A Beginner's Guide to Demon

[ayayaya]

A Beginner's Guide to Demon
Updated for version 12/12/16
Warning: This guide is fairly spoiler heavy.

FAQ
1. Help I suck what do.
So you're playing Demon and there's a bunch of weird skills you don't understand and a bunch of weird monsters you don't recognize because you aren't a professor of world mythology. Well lucky you, right click and hover over everything you find, and you'll get explanations of literally everything.

2. Help this game is hard.
Demon has very few 'popcorn' encounters. After Tower:1, monsters start coming in packs of 4+ pretty much exclusively, and, until you have more abilities, you probably can only kill 1 or maybe 2 demons by yourself. Luckily, you can recruit demons, and you should do so. A lot. It's kinda the point of this game. If you don't have 6 demons, you should be recruiting anything new you find. Anyway, basically any given encounter can potentially fuck you up, and escape items are VERY RARE. To git gud at Demon, you need to treat every encounter with respect and efficient tactics.

3. So what, I'm like a Pokemon trainer?
In a sense, yes. You need to start assembling a team of demons to kill all the other teams of demons, and each one of your turns is incredibly valuable in combat. You'll be using your own abilities, unsummoning your demons that are wounded or inappropriate for the situation, summoning new ones, linking with enemy demons to recruit them. (Even if you have no intention of keeping them around. Negotiating with some demons and discarding them as soon as you get them is a good way to cut down the lethality of some packs such as Zar.)

4. How do I tell which demons are good?
(Almost) all demons are useful and can be worked into a team; each has its own niche. Be open minded and willing to experiment. That having been said, you want your team to have at least one tanky frontliner, at least one healer, and at least one magic caster. Having a variety of resistances and good type coverage is always good.

5. Okay then, what are stat points, and how do I tell what stats are good?
Each time you level up, you get 5 stat points to allocate to your stats. You want Strength for defense and slash/impact/pierce abilities, Magic for healing and nonphysical attacks, Vitality for bonus HP and resistance to debuffs, Agility for dodging and accuracy, and Cunning is for debuffs. Anyway, use your common sense and try things out.

6. What starting relic should I choose?
Crown of Glory: Supportive melee frontliner
Eye of Dragon: Breath attack melee frontliner
Faithful Heart: Buffer/Healer/Support
Hand of the Dead: Debuff melee frontliner
Orb of Power: Magic glass cannon (My personal favorite)
Titan's Fist: Tanky melee frontliner
Vodun mask: Debuff/Magic

Check out the section below about suggested builds too.

7. What are relic upgrades?
Each relic starts with two predetermined relic upgrades, and you can upgrade your relic at Level 5, 15, 25, etc. Relic upgrades can increase the number of maximum allies you can have, let you summon and dismiss allies instantly, give or save you credits (credits are the currency used to upgrade yourself and demons), and some other neat stuff.

8. How do I beat the game?
Get to the portal at Tower:20. Winning starts a new game. Nothing but your score carries over to the new game.

9. Is there a manual?
Yes, READ THE MANUAL. You can find it by pressing "?" while playing Demon.

Section 1: General Tips
1. On floors 1-2, recruit every demon you can.
2. Have at least 2 demons summoned when exploring that (hopefully) do not share common weaknesses. Preferably, one is a healer equipped with Calm, one is durable, and none have a Mind weakness. (Mind weakness leaves them vulnerable to being CC'd immediately against some enemies.)
3. Be stingy with your credits. In general, eschew upgrading your early demons too much since they will be deleted soon enough. If I do upgrade a demon early, it's because I've come across an ability that's too good to pass up or because I plan on holding onto that demon for a while.
4. That having been said, the strategy space of Demon is mostly uncharted, and you should experiment to see what works for you.
5. Paying to restore a demon is may not be worth it early on because it cripples your team development. It's fine if you do it near the top of the Tower since your team doesn't have much room to grow at that time.
6. Scrolls of magic mapping should be used at Tower:20 if you have one left. Helps you go straight for the exit instead of getting bogged down by tough foes.
7. If you see a portal to another branch, don't be afraid to take it. There is usually not a good reason to skip it.
8. Which is better for tanking up: Strength or Vit?
Vit adds a flat amount of MaxHP, while Strength gives a percentage bonus to defense. If Str and Vit are not your main stats, I recommend Vit since it takes a lot of investment in Str before you see Str's benefits. However, if being really tanky is your thing, speccing Vit heavily for the first few levels (til level 5 or so) helps you survive long enough so you can safely transition into going full Str.
9. THIS IS IMPORTANT: LEVEL DECAY: Allies level slower the longer they have been with you. In other words, a level 1 Malingee will level up to level 11 or so just fine but will level so slowly after level 11 that it is not worth keeping.
The threshold when this effect becomes noticeable is about ~10 levels from when you recruit the demon. So if you recruit a level 20 demon, it will scale just fine into the late game to level 30 since the average level at Tower:20 is also level 30. Damage formulas in Demon scale directly on level, so you must discard a demon that is falling far behind in levels because it will be too fragile and do too little damage. Exceptions apply to healers and buffers since healing and buffs doesn't use levels in their calculations.
10. Explore the entire level first before examining corpses. Have all your demons summoned while examining in case of a wraith.

