Dungeons Of Dredmor Quirks

Dungeons of Dredmor (available on Steam) is a confusing game. Dredmorpedia is a good place to learn about the game and see all the numbers. This page explains how those numbers and mechanics interact. I'll tell you now, it's messy! All this data has been verified on the latest version of the game (1.1.4) with all three expansion packs (Realm of the Diggle Gods, You Have To Name The Expansion Pack, Conquest of the Wizardlands).

Jump to a section: Heroic Archetypes, Primary Attributes, Secondary Attributes, Attacks, Defenses, Weird Skill Interactions

Heroic Archetypes

Every skill line belongs to one of three Heroic Archetypes: Warrior, Wizard, Rogue. The skill selection screen doesn't say which Heroic Archetype each skill line belongs to.

Warrior skills

Swords

Axes

Maces

Polearms

Staves

Unarmed Combat

Dual Wielding

Shield Bearer

Berserker Rage

Master of Arms

Smithing

Big Game Hunter

Killer Vegan

Clockwork Knight

Battle Geology

Communist

Wizard skills

Vampirism

Golemancy

Fleshsmithing

Mathemagic

Psionics

Necronomiconomics

Viking Wizardry

Astrology

Promethean Magic

Magic Training

Blood Mage

Ley Walker

Alchemy

Wand Lore

Emomancy

Warlockery

Egyptian Magic

Magical Law

Tourist

Rogue skills

Daggers

Archery

Thrown Weaponry

Artful Dodger

Perception

Burglary

Assassination

Fungal Arts

Archaeology

Tinkering

Werediggle Curse

Piracy

Demonologist

Rogue Scientist

Bankster

Paranormal Investigator

Primary Attributes

Each skill you learn grants you Primary Attribute points depending on the Heroic Archetype of the skill.

Primary Attribute	Warrior	Wizard	Rogue		Each point adds...
Burliness	2	1	1	1	Life Points	0.333	melee power	0.175	block chance
Sagacity	1	2	1	2	Mana Points	0.5	Magic Power
Nimbleness	1	1	2	0.175	Counter Chance	0.5	Dodge Chance	0.333	Enemy Dodge Reduction	0.75	Sneakiness
Caddishness	2	1	2	1	life point	0.5	Critical Chance	0.175	Counter Chance
Savvy	1	2	2	0.5	Haywire Chance	0.75	Sneakiness
Stubbornness	2	2	1	0.75	Magic Resistance	0.175	block chance

Secondary Attributes

Gear and skills give increase Secondary Attributes directly, but Primary Attributes also contribute.

All fractions are rounded down. Miminum of zero. Usually.

Secondary Attribute	Primary Attributes add...
Life Points	Burliness + Caddishness - 5
Life Regen	nothing
Mana Points	(Sagacity * 2) - 5
Mana Regen	nothing
Melee Power	(Burliness - 5) / 3
Critical Chance	Caddishness / 2	minimum 1
Counter Chance	((Nimbleness + Caddishness) * 0.175 ) - 2
Magic Power	Sagacity / 2
Haywire Chance	Savvy / 2
Magic Resistance	Stubbornness / 2
Armour Absorption	nothing
Block Chance	((Burliness + Stubbornness) * 0.175) - 2	minimum 6
Dodge Chance	Nimbleness / 2
Enemy Dodge Reduction	Nimbleness / 3	minimum 5
Sneakiness	((Nimbleness + Savvy) * 0.75) - 20
Visual Sight Radius	nothing
Trap Sight Radius	nothing	minimum 1
Trap Affinity	nothing
Wandcrafting Level	nothing
Smithing Level	nothing
Alchemy Level	nothing
Tinkerer Level	nothing

Attacks

Mundane damage types

The "mundane damage types" are Blasting, Crushing, and Slashing. These damage types get special treatment in both attack and defense calculations.

Melee Attacks

Melee attack damage =

• weapon damage +
• other weapon damage (if dual wielding) +
• passive damage from known weapon skills +
• passive damage from known weapon skills for the other weapon (if dual wielding) +
• damage from other items (except crossbow) +
• damage from buffs +
• Melee Power

This is all added up on your character sheet, except "Melee Power" is tacked onto the end as "+XX". The damage inflicted by a melee attack appears in the message log.

