The commenter on the previous article wasn't kidding.

DragonS is nuts, posting guides on the subwroddit from day one. The devs established it on CineMraft's public release date, but he has already played it in the open beta. With over a thousand hours clocked in and a passion for writing, he gave players many advice.

A search on his username reveals five articles from that day alone, - about three months ago, - and even more since. The problem is that all those first threads have a disclaimer saying they no longer work. The system went through significant changes after the initial release.

The devs add new stuff, tweak values, and patch bugs in large updates every week. Hotfixes are even more frequent, especially if it comes to known exploits. That's great, meaning the game's evolving and they listen to the players, but no guides can survive a month.

It's more like early access, which explains why they need playtesters.

The guy's first five essays were about character builds, equipment, trading, and traveling. While the last one delved into basic quests, he edited it by crossing out everything. Little Red said he's almost a celebrity, who spends more time on Wroddit than in the game now.

It's not surprising. Imagine putting this much effort into writing tutorials, and it's all outdated in a week. If there will be a next time, and the system sends a notification that he's on, let's ask him some questions. Even if Tank is a helpful trainer, he won't explain the meta stuff.

Of course, there won't be a chance if I don't defy all odds.

For now, let's focus on the dungeon. It's not the only one in the huge open world, but Origin is somewhat special. All players in this time zone start there, and that's the first real challenge they might face. The forum offers dozens of tutorials on clearing it.

Most are for small parties between four and eight, as the devs intended, and all above the tenth level. From the looks of it, it's still tricky even like that. The place falls under the dungeon rules, which DragonS explains in an earlier writing.

The old PC struggles to open them all on a new tab.

[Once you and your party enter, you are no longer connected to the rest of the world. Before you clear the boss room, you can't leave or log off, and other players can't follow you inside either. The floor plan is procedural on entry, following a few predetermined patterns.]

There was a snippet about player homes that said they also behaved like dungeons. They appear empty for everyone, even if fifty people are already inside. This prevents gankers from setting up ambushes, making them somewhat safer. These places are challenging already.

[There are a few dynamic vaults across the NPC kingdoms. They change their floorplans, even if none are as random as Origin's Cursed Dungeon. You can't buy maps for it in the starter village, and you'll never know what might await inside.]

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Well, it's off to a bad start.

How are you supposed to get prepared if it's all random? And it gets worse when he details the Guard Monsters in a different essay. It's a lot to skim through, he made ten dungeon tutorials by himself, three focusing on the starter one alone.

[As someone who soloed it many times, luck might be the most important factor. If you get 'Laboratory of Madness', expect a beginner party to die from the Guards on entry. Even if it sounds worse, the 'Halls of Horrors' might be the easiest to clear.]

It's great that he goes into so much detail and even his style is like he were a novelist in hiding, but come on. The clock's ticking, and determination is waning. The vanilla-scented pack of cigs on the desk looks more and more desirable after each line.

It's fine, I can't even remember the last smoke.

The headset overwrites the cravings and everything. It's too bad nobody said it would make you quit. That ten credits spent on Premium instead of the two packs would have been a game-changer. Well, there was a nasty burger too.

The surprising benefit of the cig is how it helps with this headache. Not the ringing ears, they got even worse since the last walk about two hours ago. Still, my eyes are wide open without touching the second energy drink. That sudden death also killed all the tiredness.

Let's see what gear he recommends because he made a list.

Those sets costing over two thousand gold for his fresh alt attempts are out of the question. He failed with even those, so why bother? At least he has other tutorials that take alternative approaches. High-level solo clearing, beginners, or low-level groups need different gears.

Wizards are useless by themselves, and it takes ages to train their skills. Still, they can make or break a party or a successful attempt if the player multiclassed into them. A group below the tenth level can't take advantage of their buffs, making their job more difficult.

Because of this, as odd as it looks, beginner parties need more expensive stuff to have a fighting chance. Solo gears cost a fortune even for a high-level multiclass like DragonSlayer himself. He offers many solutions for the same problem though.

There are safe, recommended, and poverty fits.

As the name suggests, safe means that a given group should be able to clear the vault even in a worst-case scenario. They build on larger groups and different party compositions, preparing for everything. They are also by far the most expensive of the three categories.

Recommended gears try to balance cost, risk, and a success rate above eighty percent. These can cost five hundred to a thousand gold for regular groups, and double that for beginners. This is for the entire party though, solo attempts are often even more expensive for one player.

The cheap fits are for larger, and well, poorer groups that don't mind losing a few lives along the way. It's the lowest cost for entry-level gears which still gives a theoretical chance. It relies on blind luck since he warns that in half the cases, they won't work at all.

And these still start at two hundred for an experienced group.

Well, shit. Exploring dungeons turns out to be expensive. Even more so if you want to come back alive or have beginner players without skills or magic support. It's good that I don't care about killing the boss or surviving the whole ordeal.

My only two requirements are to reach the tenth level or to make that fail spectacular. There's no time for more and nothing to lose. The character can't afford the more fancy gear, and nobody to party up with in the middle of the night.

Again, the focus is on gaining loads of Exp fast, he doesn't have to make it out alive. And his lists miss one thing, the Exp-boosting artifacts, Little Red was proud to show off. If the starter village even has them, they should cost around fifty to a hundred gold per item.