This guide is an attempt to expand upon the guides from Spleen and WarriorLVL100, with some more detailed strats. I'll also briefly discuss running at higher difficulties (Dwarven Moderation and Going Rogue).

---Starting the Game---

Pick Elves difficulty if you're running Any%. Once you've learned the Any% run, the higher difficulties use the same strats but require more patience. Turn on "No Time To Grind" and turn off Permadeath and the Diggle Gods levels. I haven't attempted to speedrun the Diggle Gods content, but I suspect it would make for much longer runs without adding anything interesting.

---Choosing Skills---

My usual skill loadout, from most essential to least is:

Promethean Magic, obviously. It's overpowered. The spells you care about are Dragon's Breath (the initial skill which you'll use to kill animals on floor 1), Summon Wyrmling (the best and most important spell, deals a ton of damage and tanks enemy attacks so you don't have to worry about your own HP or defense outside of traps), and Tactical Pyre (best way to deal damage later in the run, particularly against Dredmor himself).

Magical Law and Golemancy, for the Gag Order + Unliving Wall lock. Confiscate Evidence is also occasionally useful for grabbing magic equipment that you can't physically reach.

Ley Walker and Blood Magic for regenerating mana. Ley gives you Thaumaturgic Tap, Blood Magic just gives you passive regeneration when you kill things.

Killer Vegan - bit of a double-edged sword, but it makes all animals peaceful forever no matter what, which saves your bacon pretty often. Just don't accidentally click on cheese, the debuff can absolutely end a run.

Mathemagic - the random-teleport Jump Continuity spell can be useful sometimes. Leveling it up can get you some marginally useful spells, but I pretty much never level this.

---Leveling Skills---

On floor 1, level Promethean twice to get the Wyrmling, then go downstairs and summon. Keep leveling Promethean until you get Tactical Pyre, then level Ley Walker once to put Thaumaturgic Tap on the end of your hotbar. Then you need two levels in Law and two in Golemancy to get the Dredmor lock (you'll need to manually add Gag and Wall to your hotbar). Ideally you get one or two more levels which can go into Ley Walker for more passive mana regeneration - if you don't get at least one, you're in danger of running out of gas vs. Dred. For Easy difficulty, that should be enough and any additional levels are a luxury. At higher difficulties, you'll want to reach at least Channeler and then put additional levels into Mathemagic or other magical skills, maybe one or two into Killer Vegan so you can be a bit tankier.

---Prepare for Dred---

Your Magic Power stat should be around 30 before you reach Lord Dredmor on the 10th floor. Somewhere in the high 20's might be okay, but if you're at 25 or lower you will simply not deal damage fast enough to take him down in a timely fashion. Also, your Mana Regeneration should be at least 3, preferably 4. If it's lower, you run a high risk of running out of mana against Dredmor and losing either the lockdown, your damage output, or both. Leveling up Ley Walker to Channeler should get this to 3, and grabbing a Crown of Yellow (guaranteed drop on the 8th floor) or other good magical equipment can bring it up to 4. On higher difficulties, the Mana Regeneration will need to be even higher, so you'll need to grind some levels and search for more equipment.

---Strats by Floor---

Floor 1: use Dragon Breath to kill anything you find. Remember to never attack animals in melee! You can melee a hostile enemy (potato, gnome, blobby) if you're out of mana. Don't be stingy with the alcohol, you'll get a lot more of it on later floors. This part is MUCH more difficult on Rogue difficulty and you will have a lot of trouble keeping your mana high enough. Statues are really valuable on this floor for the extra EXP. You might hit a trap and die, but you can just start over. Level up twice to get Summon Wyrmling.

Floor 2: as soon as you see an enemy, summon your wyrmling friend. Mainly, you should be looking for stairs down. If you happen to find the Baron, grab his hat for a slight boost to Magic Power, but you'll get better headwear later so don't go specifically looking for him.

