While we said in our glowing review of Lapis x Labyrinth that the action RPG can be simple, there are some quirks and obstacles that can kill you outright without you knowing why. Whether you’re using the wrong combination of adventurers/dango tower, ill-equipped, or have the wrong enchantments, you may end up stumped.

Fortunately, we’re here to help. So before you burn 20 hours or so into this fun and colourfully rewarding romp into the depths of this fantasy land, do check out our guide first to get the most out of your spelunking.

What’s The Best Stack/Dango Tower To Use?

You can always default one of them to the Hunter, at least for the Leader role. She’s made to be the basic accessible class for new players: she has the best moves for aerial and ground combos and she has the unique attribute called Vampire. She gains 1% health from the damage she deals, meaning she can recover health from just chaining attacks quick.

The Bishop should be your next adventurer to main. She has great range and damage with her spear, and her special attack recovers health in case you get overwhelmed. And you will die a lot when you get to levels that have “anthrax” traps (ie: seemingly-innocent white powder that poisons characters with mega damage).

The Shielder is also a brute because of his defense and simple ground-covering attacks. But you can replace him with two other offense-heavy classes like the Witch and Necromancer if you have good gear overall.

Here are our favourite combinations:

• Hunter (Leader), Bishop, Maid, Witch
• Hunter (Leader), Shielder, Bishop, Necromancer
• Hunter (Leader), Gunner, Bishop, Witch

If you’re feeling daring and don’t mind using a slow character in a fast-paced 2D platformer action RPG, go for the Destroyer in your Hunter/Bishop Dango build. You’ll need some form of health regeneration to offset the damage the Destroyer will suffer during his hard-hitting-but-slow attacks.

What Should You Train First?

Later in the game, you’ll get a teacher who will improve your base stats via training. But which attribute should you start first? Simple: go for Base HP and Attack, then spend 1 level on each elemental resistance.

If you start off with a cap of 10 levels, spend 3 on HP, 3 on Attack, then the rest on any element resistance you want. Then when you increase the cap (via Trader upgrades), then you can spend your training points in that particular ratio.

Which Attributes & Enchantments Should I Sought After?

Here’s the best we’ve gathered so far:

• Plan B
• Vampire
• Guard All
• Attack Boost
• Critical Damage
• Critical Rate Up
• Base Attack Up
• Base HP Up
• Studious
• Overpower
• Enlighten

The general idea is, you’ll have enough damage, defense and health that you can heal any damage you take. This can make any challenge, even the final world, an absolute joke. Even if you don’t have all these skills, Vampire and Plan B are powerful attributes that can cover the weaknesses of bad builds.

One thing to keep in mind is most of these skills cap at 50 (base attack, base hp, critical damage and overpowered). Some at 25 (critical rate), others 20 (guard all) and anything that says max is fully levelled.

Since getting these attributes can be somewhat difficult, we suggest looking for Hunter items that have Vampire and create a Dango build off of that. Things like Guard All can be found on Devil’s Monocles accessories, while the Studious attribute can be found on glasses. The only harder one to obtain is Enlighten which is found on essence gems.

As for maximizing power or potential, you should be creative. If you don’t have the resources to bring something like Critical Rate up to 25 or Studious to 100, don’t be afraid to use another slot for the same perk.

Stacking perks will yield the same advantage; it will just make you less powerful in the long run. This isn’t enough to matter in the long run and in the main campaign unless you plan on conquering the EX dungeons.

Also, Buy Grimoires

Grimoires give you permanent stat boosts in exchange for trade resources and a good amount of gold. Thank to the game’s Fever system, you can farm enough to own a few that boost most of your resistances and base stats to 20%.