Underkeep: Beginner’s Guide

Settings Worth Changing

• Move / Turn Animation: Off, for quick, old-school movement.
• Item Tooltip Delay: Off, so tooltips show up right away.
• Show Items Behind Objects: On, so you stop missing loot.
• Automapping: Enabled by default. “Minimap Only” and “Disabled” are there for purists.
• Floating Combat Text: All, Damage Only, Status Only, or Off.
• Font: Default, Pixelated, or Pixelated B. Choose the one you read most easily.
• Accessibility: Camera shake, flashing, portrait blinking, italics, and wall-hit sounds can all be lowered or turned off.

You can change the difficulty at any time. Dropping to Easy for one hard fight is a fair option.

Races

The Six Races

Race Tips

• Stoneborn cannot wear chest armor, but helmets, gloves, boots, and other slots are fine. Its armor rises as it levels, which makes it a great Warrior or Paladin.
• Slugman is an excellent caster, and crit immunity is very strong in the front row too. Build up fire resistance and drink a cure quickly when it burns.
• Elk armor against Animals helps early on, since the forests are full of wolves, rats, and spiders.
• Human +10% XP adds up over time. If you cannot decide, go with Human.
• Raven is a gamble. Open the Character panel right after you create one. A bad roll like “Backseat Parasite” (50% chance to hit a random enemy) or “Allergic to Ice” can ruin some builds. If you do not like the result, delete the hero and make them again in the Party Creator.

Classes

The Seven Classes

Recommended Starter Parties

Classic (Easiest)

Front: Warrior and Paladin
Back: Wizard and Voidcaller

Two tanks, burst damage, and a dedicated healer. This party forgives a lot of mistakes.

Hunter’s Pack

Front: Warrior and Thief
Back: Ranger and Blood Mage

Hunter’s Prey from the Ranger or Mark the Dead from the Blood Mage makes one enemy take extra damage, and the whole party focuses on it. The Thief and Blood Mage also stack bleed.

Holy Order

Front: Paladin and Thief
Back: Voidcaller and Wizard

Two healers (Lay on Hands and Void Mend) support a Paladin who tanks and a Thief who dodges. Against Undead, rely on the Paladin’s Judgment and the Wizard’s fire, because Undead take extra fire damage but ignore bleed and poison. Against Demons, switch the Wizard to ice. The Voidcaller’s Null Bolt ignores enemy defenses, so it works against anything.

Stats and Formulas

The Math

All of these numbers come from the game’s own tooltips and text.

What the Numbers Mean

• Armor is taken off every physical hit, so weak attacks against an armored enemy may barely do anything. Bring armor pierce, skills that ignore armor (Slice and Dice, Riposte, Shadow Instinct), Void Lance, or elemental spells.
• Ranged heroes need DEX. With 5 DEX, your base hit chance is about 50% before enemy evasion.
• Wisdom protects casters without you noticing. Elemental resistance comes from WIS, so your Wizard often handles fire better than your Warrior.
• Endurance also makes poison wear off faster and helps resist many negative effects.

Combat Explained

How a Round Works

• Each hero gets one action: a basic attack or their assigned active skill.
• Potions and inventory items do not use an action.
• Some skills are free actions. Their tooltip says “Does not consume an action”.
• The round ends once everyone has acted, or when you press the hourglass. Any hero who has not acted yet is skipped.
• After any hero acts, the party cannot move until the round is over.

Rows and Range

• Melee attacks need the front row unless the weapon has Reach.
• “Out of Reach” means you need to step forward, use a Reach weapon, or attack from range.
• Most enemies only hit your front row, so put your toughest heroes there.
• Swapping positions costs that hero’s action. Set up your rows before the fight starts.

Tactics That Win Fights

• Focus fire. Mark one enemy with Hunter’s Prey, Mark the Dead, or Unholy Convergence, and have everyone attack it.
• Control the big threats. Stun (Skull Rattle, Shield Bash, Arcane Lock), Freeze (Ice Shard), and Blind (Smoke Bomb) stop dangerous turns before they happen.
• Check immunities. Some enemies are immune to crits, stun, bleed, burn, freeze, poison, blind, paralysis, or disease. The combat log tells you, so change tactics when you see it.
• Use enemy types against them. Undead, Demons, and Animals each have counters. The Paladin is strongest against Undead and Demons, and Elks get armor against Animals.
• Pull back. If a fight turns bad, end the round and retreat, or rest and return later.
• Break things. Some destructible objects in the world can be attacked.

Status Effects and Cures

Disease is the easy one to miss. If you rest while diseased, you use up food and recover nothing.

Exploration, Tools, and Fast Travel

Tools You Want

When you find rocks you cannot break or a vein you cannot mine yet, mark the spot on your map and come back later.

Things to Always Check

• Garbage piles and hollow trees, which hold hidden stashes
• Alcoves and tombstones, since some want an item placed in them
• Walls near dead ends (listen for the sound of sliding stone)
• Pressure plates and objects you can push
• Anything that looks fragile (attack it)
• Signposts, which point you toward the next region

Fast Travel

Touch every portal stone you come across. It pulses when activated, and after that you can travel between any activated portals. This makes going back for locked chests and rocks easy.

