Introduction
Ancient Dungeon is a game that is a classic example of "easy to learn, hard to master". The game has simple mechanics but it has randomly generated maps, over 400 different rooms, and a wide variety of enemies. As such, gamesense, knowing when to fight and when to disengage, and the proper way to dispatch bosses quickly is key to speedrunning.
There are two different weapon combos that you can currently choose from: the Sword and Knife combo and the Crossbow and Dagger combo. These combos make up two out of the three speedrunning categories currently available.
Regardless of the Speedrun weapon combo category you would like to pursue, the speedrunning guide and tips will be similar, with some key differences that I will make sure to note.
General Tips for Both Any% Categories
The first couple of things you need to do before you get started speedrunning is to make sure your Speedrun timer is turned on and to make sure you have all mods disabled. You can do this by navigating to your setting menu, making sure all mods have an 'X' by them, navigating to the advanced settings tab and enabling the Speedrun Timer.
##Don't Stop Moving
Time starts from the moment you enter the dungeon until the moment that you kill the Beast. As such, it is important to keep the following in mind: NEVER STOP MOVING. This is going to be one of the most important pieces of advice here.
You need to be constantly moving for two main reasons:
- To get a competitive time and finish the levels quickly and
- To not get overwhelmed by enemies.
See a slime coming towards you? Bonk it out of the way. Big mean zombie dashing towards you? Bonk. Those stupid purple slimes? Bonk. Speedy skeletons? Bonk. You get the picture.
There are very few enemies in the game that can catch up to you and that you need to worry about. You may even have to very briefly stop and take care of them before continuing. These enemies include: orange slimes, skeletons, the flying skulls, the monster bat, and wisps.
##Minimap and Gamesense
Minimap, minimap, minimap! Your minimap is going to become your best friend and is a key component to your Speedrun. You need to be like a hawk watching your minimap, as this is the way you will save an enormous amount of time by not going into dead end rooms and getting lost.
As you enter a room, your minimap will automatically generate the room layout. Use this to determine whether or not to continue going down this path or to turn back. If the minimap is shown encompassed by a solid black line like it means the room is a dead end, and if it shows the room with an opening it means that that room is not a dead end.
Your main goal for each level is to get to the second stage, and then to get to the boss room as quickly as possible.
Every level, without exception, will have a second stage. You will know you've gotten to the second stage once you see a drop down or a narrow path. You need to get to this stage as quickly as possible as the boss level will always be in the second stage.
Boss rooms are generally located on the opposite side from where you first started in the dungeon and look like this. When faced with multiple different paths, a good rule of thumb to follow is to follow the path that is more opposite from your starting room.
Level Guide
In this section I'll be covering a few things speedrunners need to note for each level.
##The Overgrown Gatehouse/The Infected Dungeon:
I'm combining these two levels since they are both relatively simple and quick to navigate through. Ideally, you should be done with these two and onto The Forgotten Library in less than three minutes.
The Overgrown Gatehouse is the simplest level of the game. Just bonk a few slimes and zombies out of the way, follow your minimap, kill the boss, and you should be good to go.
The Infected Dungeon is pretty similar to the first level, with a few wrenches thrown into it. Make sure to block the dashing zombies and preemptively kill any exploding crawlers that you run into to prevent taking any unnecessary damage. Don't waste your time hitting the exploding bulbs as you can easily run past them without them hitting you. Just like the last level, follow your minimap, defeat the Doom Shroom, and you'll be on to The Forgotten Library.
##The Forgotten Library:
This is where things can get tricky, especially with the twists and turns of the map. Your goal of reaching the second stage and the boss is still the same, but the number of portals and room layouts can get confusing.
Portals can seem confusing but are relatively easy to understand. When you enter a room with a portal on the left and a portal on the right, generally the left portal transports you to where you entered into the room, and the right portal transports you to the opposite side. All of the other rooms are relatively straightforward as long as you're paying attention to your minimap.
A couple of enemies to note in this level are the: parry attacker and slimes.
You cannot do damage to the parry attacker without first, as the name suggests, parrying his attacks. Defeating him takes a lot of time, so don't even bother engaging with him.
There are two different types of slimes in this level: purple slimes and orange slimes.
Purple slimes might seem difficult at first, but are relatively easy to deal with. Right before as they dash at you, sidestep them and bonk them out of the way. As long as you continue moving, they won't be able to catch up to you.
Orange slimes are one of the most dangerous enemies in the game due to their movement and speed. If at all possible, try to avoid them by making them fall into a pit or by choosing a path that leads away from them (as long as it's in the correct direction). If you must engage with them, you should take a brief moment to fight them by sidestepping right as they dash at you and always keeping an eye on them, even if it means stopping for a few seconds. While this will add some time to your run, it's better than getting constantly harassed and attacked by this orange devil.
Continue on and finish the Rabid Bestiary, and you'll be on to The Luminous Mines.
##The Luminous Mines:
This is where runs go to die. Forget the relative simplicity of the past few levels, because you'll find none of that here. The mines are a difficult place full of fast enemies. You'll need to be quick to react if you want to make it out of here alive.
The rooms are pretty straightforward, but they are dark and there are a lot of dead ends. You'll need to keep an extra close eye on your minimap to not get trapped in a room, swarmed by enemies, and have no way out.
This level contains some of the most difficult non-boss enemies in the game.
You know how I was saying that most enemies can't catch up to you? There are two major exceptions to that, and lucky for you, they're both in the mines! Both the flying skulls and the skeletons can catch up to you very quickly. They typically spawn in numbers, so you must be very cautious to not get swarmed.
The flying skulls are easy to kill with just one hit of your sword (or dagger) but are easy to lose track of when you're trying to speed through the dungeon. They will make a distinctive sound before dashing, so make sure to pay attention.
