Yu-Gi-Oh! Dungeon Dice Monsters/Gameplay

A short walk through your first game of DDM Note : This is an introduction to the Japanese version of DDM, and will hopefully introduce you to DDM, and teach you everything you need to know, in order to play the game in Japanese. It is by no means a complete run-down of the game, so please bear with me, until the American version of the game is released.

A. Initialising ---

From the main menu, choose "new game". If the cartridge already contains a saved game, you'll be asked whether you want to overwrite the existing data. Choose the top option (yes) to wipe the cartridge, and start a new game.

B. Name Entry -

Japanese for fun! Use the A button to select letters, and B to erase letters. Selecting one of the boxes on the right changes the alphabet set. They are, from top to bottom : Higrana, Katakana, English. When your done, select the bottom-right box. The game will prompt you to confirm your name, select the top option to proceed.

C. Main Menu

The available selections are (from top to bottom) : Sections marked with a asterisk (*) require a link cable

Select Dice             (View your dice collection, and your current pool) Tournament Battle       (Compete in a tournament) Free Battle             (A re-match with any opponent you've already faced) Multiplayer Battle*     (Play with a friend via the GBA Link Cable) Trade*                  (Trade dice via the GBA Link Cable) Dice Shop               (Purchase new dice with your tournament winnings)

D. The Dice Pool

Choose the first option in the menu, to check out the Dice Selection screen. At this point, the game will have assigned you 15 semi-random, low-level dice . Each game of DDM requires you to select 15 of your dice to play with, which are put in a 'pool'. The dice selection screen consists of 2 windows, a 'Box' window (which shows all the dice you've collected during the game) and a 'pool' window (the dice you're currently using to play with). To move between the 2 windows, move the cursor to the far left or right of the current window. It's worth checking out your current pool window (on the right of the box window) right now, just to get an idea of how the dice work.

E. Monster Classes --

Moving around the window, you can check out your current 15 dice. As you select a dice, the little pane at the bottom changes, to show the status of the current highlighted dice. Although the dice are 'randomly' generated, the top- left dice will be 'Baby Dragon', so we'll use him as an example of the various statistics of each dice.

The pane at the bottom shows the name and statistics of Baby dragon. To the far left is a green avatar which looks like a dragon's head. This is the MONSTER CLASS, which tells you Baby Dragon is a dragon-type monster. Monster classes don't play a huge part in the early duels, but usally come into play, once you have a larger dice pool (Some spells or effects can power up monsters of a specific class) The class of a monster is determined by the avatar that appears in it's stats, and also by the colour of the dice itself.

Red   :  Dragon Green :  Beast Yellow : Undead White :  Spellcaster Blue  :  Warrior Black :  Item

F. Monster Levels -

Next to the Monster Class symbol is Baby Dragon's LEVEL, which can range from 1-4 (Although you'll only have Lv1-3 right now, since Level 4 dice are incredibly rare). The importance of levels will become very clear later on, although all you need to know right now is that the higher the level, the more powerful (and elusive) the monster will be. Note that in order to summon a monster, you need another monster of the same level in your dice pool. Without another monster of the same level, the dice cannot be summoned.

G. Abilities

Above the level is a heart symbol, what should (but doesn't) look like a white feather. The feather represents a monster's special ability. There are 3 special abilities to be found, and they can prove to be both a blessing, and a hindrance. Baby Dragon's ability is FLYING, which is represented by a white feather. The other abilities are TUNNELING, represented by a small picture of a tunnel, and ARCHERY, represented by an arrow (the type shot out of a bow).

Flying Flying monsters move through the air, slightly out of reach of the other monsters, and as a result, can only be attacked by monsters who have the 'flying' or 'archery' ability. The downside of this ability is that flying monsters require 2 movement crests, for each space they move along the board.

Tunneling Tunneling monsters move below ground, and can tunnel beneath other monsters, in order to pass along the same square as them, on the board. Moving through another monster or item has no effect, and they do not acquire any item they move through (only those they stop on).

Archery Monsters blessed with archery can attack flying monsters.

Summary
 * Only FLYING and ARCHERY monsters can attack FLYING MONSTERS
 * FLYING monsters can only attack other FLYING monsters
 * FLYING monsters require double the movement crests to move
 * TUNNELING monsters can move through spaces occupied by other monsters

H. Life Points --

The heart symbols next to a monster's ability represent the amount of LIFE POINTS they start off with. Every time a monster is successfully attacked by a stronger monster, it loses a life point. When monsters no longer have any life points left, they die.

I. Attack & Defence ---

Moving along the stats window, each monster has an ATTACK strength (represented by a picture of a sword, next to a number) and below that, a DEFENCE strength (a picture of a shied, accompanied by a number). Both stats range from 10 to 40. The higher the attack, the more likely the monster can kill another monster, and the higher the defence, the more difficult the monster is to kill.

