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There are really in my view two ways to play Diib's
Dilemma. The first is to play for a high score, the second
is to play to beat the game. Here I will cover strategies
for getting a high score. Playing for Score: The most important way to gain points in Dilemma is through the bonuses. There are four bonuses that you can get at the end of each level. The first two, Blood Bonus and Level Bonus are completely linear, and you will always get these two bonuses. The second two are where the game gets interesting. The first of the two bonuses you get for the kind of attack spells you take. If you take all trap, all summon, or all direct attack spells you can get this bonus. Also, taking any defensive spells will not affect this bonus. So, taking a Heal and a Thorn will still get me the Trap bonus. Also, taking Dispell, Undead, and Ghost will give you a summon bonus, etc., etc. If playing strictly for score, then, it is often a good idea to decide which of these three styles of attack spells you will use to deal out your damage. The fourth and final bonus is by far the most powerful for getting a high score. You get this bonus for taking all spells of the same kind (aka all fire, air, water, or spirit spells). Once a spell is built you can tell which kind of spell it is by the color of the text which describes it (red = fire, blue = water, grey = air, green = spirit). Unlike all the other bonuses in the game, the elemental bonuses are cumulative. If you play with all fire spells for two levels, after the first level you get +300 points, after the second you get +600 points, etc., etc. Each of the four kinds of wizards that you can play in this way then have their own strategies. Finally, it is I think important to note that playing as one of the four wizards is an elite strategy, and gets more and more difficult the deeper you get into the game. Although it is theoretically possible to beat the game with any element specific spell list, it is soooo difficult that I would only recommend even attempting it if you are an experienced veteran. The problem, then, is one of greed. How long do you play with a specific spell lists and recieve ever increasing bonuses ~ and when do you start playing with a mixture to make a run at beating the tower? Not scared off yet? Well then, following is a list of strategies for each of the four wizards..... Air Mages: The air set of spells are more indirect, while still highly damaging. The air mage was my first favorite of the four wizards, and is highly entertaining to play with. For damaging spells air has no direct damaging spells (as that is not the kind of spells they are), but still has a lot of damaging potential. Both Thorn and Spike are Air spells, although this is the limit of air Trap spells. This means that an air trapping mage will only be able to be played until one reaches the golems, as then there is no way to hurt the monsters. For this reason, if you plan on playing an air mage I suggest using the trap spells at first only, and switching as soon as you get summons. Which brings us to the second group of air spells, summons. Air has by far the most summon spells available to it. Later in the game to play a complete summoner you may have to drop being an air mage, as some of the summon spells are of different types (Sprite and Decoy are Water, Hero is Spirit, Shifter is Fire). If you are dedicated to the summoner as a method of attack, I suggest you start to broaden your list of spells to include at least Shifter by about level 60. However, there is still more to an air mage than just these spells. Air includes some of the best indirect spells in the game. The spells Sheild and Dispell are both air (although you will have no use for Dispell until at least level 61, as before that the enemies don't use magic), and will block all damage from certain kinds of attacks. In addition, the spell Portal can move you around the board quickly and is invaluable for getting you out of tight spots. This means that in the end an air mage is reasonably defensive, needing to rely on summoned creatures to do damage. Advanced Air Mage Tips: There are several additional points which will help the air mage. You will notice first that the enemies will chase you over chasing your summoned creatures. Your ghosts are also slow, and easily killed if the enemy gets to them. Also, ghosts often kill off a board of enemies quickly, giving you little chance to pick up more soul stones. Skeletons also will happily pick up soul stones after they have killed someone for you. This means that is generally a VERY good idea to take Sheild. Sheild will block most enemy attacks early in the game. This means that you can lead enemies away from your vulnerable ghosts, while still being close to the monsters so that you can pick up any soul stones that are left behind. It is often tempting with an air mage to take a more offensive spell loadout, but it is my experience that this will leave you with little ability to build new spells in the middle section of the game. Biggest threat to Air Mages: There are really two here. The first is the Bob, although they are not encountered till late in the game. They