Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup (DCSS) | Complete Beginner's Guide and Beyond! | Episode 1

[@07Dsach]

This is such a nostalgia trip, I studied abroad in 2013 and the Teaching Assistant was super into the indie gaming scene. Tons of nights playing this and dwarf fortress after a night out at a bar 😂

[@DrIncompetent]

Haha, that sounds right! When I was in grad school, I ended many nights playing this and DF as well haha

[@daniel5730]

I remember playing this in 2013 while skipping college, lmao. I remember minotaur abyssal knight was OP back then.

[@masnkevin93]

I've been getting into this game recently after my friend(who is deathly obsessed with this game) kept insisting that I keep giving this game a try. So many times I've died in early game and just felt so defeated and almost uninstalled the game but so far I am running a human necromancer with a powerful pain whip and a crap ton of resistance equipment/rings and am almost at endgame. So many situations where I could have died and you can just walk away for an hour pondering about a difficult situation and then going through all the scrolls and potions at hand to see what the best move will be. I'm definitely hooked on this game now on how much thought you have to put into it

[@DrIncompetent]

I agree! That's what keeps me coming back, which is that it's almost like a puzzle game that gets more complex and rewarding the deeper you go and the more options you have. Trust me, I walk away pondering what might have been for a long time after I die haha. It's almost always my fault and I could have prevented it, so you try and learn and move on. Fantastic game!

[@yggreuyri5822]

Why is this game literally not getting any traction? This is the greatest turnbased game with unlimited replayability which is the recipe for quality streaming content. It has online rankings too

[@DrIncompetent]

Haha, it's my favorite roguelike. It's so good. When I first started streaming, it was the only game I played ;D

[@Melodiousvoicess]

Reasons 1.big learning curve 2.not super inviting graphics 3.too much in-depth and complex gameplay for normal audience

[@styxrakash4639]

@@Melodiousvoicessthese are the hard truths

[@daniel5730]

@@Melodiousvoicess Same can be said about Dwarf Fortress probably, but it was always somewhat popular.

[@josephirgang6470]

First time I've heard of this game and it seems right in the center of my alley. I actually thought the falling through the floor mechanic looked kind of fun and raised the stakes.

[@DrIncompetent]

This game is great! You are so right--falling through the floor definitely raises the stakes and is a huge shock when it happens haha

[@joelbarr1163]

Thanks for keeping these current! I check this game out every year or so and never really get the hang of it

[@DrIncompetent]

You are quite welcome! This game is fantastic and they update it a lot, so the guides need to be current to reflect some of the massive changes they have made recently ;)

[@iga1691]

Wow, I haven't played DCSS since 2010! Thanks for reminding me of it, I see it has been updated regularly since then - excited to jump back in and start a new run after 13 years lol

[@DrIncompetent]

Haha, awesome! Yeah DCSS is so great. I sometimes take a year or so break and it's always there waiting haha

[@cms53]

Wanted to post a thanks! Just finished my first successful run using your guide.

[@DrIncompetent]

Congrats! That's so awesome. A win in DCSS is tombstone caliber material haha 😄

[@goosechasing]

Thanks for taking the time to make this video. Very helpful indeed!

[@DrIncompetent]

Fantastic--so glad it was helpful :) Enjoy this game! It's my favorite roguelike ;)

[@thomass2505]

I found this game a couple days ago, having read "surviving the game as a barbarian" and hearing just recently that it's loosely based on this game. I just played yesterday, and it was so great that it's now today (started at 10 ish, maybe 9:30 and stopped at 1:30)

[@DrIncompetent]

Haha, awesome! Yeah, it's such a fun game!

[@thomass2505]

@@DrIncompetent first run we're on floor nine I got 27 strength I've got an awesome +2 spear that gives me extra will resistance to fire poison and one other thing as well as an extra 7 AC on a hit. I got +5 will chainmail. I decided to go Trog cause he's pretty simple overall it feels.

[@beilog7489]

I found this game because i started reading a manhwa thats based on it. I loved the concept and ideas that they showed me so I had to go ahead and try it. This is my first game of this type and im loving it! And the guide was definitely necessary haha

[@DrIncompetent]

Awesome! So glad you are finding the series to be helpful :D

[@faithlesszealot5032]

I'm a very new player (in fact just started playing today). I have been watching your guide I think I'm 8 or 9 episodes? It's when you start to explore Dungeon 11. I decided to follow your guide and do the same build. So during my run on Level 2 I immediately saw Sigmund as soon as I descended. I put an X on the stairs and made a note for myself, went down a different staircase and encountered Natasha three times! (in separate instances mind) I berserked and killed her all three times and I managed to even kill Sigmund with Trog's Will and Berserk and my level went from 4 to 6 instantly lol. Thanks for the guide and to anyone reading this comment I can tell you from experience this guy knows what he's talking about.

