Nitrome-published flash and mobile games have some of the most charming pixel art on the free to play market, but their games aren’t all just eye candy.
Developed by Eneminds, Redungeon pretty well embodies what people expect from a Nitrome game. It looks and plays great, and has enough difficulty to keep you coming back for more. It starts out tough and keeps on swinging, and in order to deal with the perils ahead you have to rely on more than luck and pure swiping skill to repeatedly reach new depths.
Making good use of the characters is a big part of doing well in Redungeon. Some characters are technically better than others, as you will see below, but others have their niche. Characters like Ichitaka and Vesna may not seem like the best choices for long-term play, but their gimmicks (attracting money and pushing back the darkness, respectively) are still viable — albeit a little underwhelming compared to some of the more obviously strong characters.
This guide will highlight each of Redungeon‘s characters and their skills, along with what makes them each unique, so you know which ones to pump your money into first. Getting the money for all those upgrades takes time, so you want to spend it wisely.
The characters are listed in the order they are displayed on the character screen in-game. Most characters upgrades past a certain point are 1000 or 1500 coins, but it can vary more with some characters.
Sir Gylbard
Sir Gylbard may be the first character you get, but that doesn’t mean he’s weak. A relatively basic bread and butter character, he’s one of the few with a total of five levels, in which he gets two skills.
His Shield skill is a huge help for players who need a few more hits to stay alive a long time, and his Thrust is great for both offense and defense.
You should be able to get further with less practice using Gylbard, but level four and five are expensive compared to other characters’ levels. Even when you’re skilled at the game he is a well-rounded character, and both Shield and Thrust remain invaluable.
Shield (Passive) – Shield is may be the more valuable of Gylbard’s features. It allows him to take a hit from enemies and most traps and keep on moving. At level five he gets a total of three shields.
Shield does not block electrical damage and cannot save you from falling.
Thrust (Active) – Thrust destroys and breaks literally everything that is three tiles in front of you. With it you can disperse traps, kill enemies, and break open chests with ease. And the best part? This baby only has a 10 second cooldown once maxed out.
Creep A Crow
If you’re like most players, you probably bought Creep A Crow as soon as you could, and there’s a good chance you were underwhelmed by his Cobweb Immunity and Boo! skills. He may not be the flashiest character, but he certainly fits some people’s playstyles.
Cobweb Immunity might not come in handy too often, but it can save your life in the right situations. That said, Boo! completely overshadows it, as it destroys any and all enemies on the screen so you can push forward more safely.
Creep A Crow is the cheapest character to level up to maximum and is ideal for players who have trouble timing getting around monsters or those who don’t like dealing with cobwebs.
Cobweb Immunity (Passive) – While you have to swipe or tap a set of specified inputs when you land on a cobweb with other characters, Creep A Crow doesn’t have to worry about that at all. Cobwebs still appear but they have no effect on him whatsoever.
Boo! (Active) – It doesn’t matter if you consider getting rid of all enemies on the screen is an offensive or defensive skill, what matters is how good it is when you come up on sections with two or more enemies.
Unlike Gylbard’s Thrust, which destroys both enemies and traps in front of it, Boo! destroys all enemies on the screen. This is great whether you come up on one section with enemies or two consecutive ones since it only has a 15 second cooldown at max level.
Duke Kazhan
Every Redungeon character has its own gimmick that benefits particular playstyles, and Duke Kazhan is one of three that prevents unnecessary death.
The opposite of Gylbard, who can take hits from most traps and keep walking but can’t fall and survive, Kazhan can’t take any extra hits from traps and enemies but can fall and survive — twice, no less! This makes him the ideal character for players who either have lost inputs due to graphical lag or just have trouble not falling in general.
But that’s not all that’s up his sleeve, as you can see below. Kazhan can definitely be categorized as one of the best characters in the game.
Friend of Bats (Passive) – The first skill Duke Kazhan gets is also the least impressive, but it does help whenever you come to segments with bats. All bats are friendly to Kazhan and will not harm him, so you don’t have to worry about dodging bats when you come across them.
Escape Abyss (Passive) – This skill is a huge boon to players who have trouble falling as it lets you survive falling — but only once until you’ve gotten him to max level. At level four you can fall twice per run, which is amazing to the point I don’t need to explain it.
Darkwing (Active) – One of two amazing “NOPE” skills in Redungeon, Darkwing lets you fly above not only obstacles and enemies, but also the abyss. This lets you make your own shortcuts and stay safe. Even better is that at level five the skill lasts for five seconds and only has a 15 second cooldown. That is well-worth the investment to get him leveled up.
Nathaniel
Do you really hate traps? Nathaniel’s the guy for you.
Nathaniel’s upgrades are more expensive than the other characters overall, and for good reason. His drones are able to destroy traps ahead of you as you progress and he has an active ability that breaks every trap on the screen.
