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[radios shipping overview]

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DungeonDiary (no space) is a dungeon crawler for Android where you don't actually control your character at all. Instead, you set up rules for your character's AI, choose a dungeon/quest, and set her on her way. You can watch her do her dungeoning, or you can background the app/lock the device and she'll keep doing her thing. Then when she comes back, you get to identify items, open chests, sell what you don't want, and make upgrades. You can power up weapons and equipment and get items to color items however you like. It's REALLY addictive.

Rules can be things like...

"I will continue to walk downwards if I can"
"I will walk in one direction when 'item' is nearby and I haven't been there yet"
"If I'm facing an enemy, I will change my direction at random"

There are many rules, but you start with just a few, and you unlock more as you play. There are different types of quests, like collecting X of an item, killing the foozle, escorting another character (for which you get a named item as reward), or hitting X number of switches in a dungeon. Theoretically you can get full named sets, but there are so many named characters to escort that I haven't done the grinding to pull it off.

You start the game with a $30,000,000 debt (because of a natural disaster that the character suffered) and the goal of the game is to pay off your debt. There are six or seven dungeons that I've discovered so far, and the latest one I've found has 99 floors. There's a big variety of items and equipment, most of which are more in the modern-day/NIS style, rather than traditional fantasy stuff.

It runs fine on a tablet, and there's an English translation with a good sense of humor, but it's VERY rough. It's Babelfishy, but it's comprehensible. The game gives you widgets so that you can display your character's current equipment on your home screen. And the widget shows your current quest status: in progress, succeeded, or failed.

There's a couple of realmoney items you can buy, but I don't think they're necessary to getting anywhere in the game. So far. (The jury may still be out on that.)

This is the most meaty dungeon crawler I've found for the system so far. And it's the least "interactive" of them all. But I really like figuring out the best combination of rules for the quest I'm on, or figuring out how to get the best items, or just skimming the top off a new dungeon to get some goodies without getting myself killed. And it's really addictive to start a dungeon "batch," then go do something else, then come back and see how she did (there's a log of everything that happened on the last trip), then tune your build/rules and go again. It's super low-budget, made by one guy (I'm pretty sure), and low-tech, but it's really charming and fun.

My current character (shared from ingame):

Get it!

 

[Kyouji]

I saw your original post about this. Keep meaning to get this but I'm so lazy. Will grab it later tonight and try to get started with a character.

Nice first post!

 

[CountAntonius]

So you can only play as a female?

 

[cackhyena]

But Dungelot is out.

 

[CommonWriter]

I will definitely check this out when I can! I really like the mechanic that you can leave it going in the background and come back to find things.

 

[radios shipping overview]

So you can only play as a female?

I don't think it gives you a choice of character (that I've seen). You just get the one girl.

 

[Kyouji]

Installed it, chatted with the friend to learn the game systems. The Engrish is charmingly cute. Gonna try and setup my orders now, then go dungeon-exploring.

 

[Valygar]

I've found a ribbon that allows you to fly. Awesome. Now I can beat the Earth Lake.

When you manage to identify and consume items (with the adequate rules) survability improves a lot. But then it is hard to manage the number of items in the backpack... I've added a lot of rules about dropping low level equipment, and I don't pick up consumables (if you defeat a monster that has it, you always pick it up).

In the volcano if I add the pick up crystal rule I end up with lots of crystals... I should add a rule for that, but I usually need some additional SP. And the coloring crystals sell for a lot.

Damn! Pretty good game.

 

[Kuntz]

Looks like the best way to start is grind equipment to be able to beat the "kill xx on bxf" quest, rewarding a lot more than classic gathering.

This way you'll be able te repay debt in no time (well the first hundred thousands) and unlock more inventory space.

Still have to tinker with rules, so far i got stuck many times trying to adjust and it cost me so many deaths my debt just reset...

I got the "gathering" ruleset running (but inventory full on first floor), but i'm afraid to start "activate all switches because that will mean many deaths before getting the rules right...

Great game anyway !

 

[radios shipping overview]

I haven't had to set up separate rulesets for kill quests and switch quests. Switch quests require a bit less specificity than other quests, and I find that my movement rules keep me pretty well covered.

