Introductory tips and basics to running 10,000,000

The goal of the any% run is to score 10,000,000 points and achieve freedom as fast as possible.  This is achievable after a certain level of gear, which is dependent on player skill.  At the root of this gearing is resource farming, which is gathering the Wood, Stone, Gold, and XP required to reach this gear level.  Completing the quests that are listed on each run allows for quick progression up ranks and increases the resource multiplier as well as the reward for completing each quest.  So, it follows that clearing quests as fast as possible allows for the quickest runs.  This guide should get you well on your way of how to do that.

I recommend having the Quest List guide open for reference while reading through this (http://www.speedrun.com/10000000/guide/mpjxf).

There are several important things to keep in mind during each run (note that a "run" in this guide will be one trip through the dungeon, not a full speedrun).  Some exceptions apply but these are a good starting point.
-Always attempt to complete all 3 quests in each run.
-Save items or set up for future quests.
-Make sure to always be matching, even during down time between enemies.  The goal is to be as time efficient with your resource gathering as possible.
-As a result of matching, use the "checkered line" bonus as often as possible for extra gold and experience.  A good run has approximately 15% of the gold coming from bonuses (according to my stats so far).

By completing all quests, you'll have a steady flow of income from quests as well as rapid increase in resources.

These are the base rules.  From here on, I'll go over some of the exceptions that take times from good to better.

-You can farm the checkered line by falling behind it and then going ahead again.  By doing this, you can get several bonuses in one run and earning significant amounts of gold and xp along the way.
-In some cases, it is better to let enemies kill you to complete quests faster (and unlock certain others quicker).  The most prominent example is in the first run after the tutorial.  It is best to use one item and then immediately let the monsters kill you.  By doing this, you will unlock the "rank up" quest to do at the same time as the others (if you did not do this, you would do two full runs at the lowest rank instead of one and earning very few resources.  The next rank up gives twice as many resources). 

Those are the main gameplay improvements you can make.  The next part of the guide will cover upgrade pathing.

There are 5 things that can be upgraded: Passives, Sword, Staff, Shield, and Armor.  Passives are the only one of these 5 that require XP to level up.  With your gold, you must choose what to upgrade of the remaining 4.
For XP, I find getting passives that improve your survivability to be very strong early on, as well as resource increases.  Wood/Stone gives time and +10% gold and +10% XP are priorities early on.  All passives will be gained eventually with some exceptions, as you should be able to complete the game before getting all passives (check some VoDs for this, I don't really care to list the ones remaining here).  This is fairly straightforward since everything is gained with one resource.

As with most speed things, prioritizing damage is very important, leaving just enough survivability to complete quests and get bonuses.  However, there's a bit more depth to even the damage upgrades that is important to note.  There are three types of enemies: Armored, Neutral, and Ranged.  These are listed on the right side of the screen before entering a dungeon run from top to bottom respectively.  Armored enemies take reduced damage from swords, ranged enemies take reduced damage from staves, and neutral enemies hit very hard.  It is good to prioritize upgrades to the weapon that deals with the strongest enemies.  For example, water elementals are the first ranged or armored enemy that replace a weaker enemy of that type (they replace the skeleton archer).  So, I find it best to concentrate on sword upgrades to start.  These upgrades deal with water elementals quickly and remove the threat they are.  After water elementals, fallen soldiers are switched out and replaced with iron golems.  These physically resistant enemies need staff upgrades to be dispatched with.  This time also coincides with a quest to "Kill an enemy with only orbs", which is not easy to get unless you have upgraded your staves (orb/axe damage scales based on weapon damage).  This is just one example of how to optimize your damage against enemies to complete quests faster.

I think that about covers everything that I use in a run.  I'll probably record a video on this tomorrow (and edit this line) that goes over this.  If you have any questions, PM me on twitch, talk in my chat, comment on the youtube video, etc.

Quest List

My notes on all the quests.  Total fails allowed shows the maximum number of fails of any quest to be optimal.  So, for a rank with 8 quests including the rank up quest, one is allowed since that will still leave the last quest of the 3rd run as the rank up quest.  This is optimal and is very unlikely to happen though, but it does give some goal.

Extra notes are in parenthesis and should be used to prepare ahead for future quests.  Note that the "in x run(s)" means that's optimally how many runs it is away.  Failing a quest will delay this.

¤Wayfarer¤
20 Swords
Use Item
8 double
Rank up (60k) (Save one Axe for Use Axe in one run from now)

¤Vagabond¤
5 chain
Survive 1.5 mins
Use Axe
Kill 6 monsters
60 gold
Use Scroll
100 Wood/Stone
70 matches
Rank up (110k)  Total fails allowed: 0

¤Crawler¤
Open a chest in < 3 seconds
160 XP
Open 3 chests	(Save at least one Axe for "Kill ranged in <5 seconds" and "only physical" quests in 2 runs)
36 Staves
30 tiles/10 seconds
2 Triple Matches
Kill ranged in <5 seconds	(Save at least two orbs for "Kill a monster with only orbs" in 2 runs)
Kill ranged with only physical
Four 4-in-a-row matches
Rank up (200k)  Total fails allowed: 2

¤Scout¤
Kill a monster with only orbs (Get +25% item power with XP)
10 Double Matches
Food before timeout (Use food during white fade)
26 backpacks
Open chest with Skeleton Key (Cannot only open the 2nd lock, must do it on a completely locked chest)
150 stone and wood
1 shot a monster (The monster can die to poison damage and have it qualify as one hit)
200 gold (Save orbs and an offensive scroll for "Kill monster with scroll" and "Kill armored with only magical damage" in 2 runs)
Survive 2 mins
Kill 7 monsters
Rank up (380k)  Total fails allowed: 1

¤Questor¤
32 wood tiles
Kill monster with scroll
Kill armored with only magical damage
Open a chest in a single move
Perform 90 matches
Get a 5 in a row (Save axes for "Use 2 axes" in 2-3 runs)
600 XP
44 keys
8 chain
Open 5 chests
Use 2 axes
Rank up (700k)  Total fails allowed: 0 or 3

¤Adventurer¤
40 matches 10 seconds
Kill armored within 5 seconds (Save any key scroll and any other scroll for "Triple Match with scroll" and "Open chest/door with scroll" in 2-3 runs)
Eight 4-in-a-row matches
Kill a boss
Match 30 stone tiles
3 triple matches
Kill enemy before timeout (Can lower then hit during white fadeout)
Triple match with scroll
Open chest/door with scroll (Save food items for "Eat 3 food items" in 2 runs)
Two 5-in-a-row matches
Rank up (1.4m)  Total fails allowed: 1

¤Explorer¤
Eat 3 food items
12 double matches
800 stone and wood (Potion this if needed)
1000 gold
Kill 9 monsters
30 shields
3600 XP
Rank up (2.4m)  Total fails allowed: 1

¤Master¤
Kill enemy with poison damage
50 tiles in 10 seconds
5 chests
Find 5 items
5 triple matches (Should be pushing for 10m around here, very hard quest)
4-in-a-row with wildcard
8 Four-in-a-row
120 matches
Three 5-in-a-row
Survive 2.5 mins
Rank up (4m)  Total fails allowed: 1

¤Hero¤
Rank up (7m)
Win

Name	Author
Introductory tips and basics to running 10,000,000	7thAce 9 years ago
Quest List	7thAce 9 years ago