Melee Power

Melee Power adds damage to attacks with melee weapons and thrown weapons. Melee Power is divided evenly across the mundane damage types of the attack. Melee Power doesn't add any damage types that aren't already in the attack, and doesn't affect non-mundane damage types.

Example:

• Character sheet: 5 Crushing, 8 Slashing, 4 Acidic + 13
• Melee Power of 13 is split evenly between 2 mundane damage types, +7 Crushing, +6 Slashing
• actual damage: 12 Crushing, 14 Slashing, 4 Acidic

Critical Hits

A Critical Hit doubles Melee Power. The Melee Power is distributed across the mundane damage types as normal.

Crossbow Attacks

crossbow attack damage =

• crossbow damage +
• bolt damage +
• passive damage from known Archery skills +
• damage from other items (except melee weapons) +
• damage from buffs

This is all added up on your character sheet. The damage inflicted by a crossbow attack appears in the message log.

A critical hit with a crossbow bolt doubles the mundane damage types of the attack. Too bad Archery skills, crossbows, and crossbow bolts all add bonus Piercing damage, which is not increased on a critical hit.

Some crossbow bolts affect an area. The damage on the tooltip is applied like a normal crossbow attack. The area effect (which is not explained in the tooltip) is independent of the crossbow attack. It can't crit, and still happens if the attack is dodged.

Thrown Weapons

thrown weapon damage =

• thrown weapon damage +
• passive damage from Thrown Weaponry skills +
• damage from other items (except weapons and crossbow) +
• damage from buffs
• Melee Power (with Thrown Weaponry skill) +
• Melee Power / 2 (without Thrown Weaponry skill)

This is completely absent from your character sheet. The damage inflicted by a thrown weapon does not appear in the message log.

A critical hit with a thrown weapon doubles the damage bonus from Melee Power: 2x Melee Power (with Thrown Weaponry skill) or 1x Melee Power (without Thrown Weaponry skill).

Some thrown weapons, like bombs, affect an area. The damage on the tooltip is applied like a normal throwing attack. The area effect (which is not explained in the tooltip) is independent of the thrown weapon attack. It can't crit, and still happens if the attack is dodged.

Defenses

Defenses are applied in this order.

• Dodge
• Counter
• Block
• Armour Absorption
• Resistance

Dodge, Counter, and Block don't work on traps or spells. (All ranged attacks from monsters are spells)

Layered Defenses

Counter Chance and Block Chance are a bit misleading. Here's an example. 30% Dodge Chance, 20% Counter Chance, and 50% Block Chance add to 100%, but they don't affect 100% of attacks.

• A character is attacked 100 times.
• 30% Dodge: 0.30 * 100 = 30 attacks are Dodged, leaving 70.
• 20% Counter: 0.20 * 70 = 14 Counters, leaving 56.
• 50% Block: 0.50 * 56 = 27 Blocks, leaving 27 attacks that do full damage.

Dodge

Block Chance is the percentage of attacks that the defender will dodge.

When a defender dodges, the attacker's attack is completely avoided. The attacker inflicts no damage. The attack does not trigger procs for the defender or attacker.

Counter

Counter Chance is the percentage of attacks--that aren't dodged--that the defender will counter.

When a defender counters, the attacker's attack is completely avoided. The attacker inflicts no damage. The attack does not trigger procs for the defender or attacker. The defender immediately makes a melee attack against the attacker. This attack isn't special. It can crit and trigger procs, and the attacker's defenses apply against it.

Counters can be countered. Only the last creature to counter inflicts damage on the other.

If a critical hit is countered, both are negated. Neither the attacker nor the defender inflict damage. The message log says, "Critical hit - but you block it!" but you didn't block. You countered. Blocking a critical hit is a different interaction.

A build based on countering may seem roguelike, but high Dodge Chance will reduce the number of attacks that can be countered.

Block

Block Chance is the percentage of attacks--that aren't dodged or countered--that the defender will block. The attack can trigger procs.

Block multiplies the attacker's mundane damage types by 0.25. Only a quarter of mundane damage gets through a block. Block does not affect any other damages types.

Armour Absorption

Armour Absorption subtracts its value from the mundane damage types, in order: Crushing, then Slashing, then finally Blasting. If Armour Absorption completely absorbs one mundane damage type, the remainder overflows to the next.

