These notes are focused on helping with some tips and tricks as well as useful information about how things in Legend of Grimrock work. The route itself is rather straightforward and can easily learned from watching a run. Also this is focused on any%, easy difficulty.

#Any% party setups:

There is 2 different party setups you can go for. Single Mage or Double Mage, and as it sounds it is just if you have 1 or 2 mages. Single Mage swaps 1 of the mages for another Unarmed Fighter. otherwise they use the same setup for the characters.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but in terms off speed double mage is in theory slightly faster but requires very good rng for it to be. Tho there is a some spots where it handles bad rng better too. Double mage deals more damage specially burst damage and can deal with some enemy's much faster (groups, crabs and the cube). But is in the risk of running low on energy and having to use rest, as well as having to pickup some extra Bloodroot. Tho taking a rest instead may not always be that much of a lose, as you restore your fighters energy if needed. If you go with single mage you have to use 'quick swap' to move the character portraits while attacking so you always attack with unarmed fighter from the front, this may sound more complicated. But it is in fact easier and less of a punishing for mistakes then casting magic fast. Single mage gets lower damage and in general slight slower fights but runs much less risk of having to stop and rest. As well as that you can skip some Bloodroot pickups. It is also much easier to stun lock enemy's with the higher attack speed for the party.

Mage setup: The mage setup is the same on both single and double mage.

The only stats we care about is energy(will) and skill points. So dump remaining into vit for some health.

Insectoid's have the superior stats, with much higher energy and still high skill points.

Spells:

Go 2 points in Fire to get fire burst spell. Fire burst is best early game spell, low mana cost with good damage and fire is best starting element. The rest into Air as Lighting Bolt is best late game magic, massive damage, no enemy's is immune to it + important enemy's are week to it. Also invisibility is broken. After getting Improved Lighting Bolt (level 7) rest of skill point don't really matter and you can ignore leveling up the mages

Personally I find that in most cases it is very rarely worth using Shock, even late game with higher levels in air. If you want low mana cost magic the extra level dmg on shock is not that much. But there may be cases where shock kills and fire burst don't while lightning bolt is overkill.

Damage per energy tend to be the most important for spells, tho high burst dmg is always important. It feels like Fire Burst and Lightning Bolt have best dmg per energy ratio, Improved Lighting Bolt for sure is best. And that shock is slight worse. With throwing weapons being by far the worst. But I have not run any exact calcs on this so could be wrong.

Downside to Lighting Bolt is slower casting as it needs an extra press, so if a crystal is close and energy is of less important you could go for Shock if you feel like you get a higher dps with the easier casting. (remember that the burst of Lighting Bolt can 1 shot (2 with both mages) some enemys.

Traits: Skilled is a must Aura > Strong Mind

Fighter setup:

Melee fighters have a problem with that that they use all stats to some degree. Skill points is prio 1 and dex prio 2. Human is only race to go as the extra skill point is super important. As unarmed special attacks will unlock 1 level earlier as human with skilled. Additional every skillpoint in unarmed adds both damage(0.5?) and accuracy(1) making it by far the best way in get more damage. According to the wiki it also increases the ratio you do special attacks but I can not confirm this. Dex is the 2nd most important stat next, as missing attacks cost a lot more time then hitting for slight lower damage. It also gives evasion and fire/shock res that is the most important defensive stats outside of health.

Str vs will: Will may not sound important at first but the biggest part of damage is special attacks and they require energy. Most section have crystals close enough for you to not run out of energy but problem is that your damage output goes down by so much without energy that some extra is required most of the time. But if you want to go 4/0, 2/2 or 0/4 in (str/will) is mostly up to you (always go with str in numbers of 2 as 2str = +1dmg)

Traits: Skilled is a must Fistfighter = +6 dmg

#Stats Explanations:

Vit and Will: These stats will in the character screen give +2 and +3 alternating every point given. But every subsequent level up they don't work like that. But instead gives extra health/energy based on rng. According to the wiki: [quote]Energy/Health gained per level is 1-3. Every 2 points of Will/Vit below 10 lowers this by 1, to a minimum of 1. Every 2 points of Will/Vit above 10 raises this by 1. The inc or dec is both max and mini value.[/quote]

