Have a Nice Deathis the latest indie roguelike to hit store shelves. It stars the Grim Reaper, aka Death, who was doing relatively well in his field. Eventually, he felt the burnout of executing people, so he summoned some demons to help with his workload.
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Unfortunately, these demons started stealing souls even from humans who were not supposed to die thus leading to mountains of paperwork. With his workload out of control again but for a different reason, Death goes out to try and fix this little demon rebellion. That’s the story setup forHave a Nice Death, so now let’s get to the gameplay and go over some quick tips.
Check Out Self-Fulfillment
When players startHave a Nice Death, there are no immediate difficult levels to choose from or assist features in the options menu. After players die the first time and get thrown back to Death’s office, they will be presented with a cross between difficulty levelsand assist features. The mode players begin on by default is called Imminent Breakdown.
Players can then select Self-Fulfillment to the left of that, granting them various bonuses. The most important bonus is one that will reduce damage, which is always good to have for beginners. The cool thing about this bonus is that the more times players die, the stronger this defense will get. It works the same way as the bonus option inHadeswhich is another great roguelikeworth checking out.
Arming Yourself
Players will always be armed with Death’s signature scythe as their primary weapon. However, they can collect different modes for this scythe to turn into such as twin sickles or a mod that puts the scythe on a chain. The scythe option will be presented at the start of a run, and then that will be it.
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Cloaks and spells, on the other hand, will present themselves throughout the adventure. Cloaks are super weapons that range from spears to giant swords. Spells are self-explanatory for anyone that has ever playedan action RPGbefore. It’s always a good idea to arm Death with weapons and spells that deal damage from a distance and ones that harm enemies in clusters. Balance out the armory, in other words, to create a diverse skill set for Death.
Understanding Elevator Pathways
This game operates like abunch of other roguelikes. Players will begin in an area and go through several randomly generated floors on their way to a boss. Kill the boss, make it to a new biome, and repeat. Now, the end of each floor will have an elevator that allows players to choose between different floor options.
For example, one floor could take them to the Vitam-Mana Department which will typically grant players with temporary upgrades to either their health or magic reserves. Going into an office floor instead will typically have players face a mini-boss. In the early hours ofHave a Nice Death, try every type of floor out and make a note on a phone or a piece of paper of what each one does. It can help determine the best route as far as bonuses go.
Triggers And Dodging
The nice thing about combat is that enemies will always signal when they are going to attack. Typically, games that feature these obvious signals will allow players to counter. TheAssassin’s Creedgamessort of paved the way for this gameplay mechanic. However, that’s not the standard case inHave a Nice Death.
Whenever an exclamation point appears above an enemy’s head, that’s a good sign for players to dodge out of the way. It’s easy to learn enemy moves, even bosses if players pay attention enough. Sometimes it can be more useful to start a boss fight by just dodging through attacks and learning patterns. Once the pattern is learned like muscle memory, players can then attack safely.
Death And Quitting
How can Death die? It doesn’t make any sense, but that’s the way things work inHave a Nice Deathand other roguelikes. Most everything players possess such as spells, weapons, Curses, and so on get discarded in death. There is a temporary currency called Soulary and that is lost as well. Be sure to spend all Soulary before a boss because one never knows if they will come back or not.
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Gold is the one currency that will not be lost no matter how many times players die. It’s also important to point out that players can quit the game at any time, and they will be brought back to the beginning of their last floor upon loading up again. It’s always nice when a roguelike does this as beating one in a single sitting can be intense.Have a Nice Deathdoesn’t communicate this well, so there’s the lowdown for those curious.
How Upgrades Work
There are two types of upgrade systems outside of runs inHave a Nice Death. The aforementioned gold can be used at the stock exchange to buy things that will have a random chance to appear in future runs such as weapons, food, and so on. These unlocks are also like the quest system. Players can buy things for cheaper if they complete these quests such as killing enemies with a certain weapon like a hammer. They cannot, however, improve Death in any significant way with the stock exchange unlikeRogue Legacy 2which is a roguelike with more permanent RPG-like upgrades.
Have a Nice Deathdoes have some RPG elements too because Death will level up upon dying. This will unlock more bonuses, like an elevator to the first boss. Players cannot control what unlocks first upon leveling up and again, these level-ups don’t improve the stats of Death as a character.Have a Nice Deathis a roguelike that is going to take a lot of skill to get through, even with those assist feature bonuses.
Have a Nice Deathis available on PC and Switch.
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