Dicey Dungeons

Before we start, I would like to recommend my guide on the "Elimination Round 4" achievement for General and Elimination Round tips. Here I'm gonna focus in the Round 5, which is the most hated Witch Episode 4 run (assuming you are following the natural order of Warrior > Thief > Robot > Inventor > Witch > Secret Character). First of all, this run is far from impossible. It is not that heavily reliant of RNG either, as you have the tools to pull the odds to your favor, which is the purpose of this game.

Now, the main problem is that the Witch in general makes you think more than the others, but I consider not as hard as the inventor. She can be really broken is you know how to juggle her spells, or can be a pain if you like a more direct approach of just dishing damage. She is not a powerhouse per se, that's why the Warrior exists. She is a status dealer with decent dmg output, but relies on planning your attack right. She is my favorite character and luckily I finished her fourth episode on the first try. I hope you have the same success by following my advice. So, I will divide this guide in twp parts: General tips and Elimination Round tips for the Witch. Let's begin.

Witch General Tips

• The game only saves when:
• • You defeat an opponent
  • You lose a fight
  • You buy at shops
  • You change between floors
  So, the developers were very generous to let you reload/quit a fight if is going wrong. As a rule of thumb, you should not lose more than 1/3 of your health per fights, specially in the last floors. This can apply to any character in general, but the witch doesn't have many options for healing, and shielding is not optimal in the last fights. So, if you lose half of your health and is your first fight after leveling up, reset and plan again. The Witch can change her prepared spell before any fight, so use that in your advantage.

• Use RNG in your favor. RNG is the pseudo-random number (it uses a seed to create it as there is not truly randomness in computers, but that's another topic for another time) that determines your throws and those of your opponent. Is different from the procedurally generated floors as they follow some rules to make it challenging (if not, we would have floors with only apples). This RNG is changed every time:
• • You enter and leave a shop
  • You move around
  • Change a prepared spell or equipment
  • Interact with objects on the map (e.g., apples)
  Therefore, you can change the flow of a fight at the beginning if you have a good RNG. If not, just return to title, do something of the list above, and try again. As you can quit the fight anytime, even when you lose (if you can close application and will return you before the fight), I recommend you change the RNG and see how the battle flows. You need a specific dice at the beginning to do your combos? change the RNG. The enemy one-shotted you at the beginning? change the RNG. Even a little change like receiving different dices can make a huge difference. For example, in one fight, I arrived with 10 against Dire Wolf. She deals a lot of damage, but after a few retries, I could pull it off and level up (it replenishes all your health). Along with the previous tip, this can make finishing the game a lot easier without many frustrations.

• For your upgrades, I recommend you follow this route:
• • Level 2: For your first upgrade, grab any spell but Burning Light. The spell itself is not bad as it all offensive, but fire status comes short compared to the difference statuses like Weaken, Shock and Ice can make in battles.
  • Level 3: Your priority is to take the first upgrade slot. Some spells are really powerful, and you will be loading your spells anyways, giving an advantage in the first rounds of a fight.
  • Level 4: For your next upgrade, Doppeldice or Duplicate are good option. Depending on your playstyle, chose the best. I always recommend Duplicate, as it has better synergy with the Even-Required Spells like Hall Of Mirrors. For example, if you put Hall of Mirrors on the sixth slot of the Spellbook, you can Duplicate any Dice 6 and get +1 dice for free.
  • Level 5: When you have taken the upgrade slot, you should grab another dice for this upgrade. Like a deck of cards, it can speed your play and kill enemies faster. Even when you don't have any spells available, you can always toss them for 1 damage, or 2 damage if they are burned. This is exclusive to the witch and extremely powerful on enemies weak to fire, because they take 4 damage instead. Wicker Man can kill himself with this, as he burns your dice quite frequently.
  • Level 6: If you have already taken your dice or it is not available and you had the first upgrade slot, you should grab the prepared slot. This speeds up your play but is not as important in the early game as the others for most runs. In very special occasions you should grab this prepared slot first, depending mostly on the RNG getting spells that should both be ready in the first turn.

• Contrary to the Inventor the Witch's kit is not about replacing old equipment, but to get the best that can carry through all the floors. That said, my recommended distribution of spells is the following:
• • Dice 1: Spells that randomly change your dice. The easiest to obtain is Cauldron, but any type of Cauldron works. One of the best early spells, even better upgraded. While it dishes little damage, its secret relies on nullifying enemy freezes. If they make all your dice 1s, you can change them with Cauldron, and even replace the spent spell with another Cauldron, as you have many 1s to spare.
  • Dice 2: Spells that duplicate a dice. The most accesible is duplicate, and have a lot of synergy with hall of mirrors, which gives you another dice on a 6 or an even, if upgraded.
  • Dice 3: Defense spell for early game and status spell for end game. The best I recommend for the early game is Magic Shield. Cheap and easy to activate. Crucible is another option if you don't find Magic Shield and you are getting a better status spell. The best status spell for this slot is electric shock or ice shard.
  • Dice 4: Damage spell. Magic missile works really well, as you can duplicate a dice 4 with the second spell (Duplicate) and use it right away as you need an even (2,4,6). At the end, Witch is all about synergy. If not, Burning Light is a great "All-Out Damage" option.
  • Dice 5: Status spell. Chose another the other that is not on dice 3. For example, if dice 3 has electric shock, put ice shard here. This way you can nullify enemy moveset and even make them waste turns without doing damage, like the Skeleton.
  • Dice 6: Utility spell. One of the best is Hall of Mirrors with the synergy of Duplicate. However, don't hesitate to change it if needed. Generally, in battle you need 1 or 2 extra dice at most. Only for the Kraken you can consider using this spell every turn. Blind status is one of the worst status effects for the witch. When juggling spells, you cannot know what you get, which severely impact you game. Kraken blinds 4 of your dices every turn, so you need to have more dices to counter this effect.

