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Overview[]

Unleashed Pixel Dungeon is a fork of Shattered Pixel Dungeon created by reddit user Father Nature / David Mitchell. It was first released in July 26th, 2015 and it can be considered abandoned/completed, as its last update was released in February 2016.

No specific version of Shattered PD that the mod was based on is mentioned, but judging from the in-game evidence, it is most probably based on version 0.3.0 of May 2015, as it includes all the new wands that were added in Shattered PD in that version, but not the new traps of the immediately next version. For details about the additions and changes in Shattered PD up to version 0.3.0 you can visit this link.

It is a creative remake of early Shattered PD with many new features added or changed from that version. Unleashed PD is attempting to make the game more accessible to a wider audience by including Difficulty Levels, a Tutorial as well as new features to round out the game.

This mod contains a number of unique changes:

Altars[]

Altars are added, that spawn randomly and infrequently on game depths, and give to the hero the option to seek divine intervention. When the hero offers uncursed melee weapons, armors, rings, wands or artifacts to them, they eventually generate an enchanted weapon or artifact / grant a level-up / show all the loot of the depth (when the items are of low level, many offerings are needed, but with an item upgraded to +2 or higher, even one item can be enough). Nevertheless, when the hero offers a cursed item to them, they cause Vertigo, Ignite, and Paralyze the hero at the same time. Altars also sometimes generate cursed items, even when the hero has offered them uncursed items (they always punish the hero and never generate items, when he/she offers cursed items). If the hero hasn't found yet a tier 4 or 5 weapon until the Dwarven Metropolis, offering items to altars has a good chance to spawn one.

Ankhs[]

A Blessed Ankh is obtained by using a full dew container to bless a plain Ankh. In Unleashed PD, a non-blessed Ankh will lose all non-equipped items, with a prompt asking if the hero wants to continue. A blessed Ankh, upon reaching 0 HP, will be used and will give an unknown amount (appr. 1/5) of HP back. No items are lost by using a blessed Ankh, except the Ankh itself.

Artifacts[]

Artifacts are very similar with those of version 0.3.0 of Shattered PD, so there are some differences from current artifacts of Shattered PD:

  • The Alchemist’s Toolkit exists with its old function of just making less seeds needed for brewing potions when it is upgraded, and it gets upgraded by solving a potion puzzle.
  • The Cape of Thorns is still available as mostly a drop from DM-300.
  • The Cloak of Shadows starts with 5 max charges.
  • The Dried Rose can’t equip weapons and armors.
  • The Timekeeper’s Hourglass starts with 10 charges.

Also, artifacts are not unique but rare finds, so altars and wells of transmutation can generate an artifact that the hero has already found.

Classes - Levelling Up[]

Classes are very similar to those of Original PD, as early Shattered PD had not yet started its various class and subclass reworks, but some changes (most of them unique to Unleashed PD) are implemented:

  • Warrior is less proficient with magic, and reading scrolls causes psychic feedback to him (rarely minor damage is caused after reading a scroll).
  • Mage has a Mage’s Staff as a starting melee weapon, which can be imbued  with any wand, and with each wand imbue the staff will cause a different effect on melee hits (all these inherited from Shattered PD).
  • Rogue has also potions of Toxic Gas identified from the beginning, and has two +1 Daggers and a Potion of Toxic Gas as starting items. Like Shattered PD he starts with a unique Cloak of Shadows, which is different from that in current Shattered PD though (see above).
  • Huntress starts with 18 HP and also gets more loot from enemies in addition to the more HP from dew drops. She basically resembes the Huntress of Original PD.

Like in early and current Shattered PD, Battlemages and Snipers is reasonable to highly upgrade their Mage’s Staff and Boomerang and use it as their main damage-dealing weapon in end game (the Save and Load function of the game can be also exploited for repeated transmutations of a +3/+4 ring until a Ring of Magic or Sharpshooting spawns). The level cap of +8 for Mage’s Staffs and Boomerangs, instead of the +10 cap that applies to tier 5 weapons, makes these builds a little less viable than in Shattered PD though.

Heroes’ Level is not capped at 30 like in Shattered PD, but practically caps at level 33, as all enemies of Demon Halls stop giving XP at this level, although the hero has still an active XP bar (killing Yog-Dzewa gives 50 HP, but they are not enough for the hero to level up). Only if the hero has many items to offer to altars (in case they grant a level-up) or has kept unused potions of Experience and Starfruits / finds materials for them in the late game depths, levelling up is still possible from that level and on. Levelling up also heals a bit the hero and satisfies a bit their hunger.

