The first and the most important - pick "Curse" mutator.



Do not even think to choose "No margin for error"! It is practically impossible to finish a game without getting hit, trust me. There are plenty occasions (such as jumping rats, sneaky bats from behind, spamming witches and flowers or your bad timing mostly) which would lead you to your own death and restarting the game.

Second and obligatory - "It was easy".



All we remember our first steps in this game without any mutators, of course. Weakest enemy - ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ snail needed FOUR stabs from default dagger and TWO shots from any starters' staff! Ridiculous! Very often my crystals already ended at the first level and closer to middle the game I keep dying being cornered by bulky monsters *groan*

What allows to beat the game under this conditions? Right, it's proper equipment.

Let's see some battle things such as staffs, weapons and artifacts and choose the most useful of them

The only staff you need is the Spiders Staff. You will love this staff, I promise.
It has highest pure damage in game (5 points) and homing spider shaped projectiles. It's very useful and economic too.

You can find it in the hidden rooms, gain from battle with level Guardians and purchase in the shop. For example, last time I got it after defeating boss on second level.

There is replacement of this remarkable weapon such as Snowstorm Staff (does 4 damage points and freezes enemies), but i never experienced it.

In the extreme case, I recommend to use Acid Staff III, because demons in 7-8 levels are resistant to fire damage

It's simple - we need only swords and spears. The higher the quality, the better. Start by searching the iron sword or spears, then go on with steel and obsidian weapons.

A great help would be poisoned sword. It does 3 points damage all the time and has a chance to poison the enemy when struck.

Any found ring will be handy, so lets look at other items - artifacts and amulets.

Select the restoring health ones

Snake Statuette

• Heals health when poisoned
  
• 3 mind points per second

The most useful artifact in the first half of the game. The poison potions will become healing ones. And poison clouds coming out of the ground in 3-4 levels will become refreshing fountains.

Beast Mask
Turns dead bodies near the player into health essence (red orbs containing 1 hp)
35 mind points

Pretty usefull after battling with several mobs at once. But be careful with your mind condition.

Vampire Amulet

• Harming the enemy in the melee can restore some health

Every fourth or fifth blow will give you 1HP. I prefer slashing non-shooting mobs like spiders, walking demons and zombies.


Lets talk about positional and supporting artifacts.

Guide

This thing shows you way to the exit gate first and level boss then. Useful, especially when you want to spare time and not interested in exploring the level.

Skeleton Key

Nice TES-reference, guys! This artifact allows you to open chests without a single key.

Box

Creates a several crystal bags from dead bodies nearby. It is never redundant!

Speed Amulet

Just noticeably raises your speed. Time is money, lads, time is money.

How do we get all this stuff? Just restarting current level of course. For example, we cleared first level and didn't get an iron sword or second-third staff. Then don't break the seal on the exit gate and press "Esc", then "Main menu" and "Yes". Now, if you press "Continue", you load into new level, but some map elements such as Portals and Altars of Health would be stay!

Repeat this procedure for 1st and 2nd levels, at last resort 3rd and get your desired loot. By the seventh level you should have no less than 14 health points, 80 Mind points and plenty healing/regeneration potions various quality.

There is similar strategy, burt you must choose "Broken cartridge" mutator. It may be hard and painful for your eyes, but soon you get used to. Sight range is very important, especially on last three levels. For example, I died on final level, because I looked for a 3 crystal teleports for too long, but portal monsters are constantly spawn and attack me until I was out of crystals and potions. My frustration was immense.