the game is separated into many different randomly generated levels called dungeons, and each one unlocks linearly after you beat the previous one, each dungeon is more difficult than the last

for areas this guide doesn't cover just press f1 in game in the relevant tab and it should give you enough information



-the minimap and floor requirements
when in the dungeon each floor will require you to either just find the exit or have you find progression items. it can be annoying if you find the exit before the item and it wont let you progress
however you can tell which of the requirements you need to pass the floor before you do anything
if you see a question mark, it means there is something required to progress on that floor, once you have found all items on that floor it will dissapear from your minimap. be aware the question mark DOES NOT point towards secrets it just indicates that there is one on the map


you will encounter many different types of creatures in the dungeon most of them will definitely try to kill you. monsters get way more difficult as the game goes on, and they start off rather overpowered in dungeon 1, some stronger monsters have access to moves that can deal 10HP in one hit (one shots goblin character.) one thing to keep in mind is if you die ANYWHERE but in the tutorial area you restart and lose all progress and all your cards go to the graveyard, but you keep your essence and coins


however once you reach 0 hp its not the end you will jump up to a few points of hp but be downed and if you are killed within 2 turns you actually die, if not you are sent to the exit of the previous floor or the start of the one you are in if its the first floor

levelling up will happen once you gain enough exp from killing monsters, when you do you will get to pick one color based upgrade to your player card, more information about colors and elements can be found deeper into the guide

essence is an essential part of sketch crawler its the way you upgrade cards, it can be found in the world randomly but also can be obtained by selling cards in the graveyard and discarding cards once you reach lvl 2

the lab is where you upgrade cards, when you upgrade a card it costs an initial essence deposit based on the cards upgrade level (how many times its been upgraded already) and then more for it to be completed instantly, will cost 4 seperate payments each reducing the timer by 25%
in order to make use of your essence you want to minimize the amount of cards you recover from the graveyard

the graveyard is just the tab where your previous runs cards go when you die, you can recover them as i mentioned and sell. see hidden mechanics for additional important info on the graveyard and lab

the shop has a few things to offer you that are worth paying attention to (you pay with coins you get from monster drops)



-prototype card packs
the other card packs are fine and all but they are very often the most usefull kind of card pack to open, due to a unique feature of prototype cards, once they are unlocked you get a tab to keep track of them and can make your own cards with them as a base, this is usefull for if whatever reason you dont have cards in the graveyard, you can just make an entirely new item out of the prototype and some of the prototypes are extremely usefull, like the incomplete greatsword which adds flat damage increase by 2 when equipped, and you can always make it rainbow and upgrade it to increase that number.

-multiland portals
the games attempt at a gatcha mechanic, bassically you throw one of those bad boys in the lab and
they earn you something random, it could be a card, it could be coins, they are only really usefull if
you have a lot of essence.

-HIDDEN CHARACTER
you can buy him, he is very cool he goblin
he attack (has extra 1 base damage at the cost of less mana and low base health)

some things in sketch crawler are not as obvious as the basics and require a lot of experimentation or just the right mistake to figure out



- you can target yourself with any spell or attack and also target any other creature with any spell or attack using the scroll wheel.
this means you can use things like berserker rage on yourself for a damage boost or push yourself three spaces away using push etc, but can also use your personal player buffs on summons



-putting something in the alchemy lab prevents it from going to the graveyard
this means if you have a really really good summon or attack you can just toss it into the lab, you don't even need to actually start upgrading it, it just needs to be in the slot. so when you die you wont lose your good card or cards depending on how many slots you unlocked



- if you don't want to have to draw a new form for a card, but still want the bonus for editing it, you can open up the editor select archive and select the default form, then you simply need to add the tiniest little bit of art to it like even a singular pixel and then save it. the game recognises it as a completely new skin. i don't recommend doing this unless you are really burnt out from drawing. half the fun in this game is from doodling

-card elements MATTER
when you put a color onto any card its element changes, the game is very transparent about that however it fails to explain that a cards color (including your character and summons) dictates what upgrades you can get. for food items this is especially the case only a dark blue and one of the greens can actually lead to unique enchants for food

-unique elements
you can only have three unique colors on something before it becomes a special element: chaos for 4 unique colors on one card, and rainbow for containing every single color getting a unique element locks you out of individual color enchant and only gives you acess to to that element and darkness

there are a few ways ive seen players become strong enough to beat the game, but the first part of it is always the same

-as soon as you unlock the arena its a good idea to grind levels so you don't die as easily also targeting specific character upgrades for what build you want like for example: rainbows base attack upgrade or magic resistance spell, oranges passive healing.

-dont die lol

actual win conditions

-you want to get at least one really really good card or minion, a minion is a good idea but keep in mind the mana cost of the better ones, some of them are nearly unusable with the hidden shop character, and you will most likely need rainbow magic reduction as a perk in order to make use of them.

for cards in particular you want some really good enchantments on them, some of the best in my opinion are ones that stun the enemy or add status effects stunning is especially useful if you are running the shop character due to your higher base attack stat.

- a soon to be patched win condition is to get a ability type card with high damage and zero cost
due to abilities returning to your hand after you use them this means you can deal INF damage in a
single turn. the best way to aqquire a card like this is to get a prototype with the property that can
get replayed, and then upgrade it with speed in orange reduced manacost with grey and then
reduced manacost at the cost of a bit of speed with orange. it will take a bit of essence to upgrade
but its litterally a perfect win condition (edit) the prototype card thats best used for this has been removed, it might still be possible to get a card that works for this but it wont be possible to get it from a prototype, look out for ability cards that deal even a small amount of damage

- make your character into a god through grinding/ redrawing powerful cards
options include powerleveling untill you have a 100% chance to inflict a debilitating status
condition on hit, getting other kinds of bonuses from levelling up in order to suit your playstyle and
becomming strong enough to defeat most if not all the monster danger levels in the arena 1v1