Difficulties and different Modes[]

The option for four different Difficulties is added: Easy (extra starting items and weker enemies), Normal, Hard and Nightmare, which can be chosen from the main game menu (most Badges can’t be earned in Easy difficulty).

There is also a “Tutorial” mode among them, which is just a short run that introduces the new player to the basic mechanics of the game, with game messages appearing after each new hero’s action. Also, after the player ends the game once with the Amulet of Yendor, the Endless mode (see just below) and the Test mode are unlocked in the difficulties menu, after the hero returns the Amulet to the surface in Normal or Hard difficulty. The Test mode is just a Normal difficulty that allows players to save games from anywhere in the depth.

Endless Mode[]

It is unlocked after defeating the fourth chapter boss in Normal or Hard mode. In a nutshell, Endless mode has the regular sequence of chapter terrains like the ordinary game (the hero starts at the Sewers, after 5 depths or so the depths change to Prison etc.) but without chapter bosses appearing regularly every 5 depths and without the hero being able to ascend to previous depths, and each depth has also a random theme, which is displayed on the depth’s signpost and determines the type of monsters the hero will face:

  • Air (Bats, Flies, Evil Eyes, Velociroosters, Wraiths),
  • Bandits (all Thieves and also Brutes, Monks),
  • Caves (main game’s regular enemies),
  • City (main game’s regular enemies),
  • Demons (Larvae, Skeletons, Succubi, Warlocks, Zombies),
  • Earth (all Golems and also Gnolls, Metal Spiders),
  • Fire (Fire Elementals, Lost Souls, Red Slimes, Senior Monks, Succubi), 
  • Frozen (main game’s regular enemies),
  • Halls (main game’s regular enemies),
  • Prison (main game’s regular enemies),
  • Natural (Bats, Cave Spinners, Flies, Rats, Snakes),
  • Sewers (main game’s regular enemies),
  • Slimes (all Slimes and also Flies, Snakes),
  • Spirit (Evil Eyes, Lost Souls, Shamans, Warlocks, Wraiths),
  • Undead (Lost Souls, Skeletons, Zombies, Undead Dwarves, Wraiths),
  • Water (Cave Spinners, Crabs, Flies, Snakes, Succubi).

After the Prison terrain starts, a random mini-boss enemy might also spawn, either a familiar one from the Sad Ghost quest of the main game or one of the new mini-bosses of Unleashed. All the quest-giver NPCs of the game are removed. There is also always a shop on depth 1, which sells always a seed pouch among other items, but it seems that there are no more in the next chapters (also the hero can buy few of the depth 1 shop’s items, as he/she starts with 0 gold, and can’t ascend back, after he/she leaves the depth). There are also some bugs in this mode, as the collapsed floor rooms never lead to a pit room.

Endless Mode is supposed to fulfill its name and to include infinite depths, but some players report that the game in Endless mode crashes every time the hero tries to descend to depth 37. Nevertheless, Endless mode is so difficult that very few players will have the opportunity to experience this bug. The Endless mode of Unleashed PD is extremely unbalanced and only with very favorable RNG the hero will proceed further than the first five depths.

Drops - Loot[]

High Grass drops not only seeds and dew but also:

  • common Potions (mostly potions of Healing, the specific potion gets auto-identified when it drops from high grass),
  • common Scrolls (mostly scrolls of Identify, the specific scroll gets auto-identified when it drops from high grass),
  • Missile Weapons (mostly darts),
  • and more rarely food items (rations and pasties) and rings.

When the hero has the Sandals of Nature artifact equipped though, high grass drops more often increased amounts of dew and seeds. Generally due to all these drops, apart from cases of extremely bad RNG food is almost never an issue in this mod and until the hero reaches the final two chapters also Healing potions are more than enough.

Apart from the high grass drops, Gold Loot is much better in comparison to Original PD and Shattered PD and sometimes gold chests and bone piles can contain from 1,000 up to 2,000 gold each.

Enemies[]

Regular[]

New regular enemies are added to the familiar from Original PD chapters:

  • Sewers: Brown/Green/Red Slimes, Dungeon Snake, Velocirooster
  • Prison: Assassin, Swarm of Red Flies, Zombie
  • Caves: Clay Golem, Metal Spider
  • Demon Halls: Lost Soul
  • All chapters: Deep Dweller (only in flooded vaults)

The Original PD’s Swarm of Flies is kept but it is renamed to Swarm of Sewer Flies. Most of the new enemies have also a special attack/ability or cause a debuff.

Wraiths are far less evasive in Unleashed PD and can be easily destroyed by plain melee attacks, without the need of surprising them.