Accuracy: This is taken from a comment on the Grimrock wiki: [quote]Chance to hit = [Accuracy] + (60 - [enemy's Evasion])%. Regardless of this number the maximum to-it chance is 95% and the minimum is 5%. Most enemies' Evasion is just 0, so the formula is usually just (Accuracy + 60)%. Some enemies, like Snails, have -10 Evasion, making it basically (Accuracy + 70)%. Others, like Crowerns, have 10 Evasion, so you guessed it, (Accuracy + 50)% chance to hit. Shrakk Torr are IIRC the most evasive enemies in the game and the only ones with 25 Evasion, so for them the formula is (Accuracy + 35)%.

BUT* there's another mechanic to the formula, an accuracy bonus that increases with each miss, to prevent insanely long streaks of misses by either party or enemy. The whole formula is chance to hit = [Accuracy] + (60 - [enemy's Evasion) + [bonus]. For your party, the bonus is 3 per miss, capped at 15. So if you've missed 3 times in a row, you get a 9% bonus to your chance to hit the next attack, and it obviously resets when you hit. So if your accuracy is 20 and you've missed a Snail twice in a row with a character, that character's chances of hitting on the next attempt is (20 + (60 - (-10)) + 6)%, or (20 + 70 + 6), for 96 - your chance to hit would be the maximum 95%. For monsters, the bonus per miss is +2 instead of +3, but there's no cap for them, so they can keep missing until the bonus gives them the max 95% chance to hit.[/quote]

#Small tips and tricks:

• Several keys and other items that lay on alcoves have an trap included, but by placing an arrow or torch first you can safely grab the key behind it without triggering the trap.

• Use rest to speed up time when waiting (for enemy's to move or time to pass for event to trigger)

• Throwing weapons use energy! So it's not really worth using on mages. I used it a little in my pb but that was before I noticed that the energy cost drain is not worth the small dmg... Only reason to go for them is to gain exp if you are planing to NOT use any magic on that enemy, but most of the time exp is not an problem. The only important level threshold is to get Lighting Bolt by floor 6 and it's very uncommon to miss it.

• Taking some time when nothing is going on to sort some inventory items for easy to find may be a good idea.

• Prepare potions so they are ready made for when you need them. Once you have 4 flask, keeping 2 health and 2 energy ready at all time saves time when you need them. I always keep at least 1 health potion on hand ready after the spiders, can save you in a pinch. And place them on chars that are likely to need them. You can also prepare for the next potion to be made, by placing an empty flask or the ingredients inside the Mortar and Pestle before hand. This way making next potion is faster.

• Make sure you prepare the next spell your going to use beforehand whenever possible.

• Overall using the 'downtime' to prepare for more intense moment, if so just mental notes, is often 1 of the key point for a good run.

• Use heal crystal to restore energy even if you have full health! (For unarmed too)

• Defensive gear is mostly useless on easy, health(Vit) and Fire/Shock Res(Dex) can be a little helpful but not worth the time to pickup. If you pick something up it is only really worth putting it on a mage as they are the only once in real risk.

• Both your party and enemy's occupy the square they want to move to the moment they start moving to it. This means that a square that may look empty may not be so. This mostly comes into effect when picking up items from the ground, as you can't pick up items if an enemy stands on the same square as the item. This is super important to keep in mind for floor 4 scroll grab exploit, so you don't try pick up an scroll that can't be picked up!

• When resting you can hit esc the moment the 'zzz' goes away to cancel the dream.

• Try keeping some simple damage calculation for enemys health. If you can keep a perfect calc then that's super good as you can know if it may be worth to go for a throwing weapon to get the little extra dmg needed. But that requires so much focus that it most of the time is more trouble then it's worth. Instead what you can try and do is to loosely remember how many hits most enemys normally takes, like the starting snails will most of the time take 4 unarmed and 2 fire burst, this means you can quickly adept if you need to use extra magic or just wait for unarmed to be ready again. This makes it much easier to keep track of energy usage so you can chose to rest if lower then normal or know if your free to use some extra magic and still be fine. And if it feels like remembering this for every enemy is to much, just some key enemys is enough.

