Rogue Legacy

Rogue Legacy

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Play to Win: a Rogue Legacy Beginning
By That Wun Wabbit
Want to make the most of your first hours in Castle Hamson?
Here we have a quick overview on some aspects of the game that will help your Legacy be more meaningful!
Disclaimer: Boss and unlockable character Spoilers
   
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Intro
This is a guide for people who have literally JUST started playing Rogue Legacy.

EDIT: Please stop trying to mix Hedgehog's Curse strategies into this guide because that doesn't actually work until you're in NG+2 Mode. And by the way:
you don't start the game on NG+2.

Proof: http://rogue-legacy.wikia.com/wiki/Special_Items
(and scroll down to Hedgehog's Curse item)

This is going to be a short practical guide, so if you have any questions about specific item details or character stats, please refer to the Rogue Legacy Wiki
http://rogue-legacy.wikia.com/wiki/Rogue_Legacy_Wiki
In the Beginning
Your first trips through the castle are going to be....let's face it:
Short, laughable and meaningless.
Well, maybe not so meaningless.
You'll see some standard enemies, room layouts, traps, and combat mechanics.

Here's a few you will realize about your humble Legacy:

  • You are quite weak no matter what class you start as

  • It's going to take a longer run to make a beefier character and vice versa

  • Locking the castle is not a good idea unless you are farming fairy boxes or boss battle training

  • Avoid boss battles and minibosses. Try to complete the Castle and Forest area ONLY

  • You need to focus on farming gold and fairy boxes. Carnival games can provide blueprints for "Sage" equipment - with gold bonuses
In the Beginning (Suggestions)
There's a lot of new concepts to take in when you're starting out. Some suggestions:

  • Whenever you can opt for HP the Paladin or Barbarian class will help! You can get away with mining/spelunking for awhile but that class is simply too weak for the long gold farming runs you need to fund your spendings in the manor, at the blacksmith, and enchantress.

  • Later on, many monies into the future...when you can unlock the Dragon class, I would use it for farming gold. You can max out on bounty runes and easily avoid every obstacle in the castle to just go for the gold and smash everything with your...essentially infinite mana. Make sure to wait and recharge fully on entering a new room.

  • Lock the castle to redo fairy box challenges you couldn't complete or failed on a previous run. All looted chests will remain looted, but rooms, enemies, and statues/decor will respawn as it was. Carnival games aren't redo-able if you failed them, because you win money based on targets hit. Avoid shrines when farming gold as you can end up with Hedgehog's Curse which sends your precious coins flying everywhere like in Sonic the Hedgehog. You CAN use it to farm gold on NG+2, but avoid shrines when gold farming before then! Please refer to the wikia for specifics on that.

  • Funny thing is, you're never really required to complete all the different kinds of fairy box challenges. You can have a combined total of all the runes from...the same fairy box challenge. Just scour the castle for them, and the rewards will be at the enchantress whenever you die. Leave the castle unlocked and keep scouting for rooms. The Miner/Spelunker class is best used for scouting out these rooms. If you want to go all out on a fairy box run, try and get a Miner/Spelunker with an ability that goes through walls, like the axe. Or a giant and just use his/her sword

  • Minibosses will be in SOME rooms marked with a ? mark or are mixed in with a room containing a fairy box challenge requiring you to defeat all enemies. Avoid them when possible! Go from left to right to complete the Castle and Forest area. Those are the easiest, level-wise. You can tell when you've reached the border of an area either by arriving in a room with 2 statues, and a teleporter OR by noticing the visual changes and textual notification.
You're Golden!
Ideally, you should get to a point where you've unlocked many gold-gain boosts and can fund some awesome things.
  • Be sure to invest in Death Defy, Invincibility time, Potion effectiveness and stat boosts whenever possible! Also the reroll children option for major bosses and....Haggle. Yes, Haggle. It helps in occasions when you need that little extra cash
  • Runes to invest in are 5x Retribution and 5x Grace. Opt for retribution first: as you've noticed, each time you purchase an enchantment the overall price goes up. Beware of this!
  • Once you collect all the runes, fairy boxes will yield stat boosts: a little strength, armor, mana, magic damage, or health
Now that you have collected some money in a castle run, go back to a boss room and start training.
Different offspring will test your patience or help you win.

Some basic suggestions are:
  • Gigantism versus Khidir (sword reaches hitbox, and you don't need to risk jumping)
  • Archmage versus Alexander (regaining mana helps deal with minions respawning)
  • Blade Wall versus Ponce de Leon (that boss is fairly slow and will likely bump into Blade Wall whether dashing at you or moving at normal speed)
  • PAD versus Herodotus (allows you to stand undamaged on the spikes at the bottom of the stage)
  • Paladin's secret block or EHS or Dragon class with Ambilevous versus Johannes

Have a happy Legacy!
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17 Comments
Gym_Leader_Myth 3 May, 2020 @ 9:26am 
whelp,. this guide didn't help.
MasterionX 10 Dec, 2018 @ 8:46pm 
Are statue bonuses locked too? If I get the Compass, do I get it in the locked castle too?
DragomirKingsman 7 Jan, 2017 @ 12:29pm 
No, Alexander IV is doable, he's just grindy.
Neo Khidr is not doable.
That Wun Wabbit  [author] 23 Aug, 2015 @ 2:45pm 
@evilconga
I'm not familiar with the neo bosses, sorry
Icarus 23 Aug, 2015 @ 12:31pm 
i am fighting a neo boss non ng+ should i quit?
(its the forests boss)
cynrie 28 Jul, 2015 @ 10:48am 
8P
That Wun Wabbit  [author] 18 Dec, 2014 @ 5:54pm 
@marcogabbiadini:
IIRC, it only drops enough coins to make a profit after NG+.
NG+ isn't for beginners which is why I tell people not to use that strategy.

Besides, you actually have to pick up all the coins that were dropped. A beginner could easily get knocked out of a room via enemy knockback resulting in yet another loss of coins.

As I've explained earlier in the comments section these are the reasons I decided not to recommend HC or shrines in general.
Ballon 18 Dec, 2014 @ 7:49am 
There's another guide on here that says HC actually drops more coins than you lose (especially with gold gains), so it's actually a farming tool as long as you're not locked off the level? If that's true "grab the shrine if you see it" seems like really sound advice to me. :)
akuro 6 Jul, 2014 @ 2:14pm 
That makes sense, especially since I noticed you reccomended a build that is designed to let you take more hits, when someone like me has good enough dodging to not have to worry that much about taking damage. Personally, I don't take retribution items, and as far as runes go, I have haste, vault, bounty, and sprint.
That Wun Wabbit  [author] 6 Jul, 2014 @ 11:31am 
I did manage to get Hyperion Ring a few times and it was pretty awesome, but overall I don't feel it's worth it with the chance of getting Hedgehog's Curse.

If you take knockback at the edge of a room (which often happens in miniboss rooms), you permanently lose the scattered coins. I'm not going to suggest new players put up with that.

I know it's tempting to share your good luck stories with other players, but this guide is designed so if somebody never played another game in their life, they'll understand Rogue Legacy. I don't want to overload people with chance items when there's other suggestions here to improve consistency in each run