[@DrIncompetent]

Hey, nice job! It's always so fun to go up multiple levels when you kill a particularly strong foe. You killed all of Natasha's spawns and Sigmund on your first day--you're doing great! I'm so glad the guide was helpful :) Have fun with this awesome game. Minotaur Zerker is such a strong build ;)

[@faithlesszealot5032]

@@DrIncompetent Yeah I'm still playing! I'm on Lair 2 I beaten Ossuary and Ice Cave and found a ring of +6 Str +Negativeresist and +3 Slay I have the Warlock Mirror +3 Shield with Reflect and a Broad Axe and I'm also basically maxed piety with Trog I'll let you know when I die!

[@faithlesszealot5032]

@@DrIncompetent I got all the way to the bottom of the Slime Pits and I got killed by an Acid Blob that spawned when fighting the royal jelly I had gotten two runes and reached level 19 so for my very first run I'm pretty happy. I'm glad your build was able to take me this far!

[@crakerjacker4190]

This game is such a trip to play during class

[@DrIncompetent]

Haha, it's a classic!

[@michael2592]

Decided to try out roguelikes and this is a great tutorial thank you

[@DrIncompetent]

You are so welcome! I hope you are having fun with this game--it's my favorite roguelike!

[@michael2592]

@@DrIncompetent I am so far, though I've only scratched the surface

[@majesticgent]

I am not new to rougelikes, but I am new to DCSS. Since it is like the others I was able to pick it up quickly, but it has its own quirks that I haven't figured out. I still foolhardily rush into battles and wind up dead with an Orc Priest smites me with Beogh's rage! I did use a minotaur berserker for my first few runs, but now I'm going through all of the character types just to see if there are any that work. One of my favorite characters is a Tengu conjurer with the power ranged magic dart spell. They can do a bit of everything, but the only problem is they're a bit weak if you get cornered, or run up against another power ranged character. They also can't wear armor or else they lose their powerful melee attributes.

[@DrIncompetent]

Orc Priests are the bane of many early characters! Smite is no joke. haha Tengus are great spellcasters and once you get them past the early game, you can start blowing up the whole room with nukes haha

[@Necronth]

Thanks for this Doc! :) This motivates me to actually try getting into this game.

[@DrIncompetent]

Of course my friend! I hope you try it! It's so fun--even though you die most of the time haha. Amazing that it's free...

[@abrahamhmar7317]

Thank you so much for this guide. I wanted to play this game on my own but got overwhelmed by it.

[@DrIncompetent]

You are so welcome! This game is tremendous, but certainly overwhelming at first ;)

[@plasticflower]

It's a fantastic game indeed and it does a lot to make many mechanics as clear and transparent as possible. But still with the complexity, there are often situations where I find myself wondering about things. Say, for example, I find a shield and it has a block value of 3. And then I wonder, is that a 3% chance to completely block an attack? Is it 3 damage off any attack, or 3 damage off when I manage to block? Maybe this gets adressed in this video (I hope I can find the time to watch it later), maybe not, but anyhow I wanted to say thanks for creating this guide! I haven't yet watched it all, but your voice is really nice to listen to and you explain things very clearly. Let's hope many more people discover DCSS and how well thought out it is.

[@DrIncompetent]

I know! It can be maddening at times. They are getting better at making these mechanics more transparent, mercifully. Also, the DCSS wiki usually has equations that break down what the numbers mean, but even then it can be murky haha. The way I understand it, block value (or most values, like AC, Dodge) indicate that a random number is "rolled" when you try to block that has a range of 0-Block Value. This gives you a block score that the incoming attack has to exceed to hit (if it's capable of being blocked) and if it doesn't you block it! Dodge is rolled before block. If you don't dodge or block, it hits, then you subtract your AC and DV in a way to see how much damage you take. This is undoubtedly over-simplifying, but it's how I think about it haha. Bigger numbers are usually the best ;) So glad you enjoy this guide--the game, as you say, is fantastic :) It's just a little tough to get into, given the difficulty and opacity of some stats and numbers, I agree.

[@plasticflower]

@@DrIncompetent Thanks for the explanation. I checked the Wiki for players' to hit calculation and it had the same double layered random roll mechanic, where the ceiling of the final roll is first determined by random rolls that have the skill's value as a ceiling. 🤔 I wonder what the motivation was to implement it like this? I guess in other games where players can get a high AC, it can lead to situations where the monsters can never roll high enough to get a hit in. This is different when AC/dodge/etc doesn't take full effect on most swings.

