So you bought yourself 'Devil Daggers' and really like the style and the feel of the game, but you never make it that far and feel frustrated? Well good that you're here because this is the right place for you.

I'm going to teach you the very basics and lead you step by step to 120 seconds and maybe even beyond.


You weapon (hand) has two modes...
not just the normal rapid fire that you get when you hold down the left mouse button. With a short click you also have a spread-shot The time between the spread-shots depend on you clicking rhythm. Once you get the hang of it it allows a high rate of fire.

Your hitbox is smaller then you think...
You might be used to fps since they flooded the market in the last few years and have developed a feeling about how big your own hitbox is even though you only see your weapon or in this instance your hand. But this feeling is wrong! Your character is tiny and that allows you to slip through cracks in the swarm of enemies you would never believe you'd fit through.

(almost) Never stop moving...
because if you stay in one place the swarm of enemies that will follow you most of the time will catch up and well, the whole point of the game is to avoid that.

Bunnyhop...
will make you faster than normal running so try to hop all the time and do it in a circular manner so enemies with a bigger turning circle have a harder time catching up. But don’t jump across the edge of the map, you'll die.

Rocketjumps...
or more likely dagger jumps are a thing in this game. Jump, aim at your invisible feet and click for a spread-shot: You just made a dagger jump. Use this to get some momentum or get airborne for a better shot.

Hidden buttons...
There are two buttons that are really usefull that you might not know about.
"R" - Instant respawn
"TAB" - Ingame timer

Keep your ears open...
because every enemy makes their own unique sound which gets louder as they approach you.

Bullet travel...

WRONG:

Bullet travel is a thing to concider when aiming at enemies. Never aim directly at them except when they're coming straight at you or are right in your face.
If you aim at an enemy that is further away from you it will have already moved to a different position when the dagger gets there.


RIGHT:

Better shoot where you think they will go so you give the dagger time to travel. The normal tracking that you need in every fps still applies but your hand isn't hitscan. It's a slow moving projectile so track the position where your target is going.


Shoot at orange first...
since every enemy becomes more orange the closer they get to you.

Gems
Those small red gems are weapon upgrades that will increase the amount of daggers you shoot.
First upgrade - 10 Gems
Second upgrade – 70 Gems
Keep in mind that they will despawn if you ignore them for too long so stop shooting when you have the time and gems are on the ground.
They drop from enemies and count as weak points if they are visible in the enemies design.

If you stop shooting the gems will fly towards you...
so you don't have to take the time and collect them by hand. Never do that. Just stop firing for one or two seconds and you will most likely have collected every gem in the arena.
The normal rapid fire will leave the gems where they are but beware: The spread-shot makes them bounce further away from you.

A quick overview of enemies that you'll see during the first few minutes and what you have to look out for when engaging them.

Spires
Basically they are enemy spawners. They appear in the shadows outside the arena and slowly float towards the middle while spinning (I think clockwise). Different from the skulls they are immune to meat shots but have a Gem on their back which is their weak spot. One or two spread-shots or a good rapid fire burst to the gem will kill it.

Spires are one of your top priorities when it comes to kill order. They spawn a small swarm of normal skulls and a confused skull right after and then stay passive for some time until they get close to the middle and spawn another wave. Don't let that happen because only an empty arena is a good arena and those guys will feed the swarm if you ignore them.
It is possible to deny the spawn if you kill it quickly enough but I'd advise you not to do so early on (more to that later).

Even though they are just spawners, they are still enemies and will kill you on contact so don't run into them while dealing with the swarm.




Normal Skulls
They spawn from the normal and big spires and will straight up fly towards you. The little ones are nothing to worry about. Their is slightly higher then yours and they have a big turning circle. So running straight towards them and missing them by a few inches will most likely get some space between you and them. Their only purpose in the game is to keep you moving. If there are a few behind you: No stress. There will be almost always some of them behind you. As long as you keep moving and strafing they will not catch you. But beware of respawns. Since they will always fly straight towards you they can catch you by surprise when you are moving backwards or sideways.
(These are the only enemies that don't drop gems)




Numb Skulls
They spawn from normal spires and will fly towards the middle of the arena and start flying in the circle like they have nothing better to do. Their pattern is pretty unpredictable but they will most likely not try to actively get you but still look out for them. You might feel safe because you are keeping the swarm behind you at bay and out of nowhere a confused skull shows up and kills you.
They sound like a hovercraft from a bad sci-fi movie so check where you're going when you hear that.




Greater Spires
are an advanced version of the spires but work similar except for a few details. They have two weak points on their sides and will only die if you shoot both of them (but on the other hand that means more gems). Also they don't spawn the confused skull after the normal ones but an upgraded version of them which are way more dangerous, but also more predictable.
If the greater spires start to appear they have a higher priority then the normal ones since they take longer to kill and spawn meaner enemies.




Seeking Skull
These guys are the worst. You will met them once the first greater spire arrives and they behave similar to the normal skulls but they are way more tanky and really fast. They will most likely be with the swarm but have a tighter turning circle then the small ones and a bigger hitbox. Their husky laughing (ha-ha-ha-HA-HA-HA) will tell you that they're after you so once you hear that try to deal with them as soon as possible since they will catch up soon. Even if you don’t kill them a few hits will force them to change direction and buy you some time.




