Dungeon Encounters Catch-All

Dungeon Encounters (Switch, PS4, PC) is a minimalistic RPG released by Square-Enix.

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—-
“He weighs a ton! We have to leave him here.”

Maynasar adjusted her glasses. Lhaulagi was right, they had to leave Nanga in the middle of the dungeon. The party had thought the healing fountain offered some safety from the endless monsters, but a petrification spell from a Sculpture had taught them otherwise. If there were creatures like that so close to the surface, what other horrors lay in the floors below? Even worse, Nanga had been their leader, although honestly that was a choice made before they knew much about this place.

Maynasar checked her compendium she had picked up from the Academy. “It looks like there is an experienced adventurer a few floors up. Let’s see if we can find him before we explore further. There has to be a way of reversing the spell deeper in the dungeon.”

“Not likely” growled Elva. The beastman rarely talked, but when he did the discussion was over.

***

Maynasar examined the new ability they had found. “Valiant Strength” sounded good, but the devil was in the details. The strength only flowed when a person walked these halls alone, and who would be fool enough to do that?

“I think I found something” shouted Lhaulagi. Rodovich nodded by her side. The old man had been quite eager to help once he was rescued and honestly he had grown more powerful than poor old Nanga had ever been. Lhaulagi hardly noticed him. Her obsessive search for her brother drove her to examine every path in the labyrinth, but it occasionally resulted in useful information. “Looks like a statue.”

Maynasar examined it closely. It was some sort of altar, but at its base were three dials labelled “X, Y, Z” and at the top of the altar there was the head of a Gorgan.

Rodivutch offered “Gorgans turn people into stone. Fought one once. I’ll have to tell you that story some time.” Yes, thought Maynasar, we all know the tales. Perhaps though, this statute could be of use. She consulted her compendium and looked up the coordinates where they left Nanga. After dialing them in and pressing a button, the statute intoned:

“Petrification reversed.”

Maynasar looked again at her compendium and true enough Nanga was no longer listed as petrified. She told the party and added “I think we should go back to rescue him.”

“No room,” snarled the beastman. Elva was right. For some reason, no party larger than four could traverse the maze. To rescue Nanga meant to leave someone behind.

“I am not willing to leave another soul to wander this place alone. We must do something.” Lhauliagi's argument startled Maynasar. Perhaps her obsession was not all consuming. Rodovich nodded. Well there was only one option - head back to the surface seven floors up and send a smaller team.

***

“I’m going alone.”

Elva’s insistence surprised them all. Until then, he had been content in the back lines, swinging his broadsword and occasionally grabbing a wandering Ghost and squishing it in his paws.

Maynasar armed him with the party’s best weapons and armor, including a recently acquired crossbow. It was an indulgence since the party’s other crossbow had been recently disintegrated by a Destroyer. She was curious to see how well the “Valiant Strength” ability would work, but this seemed like a foolhardy way to test it.

Once Elva had left, Lhaulagi asked “What if he’s knocked out? What happens then?”

“I suppose I will be able to read it in my compendium.”

“Two people to rescue,” said Rodovich. “It would make a fine story.”

A few hours later, Elva quietly carried Nanga into the Academy, and sat in the corner. The jubilance of the party was soon overshadowed by an obvious fact: Nanga was not the man he once was. Perhaps he could lead another party, following in their footsteps, but he no longer would be able to blaze the trail.

“Let’s go.” Elva stood up and walked out the door. Maynasar, Lhauliagi, and Rodovich followed. The dungeon awaited.

MAYNASAR!

This is wonderful.

Thank you for making this thread. How deep are you?

Spoiler:

Talks are in the works for a Dungeon Encounters Build Block

I am currently exploring floor 13.

I just found an ability to avoid being consumed. Being consumed seems bad, so I hastily equipped it.

It’s not the worst.

Oh, you are in for some treats!

I found a new party member, but she was petrified.

I cured the petrification.

She was better than one of my current party members.

I swapped them out, and left my old party member without any equipment.

I'm sure they will be fine.

Who did you find?

I think I'm on level 26 or so. Need to get back to this as I've been absolutely enjoying it. There's a lot of grind and the encounters aren't always terribly interesting, but they all do have the potential to be deadly so you have to pay attention. I've found the item system interesting too, and it's interesting how your characters are largely blank slates but based on the gear I've been giving them they have kind of formed personalities in my mind. It's hard to exactly put my finger on what I find so compelling, but there's just enough in each system combined with the difficulty always feeling like its on a knife's edge that keeps me engaged.