The skeletons are, in my opinion, the most difficult part of the mines. They usually spawn in numbers, and come in two different variations: the miner skeleton and the normal skeleton.
Both can catch up to you quickly, but the miners have a helmet that protects them from initial damage, and launch a pickaxe at you from afar. Make sure to deflect this back at them to deal major damage, and then either run past them or deal with them quickly.
It is actually possible to go through the mine without killing anything. By holding your sword and swinging it behind you as skeletons are chasing you, they will be hit and knocked back. If this is done correctly and you keep moving, they will not be able to reach you, and if you kill the boss quickly enough, they will despawn once you enter the next level. Be wary though, as this is an easy way to get overwhelmed in the boss room if you're not too careful.
Show the Elder Skeleton who's boss and continue on the final level (for now).
The Beast's Cradle:
This is it, the final level. You've successfully bonked slimes, yeeted yourself off of ladders, out-skeled the skeletons, and are now ready to face The Beast himself.
###First Phase:
The Beast's 1st Phase is a simple one, but not one that's always simple to beat quickly. He will shoot lasers at you from his four tentacles. After a certain amount of time (around 15 seconds) the Beast retreats, become invulnerable, and summons fire to attack you from the ground. This will repeat until all four tentacles are destroyed. Your job is to destroy all four before the Beast is able to retreat to save as much time as possible.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to accomplishing this, as it is largely dependant to what perks and abilities you were able to acquire before this. Getting as close as possible to the tentacles reduces the amount of time needed to hit them as you retrieve your projectile quicker, in exchange for being more vulnerable to his laser attacks. One cool thing to note too is that both explosive marks do work on the tentacles if you are close enough to them.
###Second Phase
For The Beast's Second Phase he has two attacks that he will use: shooting at you like he did in the first phase, and opening his mouth and launching fire at you.
Whichever one he uses, it is your job to finish him as quickly as possible. It's easy to stand back, dodge his attacks, and attack him with your ranged weapon, but this takes a lot of time. You need to get right under him, attack him with your sword and ranged weapon at the same time to finish his second phase off quickly.
###Third and Final Phase
After you traverse through the skull room again, you will enter into The Beast's Third and Final Phase. This is the easiest phase of them all, as he cannot damage you as long as you time your attacks right. Use your ranged weapon to get some hits off on him before he charges at you, and then hit him with your sword.
Do this enough times to finish him off, and there you go. You are victorious! Your Speedrun time should appear as you land the final hit.
Timeskips
There are two main timeskips that you need to be aware of. While performing these skips isn't absolutely necessary to get a decent run, they do save a large amount of time. These timeskips are the:
- No Clip Glitch
- The Rabid Bestiary Skip
##No Clip Glitch:
The no clip glitch is a glitch that both saves time and reduces the amount of damage taken. It is used in two main situations: to avoid battle rooms and to avoid the flying skulls in The Beast's Cradle.
###Battle Rooms
Battle rooms close the walls around you and spawn enemies when you enter the room. Typically you would waste around 10 to 20 seconds battling these enemies, but with the no clip glitch you can easily bypass this.
To do this glitch, get right next to the wall you would like to no clip through. Click on the menu button of your controller (Oculus button for Oculus, home button for PCVR) and physically move forward in your playspace until you reach the other side of the wall
One thing to note is that when you perform this glitch, it's possible for the future levels to become glitched as well, forcing you to noclip your way through multiple different rooms, possibly wasting a few seconds along the way.
###Skull Room in The Beast's Cradle
You get transported to the flying skull room each time after completing the Beast's phases. If you are low on health or otherwise fear the damage from the skulls, you can no clip through the wall right next to the pit.
You can do this by getting right next to the wall, and no clipping through the wall as you did in the battle room. Once you do this you should be on top of the invisible ceiling of the room containing all of the skulls. Using your minimap, navigate to the main area. Once you get to the invisible wall blocking your path, no clip through that wall and you should be good to go.
While this may take a few seconds longer than completing this stage normally, it could quite possibly save your run if you are on low health or allow you to be more aggressive when it comes to fighting the Beast.
##The Rabid Bestiary Time Save:
In the Forgotten Library you will face the Rabid Bestiary, a boss that spawns enemies after you hit him three times. You have to finish these enemies before you can damage the boss again. How you handle this boss will be directly correlated with how your run goes. Each time he gets to spawn enemies is around 20 seconds of your run that's wasted.
A good way to minimize the amount of times he's able to spawn enemies is to hit him with both of your weapons at the same time (throwing your knife and hitting him with your sword or shooting a crossbolt at him and slicing him with your dagger). Helpful perks include Orb of Obliteration, Glutton's Mark, and more.
Movement
There is not much room to make your movement optimal in this game. You can't jump and you can't run. There are a few caveats to this though: The Flickering Orb, The Messenger's Mark (Dash), and Ladders/Climb Rings.
The first two are relatively simple. The Flickering Orb gives you a boost for 30 seconds. The Messenger's Mark allows you to dash forward about seven steps each time you kill an enemy, and you take no damage from dashing into enemies.
The last trick involves ladders and climb rings and is a bit more complex to master. This trick takes some practice but can be a huge time saver if you can get it down. First, grab onto the ladder (the top part is preferable). Then, pull yourself back a bit and launch yourself in the direction you want to go. As you complete your movements, release the grab button and hold your left analog stick towards the direction you want to travel relative to the way your head is facing (credit to Froodle for this tip). If all of this is done correctly, you should have been able to launch yourself a good distance.
Conclusion
Speedrunning takes a lot of practice, but is very fun and satisfying to do. If you have any questions feel free to ask in the Discord linked on the Ancient Dungeon speedrunning profile. Happy speedrunning!