will hit all of your summoned creatures as well as you with their Storm, making it all but impossible to beat them with any summon (except MAYBE Shifter, but that is a Fire spell anyway). This means that at about level 81 you will have to abandon a strict air mage no matter what. (Although Dispell, an Air spell, is vital to beating them). The second major threat is getting cornered. You summon your creatures near you, and if there are many enemies the board gets cluttered quickly. This means that you are often in great personal danger in later levels. There are two ways around this. The first, as already mentioned, are to take a couple of Sheilds. The second way is to also take Portal, which I think is a vital Air Mage spell. Most powerful Air Mage Spell: Curse. What does it do: Auto kills enemy AND turns them into undead or ghost. So I'm an Air Mage, what spells should I take? Levels 10-20 I suggest: 1. Thorn/Spikes (Note: You need to build Zap to open Spikes) 2. Thorn/Spikes Levels 21-40 I suggest: 1. Ghost (Note: You need to build Undead to open Ghost) 2. Ghost 3. Shield (Note: You need to build Heal to open Shield) Levels 41-60 I suggest: 1. Horde 2. Ghost 3. Shield 4. Sheild Levels 61-80 I suggest: 1. Horde 2. Specter 3. Sheild 4. Dispell 5. Portal Levels 81++ I suggest: (only for the Master!) 1. Dispell 2. Dispell 3. Curse 4. Specter 5. Portal Fire Mages: Fire Mages were my second great love. They have magic which is always directly damaging, and which gives you greater control over how the battle goes. Also, goblins and orcs will more often drop Fire Stones, so you should have plenty of fire sitting around to build spells. Like air, the fire mage has a primary and secondary ability. Fire mages also never have any healing or indirect helping spells, which means you will be more focused on killing, but if you get in a tough spot you won't survive long. The secondary ability of Fire is trapping, but they are generally better at it than air. They have three spells, which all have unique advantages, Trap, Blast, and Firewall. These three all do physical damage and can hurt you, but do a lot of damage. Trap has the added bonus of holding your enemy helpless for a short time. Blast will hit all the spaces adjacent to it when it goes off so it is great for boards with many enemies, and Firewall lays traps on 5 spaces!! Although it is possible to beat many levels with just the fire trap spells, golems specifically will give you problems as there is nothing which you have in your arsenal to stop them. Fortunately fire also boasts one of the widest selections of direct attack spells. Fire and Blaze give you fast recharging, hard hitting short range attack spells which are great in a pinch. Flamejet and Fireball are relativly cheap to build, are ranged attacks, and can hurt the golems!! Meteor Shower is a mass attack spell which does magic damage, although it's destructive nature means that it will sometimes hit you and your friends. Generally fire has the most straightforward strategy, kill everything quick with your fire spells. Advanced Fire Mage Tips: Although you CAN go for double bonuses with fire by taking only trap or only attack spells, I strongly do not recommend this strategy. Fire mages can deal a great amount of damage in a short period, but once they have used their spells they are frighteningly weak while they wait to recharge. For this reason a combination of trap spells to hold up the enemy along with specific damaging spells will lead to the greatest success, in my experience. Especially I recommend the use of Trap. This spell is dangerous, because it will not only do damage to you but also will leave you helpless and unable to cast spells for a long time. Still, I find it invaluable. Even against golems, which it doesn't actually damage, because it slows them down giving you needed breathing time. The biggest advantage of fire is that it is easy for a mage to learn. To represent this fire spells don't require any non-fire spells be built to open them up (many of the other disciplines require you to invest soul power in other spells to get the power of their later spells. This makes them slower) ~ additionally the straight cost of many of the fire spells is a little lower than those found elsewhere. Biggest Threat to Fire Mages: Again I really think there are two here, golems and bobs. No fire spell really deals out a lot of magical damage quickly, and any level a golem appears on will mean a ponderous process of picking away at them and running away. Second are the bobs, which may be less of a concern as they appear late in the game (at a stage where it is probably best to have dropped playing a specific mage anyway). Bobs move erratically as they bob through the air (hence the name) and so are very hard to hit with trap spells. Additionally they do so much damage so fast that the lack of healing spells a fire mage suffers means that you have to get lucky unloading 5 Nova's or suffer certain, and very quick death. This generally means that by level 81 you will have to abandon a strict fire mage no matter what. Most powerful Fire Mage spell: Nova. What does it do: hits all enemies with 75% chance on the board with 4-5 points of physical damage. So I'm a Fire Mage, what spells should I take? Levels 1-20 I suggest: 1. Fire/Trap (Note: build Trap as soon as possible) 2. Fire/Trap Levels 21-40 I suggest: 1. FlameJet 2. FlameJet 3. Trap Levels 41-60 I suggest: 1. Firewall 2. Trap 3. Blaze 4. Fireball Levels 61-80 I suggest: 1. Firewall 2. Trap 3. Blaze 4. Fireball 5. Nova Levels 81++ I suggest: (only for the Master!!) 