Posted June 04, 2020
Congrats on playing this highly under-rated game! Ready to have some fun? Read the game manual for even more tips!
Screen Resolution
Look for a utility called nglide_config.exe that came with the download in the game folder on your hard drive. Run it to set the game-screen resolution to the native resolution of your monitor.
The game wasn't made for widescreen, so using that setting just stretches the image rather than give a wider field of view (though it also bestows your avatar with a rather prominent bust and bubble-butt, so some ppl might want widescreen anyways :)
Keyboard
I find using shift-lock to toggle combat just gets confusing, and you often need to run and jump while maneuvering which doesn't work well using the default settings. Instead, set keys to:
Movement directions - use arrow keys or numpad
Attack - left mouse button
Spell - right mouse button
Run - Shift
Walk - Ctrl
Jump - Space
Use - Enter
Look - Tab
Joystick
https://joytokey.net/en/]JoyToKey, which turns any controller into a 'keyboard joystick' highly recommended for these kind of games.
Difficulty
If you find the game too difficult (or too easy), you can slow it down or speed it up using the frame rate. Look in the 'Asylum' folder (Games > Deathtrap Dungeon > Asylum) and open the file called config.dat using Notepad. Edit the text FRAME_LOCK 16 to indicate some other number, then save and close Notepad... a setting of about 13 makes the game considerably easier while not slowing it down to the point of being unplayable. You can also adjust this setting between saves for particularly tough fights.
Camera
It is vastly important for your survival to learn the default action when you enter a new room should be to hold the keys "Attack" + "Back Arrow" and keep them pressed (see combat defensive stance below), then rotate in place while in this defensive stance to pan the camera and look around blind corners. Only once you know you are safe go to 1st person view and come out of combat stance.
You can't move while in 1st person view. There isn't much you can do about this tbh, though sometimes the 3rd person camera will change positions when you switch. Otherwise, just try and move or rotate so the 3rd person camera view repositions.
Jumping
Various key combos execute various style jumps depending upon your speed:
Speed = 1/4 (ie standing or moving slowly in any direction)
- Jump: executes a vertical jump in place, or climbs a wall if it is low enough.
- Jump + any direction key: executes a high jump+flip in the desired direction without changing your facing (Can clear low obstacles or level changes or even jump over enemies!)
Speed = 1/2 (walking speed).
- Up Arrow + Jump: makes a low long jump. Clears 1 'floor tile' horizontal distance.
Speed = 3/4 (initial running speed)
- Run + Up Arrow + Jump: makes a low running jump. Clears 2 'floor tiles' horizontal distance.
Speed = full (running speed after ~5 tiles)
- Run + Up Arrow + Jump: Clears 3 'floor tiles' horizontal distance + more if it includes a vertical drop.
Standing and back-flipping backwards gives you a lot of vertical height. Sometimes you can back-flip onto higher platforms you can't climb (example: the moving platforms in the King's chamber in the Quarry level... you can backflip onto those whereas otherwise they are un-reachable).
Running
Note that you can execute either a 'jump' or the 'operate' option while running (ie. you can pull a lever while running past it without stopping).
You can also run backwards, which is often a much better survival option than trying to turn around - since there is no way to somersault and automatically reverse direction. Learning to run backwards is almost as important as learning to run forwards in this game.
Combat
Combat is toggled by holding the 'attack' key: you are either in combat stance (with limited movement options) or standing ready (flexible movement but vulnerable). All 'run' or 'walk' movement options are disabled while in combat stance (exception, see bare-handed fighting below), though you can still jump forward, backward or even to the side while fighting in melee. Your default combat stance should be 'on the back-foot' (ie. press LMB + 'down arrow'). This helps minimize damage vs anything to your front, and allows you to quickly pivot in place to face any unseen enemy and safely readjust the camera angle.
Pressing and holding one of the directional keys or combos while in combat stance launches a continuous flurry of blows & moves you 1 step forward/backward, while pushing any enemy back. Attacking always auto-targets whatever enemy is more of less to your front, and also auto-readjusts your facing to keep them centered as long as the key is held down (ie. tapping or releasing the key breaks-off auto-targeting).
- Up Arrow: two-handed overhead chops followed by a leaping finisher (inflicts max damage to whomever is standing immediately to your front)
- Right Arrow: a series of one-handed stabbing thrusts (it seems this attack grants the longest reach of the three melee attack options, hence enemy counter-attacks are less)
- Left Arrow: two-handed side chops followed by a twirl-jump finisher (can wound multiple enemies with each chop if they are bunched together within the 180-degree sword-arc swing to your right... hence when confronting multiple enemies, try to engage the leftmost enemy first using side-chop attacks)
- Down Arrow: takes a defensive stance vs enemies to your front (ie. 'on the backfoot'... this should be your default safety stance as it blocks *most* damage from the front)
- Down + R/L Arrows: pivot in place while 'on the backfoot'... (changes facing & camera angle much more quickly than when standing ready)
- both Left + Right Arrows simultaneously - take a back-step while slashing to your rear (attack/drives-off an enemy behind you). Learn to master this technique and you can simultaneously fight enemies both in front and behind you at the same time.