Witch Elimination Round Tips

• Floor management is crucial to succeed in this round. I recommend not to skip battles with the Witch, as is easier to be Level 6 when facing the boss. Generally, you need to beat every enemy to level up before going to the next floor. Therefore, management is key. Here is a list of recommendations for each floor:
• • Floor 1: The first two battles are the easiest and can be done without much trouble. You get your first level up without much trouble.
• • Floor 2: Coming with full hp from previous floor, choose your first fight wisely. As a rule of thumb, always choose the battles that have the most rewards at the end. If beating one enemy opens nothing, leave it to the last (when you will probably heal all your hp at the end). Prefer fights with the most apples and shops that can give you upgrades, new spells, and even apples. Don't prioritize chests over apples or shops, as they are a gamble that doesn't pay off most of the time (if you have a good spellbook ready, there is no reason to change it for something you are not sure will serve you better).
  • Floor 3: This is where battles get trickier. Try to manage your health between battles, so you only lose about 1/3 in each fight. Try to save your apples for the last fight before leveling up, but if you find in trouble just use one. Generally, having around 20 HP is enough to win a hard fight.
  • Floor 4: At the start of this floor, you should have your spellbook complete or at least almost done. The fights get real, with enemies dishing heavy damage if you don't control them. Upgraded Electric Shock is best for this.
  • Floor 5: The most difficult fights are here. Enemies can one-shot you in a turn if you take them lightly, or leave you almost dead, which should not happen. Try to get to the "easier" enemies first (the ones with level 4 or do not do much damage) and get your limit breaker ready for the harder encounters. With a bit of luck and careful floor planning, you should be on your way to the boss with full HP, fully upgraded, and your spellbook ready.
  • Boss Floor: Compared to what you encountered in floor 5, this one battle should not be hard. By now, after reading this guide and you encounters in the previous floors, you should know how to manage any encounter. Boss have more HP and hit harder with bigger status effects, but it doesn't really matter when you can make all their dice drop to 1 or shock all their equipment, making them wasting turns struggling to charge or use their powerful attacks.

• You need to get better at juggling, which is the act of changing spells as possible to dish more damage/obtain more dices/apply more status effects. Every battle should flow as this:
• • First Turn: You should have a status spell as the prepared spell. Ice Shard is easy to cast right away. Then, you should try fill your empty spells. Try to get a Hall of Mirrors in the upgraded slot, so you can get two dices (one in the first turn and then another in the next). If you don't have a six, try to put Cauldron. Third option should be putting Electric Shock on upgraded slot for its 2 Shock Status Effect. If nothing of this is possible, try to put duplicate at least.
  • Second Turn: Try to fill all your empty spells. Depending on the enemy equipment, you have a variety of options. Whether you load two Ice Shards for those with few dices, or bait a Curse status into activating with a Duplicate, or prioritize Electric Shock. Your choice. Having many dices with Hall of Mirrors and Duplicate lets you juggle your spells a lot. For example, if you have one Dice 2, one Dice 6, and Hall of Mirrors with Duplicate active, you can do this: Duplicate your Dice 6 > Get +1 Dice with Hall of Mirrors > load another Duplicate with the first Dice 2 > load another Hall of Mirrors with the new Dice 6 > Get +1 Dice with Hall of Mirrors. With only two dices, you get +2 Dices for next turn and ready to get another +2. This works for the other spells as well. This way, you can Shock 4 equipment while doing 24 damage or dish 20 damage and freezing 4 enemy dices. The sky is the limit.
  • Third Turn: From this turn onwards, you should have the flow of the battle controlled. This is where the Witch shines the most. Also, consider throwing dices if you can end the fight that turn. Sometimes the Cauldron will not give you what you need and is better to stay safe than sorry.
  As you see, without careful juggling the Witch can underperform and take more damage, which is not ideal. As a final word of advice for fights and the spellbook in general, if it works, don't break it.

• Limit Breaker is your triumph card for the most difficult fights in the game. This advice applies to all characters in general, but is focused to the Witch. If the fight is near its end and you get Limit Breaker, don't use it right away. Is better to end it normally and save it for next fight. There is a huge advantage getting to the first round with 5+ Dices. You can pull awesome combos and leave the enemy with almost no room to maneuver. It all depends in how are you controlling the fight, and the Witch is all about control. However, if an enemy will get a new turn with almost all charged abilities or with huge potential damage as the result of holding your Limit Break, you should use it as emergency, even for just throwing the dice. However, always prefer to use your Limit Break at start or mid fight rather than the end.

And that is all my tips for this guide. Thank you for reading this far and remember to have fun!