Chapter bosses[]

There is no Tome of Remastery; instead, Tengu drops an additional Tome of Mastery in each game, which works like a potion of Experience.

Mini-bosses[]

On the last or second from last depth before the chapter boss depth of the Prison, Caves, Dwarven Metropolis and Frozen chapter depths four new Mini-Bosses are added:

  • the Necromancer in Prison (depth 11), who always drops an Ankh,
  • the Mad Tinkerer in Caves (depth 17), who always drops a scroll of Magical Infusion,
  • the Minotaur in Dwarven City (depth 23), who always drops a potion of Might, and
  • the Chaos Mage in the Frozen chapter (depth 29), who always drops a potion of Experience.

Also, between the initial regular depths of the Sewers, Prison, Caves, City, Frozen chapters and the boss depth of these chapters one extra depth is almost always interfering, always with an open space and enemies spawning constantly, and in the case of the Prison chapter also with the Necromancer mini-boss (this open depth in particular spawns always). Rarely the terrain of the open depth is repeated in another random depth of the same chapter, but without adding to the game’s maximum number of depths.

As a consequence of this and also of the addition of the Frozen chapter, the game’s depths are 11 more. The Prison chapter starts on depth 7, the Caves chapter on depth 13, the Dwarven Metropolis chapter on depth 19, the Frozen chapter on depth 25, the Imp Shop is located on depth 31 and the Amulet of Yendor is found on depth 37.

Item management[]

  • There is a Catalogue of Rings added, along with the Potions and Scrolls catalogues.
  • The Chain container is added, that stores all rings but not keys. It is not sold in shops, but it is found on a random dungeon depth even in late-game. Keys don’t have a container of their own.

Map generation - New chapters - New rooms - New terrain types[]

  • Burnt depths are added with all the tiles of doors and high grass (but not signposts) turned to embers. The level feeling is: “The smell of burnt grass fills the air”. In burnt terrain depths the non-burnt isolated tiles have a very high chance to be trap tiles. Open depths are also added, which are basically a big open ground with most enemies noticing the hero as soon as he/she enters them.
  • Depths are a little bigger than these in current Shattered PD (they are also designed in the “old non-2.5D way” like the depths of Original PD.
  • A new “Frozen” Chapter is added after the Dwarven Metropolis (it is not named as such in-game, but that is its name in github), with a winter theme in its terrain and also unique enemies added into it: Air Elementals, Brown Wolves and Yetis. This chapter’s boss is the Demon Lord and its minions are the Ice Demons, which are the basic danger of the boss depth as they attack en masse, while the Demon Lord is rather weak. After the Frozen chapter the Imp Shop and the Demon Halls follow.
  • There is an Eternal Flame room added, which contains always good loot inside a chest (most often an uncursed ring) and has a Magic Fire in its doorway. Any character that will pass from the door will get ignited, and the magic fire never goes out, unless the hero steps into water. The only way for the hero to pass safely from the door is to extinguish the fire with a potion of Frost thrown at the doorway (Icecap plants don’t extinguish the fire when stepped on an adjacent tile, and get burnt when thrown directly at the doorway).
  • In Archway rooms doorways are replaced by archways, which are by default open, without a door, and can’t be used for surprise attacks.

Potions[]

The potions of Slowness and Speed are added (they cause the Slowness debuff and the Haste buff). No seed seems brews consistently these potions, and as a consequence they can be considered rare.

Rings[]

The rings of Unleashed PD are the new rings of Shattered PD, but with the features of version 0.3.0 (same in their general function, different in some details). The ring of Magic is changed and affects recharging rate. The Rings of Detection and Satiety from Original PD are kept, but renamed to Rings of Sating and Searching.

Save / Load function[]

The Save/Load game function is added with 5 different save slots for each class, that remain even after the run has ended.

  • In Easy difficulty and in Test mode games can be saved from anywhere on the depth.
  • In Normal difficulty games can be saved only with the hero standing on or next to a signpost tile, but can be loaded from everywhere (in the Demon Halls depths, games can only be saved while standing next to the signpost as stepping on the signpost tile will make the signpost self-ignite).
  • Hard mode allows saving only after a chapter boss depth.
  • Nightmare mode doesn’t allow saving. 

Unlike other mods there is no obligation from the part of the player to watch ads when he/she saves or loads a game.

