Into the Pit is the first big venture for Nullpointer Games. Thankfully they have Humble Games backing their corner as a publisher. Humble Games always seems to have an eye for picking new indie creators to highlight. Into the Pit follows the Outlander as they are referred to as by the townsfolk.
They belong to a family of occult hunters and the Outlander is sent to investigate the mysterious happenings in this decrepit village. What’s truly going on with this portal at the edge of town? What happened to the majority of the villagers in Into the Pit? Most importantly, what are some handy tips for beginners to learn in this new retro-themed first-person shooter roguelike?
8 Starter Runes To Apply And Motes
Players will start out with one stone and four runes to activate the portal. Every item should be applied except for the Rune of Calamity. This will cause enemies to do more damage to the player in exchange for Motes.
They are like the currency of this game and until players start rescuing villagers, Motes aren’t good for much. That’s why the Rune of Calamity is not important at the start of Into the Pit.
7 Change Up The Control Scheme
Before jumping into the game players should tweak two things in the options menu. They should configure the Jump button to A since that feels more natural to other platforming games than pressing Y on the default layout.
This also means Y will then become the new interact button but that should feel okay. The camera sensitivity should be clicked down to the left by one. The default sensitivity makes the game feel too loose otherwise.
6 Focus On Villagers
Don’t fear death at the beginning of Into the Pit. Treat the game as an arcade experience. Get as far as possible and always aim to have the strongest load out. The more firepower and defensive abilities are equipped, then the deeper players can go.
The main objective of the entire game is to rescue all villagers from this hellish void. Doing so will help unlock shops in town that can then act like permanent upgrades. Losing Motes before that is not a problem.
5 Motes Can Be Used To Refresh Options
There is one thing Motes can be used for before villagers are rescued. In the dungeon Motes can be used to refresh the upgrade page after completing a chamber. If there are no good abilities or upgrades players wish to keep, then that’s where refresh comes into play.
The more players try to refresh on a single board, the higher the cost becomes. It’s a gamble like the roguelike genre in general but sometimes it is worth the risk.
4 Save Healing Chambers For The End
Each floor players will fall into will have four paths to choose from and then two branching paths at each major point from there. For example, the northern part of the room could have a chamber leading toward luck while the other is a healing chamber.
Once one of these two chambers is chosen, the other becomes null and void. It’s sort of like Hades’ door system, which is another popular roguelike. Most floors have a healing chamber and there are two tips to this. First, always use the healing chamber. Secondly, save that chamber for last unless players really need the health.
3 Diversify Powers
At the beginning of each run players can equip a power to each arm as well as a stat-boosting ability like gaining more health. It’s a good idea to diverse each arm so that they can handle different situations.
For example, make sure to equip a long-range ability to the left arm to strike enemies safely from a distance. The other arm then should get a powerful burst, or spread-like ability to handle enemy swarms up close. If players are lucky they should choose the bomb ability every time it appears.
2 Lure Monsters Into Doorways
There are a lot of open areas in chambers so it can be very easy for enemies to surround players. That is why burst abilities are so handy. There is another surefire way to handle enemies safely. If there is a doorway, lure enemies into it.
There usually is at least one at the beginning of a chamber. Doorframes are never that wide meaning enemies will have to go through two by two at worst. This makes them easy targets to pop off in quick succession. That’s a pro shooter tip in general.
1 Use Headphones
When all else fails pop on some headphones. The music is not that memorable in the game and there is no voice work to accompany the story. It’s kind of one of those roguelikes that is fun to mindlessly grind away on while listening to a podcast or something.
However, if players do use headphones in Into the Pit then they might last longer. Enemies can come in all directions at the drop of a hat as mentioned earlier. Hearing the spawn noise in their direction could be the deciding factor between life and death.
Into the Pit was released on October 19, 2021, and is available on PC and Xbox One.