Overview

This page is for those who have randomly stumbled across this Wiki, or who are somehow still confused about the game.

POWDER is a "roguelike" game written by Jeff Lait (a physicist by day), and freely available (including source) from its official homepage. This particular game is awesomely cross-platform. While it began its life on the Game Boy Advance, it has also been ported to Windows (regular and CE), Linux (regular and PS3), Mac, Nintendo DS, Playstation, GP2X, Wii, and most recently, the iPhone.

In most respects, this game is much like other roguelikes -- you (represented by the "avatar" in the middle of the screen) start off with some basic equipment, and with this you explore a dungeon, slaughtering the inhabitants, eating their corpses, and taking their stuff. Your ultimate goal is to get down to level 25, kill the arch-daemon known as Baezl'bub (also known as He Whose Name Cannot Be Spelled Correctly), and bring his heart back to the surface world. POWDER is, as usual, turn-based -- before making any move, you can take all the time you want to examine your environment and/or your inventory, so long as you don't do anything which requires an actual turn, such as moving, spell-casting, attacking, or praying.

Stats and Classes
In some ways, POWDER is simpler than other roguelikes: There are no "characteristics" such as Strength or Intelligence; the basic types of magic items are fewer than in some other games; skills are a little simpler -- you either have a skill, or you don't. However, you'll find that the simple elements can combine in many interesting ways -- feel free to browse this Wiki for some examples. POWDER combines elements of both level and skill based games, and both are needed to succeed. POWDER also includes a set of deities; some of these will be helpful, but others will be taking pot-shots at you throughout the game. All of them are judging you (especially the one you're worshiping), and there's no way to keep all of them happy. Your challenge is to survive the gods as well as the monsters.... The gods also provide a weak "class" system: you can switch gods more-or-less freely at each level gain, and both your benefits and your restrictions with each god, represent one of the classic RPG classes such as "fighter" or "wizard".

Progression
The main measures of your character's progress are your "physical dice" (also called "hit dice"), and "magic dice". Loosely linked to these, are your maximums for Hit Points (how much damage you can take) and Mana Points (how much magic you can cast). These get increased when you gain levels (every 1000 experience points). How much each of them increase will depend on which deity you choose to follow at each level gain. Your choice of god will also affect how many "slots" you gain for skills and spells, which provide important abilities and resources. (In particular, weapons and armor will be much more effective after you've learned some of their associated skills.) The deities stand in for the "character classes" found in other games, but in POWDER, you can mix the classes more-or-less freely.

Physical and Mana dice are never lost permanently (body-swaps notwithstanding). Your maximum hit points can be permanently increased by drinking Heal Potions when at full HP, or reduced by System Shock. Your maximum Mana will never decrease, but can be increased by drinking Mana Potions (again, while at full mana), or by eating certain corpses. Skills and spells are gained either from the gods, or from books found in the dungeon (you start out with a couple of books). Skills and spells can only be forgotten by your own choice, usually to free up slots for more desirable acquisitions.

Your "experience level", as such, doesn't factor into combat or spell use, and is not even displayed on the screen. It does have a few effects: It's used to figure your experience gain for killing monsters (reducing it as you gain levels), in figuring your final score, and when a god punishes you with a summons.

It is possible to polymorph into or possess another monster, and in either case you leave not only your dice, HP, and mana behind, but your skills and spells as well. Fortunately, such excursions are generally temporary.

The selection of monsters produced will depend on the current "threat level", which is the sum of the current dungeon level, and both your physical and magic dice. Some monsters can appear with their predefined rooms, which can provide special challenges along with treasure. Unless you're descending at breakneck pace, your own dice will quickly dominate, so retreating to upper levels doesn't get you too much of a break. There does come a point in the late game where you can kill pretty much any one monster you encounter... but at that point, there will be more of them! Similarly, besides the normal run of monsters, you will see more powerful "unique" monsters, often as "leaders". Unique monsters get random extra intrinsics, which can make them unexpectedly dangerous. A leader's presence prevents turning their followers against each other, even under "friendly fire".

The Map
Most levels are generated randomly, but with a variety of styles. Any level can include set pieces, but the bottom-most levels are increasingly predefined as "challenge maps". Besides the obvious corridor and room floors, walls, and doors (including secret doors), you will find many hazards:


 * Assorted traps, many of them hidden.
 * Forest, which can hide monsters (or the player), and can be set afire.
 * Ice, which doesn't harm you directly, but can be melted into water, perhaps unexpectedly.
 * Water, which can drown you (and can be frozen into ice, possibly trapping you).
 * Lava, which will both burn you directly and set you afire (and can also drown you)
 * Acid pools, which will dissolve (and also drown) you.
 * Various noxious vapors drifting around the map.

Other points

 * There is no "money" in this game -- no coins, jewels, or shops. All treasure is in the form of equipment, much of which you'll need to identify before you can safely use it. There are also no chests or boxes, but there are hidden treasure rooms.
 * There is a hunger system, but you can't simply starve to death. However, when you get hungry, you stop healing, and that can easily get you killed. The only food in the dungeon is what you create, either by killing monsters or using an advanced spell. Eating corpses can get you various magical benefits, but some corpses are dangerous.
 * Many magical effects take the form of intrinsics, which can be provided by items, by a monster's nature, or temporarily by diet, magic, or divine intervention.
 * While there are "standard" magic items, there are also unique items called artifacts, which offer random intrinsics or combinations thereof. These can be very useful, or dangerous even to pick up. There are also "elemental weapons" which are created by the player.