He’s pretty much the perfect character if you get impatient waiting for certain types of traps to rotate, and the active makes spikes and complex traps a snap. This guy sits alongside Duke Kahzan as one of the best all-around characters.
Mechanical Squad (Passive) – This skill initially gives you one drone, which will periodically destroy traps ahead of you. As you level you’ll get a second drone, which effectively doubles the usefulness of this passive.
Mechanical Squad makes your life much easier, even if the drones take some time to get warmed up between shots. Dealing with lasers and spikes is a cinch with this skill.
Target Practice (Active) – If there are some trap segments you just do not like dealing with, Target Practice will become your best friend. This skill destroys all traps on the screen so you don’t have to deal with them.
Do note Target Practice will not destroy traps that are not a present danger — for instance, spikes that are underground for a moment instead of above ground trying to impale you. It has a 30 second cooldown even at max level.
Ichitaka
Do you want to make money? Yeah you do! Ichitaka is here for you, though his only use is growing your money count.
Ichitaka has three levels, but levels two and three simply increase the range he attracts coins from, which is fine because you pretty much attract any coins you come near at level three.
Coin Magnet (Passive) – Attracts coins toward you, just as it states. The three meter radius at level three doesn’t seem like much, but it has a huge effect while you’re pushing through a run. You’ll rack up coins like it’s nobody’s business.
Vesna
Vesna is pretty much the perfect character to take it slow with thanks to both her passive and active skill, which are both tailored to make the game more bearable for players who aren’t the fastest tappers/swipers.
She’s perfect to use if the game runs slowly on your phone thanks to Green Path, which keeps platforms from falling when stepped on, and the valuable Light Ritual.
Vesna may not be the best option for experienced or skilled players but she is a worthy investment if you personally want to take your time traversing the dungeon.
Green Path (Passive) – If you find yourself making panic moves on platforms that fall when you step on them or you just don’t want to have to deal with moving quickly on them, Green Path is a huge boon.
Each step you take puts vines on the ground, and those vines prevent fragile platforms from falling into the abyss when you step on them. Very useful.
Light Ritual (Active) – This is the skill for slower players who frequently have the Darkness catch up with them because they’re taking their time. Light Ritual pushes the Darkness back several tiles and can be used right as it creeps up behind you. Has a 15 second cooldown at max level.
Aether
Aether was probably the character I took the longest to warm up to — I mean, portals and stopping time sounds kind of underwhelming compared to the types of benefits characters like Duke Kahzan and Nathaniel bring to the table, but it turns out Aether sits right up there with those two as one of the best characters in the game.
The portals Aether spawns work as quick and safe shortcuts, provided you’re careful which portals you try to hop into; and Time Bend is just amazing.
This is one of the trickier characters to get used to but the rewards for the effort are well-worth it.
Portals (Passive) – Portals does exactly what the description says it does: opens portals within the dungeon from time to time. Portals will shoot you forward a few segments and put you in a safe position, but you need to be wary of automatically moving forward after you teleport.
The trick with portals is that those hanging over the abyss can’t be used. When you try to step into portals not on a walkable tile, you will fall into the abyss just as you would otherwise.
Portals don’t last long and sometimes it is worth going faster just to get into one, but be aware you’ll miss coins along the way and portals close quickly. You will find yourself rushing to enter a portal only to have it close fairly often.
Time Bend (Active) – This is probably the ultimate skill in the game, and it’s not hard to see why. On par with Kahzan’s Darkwing skill, Time Bend freezes time for a whopping five seconds (!) at level three and only has a 15 second cooldown. It doesn’t matter how fast or slow you’re moving, time across the entire dungeon is stopped while this skill is active.
Time Bend is trickier than any other active skill in Redungeon because you have to avoid using it when traps aren’t blocking your way, otherwise you’ve wasted the skill and will have to wait for its cooldown to come back up. Look ahead before using this skill, or pop it when you know you’re about to die and need to buy some time to maneuver.
Ribb
Ribb is the most expensive character to initially buy, why is that? Probably the fact that he can take hits and keep on moving.
This skeleton’s passive skill, Spare Head, provides Ribb with a new head each time it gets hit. At max level (level four) Ribb has a total of four spare heads to make use of when he gets it.
This is one of the most forgiving characters because he get hit so many times before finally ending a run. His big detractor is he has no other skills, meaning he’s as barebones as it gets. On the plus side each of his levels only cost 1500 coins.
Spare Head (Passive) – Lets you get up to four spare heads that will bring you back to life when you die from taking damage. Just like with Gylbard’s Shield the skill does not protect you from falling. But unlike Shield, Spare Head does protect you from more lethal traps like those that use electricity.
Redungeon as it stands has a character to fit just about every playstyle but it takes time to farm up the coins to buy and upgrade them all. Plan out which characters you want to invest in before throwing your money at them randomly — you don’t want to regret making a big money investment only to find you don’t like the character or its new skill.
Published: Jul 8, 2016 12:06 pm