• If you are mid fight and are preparing spells, while your unarmed goes off cooldown, it may be worth stopping the spell casting and just swing with unarmed first before going back to spell casting, this depends a bit on how fast your spell casting is too. But knowing how much more damage is needed could be key to knowing when to do this and not. Like if unarmed attacks kills then this saves energy, but spells deals higher damage so sometimes just doing the spell can kill when unarmed won't and save a little time. Also for longer fights where energy tend to go very low or if your about to run out of energy then this is always good. And the opposite, focusing on spells over unarmed is worth it in the cube fight, if you have 2 energy potions for the fight.

• It is never worth fighting for exp. Whenever it is possible to run pass enemys, it is worth it. Only fight 'optional' enemys if it looks to be faster then getting it out of the way or you don't want to risk problems that could come from rushing it. Even if having Lighting Bolt early saves time on some fights, the extra fights before cost more time.

• Be aware of where characters death are bad, in a lot of cases it may be fine as there is a crystal near.

• When you load you cycle monster movement rng! This is very useful when using invisibility. As even if en enemy is moving randomly even when your close. And overall is used to cycle moment in cases where enemys move without having an aggro onto you. Like floor 10 light puzzle or Ice Lizards.

Light: Light is good as it makes it easier to see but not required. If you pick up torches while waiting for doors you lose no time at all and you can get enough torches for the full run with no time wasted. I have read that invisibility spell works better with no light but I CAN NOT confirm if that is true or not. And chose to not use light in the icy lizard area just in case it works like this, tho I think this is not the case. Also I tend to not use torches in some areas where enemy's have there own light(Slimes and Uggardian) and are easier to see in the dark Any ways you do need several torches for puzzles and tricks too.

Minor optimization tricks: These are tricks that saves a few seconds over the run but is not super important.

• Reduce the number of turns where no enemys is around.
• Only pick up torches that cost no time. Meaning either while moving/turning or while waiting for doors to open.
• Use rest while doors are opening, if you need to rest. Not worth it if you do not need to rest, but if you want to rest this saves a second or so from door waiting by the door.

#Enemy AI: One of the most important things in the run is learning and adapting to enemy behaviors. The game runs several different ai for different enemy's and they have some different ability's and behaviors that is good to know about. Also Ai can act very different on other difficulties but I'm mainly making this for easy.

Slow Melee: Snails and Herders(mushroom things) On easy difficulty these act and attack very slow. They are also half blind and can easily miss you. If they are in the way killing them is almost always the fastest option.

Spore Herders: These while ranged play more like an melee class enemy. They tend to chase you aggressively. With low health they are good enemys to fight if you get the options to fight instead of Herders They have an fun ai glitch, if they notice you while you are opening a door the ai ignore any other enemy in the path to try and attack you.

'Normal' Melee: Skeletons, Crabs and Ice Lizards. On easy they are very lazy and can sometimes take a long time to make a decision on how to move. Specially if they are placed diagonally from you. Overall slow moving and can be worth using rest to get them to move out of the way if needed. Crabs can side step and likes to try and bait you, if standing diagonally so that they can move in to your side with there front (Can be abused to get them to be more likely to move). Attacks fast and 1 shots mages. Icy Lizards have an quick turn attack where they turn and attack at same time. But in any% we try to not fight any icy lizards as they have high health.

Slimes: Slimes are interestingly 1 of the most dangers enemy's in the game. With 1 of the smartest ai's. For the most part they follow normal Melee ai. But they can decide to try and bait you, by not moving forward and instead wait for you to move next to them and then try to instant attack you when you do. Also they can attack in any direction and can see invisibility. Combined with high health and that they are always found in large groups makes for 1 of the most dangerous enemy's.