Spiders
Once you lived long enough you will hear a crawling sound in the distance. That means the first spider arrived. Like spires they spawn in the darkness outside the arena but will not enter it. These guys are game changers. Usually you auto collect the gems when you stop shooting but not if a spider is around. They suck all the uncollected gems in the arena towards them, denying you from collecting them and either hold them up in the air until they despawn or (even worse) corrupt them. If you see their face glow yellow/green that means they just turned a gem into an egg which then will be thrown into the arena.

The Spider itself doesn't harm you (even if their legs look dangerous) but it's ability to deny your weapon upgrade progress makes them one of the most annoying enemies in the game and if you don't kill them fast enough even flood the arena with eggs. Fortunately they are pretty easy to kill once you get the hang of it. Not only the huge red gem is a weak point but also the face surrounding it so your aim doesn't have to be pin point perfect. But they have the ability to shield them self by pointing their face towards the ground if you miss too often. When they are like that their ability to keeps the gems in the air is disrupted until they reveal their weak point again. You are still able to hit it from the side but it's way harder. Try to kill them as quick as possible.

Spiderling
If a spider gets hold of a gem it will corrupt the gem and turn it into an egg. The egg will then be thrown into the arena and just sit there for some time. Better don't let it come that far but sometimes it just can't be helped and if you kill the egg quickly you just lost a gem. But don't let it just sit there since it will hatch into multiple spiderlings soon and you don’t want that. They are ground bound, have tiny hitboxes and an unpredictable movement pattern so be wary. Luckily they're easy to make out with their bright yellow/green color.




Horror
Long, flying centipede like demons made from a bunch of connected parts with a gem on the bottom side of every part. They come from underground and will fly into the air where they stay for a while until they chase after you and then go underground again. They are slow and not really that dangerous when met alone but in combination with a swarm it's damn hard to deal with them.
For the simple reason that the head leads the way and every single part will go the exact same way you just have to find a good angle and rapid fire that point, the horror will do the rest for you.
These fellas give you huge amounts of gems so look out for spiders so that they don't turn them against you.

Press play, grab your dagger and way we go.



At first there will only spawn one spire. Stay close to the middle until you make out their sound and go towards it. Start with a few spread-shots at the tentacles so you can kill a few skulls as soon as they spawn. With a little luck you already killed the confused one when you arrive at the spire. The gem should be visible on it's right side. Take it out and then go for the confused skull if you didn't get it already. Make your way to the middle of the arena again and kill the small ones on the way. Now spawns the second spire most likely on the opposite side of the first one. Deal with it in the same way as the first and while you do that the third should already be spawned. From that point onwards try to kill the spires as soon as possible and pick out the confused skulls. If you have to cover some space to the next spire kill some of the normal skulls on the way so you don’t wast any time with just running.
Important: Don't loose any gems in this stage, you'll need every last one of them.
Tip: Try to kill as many small ones as soon as they spawn. This way you will keep the swarm at a manageable level.

After the fourth spire the first spider and a greater spire arrives. At this point no spire or confused skull should be alive and as few normal skulls as possible (an empty arena would be perfect). Go start shooting at the spider even though it didn't show it's face yet, because your daggers travel relatively slow, so as soon as the spider shows it's weak point it get's welcomed by damage. If you need to stop move right in front of the spider to get a better shot, you should have enough time for that. Collect it's gem and look out for the first seeking skull that has already made it's way towards you. At this point you are at 9 gems and only need one more for the first upgrade. So you either kill the seeking skull (which takes way more shots then the confused ones) or you take the missing gem from the greater spire so you have an easier time with the seeker.
From that point onwards keep moving, take the spires out as soon as possible, look behind you if you hear the husky laughing of a seeker and decrease the number of normal skulls in the swarm from time to time.

I know you have a hard time after the spider and try your best to stay alive but it's important that you decrease the number of spires on the field as soon as possible so you only have to deal with the respawn which should be a greater and a normal one at a time. Keep taking those out as soon as possible and minimize the swarm on the way.
Around the 100-120 second mark there should be no spire and no swarm left so you have an easy fight with the upcoming horror. The horror arrives at the same time as a new spider so you either kill the spider first if you are quick enough or deal with it after you killed the horror since the spider itself is no direct threat without gems it can corrupt.
With quick reactions you can kill the horror while it emerges from the ground or let it fly for a bit until it seeks your position. It will fly in a wavy manner so you can safely stand at a point where it has distance from the ground and shoot it's bottom. Keep the mouse steady at it's spine so you don’t miss any gems. When you got it go for the spider if you haven't already and collect your gems. The second upgrade shouldn't be that far away anymore.

Now more greater spires arrive, some spiders and later even more horrors. Good luck from that point onwards. My record is at 195 seconds and oh boy. The arena is packed full with enemies.

I hope you liked my little Guide and that it helped you surviving a little longer.

I'll update it from time to time with more picture and mechanic explainations.
As soon as I get any further then 195 seconds and have a good way to do it I'll also update my guide so stay tuned!

There are yet some pictures missing but I'm working on it! Those things take time.


Edit:

Thanks for over 666 ratings! I'm so happy that you guys like my guide and that it helps all you newcomers.
Sadly I don't really play Devil Daggers anymore... there are just too many good games out there and there's so little time after my daily work.
I hope I'll return to DD and this guide but I have to be honest: I don't know when and if it will happen. But be assured: I read all your comments and will reply to questions, if I'm able to answer them.
Love you guys. Keep playing!