Section 2: Combat Tips
1. Look at the abilities of every enemy you meet. This includes summoners. You should also check what relic upgrades they have.
2. Position your healers so they maintain sight of your team. If your healer turns into a shimmering blue blob, that means it can't see you and won't be able to heal you.
3. Poison debuff is dangerous. Afaik, poison deals a percentage of your health as damage, and eating 3 stacks of Poison can be a death sentence.
4. You, the player character, can be affected by Charm.
5. Killing a summoner too quickly can be a bad thing since all of their surviving demons will spawn around you. Yes, they will be debuffed, but fighting against 6 demons can be tough. You can recruit some of them to make the crowd more managable.
6. Pure stones can restore MaxHP lost from attacks like Vigor Siphon and Void Touch.
7. Don't be afraid to spend consumables to save your life. Those wind cards (basically blink scrolls) in your inventory are useless if you're dead.
8. Chakra stones can restore more health than a heal stone when used on a healer since the healer gets 50 SP to use.
9. Take the time to understand the different types of attack ranges. In particular, Ranged Direct doesn't require a clear shot.
10. Learn how the ally/enemy AI works. For example, the AI never uses some aoe attacks unless a certain condition is met.
11. Above all, your life matters most. Losing demons is better than losing your life.

Section 3: Recruitment Tips
1. To prepare for the Anomaly side branch, recruit at least one fire-resistant demon. You will need it. I prefer a Malingee and Kasha.
2. Wanted a specific demon type that spawns on the current floor, but it never spawned? Use a trouble chime to spawn an enemy mob.
3. Some consumables inflict debuffs that can help you recruit high speed demons that want you to chase them. (Under certain conditions, you can recruit any high speed demon without using ANY abilities or consumables and without being fast yourself. I'll let you figure this one out.)
4. Linking that involves fending off packs of enemies should be done in as tight of a hallway as possible. A small room works too, but make sure that you can see every corner of the room. Otherwise, enemies will spawn from the walls and make life much harder.
5. Some negotiations don't have a penalty for failing. Do these because you might get lucky and nab a good demon for cheap.
6. Haunt is an amazing ability for recruiting high speed demons that want you to chase them. The delay on the ability is normally enough to keep the demon in sight.
7. Recruiting modified demons with "bad" modifiers can be a good thing. (Example: A Hulking Jinn sounds bad because Hulking hurts its magic, but it still works well as a hybrid magic/physical user.)
8. Actaceon link is very, very hard to pull off. You should have at least 2 healers and tanky melee demons that know Souleater. Personally, I rarely do this link because a few missteps lead to a game over.

Section 4: Relic Upgrade Tips
1. Modified Kasha make great Soul Armor sacrifices. I use a Psychic Kasha if my abilities could really hurt my allies (e.g. Mighty Roar) in case I get charmed. Otherwise, I use a Vile Kasha so my healing can't be interfered with. Carbuncles are also good. Avoid Raicho though. 150% speed is tempting, but you are too squishy.
2. With Quick Summon and Quick Dismiss, you can reposition an out of position demon instantly. They have amazing synergy with breath attacking demons. (e.g. I summon Miodchaoin. He roars. Swap him out Reprobus. He breathes fire. Swap him out for a Shisa. It breathes holy. Swap it out for Vishap. It breathes elec. Swap it out for Miodchaoin since his breath attack will be off cooldown by now. Repeat.)
3. To make the most use out of Recycle, keep one slot in your team reserved for recruiting low level demons.