- Any direction arrow + Jump: executes a standing flip jump in the desired direction seamlessly between combat thrusts (can close/fall-back quickly without leaving combat). This is the only way to cover distances quickly while staying in combat stance.
Enemies display a variety of combat stances, so possibly your own attack stance makes a difference. Two-handed chopping attacks do ~50% more damage than the one-hand stabbing attack (verified on #hits required to take down snake women), though there might be other differences as stated.
Choose which weapons, spells, or equipment are to-hand from your inventory using the F1-F4 and number keys. Some enemies have damage resistances or vulnerabilities, so pick your weapon/spell accordingly.
If you choose to fight bare-handed, it inflicts ~1/3 damage as the sword, though a Strength spell will change that!
- Up Arrow: handstand w/ back-kick + advance 1/2 step
- Right Arrow: headbutt + pushback enemy & advance a step
- Left Arrow: spinning kick in place
- Down Arrow: walk backwards - the only exception to not being able to walk while in combat stance.
Spells
Casting a spell while in 'Look' mode (tab key) overrides auto-targeting (caution: it is easy to miss a moving target). Fireball and Razor spells don't auto-target in 3rd person view, so your intended target has to be both head-on and on the same level as you if you want to hit them while in 3rd person view.
You can only have maximum of 12 Fireballs, 5 Razors, 10 Bombs, 3 Strength, 5 Firefly, 1 Invisibility spells in your inventory at any one time. So if you are not picking up loot, it is probably because one of those slots is full.
Cheats
Type in any of the following letter code(s) while playing:
elvis - bestows invulnerability
mmmmungo - adds strength
billy - increases speed
caffeine - adds 100 health
tools - adds full inventory
taxi - select level using the + and - keys
When new to the game, turning on the elvis cheat actually helped me master the quirky combat keystroke moves immensely. Then I turned it off and re-did the level properly without cheats.
Walkthrough
Sinjin's Visual Deathtrap Dungeon Walkthrough (for PC)
Arkham Horror's Deathrap Dungeon play-through (PC)
The PS version of the game is quite different, so those walkthroughs won't help much.
Screen Resolution
Look for a utility called nglide_config.exe that came with the download in the game folder on your hard drive. Run it to set the game-screen resolution to the native resolution of your monitor.
The game wasn't made for widescreen, so using that setting just stretches the image rather than give a wider field of view (though it also bestows your avatar with a rather prominent bust and bubble-butt, so some ppl might want widescreen anyways :)
Keyboard
I find using shift-lock to toggle combat just gets confusing, and you often need to run and jump while maneuvering which doesn't work well using the default settings. Instead, set keys to:
Movement directions - use arrow keys or numpad
Attack - left mouse button
Spell - right mouse button
Run - Shift
Walk - Ctrl
Jump - Space
Use - Enter
Look - Tab
Joystick
https://joytokey.net/en/]JoyToKey, which turns any controller into a 'keyboard joystick' highly recommended for these kind of games.
Difficulty
If you find the game too difficult (or too easy), you can slow it down or speed it up using the frame rate. Look in the 'Asylum' folder (Games > Deathtrap Dungeon > Asylum) and open the file called config.dat using Notepad. Edit the text FRAME_LOCK 16 to indicate some other number, then save and close Notepad... a setting of about 13 makes the game considerably easier while not slowing it down to the point of being unplayable. You can also adjust this setting between saves for particularly tough fights.
Camera
It is vastly important for your survival to learn the default action when you enter a new room should be to hold the keys "Attack" + "Back Arrow" and keep them pressed (see combat defensive stance below), then rotate in place while in this defensive stance to pan the camera and look around blind corners. Only once you know you are safe go to 1st person view and come out of combat stance.
You can't move while in 1st person view. There isn't much you can do about this tbh, though sometimes the 3rd person camera will change positions when you switch. Otherwise, just try and move or rotate so the 3rd person camera view repositions.
Jumping
Various key combos execute various style jumps depending upon your speed:
Speed = 1/4 (ie standing or moving slowly in any direction)
- Jump: executes a vertical jump in place, or climbs a wall if it is low enough.
- Jump + any direction key: executes a high jump+flip in the desired direction without changing your facing (Can clear low obstacles or level changes or even jump over enemies!)
Speed = 1/2 (walking speed).
- Up Arrow + Jump: makes a low long jump. Clears 1 'floor tile' horizontal distance.