Rush attackers: Ogre and Wardens. They can perform a rush down attack, if they see you standing in a strait line they will start a rush attack there they run down and deals massive damage to whole party if they run in to you. Ogres rush won't instant kill your whole party but Wardens can. There is a rush dodge: If they rush down there is a few frames from when they get next to you and that they decide to stop on that square to when the attack connects. And you can move out of the way during those frames. There is 2 unavoidable Ogres to fight. Best way is to stand next to them and 'face tank', while trying to dodge back when you notice the attacks. Ogre have 2 normal attacks, 1 fast animation and 1 slow. the slow is very react able, so you can move back to avoid and then back in front. The faster is possible but very hard to react to. Don't fight the Wardens, way to much health and damage! Use there rush attack to bait them away from the cube. Also Wardens have the same kinda quick turn attacks Ice Lizards have, this can instant kill mages with a side hit.

Aggressive Melee 1: Spiders and Crowerns. Spider are hyper aggressive and will chase you down fast if they can. If standing diagonal they will for the most part avoid moving in front of the square your facing. this can be used to manipulate how they move very effectively. Spiders and Crowerns have a lunge attack where they move into the same square your standing on, this effects throwing weapon they drop to land on that square and the games auto pickup only works when moving onto a new square making it possible to lose ammo, (Crowerns have a super rare glitch where ammo disperses all together too) Spiders have a very consistent attack pattern making it relatively easy to interrupt their attacks. And watch out for the random chance of poison that spider can inflict, it's only the poison that makes them really dangers.

Aggressive Melee 2: (not too important in easy any%) Shrakk Torrs (mosquitoes) and Scavengers. They tend to ignore everything they can to just get close and attack you. Tend to have very low health too.

Ranged ai: Skeleton Archers(both single and double) They can side step. If you stand next to 1, and they have a spot to side step to. After attacking they will always side step. (random direction) This can be abused to have them move out of the way and tend to always be faster then attacking them!

Mage ai: Uggardian(fire elements) and Goromorg(creepy wizards) They will almost never move out if you stand diagonally from them, but if you move back 1 step they will move out and try attack you almost directly. They will block you in if you stand in a 1 tile gap. In areas with corridors and such they can go 'away' behind corners. Meaning they can go around another way or just go back and try wait for you. This makes them tricky to bait out but this can also be abused to get them away from paths so you can run pass them. But their behavior can be very hard to predict. Goromorg can see invisibility and open doors.

Other ais: Wyverns/Elder Herders Not very important to know how they acts for the run so have not really noticed how exactly they act.

#Floor Specific notes: These are intended for any% easy difficulty with double mage party! If you use or play with a different setup some of these things may be different.

Floor 1: There is not much to note at the start, good movement is the key. For the 2 way path, the left path is rng how many snails that your force to fight. The longer it takes the more likely more snails is to walk into the trap. So doing it first should increase chance for 1 snail only. Right path have little to think about, mostly just rng. It is possible to get a 1 Herder kill there tho, but is insanely rare. Using rest to restock some energy while waiting for herders to move could be a decent option, but don't over do this. For the skeleton: If you have decent energy it is faster to fight it (I tend to go if I can get 3 spells). But if you have low energy using rest strat to get it to walk out can be faster.

Picking up some 1 or 2 food pieces from the snails if it is fast can be good to make sure you have food for the run. It's fine if you don't, but I try getting about 2 food from random drops in floor 1/2

Floor 2: First part is mostly about energy management, so you can maintain good dmg until the crystal. If low on energy you can use crystal before the 3x Crowens but it is preferd to do after. (If you do this, then doing the 3x Crowens side first could maybe let the crystal get back, probably not) First level up should happen in the first part of this floor, you want to level up your unarmed asap(before next combat at least) because their dmg get soo much better after learning jab. But the mages level up can wait, you could wait leveling them up until level 4, but if you have downtime with just movement(like after Crowerns) you may as well.

The Corwens area is often best to kill 2 of them. While killing less is possible, it will often cost more time to avoid them. And killing the 3rd is not bad if it refuses to cooperate.

The Herders is all about rng, so much time can be lost if your unlucky. Try picking up the Nettle unless an herder is risking to block you. (the boots is much less important)

End skeletons is just about praying that they are nice...

This is the major reset floor for me, rng effect this floor sooo much! And being an early floor I often reset if behind here.

Floor 3: The frost bomb is nice to have for very little time cost. Other then that I just try doing some alchemy in the Crowens area, the movement is relativity basic with mostly some rng to adept to. And preparing 1 cure poison flask is super nice to have, either go for 2 of them or do a health for the 2nd flask. If you for some reason get pass the spiders without getting poisoned then you can just drink the poison cure to get rid of it as it is no longer needed. Also abuse the archer ai if the skeleton gets in the way.