[@DrIncompetent]

I know! It is so interesting... Once set of randomness should be enough, so why 2 rolls? The thing to remember mercifully with AC is that even though there is a random roll for AC, you have a GDR (guaranteed damage reduction) which will mitigate a set amount so you can't roll a 1 and get killed by something doing smaller damage that rolls max if you have high GDR, which most heavier armors do. GDR is another fun calculation that has shifted over time, but is based around base armor value, kind of? haha

[@plasticflower]

@@DrIncompetent Ok, wow, so much stuff. Do you know if, when you examine an enemy and it displays some percentages about to-hit chance and possible damage, whether that is the actual, final average after all those calculations? Or are these only base values that are then further modified?

[@Fordddyyy]

If this was the first thing that came up when you search for dcss that would be a good thing

[@DrIncompetent]

Haha, that would be cool 😎

[@plasticflower]

At the time of writing this, it is for me

[@DrIncompetent]

Well, that's great! Haha

[@chimpuiudbilaw4871]

It is now!

[@Kiaulen]

Yeah, the last streamer I watched playing Dcss stopped uploading, so I'm glad to have found the good doctor

[@indieplaysob5333]

Hey I just started playing and this really helped me out. Thanks!

[@DrIncompetent]

Oh, great! I'm so glad you found this helpful :) Enjoy the game!

[@moecrackus6948]

Thx so much for this guide I like watching videos of this game but had no idea how to play or access it

[@DrIncompetent]

My pleasure! I'm so happy this was helpful :) I love this game and am always trying to get more people to play it haha

[@Fordddyyy]

Great video, I played this game pretty often for about 3 years before moving on to other rouglikes and am making the return. For something so generic it really does feel unique to me. The last time I played this I'm pretty sure you had to eat and also manage rotting meat in your inventory?

[@DrIncompetent]

Haha, thanks my friend! Yes! They just recently removed food. Wild changes all around! No cursed items or identifying them as well!

[@Jade-il4vk]

new to the dungeon crawler genre, thank you for the advice with this video!

[@DrIncompetent]

You are so welcome! Glad you found it to be helpful :D

[@bossdoor]

Been getting huge into ToME, what would you say the main differences between tome and dcss are?

[@DrIncompetent]

Good question! They are both awesome games. Two main differences that come to mind are: 1) ToME is more lore intensive, with a questing system and a more developed story and mythology; 2) ToME has more combat abilities that use cooldowns, and such, as well as more things in general to do in a fight, leading sometimes to 3 rows of action bars ;) The sheer amount of variables, resistances, item abilities and brands is amazing in ToME, but for me, coming from DCSS, it is less certain at times which item is an upgrade and what enemies will present challenges. This may just be symptomatic of me having more experience with DCSS. I feel like DCSS is more like a puzzle/chess roguelike, with minimal emphasis on story and focused on what to do each round to stay alive, whereas ToME is more on the RPG side and focuses on story, quests, towns, and buying/selling far more than DCSS. Both are great classic roguelikes for different reasons!

[@kurumento7324]

Hello, thanks a lot for this guide, i've stumbled across this game after reading a manhwa based on it, looks really interesting and i might actually get into it ! The manhwa's name is "Surviving the game as a Barbarian" and honestly watching this guide really shows that there is definitely a lot of inspiration from it. Even the name is similar in the story the game is called "Dungeon and Stone", haha.

[@DrIncompetent]

I have heard of this story before but never read it! I hope you are enjoying the game ;)

[@kurumento7324]

@@DrIncompetent I am actually really enjoying it, i managed to get up to the 7th floor on a chaos knight human, its really fun

[@melancholicburger804]

dude, SAME lol

[@kurumento7324]

@@melancholicburger804 hell yeah, how far did you get

[@ZacHawkins42]

This looks like something I'm going to enjoy. Thank you for making this guide, gonna sub so I can learn more 👍

[@DrIncompetent]

It's my favorite roguelike! So good haha

[@VioletSura]

Let's say you find the first column kinda boring, which of the intermediate and advanced column species are more reasonable to succeed with? Bonus points for spellcasting since I tend to favor magic

[@DrIncompetent]

Well, Deep Elf is the best pure spell caster in terms of skills in intermediate column, but if you want a more random but potentially fun spell slinging adventure, try a Djinni haha ;)

[@Thurasiz]

putting "default_manual_training = true" in the rc or init file to always have manual training is an option you could consider. I do.

