Dungeon Obscura: how to play and strategy guide

Dungeon Obscura modes

• Main story: descend through 10 regions that change every 25 floors and defeat each region boss to advance the story. The story reaches its ending on floor 250
• The Abyss (深淵): endless floors beyond 250. You go through the 10 regions again, one more modifier that makes battles harder stacks up every 25 floors, and bosses return with new abilities
• Trials (試練): 6 journeys with special conditions, unlocked after you Rebirth 3 times

Basic rules of Dungeon Obscura

• Your hero attacks enemies automatically and uses equipped skills according to their "Auto" setting. Defeat every enemy on a floor to move on to the next.
• An elite appears every 5 floors and a region boss every 25 floors. Defeating a region boss lets you move on to the next region.
• Enemies and skills have elements: fire, water, wind, earth, light, dark and neutral. Attacking with the element an enemy is weak to deals 1.5× damage; an unfavorable element deals 0.6×.
• Tapping the battle screen damages enemies and fills your Focus gauge (up to 6 taps per second count). When Focus is full, you can unleash your ultimate.
• If you fall, you get back up on the same floor after a short wait. If you fall twice on the same floor, you go back a few floors to build strength before pushing on again.
• Defeating enemies gives gold and experience and sometimes drops equipment. Leveling up gives you skill points.

How to play on Asobi Lounge

• Prepare for your adventure with the five tabs below the battle screen (beside it on wide screens): Adventure (冒険), Equipment (装備), Skills (スキル), Upgrades (強化) and Collection (収集).
• Adventure: pick a different floor to challenge from the map, choose a Trial, or reread story chapters you have seen under "Log" (記録).
• Equipment: swap gear in 6 slots and your relics. "Equip the strongest" (いちばん強い装備にする) swaps in the best gear from your inventory all at once. You can sort the inventory by biggest power gain, and salvage gear you don't need for gold.
• Skills: spend skill points to rank up skills, and set your skills, ultimate and passives. Respeccing is always free.
• Upgrades: "Training" (訓練) builds your stats with gold, and the "Ember Altar" (灯火の祭壇) lets you learn talents with embers. Collection: the Artifact Altar, daily missions, achievements, the codex and the leaderboard.
• On a keyboard, press 1–5 to use skills, Shift plus a number to toggle that skill's "Auto", and U to unleash your ultimate.

The 10 regions and their weaknesses

Each region has set enemy elements, so equipping skills that hit their weaknesses makes progress easier. Each region boss has a special defense, which you can check in the codex. Defeating a region boss for the first time gives you a relic, and the bosses of regions 2–7 also teach you an ultimate.

• Floors 1–25, Mossy Catacombs (dark, neutral): weak to light. The boss is Gravekeeper, the Catacomb Warden.
• Floors 26–50, Whispering Mycelium Forest (earth, wind): weak to wind and fire. The boss, Elder Root the Ancient Tree Giant, shields itself with roots, and fire attacks wear the roots down quickly.
• Floors 51–75, Scorching Lava Pits (fire): weak to water. The boss, Ignis the Blazing Dragon, stacks heat over time to lower your hero's defense (a Break clears it).
• Floors 76–100, Frozen Underground Lake (water): weak to earth. The sturdy defense of the boss, Nivl the Ice-Prison Dragon, drops only while it is Broken.
• Floors 101–125, Storm Spire (wind): weak to fire. The boss, Tempest the Storm Lord, sometimes seals your skills (Silence) and attacks twice in a row.
• Floors 126–150, Sunken Capital (water, dark): weak to earth and light. The boss, Abyss the Maw of the Deep, raises a barrier that only earth attacks can wear down.
• Floors 151–175, Crystal Cavern (earth, light): weak to wind and dark. The boss, Grana the Rock Colossus, protects itself with a tough defense and reflection until it is Broken once.
• Floors 176–200, Fallen Cathedral (light): weak to dark. The boss, Seraph the Fallen Seraph, raises a shield each time its HP drops and tries to recover with a big healing move.
• Floors 201–225, Rift of Time (dark, wind): weak to light and fire. The boss, Chrono the Time Eater, regains HP with an unstoppable "Rewind" once its HP falls below half, and becomes enraged sooner than the other bosses.
• Floors 226–250, Ember Throne (dark): weak to light. The final boss, the Ember Devourer, changes element as its HP drops (wind, fire, earth, water, light), and its weakness changes too (fire, water, wind, earth, dark).

Elemental matchups and effects

Fire beats wind, wind beats earth, earth beats water and water beats fire; light and dark are each strong against the other. Hitting a weakness deals 1.5× damage and also fills the Break gauge faster. An unfavorable element deals 0.6×. The weakness is shown next to the enemy's name, and skill buttons are marked "Advantage" (有利) or "Disadvantage" (不利).

Elemental attacks leave an effect on the enemy. Fire causes Burn (damage over time), wind causes Bleed (the wound deepens with each hit), earth causes Shatter (the enemy takes more damage), water causes Soak (the enemy attacks more slowly), light causes Stigma (each hit heals your hero), and dark causes Curse (the enemy deals less damage).