When entering the crystal before the spider you can consider closing the door behind you, most of the time it's safe not to but it adds safety in case some Crowens get out into the crystal area. The timed spider path have a relatively large chance that the spider chose to block you. But there is a quick backup, you can try is to move back and hope the spider also moves down so you can go around it (and it falls down). Also by moving sideways you get there faster making it more likely to get pass it

Spiders: The key room with 4 spiders is a big choice of how risky you want to go, you can chose to kill 1, 2 or 3 spiders. Only killing 1 is super risky, killing only 2 works fine most of the time and killing 3 should make it very safe. Using the spider egg thingys effectively to make a path is important to do the room with fewer kills. You can exit out of the 2nd door in that room, problem is that the main door may be left open then (unless you close it behind you), so it's a faster but more risky strat. You can hit the lever to close the door at the same time you walk out to close the door behind you for the 2nd door.

The remaining spider area after the key's is about making quick decisions on what to fight and what to avoid. Resting before the opening the key's in a safe place is helpful. (especially as there is risk for low energy on fights too) Also making 1 energy potion, just in case, is very useful. Overall it is an area where using potions is better then resting. Sound is very helpful to locate spiders too! Optimally you would want to just push thro and try ignore as much as possible just, but sometimes that is not possible.

In the room after unlocking (with 2 keys) there is 2 free walking spiders, if lucky you can avoid both of them. Also it is possible to avoid the spider after the button, it often chooses to move back so if you wait a little before pressing the 2nd button you may be able to sneak pass it, tho it is based on rng.

In the maze like section later there is a number of free walking spiders, 4 or 5?. And after hitting a specific tile more spawn, but this should be of no concern as they all spawn behind you. But there are spiders inside the walls so sound can be confusing at times

For the final spider room: It's better to go to the bottom door if the path there is free. If lucky you can get thro the area without having to kill any extra spiders and from there, as you can see how they move better. Also after opening the gate the spider can't actually see you if you stand behind the little corner, tho that do not mean they won't enter the corridor. And once here it's all about making it thro, if only 1 party member is left alive that is fine as there is an crystal next. Exp is not that relevant anyways. In that room 1 spider is locked in place and standing in front of the door, until you move in to the room where it get unlocked and can move freely. All other spiders move freely. But this means you can wait and watch for an opening that looks good and then try rush in front of that spider and just kill it to get to the door. Spiders notice you thro the gate if you are standing next to it while it is opening but if you move back they won't notice until the door is full open.

But overall the spider area is probably the hardest area in the game to get thro really fast and playing it a little slower but safer is fine, you do gain extra exp so less time lose then playing later areas safer.

Floor 4: The Big Herder fights is kinda basic, if you played Spiders safer you may have Lighting Bolt that takes some time back, but with faster spiders you have to use fire burst.

Both of the puzzle areas, that we do, is kinda basic and not much to note about. Just that if you need to rest you can do it while doors is opening (for both areas)

But for the big Crowerns room, watch the room to see how many Crowerns are in it, and if possible try fight them (if you have to) inside the corridor to avoid aggro the others. But most of the time you have to fight some of them, because for the 2nd scroll grab they can very often get in the way. In general you want max 1 of them in the room (unless they are far away on the other side) when doing the 2nd scroll grab.

At the end the crystal may not seem needed at times but the frost bomb adds safety, this can be skipped for some time save tho.

Floor 5: This floor starts as a more relaxing break point, it's a good point to prepare potions, look up food levels or sort inventory in case you want to easily find things.

Remember the Bloodroot in Wyverns room! (I tend to forget it)

Crabs can give nasty rng, but it's never worth fighting them. Also remember that crystal give auto save in case they trap you. (if you have it turned on)

For the big room with skeletons spawning in, destroying the wooden boxes increases spots they can be in making it more likely there is an open path. Prepare lighting bolts before going to that room in the end just in case(if you have it, with good rng and fast play you may not). If a 4x skeleton is badly located don't be afraid to lighting bolt it down for speed, actually just burst down anything in your way tend to be worth it here. Also rng gets better with using first key early and saving the closer wooden box, tho I prefer to destroy both wooden boxes early.