Section 5: Enemies That Will Kill You And Your Demons
Deaths in Demon tend to fall in 3 categories: 1. You get chain CC'd. 2. You constantly summon and dismiss your demons since they are close to dying, but you never use your own abilities. Slowly, your team gets grinded away until you are left alone. 3. You get bursted by an attack you're weak to.

1. is avoided by either having high Vit, standing behind your demons, or a demon with Calm who's either Mind resistant or has high Vit.
2. is avoided by either being Crown of Glory, letting a demon die so you can use your abilities, learning ability sets that do a lot in few turns (e.g. aoe buffs, aoe attacks, aoe heals) so you can safely summon and dismiss demons, and using your consumables.
3. is avoided by being tanky, going for Soul Armor and picking getting a weakness that has few bursty abilities (Ice weakness is the best weakness to have), and giving your healer Draw Wounds and Mending (105 + 150 heal in one turn is great).

All enemies are dangerous, but some are more dangerous than others.
Raicho-Very fast electric birds that can shock you. Let your demons tank the attacks rather than you. Switch out your demons as they get low. Not much to say, really. Just pray you don't get chain stunned into oblivion.
Ukobach-Ranged fire attacks that hurt. Let your fire-resistant demons tank the attacks. Once they run out of SP, go for the kill.
Zar-Can inflict Panic debuff. The moment you see a pack, recruit one to have a source of Calm.
Vikhor-Super fast melee unique. Comes with a flock of modified Raicho. Killing the Raichos can be easier than killing Vikhor.
Fotia-Like Ukobach, but worse. The source of many splats in the Anomaly branch. See Ukobach.
Paracelsus-A summoner with defensive abilities and heals. Many of his demons are weak to Light and Dark.
Angel-Comes in packs. Keep your light weak demons away.
Liothe-A summoner that can be complete BS. Inflicts debuffs and has a self-heal that has its cooldown reduced when he's damaged. Kill his demons first.
Akateko-Can deal MaxHP damage quick, fast, and in a hurry. Bring in a dark-resistant demon to tank. If you don't have one, regularly switch out demons when fighting to spread out the MaxHP damage among your team. If you're desperate, link with an Akateko, run away, let it die. Keep doing this until one Akateko is left.
Charliss-Can deal MaxHP damage and Ice damage. Blinks all over the place at low health. Besides the obvious dark and ice-resistant demons, use a demon with a gap closer like Pounce to lock him down.
Chachumpa-Humanoid lions that look deceptively derpy. Stuns you and clobbers you for 100 damage attacks.
Breska-A summoner with lots of physical damage. Be aware he has Leap Attack, which is a Ranged Direct move. This means he doesn't need a clear shot to leap to you.
Reprobus and Mordecai-Reprobus can Breath Fire and immediately refresh his Breath Fire cooldown thanks to Second Wind. Mordecai can leap in, Mighty Roar (a physical breath attack that can stun), and smack you around. They come with an entourage of enemies that can get on top of you using Bull Rush. Spread out your demons to minimize the Breath Fire and Mighty Roar damage. My recommendation is to kill everything but Reprobus and Mordecai first.
Oni-Tanky melee dudes that have two chances of stunning you due to their Double Impact attack.
Abatwa-Shoots poison needles. One turn you see them, the next turn you're lethally poisoned. Even body-resistant demons have a hard time. Hope you have Turdak on your team!
Rakshasa-Stuns you and slashes you for 100 damage attacks.
Antoria-Can be thought of as an optional boss. Avoid if possible. He's not unkillable, but your team should be super stacked before you take him on. Loves to spam Chain Lightning. I don't know how the targeting on that ability works, but it somehow manages to hit myself and all my demons.