1. Nova 2. Nova 3. Nova 4. Fireball 5. Trap Water Mages: Water mages are arguably the best at getting a high score, although they take some practice to get good at. Water magic is all healing and indirect, and as you might expect that leaves little room for doing damage. Like the other disciplines water has a primary and secondary aspect. The primary aspect for water is healing. It has all of the heal spells available to anyone, including Cure, Heal, Blood, Life and Growth. It also includes Wealth and Avarcie, which will increase your score. The secondary aspect for water is trapping, although it only has one spell, and that is Stasis. This is not all bad, as Stasis is arguably the best trapping spell in the game. It holds your enemy for a long time, it hits multiple spaces, and it can't hurt you. Also, Stasis does both magic and physical damage, so it can hurt every monster in the game. The problem is that it only does 1-2 points of damage. This means that to kill boards off with water mages takes a lot of patience. Fortunately water mages are ideal for the long haul. The healing spells mean that a water mage can take a lot more damage than the other mages as it runs around the board, and this ability is vital to long term success. Finally, water mages, because of their problems, will give you the most points, +900 cumulative per level you defeat using only water spells. Along with score upping spells (which you can use once you have every monster trapped, you won't have anything better to do), and characteristically high blood bonuses, the water mage is a serious contender for getting the highest score. Advanced Water Mage Tips: I have played as a water mage probably more than any other of the four in my lust for score, and there are quite a number of things which can help you out. First, a water mage must take advantage of the area effect of the Stasis. Place Stasis traps near already trapped enemies, then when a monster lands on the space it will not only be trapped, but do more damage and RE-trap all adjacent monsters!! This means that if you place many Stasis traps close together you are looking to trap a big glob of monsters, and the monsters will help you do more damage to each other!! This is vital to not getting bored, as the amount of damage Stasis does is so minimal. Another thing to consider when playing a water mage is how many Stasis spells to take. I find that although tempting, it can be dangerous to take it in every slot (thereby maximizing your offensive potential). Too often having just one heal spell around might have kept you alive. Finally, monsters which are trapped make great barriers for other monsters!! Stasis does not have the greatest of recharges, and once you have cast them all there is nothing you can do but wait and run. Try to get all the monsters on the opposite side of you from the trapped enemies (a row of traps down the middle of the board works best for this). Also, remember that Stasis will not hurt you, so there is no advantage in not casting it as often as possible. Even randomly laying down the spell may end up turning the battle for you. Biggest Threat to Water Mages: Like everyone else water has two big problems, and one of them is the bob. Bobs as mentioned do large amounts of damage quickly, faster than you can heal yourself. Furthermore, they move randomly, making it very difficult to hit them with trapping spells. Like fire, I also think it is next to impossible to play a water mage after level 80 because of bobs. The second challenge to the water mage comes along much sooner, and that is the Cleric of Tear. First met on level 51, the Cleric has the ability to heal itself which it will do quite often. The problem is that it can easily heal life faster than you can hurt them, indefinetly. Usually this will mean that if you enter a level with Clerics and you have nothing but Stasis for attack, you will either have to give up or play the level for a few hours and hope you eventually get lucky. I usually just kill myself if I realise that I made the mistake of taking only Stasis in and there are Clerics around. Most powerful Water Mage spell: Stasis. What does it do: Traps a single space on the board. When hit the spell will trap and do damage to the triggering enemy and all adjacent spaces. This spell can't hurt you or one of your summoned creatures. So I'm a Water Mage, what spells should I take? Levels 1-20 I suggest: 1. Thorn/Fire/Trap (Note: build Trap as soon as possible) 2. Thorn/Fire/Trap/Cure (Note: once you have Trap, build Stasis as soon as possible) Levels 21-40 I suggest: 1. Stasis 2. Stasis 3. Heal Levels 41-60 I suggest: 1. Stasis 2. Stasis 3. Stasis 4. Blood Levels 61-80 I suggest: 1. Stasis 2. Stasis 3. Stasis 4. Life 5. Wealth Levels 81++ I suggest: (only for the Master!!) 