In general floor 5 is an easy floor where you can get some more relaxing time, unless the crab rng is nasty.

Floor 6: For the snail room, I prefer to try and use 1 fire burst per snail (only attack with 1 mage per snail) unless you miss then I just go with extra fire bursts Tho keep an eye of your energy so that you can lighting bolt down the 4x skeleton later (rest extra if too low). But using fire burst more on snails and resting later should be worth still tho. Also you will rest back some energy when doing rest to speed up skeletons anyways. Also pick up any food you may lack here. This is the last decent place to pick up food in the run, at least that I know of.

For the skeletons later, just make sure they notice you and watch out so you don't get surrounded by a 2nd skeleton. You could use an throwing weapon on it to make sure it is under aggro.

For the crabs at the end, you quickly have to make a decision if you want to trick them to go out or not and if you will leave the door open or not. If they are in the way tricking 1 of them out may be best. Also if other enemy's is close, then you want to close the door. Otherwise you want to leave it open for the chance of the crabs walking out. Remember that you can rest in the little room to get the crabs to move around more if they are located badly.

Floor 6 is still more on the relaxing side, but less then floor 5.

**Floor 7: ** This where the run starts getting scary! And an area that is heavily about adapting to whatever rng the game throws at you.

The first slimes is all about trying to use the wooden box to kill as few of them as possible, you should normally only have to kill 1 or 2 of them. (2 is common) Also all except 1 slimes is inactive until you walk into that room, so you can rest safely before if needed. (that 1 slime spawns randomly too)

In the downtime during the darkness puzzle it is optimal to prepare potions if needed but it is super easy to mess up the path if you do, so play safe on that. Rest after hitting the lever to save half a second if needing to rest.

The puzzles with the Uggardians and the following Slimes after is super scary and is all about quick decision making depending on the rng. Prepare potions and make most out of frost bombs. Do a small rest after the first lone Uggardian and slime if you feel like it, I have never seen the other slimes spawning get out and give any problems. Also if the first Uggardian choices to not chase you after the lighting bolts you can most of the time ignore it and take on the slime first. Tho there is a small risk that it walks off to some problem spot, but waiting for it to do what you want may be slow.

The 3x Uggardians sometimes notice you and chase when walking pass the gap, other times they don't and stay there.

The slime maze is just lots of rng... Remember that you can teleport kill slimes if they are in that area. Also unless you gets the rng where taking the crystal path(bottom path) is the only decent option it is not worth going for the crystal, next crystal is close and you only need 1 invisibility spell before it. (And it is possible to do without that too)

End of floor 7 is not much to talk about, try using the downtime that's there to make potions if needed!

Floor 9:

Area until Ice Lizards there is not much going on on this floor. Just make sure you have enough 'trash' items for the puzzle and prepare for the the Ice Lizards.

The scary part of the Icy Lizards is when it feels too good, that often means they are all stuck at the end... I normally prefer to not use invisibility until I have to, to try and get them to move to the first area if possible. But just pray for good rng is your best bet here, because if they are all located at the very end the run is more or less over.

For the Uggardians after use try abuse the mage ai if they get in the way. Also you don't care to much if any members goes down in the following area as the crystal is close and not much combat needed, just 1 Uggardian that you can face tank if needed.

Using the Skillbook:

• In a lot of cases just putting +5 skill points on a unarmed do give extra damage that is good.
• But this can also be used as a backup if you made a mistake in putting skill points wrong.
• But as the runs get more optimized your going to get a to a lower max level, and mages need level 7 for Improved Lighting Bolt. So as runs get more optimized this may be needed to get that. And that would be a bigger gain then the unarmed boost is. Also getting Improved Lighting Bolt earlier is not bad either.