What I haven't been able to figure out is why I fail escort quests sometimes. I haven't been able to check the log when I fail them, for whatever reason.

Quoting this from the Android thread...

I've "beaten" the game by paying off all my debts. This is the strategy I use to keep inventory space available (assuming you've learned these rules):

1) Use the identify mushroom and grass skills
2) Set the threshold for using hp, mp and sp items very high (90%+) so you'll immediately use those items
3) Set rules to throw away all mushrooms and grasses (you will need a separate rule for each item)
4) Set the rule to identify items every 2-3 floor
5) Set a rule for each inferior equipment and throw it away
6) Send powerup crystals to your stash (2mp each)

By consuming all the healing items you should never run out of resources until the boss level. Optionally you can send treasure chests to your stash too, but I figured I needed the mp for the last level.

I say "beaten" because the game unlocks certain things after you've repaid your debts. I'll let you guys find out what it is.

I hadn't realized that I could set a threshold for when to use restoratives. I'll try that next. I've been sending treasure boxes and powerup crystals back to my stash for a little while now.

 

[PixyJunket]

This looks like my kind of game, if they ever port it elsewhere.

The interface needs some design work, though. Yeuch!

 

[radios shipping overview]

BTW, post your characters!

 

[Jinko]

Somehow I have screwed up my rule set, can someone take a pic of theirs so I can somehow try to copy it lol.

Rules doesn't make sense or just don't work in my case.

 

[radios shipping overview]

Somehow I have screwed up my rule set, can someone take a pic of theirs so I can somehow try to copy it lol.

Rules doesn't make sense or just don't work in my case.

Here's my list:

http://i.imgur.com/iBbpRcQ.png (page 1)
http://i.imgur.com/zm5OvtM.png (page 2)
And one more item: "I will reverse my direction"

I finally got my debt down under $10M. I'm working on The Ancient City, and I've made it about halfway down so far. I'm excited to find out what the post-debt unlocks are!

I wish there were more cool late-game armor items. Maybe there are, and I haven't found any yet, but it seems like there's not many tops/bottoms that have a base DEF of more than 2 or 3. The really cool equipment seems to be the weapons, shields, and the multi-stat-boosting accessories.

 

[rohlfinator]

I love how low-power this game seems to be. I can actually play it off and on during the day without feeling like I'm destroying my battery life.

 

[radios shipping overview]

Paid off my debt! The postgame bonuses are cool (spoilers ahoy):

Spoiler

* Two new dungeons (with item loss when you die!)
* Item list with stats, descriptions, and completion
* 10 free rainbow crystals
* Special kendo equipment set (in-app purchase)
* Items in the new dungeons for changing hair and eye color
* Something about a capsule vending machine at the dungeon master's shop when you make a lot of money

Love this game!

 

[fushi]

Iäve played this sporadically for quite a bit now and have paid off about 4 million of my debt. Capitalism ho!

Question: I keep running out of SP while doing those switch flipping quests. Which items beside Glass marble restore SP?
Edit: And...

What I haven't been able to figure out is why I fail escort quests sometimes. I haven't been able to check the log when I fail them, for whatever reason.

... did you ever figure this out? I am having the same problem. The people I escort die midway through the dungeon.

 

[radios shipping overview]

Question: I keep running out of SP while doing those switch flipping quests. Which items beside Glass marble restore SP?

Mimosas (plant) do. There's a number of equip items that give SP boosts (striped over knee, striped bra, striped panties, sports bra, headphones).

... did you ever figure this out? I am having the same problem. The people I escort die midway through the dungeon.

Nope. I've never noticed the people being escorted getting hurt, so I figure I must just be dying or running out of SP.

 

[bard]

Well, I'm having a kickass time with this game, even though I've done nothing but make my dept even deeper. :-/ I keep thinking I must be doing something wrong, so lately I've been sticking to gathering quests in an attempt to beef up my cashflow and find a few more useful items. Most kill quests are far too difficult, and I won't even dare try an escort quest. I feel a bit stuck. Everyone else experience the same level of uber grinding?