Tapping, Focus and ultimates

The Focus gauge fills from tapping, and also from automatic attacks, hitting weaknesses and taking hits. When it is full, press the ultimate button (U on a keyboard). An ultimate deals heavy damage and also stops a big attack that an elite or boss is winding up. For a while after you use it, Focus does not build up.

Besides Ember Flash, which you have from the start, there are Storm Dance, Great Tsunami, Star Fall, Purgatory, Sanctuary and Underworld Gate, 7 ultimates in all, and you equip one. Battles go on even if you don't tap, so you can leave the screen open and idle, or step away.

Boss big attacks and Break

Elites and region bosses wind up before a big attack. When the gauge above the enemy runs out, a blow that takes most of your max HP lands. Stop it with an interrupt skill such as Shield Bash, Whirlpool Prison or Fissure, or with your ultimate. Against elites and bosses, interrupt skills are saved for big attacks. Learning "Tactical Eye" at the Ember Altar makes automatic battles stop them too.

Landing attacks fills the Break gauge, and hitting a weakness or stopping a big attack fills it a lot. When it is full, the enemy cannot act for a while, takes more damage and loses the big attack it was winding up. Region bosses become enraged as a fight drags on and their attack keeps rising, so if you cannot win, get stronger through training and gear before you try again.

Skills and loadout

There are 24 skills (3 for each element plus 6 neutral), 7 ultimates and 12 passives that are always in effect, and you learn them as you go deeper. Once learned, they stay available even after a Rebirth.

• You can equip 4 skills, 1 ultimate, 1 passive and 1 relic. At the Ember Altar, "Fifth Skill Slot" raises skills to 5, "Second Passive Slot" and "Third Passive Slot" raise passives to up to 3, and "Second Relic Slot" raises relics to 2.
• For each skill slot, you can choose "Use automatically" or "Use manually". Healing and buff skills are used automatically when they are needed.
• Skill ranks go up with skill points, and respeccing is always free. "Recommended loadout" (おすすめ編成) picks a loadout suited to the current region's enemies and boss.

Training milestones

Training uses gold to build 8 stats: Swordsmanship, Vitality, Defense Arts, Sorcery, Concentration, Agility, Commerce and Exploration. Levels have no cap, and the effect per level grows at milestones (1.5× at Lv10, 2× at Lv25, 1.5× at Lv50, 1.8× at Lv100, 200 and 400, 1.4× at Lv150 and 300). At Lv50 and Lv150 you learn new techniques (for example, "Double Slash" at Swordsmanship Lv50 and "Brace for Big Attacks" at Defense Arts Lv150). "Recommended" shows the training that makes you strongest per gold spent.

Equipment: unique effects, sets, relics and slot upgrades

• Equipment goes in 6 slots (weapon, head, body, arms, legs and accessory) and comes in 5 rarities: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic and Legendary. Rarer items have more bonus effects, and deeper floors drop higher rarities.
• There are 12 unique effects (Chain, Soul Drink, First Strike, Guardian's Vow, Element Conversion, Executioner, Shatterer, Lightning Speed, Indomitable, Ember Blessing, Riposte and Treasure Hunt), and they change the way you fight. Epics sometimes have one, and Legendaries always do.
• There are 3 gear sets, Lampkeeper, Arcanist and Shadowrunner, each made up of a weapon, head, body and accessory. Wearing 2 and then 4 pieces of the same set adds more effects.
• There are 10 relics in all. You get one each time you defeat a region boss for the first time, and they stay after a Rebirth.
• Slot upgrades use mana crystals to strengthen the slot itself, so they stay when you change gear and after a Rebirth. Bonus effects can be rerolled with gold, and a Legendary's unique effect can be rerolled with mana crystals.

Rebirth and the Ember Altar

After you defeat the first region boss (the Catacomb Warden), you can Rebirth (灯火の継承). You restart your journey from floor 1, and in return you get embers based on how deep you went, plus extra embers for each region boss you defeated for the first time. What resets: your current floor, level, gold, skill ranks (you can restore them all at once with "Previous allocation"), training, and your equipment and inventory. What stays: embers and talents, your deepest floor, learned skills, your loadout, slot upgrades, artifacts, mana crystals, relics, the codex, achievements and titles.

Embers are spent at the Ember Altar (4 branches, Power, Wisdom, Wealth and Rush, with 32 talents). There are talents such as "Ember Power", which raises attack and HP; "Inherited Memory", which starts your journey from a later floor; "Dash", which races through floors where you can defeat enemies in one hit (elite and boss floors are still fought); and "Auto Training" and "Auto Equip", which handle training and gear for you. With them, your next journey goes much faster.

Artifact Altar odds

There are 30 artifacts (10 Common, 10 Rare, 6 Epic, 4 Legendary). You can break a seal once for 30 mana crystals, or 10 times at once for 300. Mana crystals come from defeating elites and bosses for the first time in each journey, daily missions, achievements and Trials.