Haven't found any new party members yet, but not for lack of trying!

My main complaint is that I need to start taking notes Knowing where healing, resurrection and status effect curing spaces are is essential and I find it difficult to know how far I am from one of those, especially if I take a break from the game for a bit.

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

Who did you find?

I found Nalpurna, who seems to be tough as nails, based on her backstory. RIght now I'm running Elva, Maynasar, Lhaulagi and Nalpurna, and I'm on floor 23. Once I find hte next two way teleporter, I'll probably pick up another party member I missed and save Ilbertha from her fate. It also looks like a dog with a sword is in my future.

Ooh - I don't think I found her! I'm in the 50's rolling with Elva, Maynasar (who seems good at everything?), the Katana guy, and Modenali.

sh*t.

sh*t.

sh*t.

I just had a total party wipe on floor 23.

sh*t.

Spoiler:

I knew it was a high level encounter, but it was in my way and I figured I could flee. It was a f*cking black hole. Its first attack killed 3 of my party. The second attack threw Nalpurna into some random part of the dungeon.

sh*t.

A similar thing happened to me - though it was a ninja in the teens. The rescue mission was tense as heck!

Rodovich nodded his head. He always got the crap jobs. Last time, he led a rescue mission to find a young child wandering in the labyrinth. The academy had pressed guns into their hands and not much more. They did make short work of the fiends in the shallow levels, and although the rescue mission was a success it was clear that Rodovich would always be second fiddle to the fitter members of the Academy.

“Three knocked out and one wandering the maze? Alright, get me my crew and some guns.” No dice. In order to rescue the dead, he had to go alone. No more than four at a time - who made that hellish rule?

Radovich had learned much in the past few weeks. First, if you entered a floor and it looked dangerous, simply leaving and reentering would change the scenario. While the map stayed the same, the fields appeared at random spots. Also, the Academy had recently acquired a power to jump over a square, whether filled or empty, which would allow him to take shortcuts and bypass monsters. On his way, he noted a healing fountain and a resurrection shrine, and by carefully avoiding all battles, he made his way to the bodies of Elva, Lhaulagi and Maynasar. Well, they had rescued him, so it was time to return the favor.

After they had recovered, the rest of the party did not want to return to the Academy, but instead they decided to search for their missing member. Radovich had a difficult time in the battles, but he knew himself to be a fast learner even for someone his age. As the combat got easier , It almost seemed like old times. Finally the party found Nalpuna, sitting injured in a corner of floor 23.

“Only four.” Elva intoned.

Radovich watched them leave and waited for another rescue. Always the crap jobs.

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

A similar thing happened to me - though it was a ninja in the teens. The rescue mission was tense as heck!

Cross-posting (somewhat) from the Front Page thread:

I've got a B-team rescue mission in my future. For some reason I'm being stubborn about walking back up to town to rest and buy new gear, and I think it didn't help any that I recently found the Lesser Descension ability (floor 5?). Surely, I thought, there must be a Lesser Ascension around here somewhere. I'll just press on until I find it. Welp, on floor 6 one of my guys (Elva) got turned to stone. Can I strip him of his gear and continue on? I can? Excellent. What's that, you say, mages with multi-target magic on floor 7, with a reflective barrier on? That's ... not what my 3 remaining members were equipped to handle.

They're dead on 7, and I just know I'm going to have to find them, then bring them one- or two-at-a-time to a shrine. I'm dreading it, but I'm also loving that the game just kicked my ass like this. Never get greedy!

One thing I've found is that this game will hit you with whammies but it always as a solution relatively close at hand. It also does the opposite. For example, the powers are also lots of fun as you keep going, it does that thing where some thing feel OP but then they hit you with something that challenges it.

Spoiler:

I was wondering why there was an enemy type that just did 1 HP damage to everyone until I suddenly understood what it is meant to counter.

Quick question for the group: I just got to the point of reaching and rescuing my A team. Let's say I want to keep exploring without going back up to town (i.e., leave my B team on floor 7) but my party wipes again in the future. Can I reconstitute my party with people who are in the dungeon? Or, do I have to start over from town? I'm not sure if I have anyone in town and definitely don't have a full party's worth.

