Dungeon Nightmares General Guide

Basic Gameplay
- The goal of the game is to beat all 7 nights 
- To beat a night you must first find the Artifact and then leave through the exit
- Both the Artifact and Exit is randomly placed within the Dungeon
- You spawn in 1 of 3 possible dungeons each night, 2 of the dungeons are pretty good, the other one is not so good
- The only things that can kill you are the monster, skeletons and paintings
	- Paintings are easy to avoid, just don't look at them for more than 5 seconds straight
	- Skeletons become increasingly active as you progress through the nights. If you hear a bone-to-rock sound as you move, it is a skeleton stalking you. They only move (and attack) when you're not looking at them. Catching them on the move once will permanently stop them, until you leave the area and they gets back to their original position. They need 2 hits to kill you
	- The monster is trickier, more details later
- You can view a map of the Dungeon which tracks your progress. Opening this map also pauses the game. You can also turn around while still in the map
- It is common for the screen to suddenly turn completely black for some seconds, what happens here varies, but this is what enables the "No Mary No Candles No Map" glitch, which is achieved by hitting the "esc" key or winning while this is in effect. You can also always move and open doors/chests while this is going on (but you can't pick up items). These 'blackouts' are caused by lighting candles (although they won't happen if the monster is currently present in the map)
- You may see the "Ghost Girl" at times, but note that she is just a hallucination and never damages you (even though it sometimes may look like it), so she can always be ignored. She never appears while you have a candle out (but can appear while you're lighting up a candle)


The Monster
- Her name is Mary and is the biggest threat in the game. It takes two hits from her to kill you on night 1-4, but she oneshots you in night 5-7, meaning you can afford to take damage from her on the earlier nights, but not the later ones
- She is not always present in the Dungeon, in fact she is usually not there at all. You can always know if she is nearby by listening the ambiance sound. The moment this windy background track disappears and all you can hear is your heartbeat is the moment she has spawned and/or and is sufficiently close to you, so be weary when it gets quiet. She will eventually de-spawn, before respawning again at a later point in time. Her spawn-rate increases every night
- She is VERY slow and is very easy to outrun, as long as she's doesn't start running (which rarely happens before the very last few nights if you underestimate her)
- She will scream the moment she spots you, although sometimes she'll just start chasing you without screaming (not sure exactly when or why this happens)
- She will spot you faster if you have a candle out, which is actually beneficial in runs, as the sooner you know her exact location (or that she is not in a room), the faster you can plan out your best course of action. So lighting a candle as soon as it gets quiet is encouraged (and it will also not cause any 'blackouts', because of Mary's presence)
- The further into the game you are, the less time it will take before Mary will start RUNNING after the player after starting a pursuit. In this state she'll eventually catch up with you, even if you run diagonally, as despite you being faster than her while doing this, you'll run out of stamina, but she won't. If this happens, you're only gonna survive if you either beat the night, or manage to close a door between you. So if you encounter her in one the later nights, it is advised to not waste time by opening chests and just get away from her, to prevent her from starting running after you
- Mary can open doors while she is roaming around the dungeon, but cannot do so while chasing you, so closing a door behind you will stop her. If you're trapped in a room with Mary on the other side of the door, wait for her to stop chasing you. She will then open the door, but she will remain idle at the door frame. At this point, simply look in the opposite direction and she will despawn immediately
- Mary will usually know where you are, wether or not she is chasing. Therefore, it is usually always in your best interest to swiftly keep moving to new, unexplored portions of the map when she is nearby, in order to avoid her (but you'll still run into her occasionally) 
- She can walk straight past Skeletons without any hindrance (so don't get trapped by one, and don't try to trap the monster)


Speedrunning tactics
- Moving diagonally is faster than moving straight ahead
- The Exit acts as a light source that can be seen from a distance, and in some cases even through walls, use this to your advantage
- The Artifact will also emit light if it is not located in a chest
- Finding the Artifact before finding the Exit is a lot better than vice-versa, as you no longer have to look through chests and can start scouting for the Exit and the light it produces
- If a door opens towards you, you can phase through it while it is opening
- Whenever you try to open a door, there is a possibility that it will play a jumpscare on you (one a lot milder than the other). When this is happening, it is possible to phase through the door
- When you walk around, dust patches will spawn around you. You can use these dust patches to scout areas you've traversed or been close to to see if Mary is there from a safe distance
- Speaking of Mary, you cannot walk past her in hallways (she blocks the path and you cannot push her), but you can easily run around her and out-manoeuvre her in rooms
- If you hear a door open, it can either be Mary, or just a random sound effect
- Most sound effects are random noises that can be ignored and is not indicative of anything at all. The only audible cues that means something is the background ambiance disappearing (which means Mary is nearby) and the bone-to-rock sound (which means a skeleton is following you)
- Sprinting for too long makes you abruptly stop moving and it will take some time before your speed it back, so try to avoid this
- Pressing "esc" during a night will put you back into the Menu. This can be used when you get the bad Dungeon layouts (but don't press it while viewing a map, as it softlocks the game)
- Opening chests from afar and waiting to see if the Artifact is there without going all the way over to it, is a lot better than always going all the way up to the chest while opening it
- This is for the most part an RNG based run (although the 100% run isn't)

Also, I have my own document where I have documented all relevant aspects of the game
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dV--A3sEsR0c2mTHsik-yREjXdZ9RTTzwwuVUOUCsI0/edit

Desch

Dungeon Nightmares