Section 6: Ally Builds
You have credits. You have allies. How do you spend your credits on your allies?
Pre-Anomaly
1. Pick a demon or two to be your physical frontliner. A Malingee, Headless, or Jiangshi can do the job well.
-Abilities to teach: Reshape, Malleable, Souleater, Juggernaut, Leech Bite, Buffs like Might, Yellow Whisper, Arctic Veil+Frostbite, Spiny Veil, Counterattack
-Yes, you will need to get rid of this demon eventually due to level decay. (An explanation for level decay is somewhere above this. Basically, as your demons level up, they gain levels slower, forcing you to replace them with fresh demons once they gained about ~10 levels.) But these abilities I listed vastly improve the demon's survivability, and upgrading level 1 demons is quite cheap.
2. Lifegiver Gandayah is an amazing healer that stays relevant all the way to Tower:20.
-Abilities to teach: Healing Charm, Lifegiver, Calm, Absolution, Draw Wounds, Mending, Affection
-If you get lucky and find an already modified Lifegiver demon, you choose to skip getting a Lifegiver Gandayah.
3. Blessed Raicho is another option for a demon that scales amazingly well. Stuff it with as many Buff abilities as you can. It's hard to pass over a demon giving out buffs at 150% speed.
-Abilities to teach: Buff abilities, Ritualist, Tireless, Blessweaver, Innocence (keep the bird safe).
-When it becomes too dangerous for the Raicho to actively fight, delete Shocking Touch and Swiftness. Have your Blessed Raicho out at the start of fights, then desummon it when its SP has been spent.
-A plain Raicho works too, but you'll have to wait a long time to find Buff abilities
Anomaly
Python is tanky and has a fantastic modifier.
-Abilities to teach: Any veil, any status passives (e.g. Venomous)
-Veils>Status Passives on Python. Python has 80% speed, so it attacks rather slowly.
-Don't be afraid to replace some abilities from its kit with new ones. For example, Low Profile is fairly useless.
-Because of level decay, IMHO it is not worth fusing something to your Python. Better to use your Python as fusion material.

WIP

Section 7: Player Builds
These builds are ones I and other players have won with before.
Don't blindly follow them; adapt to the circumstances of the game and create your own.
You don't have to keep the suggested demons. It's fine if you want to learn their abilities then delete them.
Also, these builds can be great on your demons too! I've had Veil Tank Pythons and Dirty Needles Chupacabras do serious work!

Blasty Casty Build
Massive amounts of magic damage with excellent type coverage that wipes out swathes of foes in a few button presses. Sure, you are weak to all physical attacks, but that's the price to pay for ultimate power. From what I know, the most popular build for popping your Demon win cherry.

Relics:
Orb of Power-Fire/Electricity/Mind/Dark/Buff (I prefer Buff) and Ice (Doesn't have to be Ice, but Ice seems to be the strongest option)

Stats To Get:
If you want to go full glass cannon, put everything in Magic.
A more balanced approach is 3 Magic and 2 Vitality.
Add a little to Cunning if you are Dark and Ice, assuming you want to successfully use debuffs.
Add a little to Agility if you are Elec and Ice to keep Lighting Bolt accurate.

Abilities to Learn:
Core:
SP boosting abilities (Vigorous, Tireless, Second Wind, Ritualist)
Any magic damage ability that you can get your hands on
Optional:
Defensive abilities (Most notably, Block Physical)
Buff supporting abilities (Only if you picked Buff. Rabblerouser, Blessweaver)
Passive synergizing with your elemental attacks
Self buff abilities (e.g. Vehemence)

Sample Ability Sets:
Orb of Power-Buff and Ice-Haste, Might, Frost Ring, Ritualist, Headwind, Vigorous, Innocence, Winterkill
Orb of Power-Dark and Ice-Vigor Siphon, Snuff Out, Frost Ring, Light Dart, Vehemence, Tireless, Vigorous

Which Demons To Recruit:
Your options are very open. Here are a few:
Light Dart user (Aithir)
Vigor Siphon user (defeating Charliss)
Snuff Out user (Chindi)
Ritualist user (Jinn, defeating Antoria)
Vigorous user (defeating Zaiji, Pele)

Which Demons To Have Summoned While Exploring:
Healer, frontliner, foo

Tips
-Stay in the back and cast your spells. Watch out for gap closer abilities like Leap Attack or Haunt.
-Ritualist is an incredible passive that reduces the SP cost of all magic abilities with 25 or more SP cost by 10 (with a small catch). The moment you see a Jinn, try to recruit it to get Ritualist. Jinn appear in the last few floors of the Tower, so save a few credits for that moment.
-Teach Refresh to your demons that don't need SP to give yourself free SP
-If you went for Buff, buff priority should be Frontliners > Casters > Healers. Apply Haste first on a demon then Might to help frontliners run to their foes faster.