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

One thing I've found is that this game will hit you with whammies but it always as a solution relatively close at hand. It also does the opposite. For example, the powers are also lots of fun as you keep going, it does that thing where some thing feel OP but then they hit you with something that challenges it.

Spoiler:

I was wondering why there was an enemy type that just did 1 HP damage to everyone until I suddenly understood what it is meant to counter.

True to form, when I found my A team I also discovered that there were healing and resurrection shrines right next to their KOed bodies. A welcome surprise, but also, oof.

You always have to start from the town. That said, level 7 isn't that deep, especially with some of the powers you'll find soon. You could always leave three people there and have one person go and pick them up on the way to a rescue. Plus you have "C" and "D" teams available, so it isn't a big deal.

Personally, for my piece of mind, I always put everyone back in the adventurer's guild when I'm done with them. But that's cause I'm bad at taking and keeping organized notes! (Most of my recent phone photos are random screenshots of map puzzles and locations I want to revisit lol.)

I believe the only way to lose the game is to have a party wipe and no one in town. That said, eventually you get abilities that make sending out one person to rescue folks a lot easier. For peace of mind, I would try to have as many in town as possible, but I am guilty of leaving people behind and planing to rescue them later.

If that happens it just resets you back to where your last rescue began, apparently. There’s no way to permanently lose!

I just hit the 70s and it’s wild how good the 59’s and 60’s are.

I just hit the 30's myself. It's interesting to see how the labyrinths of each zone have had their own flavor.

Had my first significant total party kill just as I was nearing floor 30. Then the rescue party

Spoiler:

got fangoriously devoured by a black hole somewhere in the 20s

so on went rescue party number two, which was a party of one! It took a lot of work to get backup crew and then the main crew, but I learned a ton on those rescue runs and started to leverage skills I hadn't really been paying much attention to up to that point. Also found my first wanderer which was pretty fun.

I think this game naturally tutorializes better than most any game I've played, and I didn't really realize that until this rescue mission. The first levels are intended to be easy, teaching you the basic mechanics of combat, navigation and healing. Then the next levels start teaching you more combat mechanics simply by introducing new enemy types; an enemy with no magic defense but high physical defense, enemies that reflect magic, enemies with simple special abilities. You are forced to learn the ins and outs of the combat system through these simple encounters before it starts throwing more complex things at you.

Then you hit your first party wipe and need to go on a rescue mission. Getting down to them is going to be a slog, you think, having to grind your way all the way back down. But wait, that's right, you did unlock some skills. Maybe you can

Spoiler:

teleport down a floor, reshuffle the enemy positions or skip across a wall in the dungeon.

Suddenly navigating the dungeon doesn't seem so daunting.

Eventually you make it to the next theme of dungeon floors and it throws even something else new at you. The layout of the dungeon itself makes you have to once again revisit the skills your party has and reprioritize what you thought was important and useful.

There's almost no hand holding but the game leads you through in such an elegant way that you have no option but to learn all of the mechanics it introduces. It's really quite remarkable, especially in the modern day of very heavy-handed opening tutorials in games.

Dreaded Gazebo wrote:

There's almost no hand holding but the game leads you through in such an elegant way that you have no option but to learn all of the mechanics it introduces. It's really quite remarkable, especially in the modern day of very heavy-handed opening tutorials in games.

1000% this. The tutorializing is so good I didn't realize it happened in my run. It ended up feeling like I knew how to play this one from the jump.

I've been playing this on my commute (which I've only recently returned to!), though it might quickly lose out to SMT V. But I think Dungeon Encounters is just the right size to be able to break off a little chunk while on the bus or subway.

Anyway, I've recently made it to the low 30s -- floor 32, I think. Had a bit of a moment on floor 29 when I lost a party member

Spoiler:

Got swallowed -- "consumed" -- by a UFO

and I had to find and defeat the same monster on that floor to progress. But defeating it seemed to open up some great equipment in the weapon shops. All of a sudden I have a high-end variable damage weapon, that I haven't tried, and a group magic spell that I tried immediately. 5,000+ damage to every enemy with each cast.

I'm basically running a party setup with one fast mage, and three people who take a few blows while watching the fast mage clean up.