The Ogres is just about dancing around the attacks, if you have an frost bomb left it is useful here I guess. If you mess up the first ogre and make it rush at you then your only options may be to try the rush attack dodge or load, as they often kills mages. The 2nd ogre can avoided by walking around the corner if rushing. Rest before or use potions so that you can max out on lighting bolts, they deal much more dmg per energy then anything else. (Or at least I think they do). You can use the torches to know where the Ogres are, in case you don't remember the number of turns. You really don't want any part members to go down on them, the way back is long and it loses too much to go without any members. So use health potions for safety, rather safe then sorry. There is a lot of Tar Bead in next floor if you are out.

Floor 10: The first rooms it's just about taking out the weaker Shrakk Torrs while keeping a decent energy level(fire burst is good here), this tend to be an area that your forced to rest a bit in tho. Also there is an extremely rare softlock on the red gem where the door don't open after moving it, so stay safe and qs before moving it just in case. (I got it once and have read about it but it have never been recreated by any1 that tried from what I understand) There is some Tar Bead if you need them here.

The Goromorg room is usually not too bad if you move fast.

For the area after, avoid using the crystal unless you really have to(a member is down). Or if you have extra Bloodroot and plan on skipping the secret behind it (unlikely) If your forced to fight some Goromorgs then return to the crystal may be required tho.

For the area with just after. Get familiar with the layout, with good rng there is no problems, but with bad rng you may have to dance around in there. Also sometimes when rng is nasty it is just better to kill a Goromorg then to try and get it to move away. (This is mostly if they block the gate to the next part) Also burst down Shrakk Torrs with lighting ball, speed is key to avoid Goromorgs. Unless you used the crystal early there is a crystal soon so energy is fine to use.

For the pressure plat trap, you can use the Lighting Shield spell to face tank it without taking any real dmg. (Saves a few seconds)

In the cave it can often be best to drop invisibility to burst down Scavengers if they are in the way. You don't really need to save energy either. Also I prefer to hold of using invisibility until I'm sure there are no Ogres blocking the way way as it is easier to get them to move out of the way without it.

Try and be to fast when heading back out, if you are too slow then the the risk of bad rng on the Goromorgs that spawn by the keys increases.

Floor 11/12/13:

On the way here try prepare potions and make sure your not yellow in food. You real want your 2 energy potions ready and placed on correct char for the cube, and health is super useful for earlier parts here.

Floor 12: Once you get down to floor 12 there is 2 strats, Waking the Wardens early or late. If you wake them early it adds more rng but it also means it could give an easier(and worse) rng. Waking them late means you have a faster floor 13 route but need to do the first part of the cube with the Wardens always around. But this also means there is less rng per say, as you know what the warden will do, it is just the Goromorgs movement that add rng. In theory waking them late should be faster but there is so much rng at this point and any bad decision cost a lot that it mostly about preferences.

Floor 13: We don't care about energy so burst down the mosquitoes fast with Lighting Bolt if they get in the way! Also in best paced runs you probably will get level 7 mages first here (level 7 = improved lighting bolt) so that helps in cube but if your already level 7 ignore mage level ups Note there are some specific squares that spawn the Tentacles

Floor 12 Again: Returning to floor 12 again will spawn you randomly but I believe there is some fixed spawn location and it seems to be more likely to spawn in some areas. Keeping the cube pieces on your character hands means they are easy to access. Also as there is no combat needed for while we only really care if 1 party members survives, you will get a full heal as you pickup the weapon of power. So keep health potions on front line ready, back row can be ignored here. And be smart with qs, not to often nor to seldom, to avoid problems. But this is an super difficult part that require a lot of super quick decisions and knowledge of pitfalls and enemy positions, sound for sure helps. Also taking an pitfall may be a quick escape if things look bad.

Your front row should be able to tank the poison + all 3 traps with the use of 1 or 2 health potions, but placing a item on the pressure plats is only a very small time lose. The 2nd puzzle require an throwing item, there is apparently a backup rock in floor 11(before poison) or you can use a walk off item throw to get it in case your missing an throwing weapon. For the teleporter, if you can't get the quick walk thro it, just spam walk back walking into it and it will walk thro.

Remember to take off your torch for the Uggardian room. Moving to the left can help getting it to move away from the torch, no need to fight it. (It has much more health then normal Uggardians) Also you can just equip the new torch you picked up directly as you remove it from the wall, light is very helpful in cube fight! And you don't want to take damage after getting weapon of power. qs before portal, bad rng spawn may need instant load.

