14 Tips & Tricks to Facilitate Your Time with Evertried

Evertried is an isometric, tactical roguelite with strategy turn-based combat. That’s just a lot of words to say the game can be very hard. So after playing for a while—and miserably dying—here are the 14 tips & tricks I have for Evertried.

#1 - Pay attention to enemy movement patterns.

The first couple of runs I had of Evertried, I just ran haphazardly until eventually an enemy was in a favourable position for me to be able to kill them. This really didn’t do me any favours in how high I could ascend the tower, and instead just led to my inevitable demise whenever it didn’t work out the way I wanted it to.

It actually wasn’t until after I’d killed the first boss that I understood that every enemy has a particular moving pattern. The cats in the first area that have a shield, for instance, move once every two turns, taking one to rest. The other cats always move towards the player, and those little blob things that spew poison out of their butt move haphazardly - much like myself early on!

#2 - Remember that you can dash two blocks.

When the tutorial of Evertried ended, I just decided to neglect the existence of the dash and move block by block. This made it impossible for me to fight enemies that were two tiles away from me, forcing me to take an extra hit just to be able to take them down. Having only three health, this was unfeasible.

It was after I remembered that I can dash that I realized: I have to dash away from them to make a three tiles away, so that by the time I get close to them they’re forced to stand beside me to take the hit. This actually made my runs so much easier, although this all could be because I’m a newcomer to these sorts of games.

#3 - Move up to enemies on their rest turns if they have one.

Okay, I struggled to summarise that one in a single sentence, but hear me out. If you move up to an enemy on the turn they are resting, and then move away on the turn they have woken up, they will follow you and begin resting once again, allowing you to get free hits on them. This allows you to take down enemies that move every two turns and take two hits to take down.

Bonus: Not every enemy with a shield moves every two turns, however. This starts happening after the second area. Keep that in mind before making moves like these!

#4 - Choose when to kill traps and when not to.

On my first couple of runs, I just went to town on the traps because they were an inconvenience and made me feel claustrophobic and scared to move. However, the better I got at the game, the more I realized that I was hindering myself by doing this. Instead, leaving them alive strategically can be used to your favour.

Bonus: If you know when a trap is going to activate, you can try to move accordingly to make an enemy chase you into their demise. Additionally, in some traps you can use the enemies as a shield because they hit only the first target.

#5 - Keep focus on one target, make sure you know who your threats are.

Methodically killing through every enemy feels like the smartest way to play Evertried. First couple of runs I just tried to kill whoever whenever, and this usually meant the closest enemy. This isn’t always the ideal scenario, however. It might be ideal to focus on an enemy that poses a bigger threat that’s farther away and make sure that you’re safer. After all, the only goal in Evertried is to make it to the top, making sure you don’t lose your life. How that happens, or however long that, takes doesn’t matter.

#6 - Learn how everything works and what it does.

So the game is a bit quiet about what Focus is and how it works. And the Charges are mentioned once but I quickly forgot amid the hectic gameplay that Evertried gave me. So here’s how these two work:

Focus dictates how many Shards (money) you get from a kill, and which modifiers will trigger/awaken. Focus depletes through the passing of time or when getting hit, and raises when you hit an enemy, slay them, or cast a skill. The Focus bar does not deplete when you arrived at a new area, letting you analyse your battlefield without getting punished, nor does it deplete during boss fights.

As for the Charges: you get five slots and one fills every time you move, but not when you dash. These are used for skills.

#7 You attack first.

It can be a bit scary to fight enemies because it’s a menace to have them standing beside you, knowing that the next turn they’re going to hit you. But you need to remember one thing: You move first. If you’re right beside an enemy that is going to smack you, the better choice might be to smack them back first and kill them, completely negating their next action. This isn’t to say that you should always kill when capable - sometimes it is better to retreat.

#8 Try not to get overwhelmed.

I died in the next turn, if you couldn't tell.

This is a nice two-for-one deal I have for you. First, try not to get overwhelmed in your mind. Try to process everything and play your first couple of rounds slowly. Your Focus isn’t necessary unless you really want shards, and learning is always a better option. Second, try not to get overwhelmed by the enemies attacking you. Since every enemy walks towards you, this means that you need to be careful when too many are near, and make sure to dash away whenever you see your escape options wearing thin.

#9 - Spend your Shards when you feel you’ve made enough progress.

Now I’m not saying settle. Or, rather, I’m not saying always settle. Sometimes your best bet is to spend all of the currency at your disposal to make sure that you have more time to continue, no matter how difficult it is escaping the mentality that something better might be just around the corner.

Think of it like this, even if something better is around the corner, if you don’t reach the corner there is no point to begin with! The longer you go on in Evertried, the better you’ll become, and the further you’ll get.

#10 - Don’t get frustrated, death can advance the story too.

When dying, keep in mind that the characters will still appear and tell you things in the first area. Think Hades, every time you die, you will have the opportunity to meet your allies along the way and have them progress the story. That, and some of them might have aid to give that will facilitate your advancement. After all, keep in mind that this is a roguelite, and you might get good runs and bad runs. Frustration will just lead to making more mistakes.

#11 - When fatigue hits, take breaks.

This is more of a general tip for every game, but it fits for an Evetried tip too, and that’s to always take breaks when you’re beginning to feel tired. Evertried is very brain taxing, keeping in mind your movement, their movement, traps, and potentially dangerous tiles - the game just throws stuff at you to think and overthink about, and eventually brain fog will hit and you will move in one stupid way and lose a good run with good modifiers and abilities because you couldn’t think any more. This will build frustration and lead to more self-imposed difficulty.

You should take breaks whenever you start feeling tired and come back with a clearer mind. You will learn more this way by being able to process the information you already have and before you know it, you’ll be breezing through the first areas.

#12 - Think about where your build is going.

Not two turns in, Skill: Roulette killed me instead of another unit.

I know it’s easy to just obsess over one build that’s particularly fun, but in roguelites and roguelikes, this isn’t always a valid strategy. Instead focus on what you’re trying to build in your current run, and continue to do so accordingly. This can be the greatest difference between life and death if you have a self-complementing build.

Bonus: Try to get lifesteal early. It’s a good ability to be able to heal every time you kill four enemies, even worth the reroll fee if you don’t have it on your first shop. The reasoning for this is, the higher you climb the tower, the more you learn. And that’s what’s most important when it comes to these games. The biggest obstacle will always be your own knowledge. The more you learn, the more you climb, the more you learn… a cycle that will lead you to the top of the tower.

#13 - Don’t be afraid to use your abilities.

Unless it's Skill: Roulette. In which case, be very afraid.

Each time you cast an ability, it will cost you Charges. However, one very important thing to keep in mind is that at the start of each of the levels, your charms reset. Meaning that there is no reason to hoard them. If they will be saving your hide throughout the journey, you’re better off using them rather than losing the Charges. Keep in mind, however, that using an ability passes the turn and every monster will move. So don’t use them haphazardly either!

#14 - You fully heal after a boss.

I remember fighting Avsladi and being scared because I had arrived with low health, and was even lower after my scuffle with it. However, I was immediately restored to full health for the next area, and that really did take away my anxiety whenever facing Avsladi in subsequent runs.

That’s it for our tips and tricks for Evertried! Have you liked the game? Do you have any more tips you could give us? Let us know in the comments below! I’d greatly appreciate to have more things I can advise people with. Happy ascending!