 6:40am 
He, love your guide, would love to see an update to this.
Big fish  [author] 16 Dec, 2024 @ 9:08am 
@potterman
Echoing some old patch notes.. Yes, both difficulties!

--------Patch 1.11b--------
You can now find up to 3 Demon Chests on Unearthly and Abyss difficulty. They have a 33% chance to spawn as a Ruby Chest.
potterman28wxcv  [author] 16 Dec, 2024 @ 1:21am 
[quote]On top of that, Ruby Chests have a 33% chance to spawn over a Demon Chest in Unearthly..[/quote]
Actually I never took this into account in my spreadsheets. Do you know if it's just Unearthly or also Abyss?
Big fish  [author] 14 Dec, 2024 @ 6:37am 
Yeah there was an update along the way some years ago that basically increased DCs and also introduced them to spawn as early as Time to Die difficulty! On top of that, Ruby Chests have a 33% chance to spawn over a Demon Chest in Unearthly.. so the chances get a little funny.
InsanityCat 14 Dec, 2024 @ 6:23am 
Ahh, I see. So 3 DCs is just possible now. All the previous spreadsheets I looked at all said 2 DCs were max so I got confused.
Thanks!
Big fish  [author] 14 Dec, 2024 @ 3:41am 
@InsanityCat

Hey! I will direct you to this thread as it was aptly timed for your question. There's a link there and some more context about challenges vs. Demon Chest. Generally, all you need to know is that Heavy Weapons Challenge and Arcade Style halves the base chance and they can stack. Lights Out is not affected, but is definitely an easy one to miss items / doors in, so props to you for finding that! Shame about the Rotten Witch, though not unexpected given the difficulty and the amount of chests.. :cozycastondeath::heptagram:
InsanityCat 13 Dec, 2024 @ 8:02pm 
Hey! Is there anything you know about Lights Out demon chest chances? I was playing Unearthly SMALL map and saw 3 demon chests on Lights Out! Ended up with 4 from the card pieces but majorly fumbled it when a Rotten Witch instant'd me.
potterman28wxcv  [author] 16 Nov, 2023 @ 2:31am 
Thank you for the notice. Too bad the guide has been taken down. Perhaps we should try to see if it still exists on the internet archive and either link it or republish the guide with the copied text.