1. Stasis 2. Stasis 3. Stasis 4. Growth 5. Avarice Spirit Mages: Spirit mages have the advantage of having the best spells bar none. They are the only mage who it is feasable to play as through the entire game, and the only mage with a real shot at winning the game. However, you will quickly notice that spirit mages also have the lowest bonus because of this, and are difficult to play in their own way. Spirit magic is the most powerful, a unifying force at the center of the circle around which the other three magics are only elements. Raw, unbridled, and powerful, a spirit mage's task in mastering the spells is difficult, but once learned the disciple is well rewarded. Spirit mages have access to the best direct attack, trap, summon, and indirect defensive spells in the game. The main problem is that many of these spells require many other spells to be built first, representing the difficulty and time the greatest spells take to master. For direct attack, the spirit mage has as wide a choice as fire. Spark offers immediate (if low damaging) long range attack. Zap throws out several sparks, and it's multi-directional nature makes it ideal for weakening enemies while on the run. With a faster recharge and doing more damage than their fire counterparts, Bolt, Lightning, Avenger and Storm finish out the direct damaging spells. Bolt is great all around, and it's quick recharge makes it invaluable to a spirit mage. Lightning has the added advantage of being able to hit multiple enemies in a row, as well as doing more damage than Fireball. Avenger is a tougher spell, hitting all enemies with a 90% chance, but also doing damage to your wizard. Finally there is storm, doing the damage of a lightning bolt with the area of effect of Nova. To slow down massive numbers of enemies which are not easily taken down by the attack spells, spirit mages get Hole and Abyss. Both will kill automatically (although not golems) and are very worthwhile spells, though dangerous. Power, at the top of the healing spell list will make a spirit mage invincible for a short time. Finally, Hero lies at the top of the summoning list, and does not start out charged, however this spell is garunteed to quickly wipe out any board of enemies in the game. Advanced Spirit Mage Tips: The spirit mage is great in almost all situations, but that does not mean that they are wholly easy to play. In order to kill some of the enemies in the game they must use their dangerous trap spells, and the huge overall cost of their better spells means that many a wizard will never have the soul stones to see them. When playing a spirit mage I find it best to choose whether one wants to commit to either the summoning or healing research trees, and work on just one of those two while building the direct attack and trapping spells. It is possible to play far just getting to Storm and Abyss, but you will really want either Power or Hero to help you clear the later levels. The harder of the two to get, and my favorite is Power. If you time your casting right, three of them will keep you immune from everything (even your own Hole/Abyss) always!! An invincible character is a hard thing to pass up! Also, Power makes playing with Abyss much less nerve-wracking, as you can stop worrying about where you have placed the spell. If you really are having problems getting spirit icons (which often happens as statistically they are the most rare), I suggest building a few of the low fire spells to tide you over until you are able to amass more spirit. Especially try to have Bolt built by level 22, as it is great against golems. Biggest Threat to Spirit Mages: Unlike the other wizards, a spirit mage's biggest enemy is himself. The strength and chaos which accompanies controlling the ultimate power is often dire. Specifically, spirit mages need to watch out for their own spells, Hole, Abyss, and Avenger. All are very powerful spells ~ but undiscriminating in their damage. Hole or Abyss will kill an unmindful spirit mage with one mis-step. Avenger will almost always do damage to the player as well as the enemies when it is cast (especially dangerous against enemies who are immune to magic). This means that a player using a spirit mage must pay even closer attention to which spells he is casting where and when. Most powerful Spirit Mage spell: Abyss. What does it do: Traps a single space on the board. When hit the spell will automatically kill the person on the space and everyone adjacent. (Two creatures are immune) So I'm a Spirit Mage, what spells should I take? Levels 1-20 I suggest: 1. Spark 2. Spark/Bolt/Hole (Note: You will need to build Zap to open Bolt) Levels 21-40 I suggest: 1. Bolt 2. Bolt 3. Bolt/Hole Levels 41-60 I suggest: 1. Lightning 2. Lightning 3. Bolt 4. Abyss Levels 61-80 I suggest: 1. Storm 2. Storm 3. Storm 4. Bolt 5. Abyss Levels 81++ I suggest: 1. Storm 2. Abyss/Hero 3. Power 4. Power 5. Power Well, that is all for the discussion of how to get the highest scores, and also add a little role playing to your banishment in Dilemma Tower. I may also write a discussion on how to beat the game in the easiest fashion without worrying about score. Look for that somewhere on this website in the coming weeks. Good luck, and happy casting!! Random Random Thoughts |