[@DrIncompetent]

Haha, good idea! I do love to use manuals whenever they drop, so this is a nice touch :D Thanks for the tip! Hope the coding is going well :)

[@Thurasiz]

@@DrIncompetent researching for the player character sprite at the moment. After the weekend away i need to stop avoiding that step and start making stuff^^

[@AlmeaCulpa]

Is the simple/intermediate/advanced 'general difficulty' in terms of real challenge or is it like...harder species to play? If you get my drift. Need to be more experienced to play them, but they can be real strong if you build around them.

[@DrIncompetent]

Good question! Kind of both, but it's more like they are just not as strong sometimes as the "easier" backgrounds. They can get strong, sure, and the game is pretty balanced, but some of the harder difficulty backgrounds, like mummy, for example are just plain bad and present a challenge because they are underpowered. Some of the harder backgrounds don't offer a huge upside and are nerfed to present a "harder mode" kinda, if this makes sense. If you can learn the backgrounds, most of them are fine, but the easier ones tend to have higher skill aptitudes, less negative traits, and more positive traits.

[@flamingokatingo4992]

As a beginner this helped a lot

[@DrIncompetent]

Oh great! I am so glad you have found it to be helpful ☺️

[@peytonpdx]

If you'd take a minotaur for the +1's and +2's, why not grab that gnoll with all the +8's and +6's?

[@DrIncompetent]

Good question! Gnolls are a lot of fun, but they work a little differently with their skills. They have great aptitudes, but you cannot choose which skills to train with gnolls--all XP is distributed evenly. They are incredible and can do almost anything when high level because of this, but are slow to get off the ground usually because you can't focus all of your XP on, say, your weapon skill. They are fun to play! Just harder IMO to start with than a MiBe with just a few skills to focus on.

[@michaelsmart7445]

Perfect way to introduce someone to DCSS: getting randomly shafted from D:1 and ending up next to an adder. Lol.

[@DrIncompetent]

LOL so true... You gotta deal with life's little surprises in this one ;)

[@ellie-oaks]

I think the novel/manhwa surviving the game as a barbarian is based on this game. In the novel the game is called stones dungeons or something like that, and people that reach the final boss room Isekai in the world of the game. After see a comment on the novel I find this game, and now I'm interesting in knowing more and give it a try (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)

[@DrIncompetent]

Oh wow--I had no idea about that novel--thank you for sharing it! I hope you have fun with this game--it's so good haha

[@ellie-oaks]

@@DrIncompetentits a cool novel, i think it get well the hard core feeling of the game is based on. The actual novel has 500 chapters, but in english is up to ch 306.

[@paulmichaelgumban1727]

Hey, I'm also reading the Manhwa right now. I was wondering if there's a similar game to what the main character is playing so I searched the game title and this game showed up, lol. The game mechanics are very similar! Or at least the graphics what they've shown.

[@ellie-oaks]

@@paulmichaelgumban1727 I recommend the novel. It's a good story ✌️ When I like a story if it has a way to read more I go for it. So I jump from manhwa to novel often. Or anime to manga (japanese novels aren't that good :x)

[@kurumento7324]

@@paulmichaelgumban1727 i was actually just studying that and this game pretty much is like 80%~ of what the story is based on, at least thats what i think

[@MarlenkaTracka]

Hello thank you for your work. When i start game my i (inventory) is working but sometimes its not and it start texting on chat when i press i ,,u dont know that spell” maybe do you know what is wrong?

[@DrIncompetent]

I think maybe you are accidentally typing into chat by pushing the wrong key?

[@MarlenkaTracka]

⁠@@DrIncompetentidk maybe i have to check it more, im not got at playing only by keyboard 😅

[@AlastairGames]

good work! show_more should be default!

[@DrIncompetent]

Haha, I agree!

[@itabs9067]

hey man, for some reason my disabeling of show more is not working, i am playing on 0.29 any idea why? show_more = false (this is what is written in the file)

[@DrIncompetent]

Hmm... that's a great question--that's how I have mine written as well. Maybe they changed the format for this? It seems to be working for me...

[@danielbricker7204]

Does time not get reffered to as "AUT" anymore? arbitrary units of time ive played DCSS on and off for years now but i dont follow the comunity all that much

[@DrIncompetent]

That's a great question! I always refer to the units as turns where 1.0 is 1 turn, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if people called it that before and still do :)

[@colgatelampinen2501]

Aut is still good measurement of time if you want to avoid confusion. 1 turn is sometimes used to refer to 10 auts but 1 turn also sometimes refers to 1 player turn, which can vary in length depending which action you took.

[@badradish2116]

need an intermediate level tutorial. i havent managed to reach hell yet or get a single rune.