I think my favorite build in this is "everyone has a gun" whereby I give everyone the most powerful gun and just blast blast blast every encounter. I usually supplement with special items, like the urn or Sir Cat's cutlery set, and give someone some emergency magic, but leaning into that physical damage has worked out nicely.

I saw credits the other day! (Though the game seems to intriguingly continue...)

Well, I guess I have to groom a B team and start a rescue.

Spoiler:

Black hole on floor 20-something insta killed my whole team, no chance whatsoever, felt really cheap and I just quit out—figured I’d come here to see if I missed something. I’ve only got 3 people left in town and all are level 2, so I think I have some grinding along the way in my future.

Antichulius wrote:

Well, I guess I have to groom a B team and start a rescue.

Spoiler:

Black hole on floor 20-something insta killed my whole team, no chance whatsoever, felt really cheap and I just quit out—figured I’d come here to see if I missed something. I’ve only got 3 people left in town and all are level 2, so I think I have some grinding along the way in my future.

One tip that might help:

Spoiler:

I'm not sure about the black hole, but always take a look at the encounter ID. Each level has level-appropriate encounters within a certain hex value range which you can roughly estimate. If an enemy encounter is significantly outside the standard range of values you are seeing, it is probably something that is going to result in a party wipe.

I'm currently working my way through the 30s and finding it a bit of a grind. I think I need to reevaluate my gear and weapons to better deal with some of the encounters I've been up against, but that type of experimentation can be pretty dangerous! Did find a few more new skills that give even more exploration options which is nice though, just need to put them to better use as well. Seems like there's maybe a bit of finding the right gimmick for the enemy set you are up against.

The 30’s and 40’s were the longest stretch of the game for me in terms of grinding. Then things accelerate.

Spoiler:

There are some equipment pick ups and wanderers who add to your party power - then the maps scale down a bit in size and your travel tools expand. When it clicks in you start blitzing through levels.

As far as encounters go, beware the FE.

Antichulius wrote:

Well, I guess I have to groom a B team and start a rescue.

Spoiler:

Black hole on floor 20-something insta killed my whole team, no chance whatsoever, felt really cheap and I just quit out—figured I’d come here to see if I missed something. I’ve only got 3 people left in town and all are level 2, so I think I have some grinding along the way in my future.

That happened to me and it was really frustrating. Couple of things:

Spoiler:

I believe black holes apply the status “banished,” and getting hit by it was a lesson to always keep the anti-banishment ability active. That, the one that prevents consumption, and the one that prevents petrification are key

Also once your B team is good enough to descend, you’ll find your A team wandering in different places on the floor where you encountered the black hole. Banishment isn’t as bad as it initially seems. A good combination of lesser descension, shift, and fiend shuffle can get you there with few encounters.

LastSurprise wrote:
Antichulius wrote:

Well, I guess I have to groom a B team and start a rescue.

Spoiler:

Black hole on floor 20-something insta killed my whole team, no chance whatsoever, felt really cheap and I just quit out—figured I’d come here to see if I missed something. I’ve only got 3 people left in town and all are level 2, so I think I have some grinding along the way in my future.

That happened to me and it was really frustrating. Couple of things:

Spoiler:

I believe black holes apply the status “banished,” and getting hit by it was a lesson to always keep the anti-banishment ability active. That, the one that prevents consumption, and the one that prevents petrification are key

Also once your B team is good enough to descend, you’ll find your A team wandering in different places on the floor where you encountered the black hole. Banishment isn’t as bad as it initially seems. A good combination of lesser descension, shift, and fiend shuffle can get you there with few encounters.

My encounter wasn’t banishment, I’m pretty sure I had the anti-banishment active. Instead, it was a full, HP-only attack that KO’d them all in one hit. So I think I have to make it back down, do some swapping and get back to a resurrection place.

Oh yeah, that is pretty rough. I think the black hole banished my whole party, but either way it ended our runs!

I think at the time it happened, the black hole killed my B team, and I had to groom a C team to rescue them. I was not happy!

How'd you even have a C team-- I have 3 people in town for my B team and I found 1 other person along the way that wasn't better than my A team, so I left them. I imagine I can pick them up, for my B team now, but when that wipes, I'll have no one left. Does the Academy add new people over time, or do I have to just hunt for more survivors along the way? Probably should be prioritizing that on this run, too, then.