J. The 6 Sides Of A Dice

After the Attack & Defence statistics, on the far right of the stats window should be 6 symbols, which represent the 6 sides of the dice. During the game, you will roll the dice, to determine either SUMMON monsters, or obtain crests. Each dice is unique in it's layout, meaning some are better at summoning monsters, while others will help you acquire certain crests. Each side contains a symbol, which is explained below. You may want to move around the dice pool to see which monsters bear some of the symbols, as Baby Dragon only has 3 different symbols on his dice.

Summon  Crests (A red star) Movement Crests (An orange arrow) Attack  Crests (A white sword, with a bronze handle) Defence Crests (A white shields, with a black cross on it) Magic   Crests (A blue pentangle) Trap  Crests (A green 'X' symbol)

The basic idea is that you roll the dice to acquire crests, which you can use to make moves in the game. Some dice have a number on the bottom right of the a certain crest. This means that rolling this side of the dice will give you that quantity of the crest shown.

K. Summon Crests

These are the most important crests in the game, which is why you'll notice that some dice consist mostly of summon crests. The main concept of DDM is that each unique dice contains a monster inside it, and the only way to unleash that monster is by rolling a combination of summon crests, and 'summoning' the monster onto the playing board. During the actual game, you will roll 3 dice at a time. If 2 of these dice land on summon crests, then you will be able to select and summon a monster onto the board.. Now here's the confusing part : You don't just need to roll 2 summon crests to summon the monster - you have to roll 2 summon crests of the same LEVEL. Each monster has a level, and the level determines how many summon crests are on that monster's dice :

Lv 1 : 4 Summon Crests Lv 2 : 3 Summon Crests Lv 3 : 2 Summon Crests Lv 4 : 1 Summon Crests

As you can see, the more powerful the monster, the less summon crests appear on it's dice, and therefore, the harder it is to summon.

L. Other Crests ---

While summon crests are required in order to summon monsters onto the playing board, the other crests are almost as important. Whenever you roll a dice that lands on any crest besides a summon crest, you'll acquire that crest, and add it to your CREST POOL. The crest pool is basically your collection of crests, which you can use to make moves within the game. Summoning monsters is of course the idea of the game, but monsters require other crests in order to move, attack, defend, or to cast spells, so it's often a good idea to build up a stock of the following crests, as your monsters won't be able to do ANYTHING, without them.

Movement Crests - Once a monster is placed onto the game board, you can use movement crests to move it along the board, These are pretty vital, and without them, your monsters will all become stranded on the space in which they were summoned.

Attack Crests - Used to make your monster attack an opponent's monster.

Defence Crests - Used in order to have your monster defend an opponent's attack. Without these, some monsters are incredibly vulnerable.

Magic Crests - Used to make certain monsters cast spells. All spells are unique to a certain monster.

Trap Crests - Same as spell crests. Some monsters require Magic Crests, while others require Trap Crests. They both cast spells of some sort.

M. Duel, Standby! -

With a basic, somewhat hazy idea of how the game works, were now ready to actually play it. From the Dice Pool window, move into the Box window, and press B. A prompt will come up asking if your sure you want to leave, select the top option (yes), and press A to confirm. Back in the main menu, choose the 2nd option (Tournament Battle), and choose the default option, to compete in the first tournament. You'll be taken to a screen showing the competitors in the tournament, and then a bracket showing the winners of each duel. When your duel comes up, your opponent will say his lines, and you'll be taken to the Dice Selection screen, for one last chance to construct your dice pool. Since you only have 15 dice right now, don't bother, and just exit by pressing B and then A. You'll be taken to the game board, and to the Dice Roll screen.

N. Go, Dice Roll! -

On the left is your crest pool, which shows how many of each crest you've collected so far (Zero). The top 2 boxes (one of which the cursor is over) will be explained later - We want to use the 3 boxes at the bottom (next to the yellow "Go!" button). Select one of them, and press A. You should now be given a picture of Baby Dragon, along with the rest of your dice. This is where you choose which 3 dice to roll, in order to summon monsters, or obtain crests. The first thing you need to do is try and summon a monster, so let's select a Baby Dragon. Select the other 2 dice yourself, but remember that in order to summon Baby Dragon, you need to roll 2 Lv1 summon crests. The most likely way to do this is to select 2 other Lv1 dice, preferably ones that have lots of movement crests on them, since those are used more than any other crests. After you've selected 3 dice, hit the "Go!" button to roll the dice. If you roll 2 summon crests, you'll be prompted to select which monster to summon. If not, the crests you rolled will be added to your crest pool, and you'll be taken to the game board. Press start, then A to proceed. Your opponent will make his move, and you can try again, until you manage to roll the summon crests.

O. Dimension The Dice! --

When you manage to roll 2 summon crests, you'll be prompted to select which monster to summon. If you rolled 2 summon crests, you'll be able to select between the 2 dice which landed on the crests - If you rolled 3 crests, you'll be able to select from all 3 monsters. The idea here is that each dice contains a monster, and once a monster is summoned, you can't use it's dice again, for the rest of the game. Decide which monster to summon based on it's stats, but remember that some monsters are more useful for rolling and collecting crests, than they are for fighting, so weigh up how useful your monster is on the game board (based on it's attack and defence stats), against how useful it is to keep in your hand, and roll again (based on how many crests it will give you). Baby Dragon is just about the most useless dice in the game, and the easiest to summon.. So if you have it, summon it. Choose the monster to summon, and you'll be asked to dimension the dice!

