Soulash – General Tips

Basic tips to get started with the game, and further points/advice regarding the game and its systems. Suited for beginners trying to understand the game further, and includes general points regarding more complex ideas and system improvements.

Getting Started as the Dark Lord

Note: Credit goes to Bradlitt

Welcome to Soulash, the realm you created eons ago as the progenitor of all things; the Devourer. The Gods are your children, as foolish as they are, and after centuries of imprisonment by their plots and schemes, the Devourer is back, and prepared to punish all their children and the mortal fools the Gods created with the curse of life.

However, millennia of imprisonment and banishment has weakened the Devourer, and even with a fresh mortal body to inhabit, your soul is weak and in need of further growth. As the Devourer, granted form in the world once again, it is your duty to destroy your ignoble brood and to bring perfect death to the mortal realm.

Oh, and you start at Level 1. Here are some tips to annihilate everything that stands in your way.

• Some races you choose at creation have an ability called “Infravision”. This allows you to see a great distance at night/in dark areas, however your vision is limited in the daytime. This can be confusing. During the daytime, mortals will have a greater range of vision than you if you possess Infravision. They will see you before you see them, attack you from beyond your vision range if they have bows or long-range magic, and generally smack you around if you aren’t in the know. The opposite occurs during the night, or in caves, however, where your infravision really shines. With infravision, you will never need torches, head lamps, or other sources of light. You can sneak up on mortals without infravision with ease in darkness, and navigate dark areas without trouble.
• When playing the game, press [M] to view the world map. Navigate it with WASD or the Arrow Keys, and use the [-] and [+] buttons on the top right to change what map floor you are viewing. Every time you ascend or descend a staircase, you go up or down one map floor.
• When creating a character, each race has unique benefits and sometimes weaknesses. If you are interested in playing a physical damage tank, endurance and strength will be your most important stats. Want to build a necromancer, who dominates the world with an army of undead vessels? Endurance and Intelligence will be crucial to your conquest. A dexterous, stealthy goblin who uses bows and dexterity weapons? Then pump dexterity, intelligence, with a healthy dose of endurance and willpower. There are a lot of great options to play this game with, the only limitation being your ability to survive Soulash.
• Default movement is tank controls (WASD with Q+E to rotate vision) on a grid tile-map that features a turn-based action economy. Every action you take gives active entities on the map an action of their own. When you act, your enemies act. When you do nothing, your enemies do nothing. Take advantage of this to think about your plans, and don’t feel rushed to do anything in this game. This game waits for your decisions.
• Manage your character’s inventory, stats, and equipment on the Inventory screen. You can equip and remove equipment, view statistics, and view your inventory. All weapons that can be equipped have a hit rating, parry rating, physical damage rating, and if the weapon is magical, magical damage rating. All armour provides resistance bonuses to various types of damage, and if the armour is magical, even further bonuses. Hover over equipment to see its stats, and hold Shift to compare it to your currently equipped piece. Strength stat increases the amount of weight you can carry, (except for the Djinn).
• As mortal flesh once again, the Devourer requires food and sustenance in most of their forms. Energy, hunger, and thirst are the three default resource bars besides health, and all these resources must be maintained effectively for the Devourer to be at full strength. Energy is maintained by resting with [r] for no penalty beyond a turn cost and a percentage of Fatigue, (which reduces your total Energy until you Sleep). To Sleep with [R] restores Energy, Fatigue, and Health slowly, gaining further bonuses if you sleep by comfortable material such as hay, bedrolls, or beds. Hunger is maintained by eating food, restoring even further hunger if the food is cooked on a fire, and thirst is maintained by drinking water, often collected by wells, rivers, or ponds. Goatskin flasks may be created to have portable water on your person, (or blood, if you’re into that).
• Gain EXP by devouring souls of mortals. This includes all creatures from hares to undead liches, and by doing this, the Dark Lord will remember more of their past and the lost powers they possess. As your power grows, so will your desire for stronger and more legendary souls. Don’t try to battle someone whose soul is clearly superior to yours, however, as that is often a one-way ticket to the grave.
• Attack enemies by moving into their square to melee, activating an ability you possess with them within range, or by using [t] with a ranged weapon and ammunition equipped. Note that some magical abilities scale with the range of your equipped weapon, meaning that if you are casting Divine Smite, its range will increase with a bow equipped as opposed to a melee weapon.
• Physical damage on your weapon scales with Strength or Dexterity, depending on the type of weapon you are using. Magical damage on your weapon (any damage type that is not listed as physical ie. death, holy, fire, acid, frost) scales with Intelligence. This means that upgrading Intelligence is crucial for a majority of this game, as it not only increases crafting potency and magical attack damage, but also increases the damage of your weapons as long as they possess a magical damage type.