Floor 3: on Any%, just look for stairs. You can look for a Cybertronic Amulet here, especially if you're doing safety/marathon strats, but it's not really a difference maker.

Floor 4, 5, 6: again, just try to find down stairs as quickly as possible. If you open a Monster Zoo, summon a new wyrmling at the entrance, shut the door if possible, and look for an alternate route. It's fine if this happens because you want to gain a couple of levels, but you don't need to specifically try to grind yet. If you find magic-raising equipment on the way, grab it and put it on.

Floor 7: if you haven't picked up at least a few levels by now, you might want to hang around here for a bit and try to grind & look for magic equipment. Just be careful of Snow Baal's which are immune to Tactical Pyre and can be a problem for your wyrmling. You especially might want to grind if you are on Rogue difficulty, as you will need the extra levels, better equipment, etc.

Floor 8: Stop. Do not go down to Floor 9 without the following:

• 30 Magic Power, or at least high 20's

• Mana Regeneration of 3 or higher (even higher on the harder difficulties)

• Gag Order and Unliving Wall. If you're unsure if you have them, try to add them to your hotbar

On Floor 8, do whatever grinding you need to reach the above criteria. There is a guaranteed Crab King enemy on this floor which will drop a Crown of Yellow (+3 Magic, +1 Mana) and you have a solid chance of finding powerful equipment. If you're not finding enough magic items, you can go downstairs and hope to find them on 9 or 10, but this is risky and might not work out for you. If you're in a marathon or race where you want to ensure finishing the run, play it safe here. If you're going for PB, maybe you roll the dice here.

Save your game before going down to Floor 9. You did remember to turn permadeath off, right?

Floor 9: Pray that the down staircase spawns right next to you. Otherwise, spend as little time on this floor as possible. If you get a bad floor (large batch of enemies at the beginning, zoo, etc.) just take an intentional death, reload your 8th-floor save, and hope the game generates a better floor. Most of these enemies are fire-resistant and take forever to kill.

Floor 10: Unless you are underpowered and looking for equipment, you're hoping to find Lord Dredmor as quickly as possible here. Your wyrmling alone will not be enough to take out enemies so you will need to rely on Tactical Pyre more than ever. If you have everything you need already, don't worry about items too much, but pick up a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster if you don't already have one. They should be all over the place, and you'll want one for the final battle.

You might find Dredmor right away! Or it might take 20 minutes, you might walk into a zoo, etc. You are at the mercy of RNG here. Again, you can save on floor 9 and try to regenerate the floor if it's bad, but mainly you will need to be lucky here.

---The Fight With Lord Dredmor---

As soon as you see Dredmor, put Gag Order and Unliving Wall on your hotbar, and cast Gag Order on him. Use Unliving Wall to box Dredmor in so he can't get into melee range - if there are other enemies nearby you may find it better to build the wall around yourself to keep them away from you. If Dred is already in melee range once you Gag him, try to put a wyrmling next to him - this will stall him for a turn or two so you can back up and build your wall. Dred can and will one-shot the wyrmling, so your damage will once again come from Tactical Pyre here. Drink a Pan-Galactic, use Thaumaturgic Tap as much as possible, and stay drunk for the entire fight. If you have Potion of Mana, Night Cap, etc. that will help to prevent running out of mana. Watch Dredmor to see when Gag Order falls off and re-apply it immediately or else you will get zapped and die. Re-applying Gag when it's already on is useless, you need to wait for it to fall off and then cast it. Replenish the walls every now and then or else Dredmor will walk into range and one-shot you. Apply fire liberally, but make sure you don't get low on mana, and make sure you have a wyrmling on your side of the wall or some other plan for protection against random enemy spawns. There are a lot of things that can go wrong and you will have to be careful here. As soon as Dredmor hits 0 HP, that's time, congrats on finishing the run!

---Questions? Comments? Anything I can improve here?---

Ask away in the forums and I will do my best to help!