Welcome to the dark and dangerous Nightmare Realm!
I’m Tony from NExT studios, creators of Crown Trick, and I’m here to offer some small, spoiler-free, bits of advice to help you out in the challenging labyrinth you’re about to face.
Move With Care
Movement is one of the core mechanics of Crown Trick you’ll need to master. This is a turn-based roguelike with a twist: the enemies and traps you’ll face throughout the Nightmare Realm will only react when you do. This means that while you’re free to plan the next steps without being tied to turn orders or timers, each time your actions play out, so do those of your enemies and obstacles across the battlefield. Plan your moves, line up your elemental attacks, and lure enemies into the perfect position for the perfect strike.
Understand Your Elements
There are eight elemental types in Crown Trick, each one dealing a different type of damage and status effect. For instance, electricity can paralyze enemies and fire can cause continual damage over time, choosing the right element, and taking advantage of your enemies’ weaknesses will be instrumental to success.
Exploiting these weaknesses doesn’t just let you dole out extra damage, it can also have overwhelming effects on your enemies; cast poison on a monster that’s weak to it and enemy healing spells will turn into poisonous, sapping the strength from other antagonists in the room.
The elemental powers do not just heed one master and you can just as easily fall prey to its damage as your enemies, so watch your step traversing the unforgiving terrain! Do not despair just yet, you can also use this to your advantage in a myriad of different ways: Water tiles can be vaporized away with fire, and that same fire element can turn wind tiles into deadly burning tornadoes! Such devastating combinations are all yours to experiment with in Crown Trick.
Get Equipped
Crown Trick has nine weapons to master, each with its own style and purpose, and available in rarities ranging from common to legendary. Make sure to experiment with each of them to see which best suits your combat style and to get the most out of your runs through the Nightmare Realm. Needless to say, roguelike veterans out there will already know such legendary weapons come with some incredible power, and pack one heck of a punch.
The most reliable choice of arms when starting out in Crown Trick is the sword. Its attack range is forward facing and features both passive offensive skills and elemental effects, making it the perfect start to power through hordes of enemies during the early parts of the game.
Elsewhere in your arsenal are axes that have powerful area of effect attacks, spears that enable extra reach, pistols to blast opponents multiple times a turn, and many more powerful weapons scattered across the Nightmare Realm. Each weapon can be upgraded with new skills that increase their power and open up new tactical opportunities, so experiment!
Become Familiar With Your Familiars
Elite enemies in Crown Trick pack a punch, but slaying them will grant you their skills for your own personal use. Once they’re bonded to you after defeat, they become one of your Familiars, which wait at your beck and call on future runs through the Realm. Also hidden within the dangerous rooms and corridors of Nightmare Realm are summoning crystals, powerful objects that enable summons to be called forth and support in your journey through the labyrinth.
Whether you want to teleport to an enemy, become invincible for a turn, boost your weapon attack, or just unleash damage over a wide area – Familiars have got you covered. With more than 20 of them to find you’ll grow a substantial arsenal of diverse powers to deploy as you progress through the game. Familiars can also be upgraded to diversity their powers, making them an invaluable resource time and time again.
Keep Trying!
Classic roguelike advice applies here! Each death is a learning experience, and each run will be different. All the skills, weapons, relics, abilities, and items you can acquire and combine mean that your next run could reveal a devastating combination that leaves the inhabitants of the Nightmare Realm quaking in the shadows. The secrets of Crown Trick are yours to find, you just need one… more… try...
These tips should be the ideal way to get started. Good luck, have fun, and we hope you make it out alive!
Crown Trick is OUT NOW on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch & PC.