The Map

Press M to open the map. Its legend marks doors, treasure, statues, pressure plates, pits, rocks, shrines, teleports, portals, and passages.

Food, Resting, Alchemy, and Money

Food and Rest

• Food is a single shared number shown in the HUD. Resting uses it up automatically.
• You cannot rest when enemies are close, and digging graves also costs food.
• Grab every food item you see, and cook stews and toast with the Mortar and Pestle.

Alchemy

1. Find recipes.
2. Gather ingredients such as mushrooms, flowers, berries, and monster parts.
3. Use the Mortar and Pestle and press Craft.

A wrong combination just fails, and you lose nothing. Recipes worth looking for:

• Healing, Mana, and Stamina potions
• Cure Poison
• Frostvein (cures Burn and Freeze)
• Thunderwake (cures Stun and Paralyze)
• Mindwell (health and mana)
• Armor, Evasion, and Elemental Resistance potions
• Resurrection
• A permanent mana boost

Gold

The whole party shares one gold pool. Spend it on gear upgrades from merchants, but always keep some back for revivals at a Revival Statue. Some valuables, like gems and ores, are mostly there to be sold.

Raven Mutations

Each Raven starts with one random stable (good) mutation and one random unstable (bad) mutation.

Best Stable Rolls

• Redundant Organs (rare): 40% chance to survive a lethal hit with 1 HP
• Roommate from the Void: melee attacks heal 5% of the damage dealt
• Predator Instinct: +10% damage against enemies below 50% HP
• Adrenal Spike: +4 damage and +4% crit while below 30% HP
• Gravemind Link: +5 mana or stamina when a nearby enemy dies
• Static Carapace / Crystal Chitin / Spore Spit: punish enemies that hit you in melee
• Iron Mandibles: melee attacks cause a small Bleed

Worst Unstable Rolls

If you get one of these, think about rerolling the hero.

• Backseat Parasite: 50% chance to hit a random enemy instead of your target
• Allergic to Ice (rare): any ice damage freezes you for 2 rounds
• Molting Season: double fire damage
• Cracking Shell: +15% melee damage taken (bad for a front-row hero)
• Arcane Appetite: +1 mana per spell (bad for a caster)
• Heavy Metabolism: basic attacks cost stamina

Mild: Weak Circulation (-10 max stamina), Glutton Parasite (-2 STR while food is under 10, so keep food above 10), and Slow Regeneration (-25% healing).

Double-edged: Reverse Osmosis doubles healing from potions but also doubles poison damage. Phase-Slip Carapace dodges 50% of spells but takes double damage from the ones that land.

Early Enemies and Bosses

Early Enemies

These are the enemies you meet first in the forests and caves:

• Giant Rats / Underfangs: weak alone, dangerous in packs. Animals.
• Grassfang (snakes): watch out for poison.
• Wrathclaw (wolves): Animals, so Elk armor helps.
• Wrathspinner / Stormspinner (spiders): inflict status effects.
• Boneblades / Boneblade Archers (skeletons): Undead, so bring the Paladin. The archers attack from range.
• Orc Fighters: armored. Use armor pierce or elemental damage.
• Ooze Cubes: can corrode your armor.

Bosses and Named Foes

Spoiler warning: the next paragraph names the bosses.

Rat Queen, Mother of the Warren; Arachneira; Scourge of the Tunnels; Orc Chieftain; Bandit Chieftain; Dreadcoil of the Deep; Frog King, Last Crown of the Mire; Obula; Skeleton King; Fangspire; Mud Ooze; The Thing; and several more further down.

Boss Tips

• Rest and save right before any room that is clearly a boss fight.
• Check immunities on the first turn. Many bosses cannot be stunned.
• Put your mark (Hunter’s Prey or Mark the Dead) on the boss and keep it there.
• Bring cures. Bosses like to stack status effects on your party.

Quick Tips and FAQ

Quick Tips

• Hover over everything. Tooltips for stats, items, skills, and statuses explain the exact rules.
• Give a shield to a Warrior with Shield Bash for the passive armor.
• Paralyze only stops a target from moving; it can still attack. Stun and Freeze actually skip turns.
• Read encounter choices carefully. They can give XP, items, or new paths.
• Talk to villagers more than once.
• Sell spare gems, ores, and duplicate gear for gold.
• Read books and notes. They hint at puzzles and secrets.

FAQ

Can I change the difficulty mid-game?

Yes, at any time.

A hero died. What now?

Go to a Revival Statue and pay the fee, or use a resurrection item.

Why can’t I move?

Someone has already acted this round, so end the round first. A paralyzed hero also stops the whole party from moving.

Why can’t I rest?

Either enemies are nearby or you have run out of food.

My back-row hero says “Out of Reach”. What do I do?

Give them a ranged weapon, a Reach weapon, or a spell.

Can a Stoneborn wear armor?

Not body armor. Every other slot is fine.