Veil Tank Build (Credit to mbj)
Veils are passive abilities that trigger deal damage and/or debuff adjacent enemies that damage you. Combined with Malleable, which boosts healing received, and healers, this build makes opponents kill themselves just by being near you.

Relics:
Crown of Glory-Any (I prefer the ones that don't give a Light weakness because there are so many sources of light damage this patch) and Electricity
Hand of the Dead-Any (I prefer Dark/Debuff) and Body
Titan's Fist-Slash and Fire/Electricity/Ice (I prefer Electricity since the Storm Veil is the rarest Veil to come by)

Stats To Get:
Early on, put points in Vitality or Strength.
Later, you may want to invest in Strength, Magic, or Cunning, depending on the veils you find. Strength for defense and veils that deal physical damage, Magic for veils that deal magic damage, and Cunning for debuff veils.

Abilities To Learn:
Core:
Malleable
As many veils as possible Veils (Best Veil is Alluring Veil from Pele.)
Optional:
Regenerate (Synergizes well with Malleable. Gives you something to spend your SP on when it's too dangerous for you to tank. Can be learned from defeating the hero Zaiji.)
Refresh and Tormentor (When you have Arctic Veil, Give SP to your healers.)
Refresh and Bloodlust (When you have all 3 physical veils. Give SP to your healers.)
Leadership (When you have all 3 physical veils. Leadership DOES trigger on those veils.)
Abilities that make you harder to kill (e.g. Protect, Juggernaut, Oppressor)
Gapcloser abilities (e.g. Leap Attack)

Sample Ability Sets:
Titan's Fist-Slash and Elec-Regenerate, Alluring Veil, Counterattack, Storm Veil, Fiery Veil, Arctic Veil, Poison Veil, Malleable
Crown of Glory-Debuff and Elec-Regenerate, Fiery Veil, Arctic Veil, Storm Veil, Dazzling Veil, Choking Veil, Alluring Veil, Malleable

Which Demons To Recruit:
Malleable user (Slime)
Fiery Veil user (Kasha, Fotia)
Arctic Veil user (Asrai, defeating Charliss)
Choking Veil user (Ghoul, Python)
Poison Veil user (Blob, Apis)
Spiny Veil user (Chupacabra)
Dazzling Veil user (Shoggoth)
Alluring Veil user (Pele)

Which Demons To Have Summoned While Exploring:
Two healers, foo

Tips:
-Remember that you can't tank everything. Check your healers' SP to ensure that they have enough SP left.
-Fair warning: The build requires some luck. If the right demons don't spawn, no veils for you. Rarely a problem.

Dirty Needles Build (Credit to mbj)
Needle Shot by itself does ok damage. Needle Shot with the right passives can poison, silence, and inflict all sorts of nasty debuffs. Don't forget to pack some SP boosting moves to compensate for the high SP consumption.

Relics:
Hand of the Dead-Slash and Movement (The harder of the two options to pull off; you must recruit either Artemis or a Centaur to get access to a ranged physical attack. The benefit is having guaranteed Terrifying, a passive gives your physical attacks a chance to Panic your foes. Terrifying is normally hard to come by.)
Vodun Mask-Pierce and Pierce

Stats To Get:
Put 1 in Agility and 4 in Cunning.

Abilities To Learn:
Core:
Some physical projectile attack that doesn't have a Luck cooldown (Needle Shot, Paralyzing Needle)
As many physical debuff passives as possible
SP boosting abilities (Vigorous, Bloodlust, Tireless, Second Wind)
Optional:
Leadership
Innocence
Mind Reader
Buff abilities (e.g. Vehemence)

Sample Ability Set:
Vodun Mask-Pierce and Pierce-Needle Shot, Venomous, Numbing, Vigorous, Bloodlust, Blood Rot, Flesh Rot, Brain Knocker

Which Demons To Recruit:
Needle Shot user (Centaur)
Tireless user (Gandayah)
Bloodlust user (Python)
Infectious user (Lots)
Crippler user (defeating Mordecai)
Terrifying user (defeating Mordecai)
Crusader user (Ehlose)
Blood Rot user (Chindi)
Flesh Rot user (Blob)
Heavyhanded user (Oni)
Numbing user (Turdak)
Vigorous user (Pele)
Brainknocker user (Python)

Which Demons To Have Summoned While Exploring:
Healer, frontliner, foo

Tips:
-Low Profile is nice to have on your demons since you can shoot through them, but I found it's not necessary.
-Don't get only Body related passives (Infectious, Venomous, Numbing, Blood Rot, Flesh Rot). Add in passives of other elemental type for more type coverage.