Speed = 3/4 (initial running speed)
- Run + Up Arrow + Jump: makes a low running jump. Clears 2 'floor tiles' horizontal distance.
Speed = full (running speed after ~5 tiles)
- Run + Up Arrow + Jump: Clears 3 'floor tiles' horizontal distance + more if it includes a vertical drop.
Standing and back-flipping backwards gives you a lot of vertical height. Sometimes you can back-flip onto higher platforms you can't climb (example: the moving platforms in the King's chamber in the Quarry level... you can backflip onto those whereas otherwise they are un-reachable).
Running
Note that you can execute either a 'jump' or the 'operate' option while running (ie. you can pull a lever while running past it without stopping).
You can also run backwards, which is often a much better survival option than trying to turn around - since there is no way to somersault and automatically reverse direction. Learning to run backwards is almost as important as learning to run forwards in this game.
Combat
Combat is toggled by holding the 'attack' key: you are either in combat stance (with limited movement options) or standing ready (flexible movement but vulnerable). All 'run' or 'walk' movement options are disabled while in combat stance (exception, see bare-handed fighting below), though you can still jump forward, backward or even to the side while fighting in melee. Your default combat stance should be 'on the back-foot' (ie. press LMB + 'down arrow'). This helps minimize damage vs anything to your front, and allows you to quickly pivot in place to face any unseen enemy and safely readjust the camera angle.
Pressing and holding one of the directional keys or combos while in combat stance launches a continuous flurry of blows & moves you 1 step forward/backward, while pushing any enemy back. Attacking always auto-targets whatever enemy is more of less to your front, and also auto-readjusts your facing to keep them centered as long as the key is held down (ie. tapping or releasing the key breaks-off auto-targeting).
- Up Arrow: two-handed overhead chops followed by a leaping finisher (inflicts max damage to whomever is standing immediately to your front)
- Right Arrow: a series of one-handed stabbing thrusts (it seems this attack grants the longest reach of the three melee attack options, hence enemy counter-attacks are less)
- Left Arrow: two-handed side chops followed by a twirl-jump finisher (can wound multiple enemies with each chop if they are bunched together within the 180-degree sword-arc swing to your right... hence when confronting multiple enemies, try to engage the leftmost enemy first using side-chop attacks)
- Down Arrow: takes a defensive stance vs enemies to your front (ie. 'on the backfoot'... this should be your default safety stance as it blocks *most* damage from the front)
- Down + R/L Arrows: pivot in place while 'on the backfoot'... (changes facing & camera angle much more quickly than when standing ready)
- both Left + Right Arrows simultaneously - take a back-step while slashing to your rear (attack/drives-off an enemy behind you). Learn to master this technique and you can simultaneously fight enemies both in front and behind you at the same time.
- Any direction arrow + Jump: executes a standing flip jump in the desired direction seamlessly between combat thrusts (can close/fall-back quickly without leaving combat). This is the only way to cover distances quickly while staying in combat stance.
Enemies display a variety of combat stances, so possibly your own attack stance makes a difference. Two-handed chopping attacks do ~50% more damage than the one-hand stabbing attack (verified on #hits required to take down snake women), though there might be other differences as stated.
Choose which weapons, spells, or equipment are to-hand from your inventory using the F1-F4 and number keys. Some enemies have damage resistances or vulnerabilities, so pick your weapon/spell accordingly.
If you choose to fight bare-handed, it inflicts ~1/3 damage as the sword, though a Strength spell will change that!
- Up Arrow: handstand w/ back-kick + advance 1/2 step
- Right Arrow: headbutt + pushback enemy & advance a step
- Left Arrow: spinning kick in place
- Down Arrow: walk backwards - the only exception to not being able to walk while in combat stance.
Spells
Casting a spell while in 'Look' mode (tab key) overrides auto-targeting (caution: it is easy to miss a moving target). Fireball and Razor spells don't auto-target in 3rd person view, so your intended target has to be both head-on and on the same level as you if you want to hit them while in 3rd person view.
You can only have maximum of 12 Fireballs, 5 Razors, 10 Bombs, 3 Strength, 5 Firefly, 1 Invisibility spells in your inventory at any one time. So if you are not picking up loot, it is probably because one of those slots is full.
Cheats
Type in any of the following letter code(s) while playing:
elvis - bestows invulnerability
mmmmungo - adds strength
billy - increases speed
caffeine - adds 100 health
tools - adds full inventory
taxi - select level using the + and - keys
When new to the game, turning on the elvis cheat actually helped me master the quirky combat keystroke moves immensely. Then I turned it off and re-did the level properly without cheats.
Walkthrough
Sinjin's Visual Deathtrap Dungeon Walkthrough (for PC)
Arkham Horror's Deathrap Dungeon play-through (PC)
The PS version of the game is quite different, so those walkthroughs won't help much.
Post edited August 05, 2021 by Dreamteam67
