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The Transmuter - Exploring character classes in Desktop Dungeons: Rewind #13

Desktop Dungeons: Rewind - Daily Demo · published 30 Mar 2023, 15:20 UTC

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“Transmuters are members of the ancient and powerful Order of Change. Their mastery of inner force is a complete mystery to other magic users: they channel their power through glyphs, yet seem to do so without any techniques outlined in the Standard Magical Primer.”

Greetings Administrator, and welcome back to another class post! Today we’ll be giving you the basics on how to play the Transmuter.

Abilities

🌟 Dungeons Lore - Starts with a Lemmisi glyph

🌟 Inner Focus - Using glyphs gives free conversion points

🌟 Spirit Sword - Hitting the conversion threshold adds temporary damage based on max mana

Before explaining the Transmuter’s abilities, let's lay some groundwork. Conversion is the ability of all adventurers to turn items and glyphs into power. This power depends on their Kin. When converted, an item will give you a number of Conversion Points specified in its description. Once your Conversion Points reach your conversion threshold, you’ll gain the bonus and start working towards the next threshold.

Transmuters are the masters of conversion. Inner Focus provides you with conversion points equal to your mana spent whenever you cast a glyph, and Spirit Sword gives a massive spike in damage when you hit a conversion threshold! This makes Transmuters an excellent choice in long dungeons where you’re bound to cast plenty of glyphs and convert plenty of items.

The base damage given by Spirit Sword is equal to your maximum mana. This means that finding sources of bonus damage through your Kin, items, or glyphs can go a long way in making you stronger. Much like the Sorcerer, you’ll have a very diverse damage profile, which can make finding fightable enemies a lot easier.

Kin Choices

🌟 Human - Humans gain 10% bonus damage when they reach a conversion threshold. Along with having the best scaling power, this synergises well with Spirit Sword! Human Transmuters can deal truly monstrous damage, and will shine later in a run.

🌟 Elf - Elves gain one maximum mana when they reach their conversion threshold. This obviously synergises with Spirit Sword to give you more damage, but there’s something even better… You have the lowest conversion threshold in the game. You’ll deal more damage, more often, and receive a permanent increase to your mana.

🌟 Dwarf - Dwarves gain +10 max HP per 80 conversion points. This is another cheap threshold, and can lead to a Dwarf Transmuter becoming incredibly tanky. In Desktop Dungeons, the amount of damage you can deal is effectively how much health you can afford to trade without dying. More health, more effective damage. Dwarves become powerful faster than Elves and Humans, but don't scale when enemies start dealing lots of damage.

You’ll be reaching conversion thresholds often as a Transmuter, and so your Kin choice makes more of a difference than most other classes. Below is a table showing each Kin’s conversion bonus and how many conversion points are needed for a threshold. Happy theory crafting!

Gods

🌟 Jehora Jeheyu - The God of Madness appears again. What is change if not Chaos? Transmuters gain their power from casting spells, which Jehora will reward with Piety. Boost Mana will increase your maximum mana and make your Spirit Sword stronger. If you can save enough piety to become the Chaos Avatar, you’ll be rewarded with 100 Conversion Points, a level-up, and a cure for your ailments.

🌟 Mystera Annur - Change is made in a struggle for growth. Jehora and Mystera are two sides of the same coin: Mystera rewards you for casting spells, and can boost your maximum mana through Magic. They also offer mana refills for converting glyphs with Refreshment, and Flames can be picked up if you plan to go full fireball.

🌟 Glowing Guardian - Conversion returns you to order. Humility lowers your level by one without affecting your health or damage, which makes your Spirit Sword damage spikes effective at catapulting you to higher levels. Glowing Guardian will also reward you for converting items. This piety can be used to reach Enlightenment for a boost to maximum mana, damage, health, and conversion points.

Most Gods are useful for the Transmuter. Tikki Tooki is helpful because you aren’t a regen fighter and they give you a free Getindare glyph. With Binlor, you can farm piety and conversion points simultaneously with Endiswal. Knockback damage also has synergy with Spirit Sword!

Glyphs

🌟 Bysseps - Spirit Sword gives you base damage for one attack, and Bysseps give you bonus damage for one attack. If you want to power up your swing as much as possible, this is the biggest it’s going to get! This combo is great for taking down higher level enemies to get you some bonus experience.

🌟 Getindare - As much as we like to believe whoever you’re spiking on will die instantly, sometimes they won’t. Using Getindare in these moments for an extra attack that converts their existence into… Non-existence. If you're feeling fancy, plan ahead and have the conversion points gained from Inner Focus push you over the threshold in the middle of combat!

🌟 Lemmisi - What this Glyph lacks in combat power, it makes up for in utility. Lemmisi reveals 3 random tiles, and the revealed tiles count towards your regeneration. You’ll heal for three tiles of health and one mana. It also has the special property of prioritising helpful tiles. Using it as a substitute for exploring to heal can help to reveal useful glyphs, hidden subdungeons, boosters, and God Altars. It will also give you conversion points through Inner Focus!