Lifesteal Build
Build focused on sustaining yourself and allies. Massive heals on enemy deaths, heals when you attack, and heals when you get attacked.

Relics:
Crown of Glory-Healing and Any

Stats To Get:
Mix of Vitality and Strength.

Abilities To Learn:
Core:
Malleable
Bloodthirst
Souleater
Flesheater
Gluttony
Spiny Veil (Hard to come by)
Optional:
Refresh
Abilities that make you harder to kill (e.g. Protect, Juggernaut, Oppressor)

Sample Ability Set:
Crown of Glory-Healing and Defense-Reviving Cut, Malleable, Bloodthirst, Souleater, Flesheater, Gluttony, Juggernaut, Spiny Veil

Which Demons To Recruit:
I don't feel like listing out all the demons here. Plus, examining each demon to see if their abilities are what you want is a good habit to get into.

Which Demons To Have Summoned While Exploring:
Healer, frontliner, healer or caster

Tips:
-Because you sustain yourself mainly through enemy kills, beware your health may drop dangerously low until you get a kill. It helps to have demons that can deal lots of damage upfront so you can trigger Flesheater and Souleater.

[Ferret]

It isn't necessarily related to the quality of the guide, but I have to admit I'm happy to see Demon design goals referenced in without my prompting. e.x.: no popcorn encounters.

I guess I should probably let you read the manual from character creation.

General Tip 6: Ugh. Ugh. Well, I can't disagree with it: a demon dying *is* supposed to be a big deal, and undoing it *is* supposed to hurt. But it hurts my designer heart a little to see the advice for a feature is basically "don't" (Note: This is not a criticism of your guide, in fact, much of my rambling here probably isn't related to the perceived quality of the guide because I agree with pretty much all of it. )

General Tip 7: I'm starting to wonder if anyone will be able to beat this game once winning involves more than diving in the golden portal.

Combat Tip 2: This is a very good way of explaining how to tell your healer won't be able to heal you

Combat Tip 4: I have often been surprised by how surprising people find this, so it's a good tip to include.

Combat Tip 5: At least it's only 6 now. 6 is a fair bit more manageable, especially since you probably wounded at least some of them unless you literally just focus fired the summoner.

Deadly Enemies:
* Raicho: Should probably mention that they can Shock you too, since that's probably half of what makes them so evil.
* Lioth: Hehe. I guess I wouldn't be a roguelike developer if I didn't chuckle a little at remarks like these.
* Breska: May be worth mentioning that in the post-relic upgrades era he usually has very solid (and somewhat randomized) resistances.

Builds:
Blasty Mage: Not that I disagree with it for this build, but does nobody like any of the Cantrip options? Or is Ritualist just that good?
Veil Tank: Hmph. Why does nobody love Oppressor for these?
Dirty Needle: Humble little Throw Rock can be a big SP saver early on. It's basically Needle Shot that costs 5 SP. It may only be usable sometimes, but saving 10 SP sometimes is better than most early options for this build.

Overall, a pretty solid early start guide. Good insights for me too, apart from that. Thanks for putting this together.

[ayayaya]

Spruced up the guide a bit for 8/3

[Ferret]

Awesome. Thank you. The only major mechanics change coming in the 9/?? build is the Strength nerf really: the rest of it is a bucket of new content and some small UI upgrades, so it probably won't change much of what's here, though some of the new abilities/uniques may be worth mentioning. You won't have to wait for the new build to learn about some of them, once a bug in the dev blog is fixed and I can post on it again, I'll be showing some of the new stuff

[Ferret]

Next build will have the ability to open the help menus in any "selection" menu or character sheet: this includes pretty much all of character creation, among other things.

[ayayaya]

Updated for the 10/13/16 build.

[Ferret]

Thanks. I did make one small correction: You actually can access the manual from the start screen now.

[ayayaya]

Mostly updated for 12/12/16 build.

[Ferret]

Thanks for the updates