Tomb of the Bloodletter: Basic Strategy Guide

My first time booting up the game, my perspective was “why can’t I play 13+ letter words?” and other, similar frustrations that stemmed from me treating it like any other word game. It was misguided.

While longer words are still often beneficial, the first thing to bear in mind is that a shorter word with several repeat letters will be more effective than a more generalist, longer word. If a high-value magick lands on “U,” for instance, “muumuu” will be four times as effective as “thunderstorm,” despite “muumuu” being half as long (for a list of the impactful words, see my other guide!)

Adventurer, for one, starts with the basic magick “pummel.” In the early game, utilizing this magick four to five times on the first turn can help you defeat enemies before they even have the chance to act, especially upon using your rerolls to help it land on an impactful letter. In general, magicks that do at least 2 damage per instance are great (restraint, pummel, monotony, among others).

As you progress, you have the capacity to add one of four magicks to your deck after every combat, each with a minor buff or debuff added to the next combat depending on the magick added (these don’t usually amount to much). It is important not to write off self-damaging magicks like “guilt,” or in the early game, “misstep,” as quickly accumulating fury will help quickly defeat enemies.

Learning to utilize fury will curb a lot of the frustration you might initially feel towards the game. Without access to early game healing abilities (in most cases), getting the fury engine online can be difficult, but it is eventually rewarding.

When selecting rooms floor to floor, I would keep this flow chart in mind:

Knowledge > Prayers/Tools/Tool Upgrades > HP Up > Full Heal/Additional Magicks > Blank Tiles

You may be thinking: “Why are the additional magick rooms so low?” There are two main reasons. In any card game, a smaller deck tends to be more consistent than a larger deck, and your hand size (your knowledge) limits what you see. Keeping your magicks lower in number when possible, then, keeps your deck more consistent, and thus, more impactful, as the overall pool remains smaller. Receiving a magick (from four) at the end of every round, as well, makes the bonus that these rooms offer unappealing, especially with no means of skipping them if you were fishing for specific, high-impact magicks like “pummel” or “restraint.”

Knowledge, prayers and tools are key. Knowledge helps you see high-impact magicks more consistently, prayers can help force them onto higher-impact letters and tools offer an alternative way to interface with the room-to-room challenges thrown at you, often complementing your other strategy. NOTE: Especially don’t write off tools! The vast majority of them are game changers (though there are some duds only useful in niche situations, like aged whiskey or broken clock, for instance).

HP Up rooms are generally only helpful when you’re ahead, unless you’re playing the fifth character, unlocked after beating a run with the first four and clearing a specific unlock condition. By the time you get to that, though, you’ll likely not need this guide!

When first playing the game, I also didn’t realize it was possible to reroll the rooms offered on each floor, even though it was clearly labeled! With a minimum of two rerolls, it is often possible to force specific, beneficial rooms early on, helping you set yourself up for success.