• Odds: Common 55% (5.5% each), Rare 30% (3% each), Epic 12% (2% each), Legendary 3% (0.75% each).
• Breaking 10 seals at once always gives at least one Rare or better.
• If 29 pulls in a row give nothing Epic or better, the 30th is guaranteed to be Epic or better.
• Every 10th pull overall gives an artifact you don't have yet (until you have them all).
• Getting an artifact you already own levels it up (up to Lv10). After Lv10, a duplicate returns 10, 20, 40 or 80 mana crystals depending on rarity.

Idling, and while the screen is closed

While the screen is closed, you keep fighting automatically on your current floor for up to 12 hours (16 or 24 hours with "Long Sleep" at the Ember Altar). You don't advance floors, but you still earn gold, experience, equipment and mana crystals. You only go deeper while the screen is open and you are playing. If you were away for 5 minutes or more, the game also applies recommended training, switches to stronger gear and spends skill points automatically, and tells you when you return. The same happens while you are looking at another tab. Time gained by turning the device clock back is not counted.

Progress benchmarks (simulation)

These benchmarks were measured with a program that plays automatically following a fixed routine (a simulation). "With tapping" reviews the loadout and gear every 15 seconds and taps 6 times per second; "idle" only reviews them every 5 minutes and never taps. Results vary with things like equipment drops.

• First region boss (floor 25): about 20–25 minutes with tapping, about 35 minutes idle.
• First Rebirth: about 30 minutes with tapping, about 40–50 minutes idle. After a Rebirth, it takes 5–8 minutes to get back to your previous deepest floor.
• With tapping, you defeat the floor 50 boss in about 1.5 hours, floor 100 in about 4 to 4.5 hours, floor 150 in about 7–8 hours and floor 200 in about 8.5–10 hours, and you reach the ending on floor 250 in about 14–15 hours. Idle play alone reaches the ending in about 16–20 hours.
• After 2 hours of play, the floor you reach with tapping is about 1.25 times the floor you reach without it. Only up to 6 taps per second count, so tapping faster than that changes nothing.
• Progress while the screen is closed is almost the same as fighting automatically with the screen open (for both 1 hour and 8 hours, the floor reached differed by 1% or less and gold by 4% or less).
• Mana crystals came in at about 60–90 per hour during the first 10 hours (no more than 200 in any single hour). The hero fell about 2–3 times per hour.
• Beyond floor 250, progress in the Abyss slows down; after 60 hours of play you reach around floor 370.

Leaderboard and saving

The leaderboard ranks players by deepest floor reached; on the same floor, the player with fewer Rebirths ranks higher. To appear on it you need to sign in with a Google account, and you are shown by your profile display name.

Progress saves automatically. When you are not signed in, it is saved only in this browser; when you are signed in, it is also saved to your account so you can continue on other devices. When you sign in and the account has no save yet, the progress you made in this browser carries over. You can also export and import your save as text from the settings.

Tips for diving deeper

• If you are unsure, follow "Recommended loadout" and the "Recommended" training. When you enter a new region, choose your loadout again.
• When an elite or boss winds up, stop it with an interrupt skill or your ultimate. Stopping it also fills the Break gauge a lot, so you can push straight into a Break.
• An ultimate that lands during a Break does huge damage. Even with full Focus, it can pay to wait a moment until the boss is Broken.
• When the same boss keeps beating you and sending you back, it is a good time to Rebirth. Taking "Ember Power" and "Inherited Memory" with your embers makes the next journey faster than the last.
• Choose gear with a large "Power +x%", and leave gear you don't need to auto-salvage.

Frequently asked questions

Can I play without signing in?

Yes. Every region, the Abyss, Trials and even the Artifact Altar can be played without signing in. Progress is saved in this browser. To appear on the leaderboard or continue on other devices, you need to sign in with a Google account.

Does the game progress while the screen is closed?

Yes. For up to 12 hours (up to 24 hours with "Long Sleep" at the Ember Altar), you keep fighting automatically on your current floor and earn gold, experience, equipment and mana crystals. You don't advance floors, so to go deeper you play with the screen open. If you were away for 5 minutes or more, the game also applies recommended training, switches to stronger gear and spends skill points automatically, and tells you when you return.

Is it over once I reach floor 250?

The story reaches its ending on floor 250, but the endless Abyss continues beyond it. You can also take on Trials, journeys with special conditions.

I can't beat a boss.

Equip skills of the element it is weak to, and stop big attacks with an interrupt skill or your ultimate. If you still cannot win, get stronger through training and gear, or Rebirth to collect embers and learn talents.

Are the Artifact Altar odds published?

Yes. Common 55%, Rare 30%, Epic 12% and Legendary 3%, and the odds for each individual artifact are also shown on the altar screen. Breaking 10 seals at once always gives at least one Rare or better, and at least one Epic or better is guaranteed within 30 pulls.

Is Dungeon Obscura free to play?

Yes, it costs nothing. Without signing in, you can play everything right away from this page, including every region, the Abyss, Trials and the Artifact Altar. Progress is saved in this browser. You need to sign in with a Google account only to keep your save on your account and continue on other devices, and to appear on the leaderboard.

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