[@DrIncompetent]

This is a really tough game! Took me a year to get my first win. This guide goes all the way from the start to the end of a 3 rune victory--so it gets intermediate soon ;D

[@Theosibo]

What do y'all listen to while playing this game? Best I can tell it doesn't have any audio? Or I've managed to disable it somehow. Either way I need some noise in my ears.

[@DrIncompetent]

Haha, great question! It has no built-in music or sound effects. I listen to video game low-fi music, but there are some great atmospheric dungeon sounds playlists on Spotify that I know some folks listen to ;)

[@Theosibo]

@@DrIncompetent I suspected an adventurers playlist on YT/Spotify would be the solution. It has a fascinating playloop I'm slowly trying to lunk my way through. Trying to avoid the mouse as I know these OG ascii roguelikes are keyboard command only and I like to put my keyboard in my lap and lean the gaming chair back 2 notches and unwind. Thanks for the vid series and the replies to the questions. I think I'm going to add this to Caves of Qud, Dwarf Fortress, Dungeonmans, and various other interesting lesson teaching experiences. :D

[@DrIncompetent]

That's a great idea! I know what you mean about leaning back and just chilling with roguelikes--it's the dream! :D

[@jackingwads7513]

Listen to some dungeon synth music

[@sgtpepper91]

How deep is the game compared to something like Caves of Qud?

[@DrIncompetent]

This is a good question! The combat and skills are very deep, and the game takes a long time to beat completely if you go for a 15 rune win, but there is not as much story as Qud and no open world. It's a pure dungeon-crawl roguelike, which I love, but is more combat oriented.

[@sgtpepper91]

@@DrIncompetent Much appreciated, I'm gonna give this thing a try

[@LuigiCotocea]

It is so cool because *unlimited dungeon exploration*

[@DrIncompetent]

Yes! It's new each time. I've played for decades and love it!

[@LuigiCotocea]

@@DrIncompetent Yeah, it's not even that hard... you have to outsmart the enemies in the dungeon!

[@melancholicburger804]

Is there any plans for the android version to get better controls (it's not really that optimized for mobile)? there's this android roguelike game named "Pixel dungeon" which is just like stone soup but just more simpler which is not enough for me, just hoping the ui and controls are the same for stone soup, i wouldn't even hesitate to buy it if it's paid if it got better controls.

[@DrIncompetent]

I am not sure of this! I hope so!

[@olsaaan]

How do I edit my RC file with the downloaded client?

[@DrIncompetent]

Good question! I haven't done this in years, but I believe you go to the folder on the computer where the game has been installed and there is a text file which is a config file that you can edit to add these lines. Additionally, I think it has text inside it that shows you the format and gives some suggestions?

[@olsaaan]

Thank you @@DrIncompetent

[@friendlydude6485]

can you play this with a friend ?

[@friendlydude6485]

o nvm wish you chuld

[@DrIncompetent]

Unfortunately, this is a single player game!

[@briancassidy1887]

just curious if anyone knows how to get dcss in fullscreen on Linux?

[@DrIncompetent]

I wish I did--I'm sorry I do not! You might want to ask on the DCSS discord!

[@harryvh3356]

This game is soooo boring to watch some1 else play... ...but the information you provide is life saving :D Thanks for this video

[@DrIncompetent]

Awesome! So glad you found it useful :) I love this game!

[@Guts_Brando]

1:06:31 lol that voice

[@DrIncompetent]

I hope you are finding this series to be helpful and are enjoying the game!

[@Guts_Brando]

@@DrIncompetent did not expect u to react lol, tbh i dont have a pc but i just recently got back in the roguelike vibe (been playing alot of Slice & Dice, check it out if u havent) and never really played this game so i checked your videos out a bit, clean and cohesive :)

[@DrIncompetent]

Ooo, cool! Thank you for the recommendation!

[@tl1326]

i think a korean author based their comic off of this game. the game in the comic is i kid you not “dungeon and stone”

[@DrIncompetent]

Haha, that's fun! I should look into that! ;D

[@Nyrufa]

Wish you had hovered over the Demigod race, so I could maybe read about why the hell they SUCK SO MUCH! Seriously, look at that Aptitude list, they get minuses across the board!

[@DrIncompetent]

Haha, they are a bad race. They can get insane because they have crazy stats, so you can have huge STR and INT, creating an armor wearing spellcaster which is very strong, but they are generally bad IMO. I haven't won the game with one yet haha.

[@Nyrufa]

@@DrIncompetent Question, when registering online, do you have to confirm your email, or can you just input anything and get right to playing?