Note : Once a dice is summoned, it can't be rolled again for the rest of the game. If for any reason (and there are many good reasons) you don't want to summon a creature, you can abort the summoning by pressing B and then selecting the top option (yes).

Time for another strange concept, here - When you start off, the game board is completely blank. Every time you summon a monster, the dice is taken apart, and the 6 squares on the dice will construct a short path through a part of the game board. The object of the game is to make a path from your character (on the bottom of the board) to the opponent (located at the top of the board), and to attack him with your monsters. now, It's time to decide how to construct the first part of your path, so looking at the map on the right, decide where to place your path. Use the start button to cycle through the various formations in which the blocks can be placed, the R button to rotate the blocks, and the A button to 'dimension the dice' (which will place the dungeon path, and summon the monster)

P. The Second Summoning ---

After summoning your monster and placing the dungeon path, you'll be given control over the movement of your monsters. Right now, you've only got one piece of path, and can't really do anything, so naturally, we want to summon more monsters, and make a longer dungeon path, before we do anything else. From the main game screen, press start and then A, to end your turn. after the computer makes his move, it's back to the Dice Roll screen, where it's time to learn what the top row of boxes are for. When selecting which dice to roll, there are 2 main strategies :
 * Try and summon a certain monster
 * Try and collect a certain type of crest

Deciding which dice are the best to choose, in order to get the best results can be confusing, so luckily, the game automates this process for you. Choosing the top-right box will bring up list of your dice, choose the dice that you most want to roll, by moving left or right, or if you want a certain type of crest, move up or down. The first priority right now is to summon a second monster, so choose another Lv1 monster. The cursor will move to the 2nd box, which allows you to select your second priority (which right now should be movement crests). press down to choose the movement crest icon (an arrow), and choose 'Set!". The game should now generate and select the most dice it thinks will give you the highest quantity of the crest you require.

Note : Using this system to get the crests you want is a VERY bad idea, as the game will almost pick the dice which will give you the highest quantity of the crest you select, not the dice most likely to get the crest (IE : If one side of a dice gives you 2 attack crests, and the other sides are all summon crests, it will always pick this dice over one that has 3 sides which all contain one attack crest. Obviously, the latter would be the most useful in most situations, although the computer doesn't take such things into account

Note : At this point, the opponent may or may not be making advances towards your end of the board. If he gets too close for comfort, or you get thrust into a situation that involves anything other than rolling and dimensioning the dice, move to 'Chapter Q : Movement & Attack'

When you manage to summon a second monster, place the dungeon path. Remember that the path has to connect to your existing path, and can't intersect with any paths that you or your opponent place on the board. With 2 Lv1 monsters out, it's a good idea to bring out some of the more powerful, high level monsters, so choose to shoot for an Lv2 monster, and some movement crests. When you manage to summon it, build the path in the general direction of the opponent.

Q. Movement & Attack

With a small army of monsters on the board, it's time to make them move. With the cursor, select a monster on the board, and press A to bring up the action menu, which reads from top to bottom :

Move Attack Spell / Trap Stats

Select a monster, and then the top option, to move it along the dungeon path, towards the opponent, and his monsters. Before you decide which monster to attack, and how, you should know how battles work :

Although you can move as many monsters as many times per turn as your movement crests will allow, monsters can only attack once per turn, and after attacking, they can no longer move. Every monster has an attack statistic (ATK), a defence statistic (DEF) and a number of life points (LP). In order to attack, a monster uses one attack crest.

Note : Life points are displayed as hearts. Each heart represents TEN life points (LP)

When one monster attacks another, the monster BEING attacked can choose whether to Attack or Defend. If the victim of the attack chooses to attack the protagonist, then the protagonist inflicts damage on his opponent, equal to his ATK value. This damage is then deducted from the victim's LP (If a monster his an ATK of 20, then it will deal 20 points of damage to the victim's LP). If a monster's LP reaches zero, it dies.

If a monster chooses to defend the attack, it loses one Defence Crest, and the damage dealt is calculated, using it's DEF value as follow :

Protagonist's ATK - victim's DEF = Damage dealt.

R. Attacking Your Opponent --

The goal in Dungeon Dice Monsters is to run a dungeon path from your end of the dungeon to the opponent (positioned on the opposite end), and then to attack him 3 times. Each player has 3 lives (represented by hearts), and they lose a life whenever attacked by an opponent's monster. When all 3 lives are lost, the game is over.

S. Winning --

Should you win, then congratulations - "YOU GET!" Besides being delightful, the "you get" screen means you've won a new dice, which is shown in the bottom pane, along with it's stats. You'll also unlock your opponent in Free Battle mode, letting you battle them again, any time you want.