Cube Fight: This is the by far hardest part of the run! There are multiple strats to deal the cube. But the most important thing is to adept to what is going on.

Phase 1 of the cube fight: The tricks for the first phase is to try keep in 3d image of the cube in the head. Use the time after hitting the cube to calculate where you want to hit it next to get easy access to the next piece. Tho this is easier said then done with everything going on.

A few general tips here:

• Use Lighting Bolt to burst down Shrakk Torrs and Scavengers if they are blocking you, you can kill them super quick.
• Taking a little time to first running around scouting can help instead of directly heading to 1 area and fight the cube. (Tho if you spawn in an area that looks safe to fight the cube in then don't do this)
• Get light, you need to see here.
• Use sound to help locate things if possible.
• Don't be afraid to drop down a pit to save yourself.
• 'Prepare' the area before you start hitting the cube. The cube is the best weapon you have.
• Deaths are super slow, so be ready with load.
• And don't qs after the portal unless you feel confident that you can roll with what you see.
• You can start dealing damage to the cube the moment you remove the final piece, you don't need to wait for it to go red and start moving!

I would say that there is 4 main strats/areas for dealing with the cube.

1. Far Left Area: Is a small closed of area that often is relatively free of enemy's and 'often' is somewhat easy to use. Problems is that sometimes it is filed with things that just makes it not possible to use it, or you spawn far a way and aggro so much on your way here. Also it is the most likely area that you get surprise blocked by something and just die to the cube. But if this area is 'free' and you spawn good, then it is the safest. Using the the strat of going around the pillar if enemys give problems can be important to be aware of here. Note: there is an AI glitch with the cube, making it take an super weird route if it tries to enter the area from the bottom side.(no pits)

2. Bottom Right Area: This is more like 2 connected areas in bottom left, the 3x4 area around the door and a 4x2 around the statues. This area is somewhat closed off and it's rare to get snipped from afar, but also easy to adept and switch to the other place in case things look bad. The 3x4 area is what I consider the main area you try use and use the other as backup if needed. This is honestly my personal fav area to use because it is more open to moving around and easier to deal with other enemys that gets close then Far Left. Another good thing about the 3x4 area that it is best for the first phase of the cube as you can get the cube in the center and have 4 sides open. Overall there is an higher risk of bad things happening here but it is much easier to adept and deal with them.

3. Top Right Area: This is an more open area that is more often then not filed with enemys, but sometimes this area will be relatively clear and then it is a good area to fight the cube in. It is easy to see/hear if any enemys is about to get close. And then you can use the cube to take them out. If you spawn here and it looks 'free' it is worth it. It's good to use if you can keep your brain active on lookout for more things joining and use the cube to take them out. Downside is risk of warden rush attacks from far away and in general this is the hardest area to use. But if your ready to adept on the fly it works well.

4. Free Moving: By not focusing on 1 specific area and just moving around you are less at mercy of that area being suddenly over flowing with enemys. This is mostly used at the beginning of the cube fight as you try and just use it to take out some enemys while hitting the cube if it looks like a good opportunity. And after a while you may find that 1 area looks cleared and focus the 2nd phase of the cube there, as that part of the cube is general always better to be fixed in 1 spot if possible. This is by far the most difficult way of fighting the cube but also the most rewarding if you can keep up with it, but you need very good knowledge of the layout and ability to notice enemys quick. But using this for a bit to just reduce the amount of enemys can be a very useful strat for the start for the cube and can help make sure the later parts runs more smooth.

In general you are mostly going to want to be prepared to use 1 or 2 and maybe keep 4 in mind for the start of the cube fight. 3 is more of an backup strat that mostly just works if either you use 4 and find that area cleared after or if you spawn inside it and no enemys are close. But the key to the cube fight is to be open minded with how you fight it, the more strats you feel confident in using here the more likely it is that the fight will go smoothly. As much rng there may seem to be is in this fight, it is not so much about the rng but more about adapting to what it gives and most rng's have fast ways to deal with it. Of course some rng's are just faster, but there is not that big time difference.