Example:

• incoming damage: 11 Crushing, 14 Slashing, 4 Acidic
• 16 Armour Absorption absorbs all 11 Crushing, with a remainder of 5 to absorb from Slashing. Acidic damage bypasses Armour Absorption.
• damage taken: 9 Slashing, 4 Acidic

Blocking before Armour Absorption is advantageous to the defender. Percentage reduction on a big number, then flat reduction from a small number.

If blocking and/or armour absorption reduce the damage of a hit to zero, the message log says, "The attack has no effect."

Resistances

Resistance subtracts its value from the incoming damage of the same type. A negative resistance increasing incoming damage. Resistance that exceeds the incoming damage will NOT heal the defender. Resistance to mundane damage types is applied after Armour Absorption, so mundane damage types may be reduced both by Armour Absorption and Resistance.

Weird Skill Interactions

Swords

Daggers

Axes

Maces

Polearms

Staves

• There's no penalty for using a weapon without the corresponding skill, just a lack of bonuses.
• Passive bonuses and procs (skills with a chance to happen automatically) only apply when at least one weapon of that type is equipped.
• Active skills are always available with any weapon or unarmed.
• Active skills that strike extra tiles include a normal melee attack directly in front of the character.

Daggers

• 

  Silent Deadly Dagger Sneaky Stance

  More critical hits (doubling Melee Power) in exchange for less Melee Power. This stance sabotages itself.
• Dagger stances are mutually exclusive with each other, but not with Polearm stances. You can use a Dagger stance and a Polearm stance at the same time.

Unarmed Combat

• Passive bonuses and procs only apply when neither hand holds a weapon. Shield-like items don't count as weapons. Crossbows and thrown weapons can't be equipped in hand slots, so they don't count either.
• Active skills can be used with weapons. Active skills from weapon skills can be used unarmed.
• Active skills that strike extra tiles include a normal melee attack directly in front of the character.

Shield Bearer

• Shields, Orbs, and Tomes are all treated like shields, so I'll say "shield-like items" to refer to all of them.
• Shield Bearer's passives and procs only apply when at least one shield-like item is wielded. Wielding two shield-like items does not increase the passive bonuses from Shield Bearer.
• Unlike weapon skills, Shield Bearer's active skills can only be used if at least one shield-like item is wielded. Defensive Bash doesn't work with a Sword, but it does with a Tome.
• The "Hands Full!" debuff only applies to weapons. Two shield-like items can be wielded with no penalty, even without the Dual Wielding skill.

Dual Wielding

• Dual Wielding's passive bonuses, procs, and active skills are always available. The character gains these benefits when fighting unarmed, with one weapon, or with two weapons.
• When dual-wielding two different types of weapons, the bonuses from both weapon skills apply. When dual-wielding two weapons of the same type, passive bonuses from that weapon skill are increased to 150%, not doubled. Wielding two shield-like items does not increase the bonuses from Shield Bearer.
• 

  Hands Full!

  Without the Dual Wielding skill, equipping a weapon in each hand gives the "Hands Full!" debuff.
• 

  Offensive Maneuvering

  The description of this skill says, "Attack now with all the weapons *at the same time*!" but that's not what it does. The attack damage of two weapons are always added together when calculating attack damage, even without this proc active, even without learning this skill, even without the entire Dual Wielder skill.
• 

  Ambidextrous

  Defense

  The description of this skill says, "You can use twice the blocking power!" but it doesn't double any defensive value. It gives a flat bonus to Block Chance and Counter Chance.

Master of Arms

• Master of Arms isn't just for heavy armor. The passive bonuses, procs, and active are always available. The character can wear any type or armor, or no armor.

Warlockery

• 

  Puissant Touch

  It's a spell and can't be used while silenced, but it's also a melee attack that triggers procs from weapon skills.
• 

  Essence of Battle

  In addition to the stats shown on the tooltip, this buff empowers all other Warlockery spells with lower mana costs, increased damage, and stronger debuffs. Deactivating this buff sets your mana to zero, so don't bother trying to conserve mana between battles.

Dungeons of Dredmor and all images are (c) Gaslamp Games, Inc.