Upgrading[]

Upgrading items has lower level caps than in most other mods:

  • Tier 1 Weapons and Armor: +4
  • Wands (non imbued): +5
  • Tier 2 Weapons and Armor: +6
  • Tier 3 Weapons and Armor: +7
  • Rings: +7
  • Mage’s Staff and the Boomerang: +8
  • Tier 4 Weapons and Armor: +9
  • Tier 5 Weapons and Armor: +10

Scrolls of Magical Infusion keep upgrading weapons and armors (with a very high chance of failure though) even above level +10, but this can be temporary, as levels above +10 are not considered valid by the game and if the player goes to the main/save menu or exits the game, he/she will find the item back in level +10 (or +9, +8 etc. in the cases of the other tiers or item types) the next time he/she plays the game. Upgrading an armor to +11, applying tne armor glyph to it for the extra defense and then applying the Armor Kit to it, will prevent this from happening. Due to these level caps, and also due to the fact that a little more scrolls of Upgrade/Magical Infusion spawn in Unleashed PD (from 15 up to 17), the hero can upgrade their main weapon and another item (armor, ring etc.) almost always both to max level. The level cap of +10 might seem low to some players, but Normal Difficulty at least is absolutely completable with a tier 5 +10 or even with a tier 4 +9 main weapon. Nevertheless, due to the +8 level cap, familiar Battlemage and Sniper builds with a highly upgraded Mage’s Staff or Boomerang are less viable in Unleashed PD, and an unarmed build with a highly upgraded Ring of Force due to the +7 level cap is almost not viable for end-game, unless the player is very lucky and the hero also finds a Ring of Might or a second Ring of Force and gets it also highly upgraded (in that very specific case, the combination of Rings of Force and Might is also OP in Unleashed). 

Scrolls of Upgrade and Magical Infusion might fail to upgrade an item, especially in high levels (in this case the message “The magic failed to bind to your [name of the item]” is displayed). Scrolls of Magical Infusion always enchant an item though, even when they fail to upgrade it, but they can’t change the enchantment of an already enchanted item. The same failure happens to weapons with the Artifact enchantment, as when the “amount of enemies killed in order to level up” goal is achieved, there might be the same message that the weapon could not get upgraded. Players are advised to upgrade their weapon with scrolls of Upgrade/Magical Infusion only after saving their game and repeat by loading the previously saved game if upgrading fails. 

The Troll Blacksmith NPC often transfers all upgrades from the second item, and rarely even more than those it originally had.

User Interface Changes[]

  • Armor Glyph descriptions
  • Clicking the Version number brings up the change history
  • Falling into any depth including Boss Depths is allowed
  • Quick-Slot auto aims on the closest enemy
  • Rings listed in the Catalogue
  • Weapon Enchantment descriptions

Wands[]

The Wands of Unleashed PD are the new wands that were introduced in version 0.3.0 of Shattered PD and with the features of that version: Blast Wave, Corruption, Disintegration, Fireblast, Frost, Lightning, Magic Missile, Prismatic Light, Regrowth, Transfusion and Venom.

Weapons[]

Six new weapon Enchantments are added:

  • Artifact: artifact weapons get upgraded not by scrolls of Upgrade/Magical Infusion, but by killing enemies, unfortunately the player can’t upgrade them and then change their enchantment, as they transmute always to weapons with the artifact enchantment and scrolls of Magical Infusion can’t get applied on them.
  • Glowing: illumination buff
  • Holy: increased damage against evil and undead enemies
  • Hunting: increased drops of meat from enemies
  • Midas: increased drops of gold from enemies
  • Vicious: increased damage to all enemies, but also self-harm 

Armor Enchantments are almost the same with Original PD, with these exceptions:

  • Anti-Entropy glyph, which randomly ignites or freezes the hero and/or the enemy, instead of only igniting the hero and only freezing the enemy.
  • Resistance glyph (new), which grants higher resistance to all debuffs to the hero, while their hunger worsens each time the glyph is activated.

Mod[]

Unleashed PD has given the inspiration for one mod of it, named Goblins Pixel Dungeon, which at a first sight is a visual remake of the latest version of Unleashed PD, inspired by the characters and lore of the Goblins webcomic, which was created by Tarol Hunt and Danielle Stephens (all chapter descriptions and heroes are changed to suit the Goblins theme), but it has since evolved into a fully fledged mod of Unleashed PD, with unique items, enemies and mechanics added. You can read more details about this mod in its separate wiki page.

Known Bugs[]

  • The Battlemage doesn’t recharge consistently his equipped Mage's Staff of Magic Missile by successful melee hits.
  • The Sad Ghost and the Old Wandmaker NPCs might not appear at all.
  • When an upgraded Mage’s staff gets imbued with a wand it loses 3 levels.
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