Dicey Dungeons – Guide to the Inventor

A step by step guide to crushing with the Inventor.

The Inventor

The inventor can seem tricky at first, but is unbelievably powerful when used correctly. The way that the character works is that at the end of every battle, you choose one out of three possible items in your inventory to become a gadget. The item is then permanently destroyed, and becomes a gadget.

Gadgets can be used once per turn. You can only have one gadget at a time. The Inventor’s special ability, Focus, turns all dice into 6s. The purpose of this guide is to provide a number of tips and tricks for blasting your enemies into smithereens.

  • First and foremost, it is tempting to pick the best/most powerful gadget possible. However, this is usually the opposite of what you want to do. Remember, each gadget will only be used for a single fight, and the item used to create the gadget is destroyed forever. Furthermore, most fights only last a few turns. Therefore, the best strategy with the inventor is to choose 2 powerful items to keep no matter what. Never use these items to create gadgets. You will always have a third choice available, so they will be safe. When possible, use upgrades to make them even more powerful. My favorite two items to choose are the chainsaw and the screwdriver. This is because both these items work incredibly well with the Inventor’s Focus ability.
  • When you have the chainsaw, ALWAYS use it to attack first (even before your gadget use). The chainsaw does double damage when the enemy is at full health, which means that if used with 2 6s, the chainsaw will hit for a massive 24 damage the first time. However, sometimes you won’t have 2 6s to use right away. Therefore, it is important to upgrade the chainsaw ASAP, as this will increase your options for that first hit.
  • Always use your gadget before you use your screwdriver. When used with a 6, the screwdriver will allow a second gadget use – this will be wasted if you haven’t used it for the first time.
  • When presented with the option to copy or upgrade, it is usually preferential to copy. If you have previously upgraded your two choice items (as detailed above), pick one of those to copy. The upgrade will also carry over – so, if you choose to copy an upgraded chainsaw, you will get another upgraded chainsaw, not just a regular chainsaw. This is nice because it allows you to have a spare if for some reason you need to turn one of the copies into a gadget.
  • If you have to choose between an item that directly deals damage and a “booster” type item (such as duplicating dice, adding value to dice, etc), it is usually preferable to choose the damage dealing items. One problem with the inventor is that it is easy to chew through all of your damage dealing items by turning them into gadgets, which will make fights last forever (because you will struggle to deal sufficient damage) and therefore make you lose.
  • “Scrap” items, such as scrap metal, scrap spear, etc, will always be offered as one of the choices to turn into a gadget. However, many times it is useful NOT to choose them immediately. For example, let’s say you have 5 items: A screwdriver, a chainsaw, a scrap item, a high value throwaway (something you would like to keep but will make into a gadget if need be, such as an electromagnet), and a low value throwaway (something you are planning on turning into a gadget). You have chosen to save the screwdriver and chainsaw no matter what. After one battle, the options that come up are the low value throwaway, the scrap item, and the chainsaw. In this case, pick the low value throwaway and save the scrap item. This is because after the next battle, the scrap item is GUARANTEED to come up again (saving all your other, higher value items).
  • Items in your backpack will not be available to turn into gadgets. Only equipped items can be turned into gadgets. Sometimes as the inventor, you will load up on a bunch of junky items. This can be useful, because you can save a really good item for later and load all the junk into your equipped slots to turn them all into gadgets one by one.
  • When playing the episode “The Inevitability of Rust,” things work slightly differently. Each item has 4 uses, then automatically becomes a gadget. You don’t have to keep track – the number of uses is denoted by a die at the top corner of the item. The easiest way to screw yourself for this episode is to accidentally use up all your items during the same fight, and be left with nothing. Therefore, Do not go into a fight with a bunch of low use items. If an item has one or two uses left, use it up on purpose and replace it with a higher use item before the next fight. This will prevent you from getting into a situation where you run out of damage dealing abilities.
  • The one fight where it might make sense to create a really useful gadget on purpose (using up a good item) is before the boss fight – boss fights usually last a while, and having a really solid gadget to use every single turn for free (twice with a screwdriver) can be a lifesaver. Therefore, remember that after your last fight on floor 5, you likely want to pick something that’s really going to help you crush the boss (The crystal sword, for instance, becomes the Fury gadget, which repeats an attack. If you use the fury gadget then attack with the chainsaw and 2 6s, your very first attack of the fight is going to be hitting for 36 damage).
Volodymyr Azimoff
About Volodymyr Azimoff 8045 Articles
I love games and I live games. Video games are my passion, my hobby and my job. My experience with games started back in 1994 with the Metal Mutant game on ZX Spectrum computer. And since then, I’ve been playing on anything from consoles, to mobile devices. My first official job in the game industry started back in 2005, and I'm still doing what I love to do.

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