Overview
SPecial Surprise Pixel Dungeon, commonly referred to as SPS-PD, is an in-development fork of Sprouted Pixel Dungeon, but with many elements, especially items, borrowed mostly from Easier Sprouted Pixel Dungeon, but also Shattered Pixel Dungeon, Yet Another Pixel Dungeon, and a few other mods. It was created by Reddit user hmdzl001. This version aims to add several improvements to the overall gameplay, while still retaining part of the grindiness of Sprouted. Like its predecessor, it allows players to farm stat boosts to a high degree, and grants access to items of almost impossibly high levels. However, the gameplay of killing all of the mobs on the floor as fast as possible, something that before had been an optional choice, has become the front and center of SPS-PD's gameplay, whereas grinding for rare resources like Scrolls of Magical Infusion or Phase Pitchers, while still possible, has lost much of its importance. These, among many other rebalances, makes gameplay much more fast-paced, and ups the challenge to a relatively constant level. There are new items, new bosses and a boss rush, new floors, many new items, a whole new hero, and much more added to the already sizable Sprouted package, lots of which are from other versions of PD. It's worth a shot to any and all that don't mind its unfinished state or its occasional language mistakes and “No text found” game messages. Although this guide is rather extensive, it presupposes knowledge of the items and mechanics of Sprouted Pixel Dungeon, on which SPS-PD is based (or else it would become three times more extensive), so if details about a mechanic (like alchemy) are missing, that means that they are exactly the same with Sprouted. Also, whenever a feature, item etc. is described in the guide as “new”, that means “new compared to Sprouted”, or else a more detailed expression is used (“totally new” / “new compared to all other mods” or something similar). Lastly, there is a good amount of spelling and expression mistakes in the game messages and even in the name of items, that are all put in correct form in this guide, occasionally with also a mention to the game’s initial language form.
New Features
Dew Vial and Dew
As if Sprouted's version wasn't already strong enough, the Dew Vial now has even more features packed into it. Most notably, the Dew Vial's choice between Draw Out Dew and Water With Dew after the completion of the Tinkerer’s quest in Sprouted has been replaced by a relatively new choice: "Accurate Upgrade", which imitates the Upgrade behavior of “Draw Out Dew” from Sprouted, or "Random Upgrade", which offers similar Upgrades to those of “Water with Dew”. Heroes who choose Accurate Upgrade can identify their items through upgrades from the Dew Vial, and can choose a single item to upgrade, but without removing any curses (for example a cursed –2 weapon will become –1 with an accurate upgrade, but will remain unequippable until a scroll of Remove Curse is used). Random Upgrades uncurse the player's inventory, but randomly choose any amount of items to upgrade. The Dew Vial also starts with 120 max drops, instead of 100, and has its familiar healing ability from the beginning (“Drink”, +1 HP per dew drop). When the dew vial is full and the hero without full health, stepping on 1 white dew drop heals 1 HP, 1 yellow dew drop heals 5 HP, 1 red dew drop 10 HP and 1 violet dew drop 50 HP - while starving the amount of healing might seem slightly less because of the simultaneous loss of HP. Whatever option of Upgrade the hero chooses, he/she will start each new floor with a Dew Charge buff [a mechanic borrowed from Easier Sprouted Pixel Dungeon]. 1 extra Dew Upgrade is possible approximately every 2.5 levels, with a level cap at +10, in other words it is possible for the hero's equipment to reach 10 upgrades (or 11 if he is a Mage) by the Dew Vial only by level 24 (on the other hand, Scrolls of Upgrade and Magical Infusion don’t have any floor limit, apart from the general level cap at +15 for equipment that are not reinforced). Upgrades do not lower the Strength requirement for almost all weapons and armor at all. By the end of the game, once the player has defeated Shadow Yog, the cap jumps up to +13 (+14 for mages). Although the game warns you about the contrary, dew drops are not evaporated when the hero goes down a level. Dew drops are also not evaporated by fire, even the white ones that drop from high grass, and can’t be destroyed by bombs. Lastly, compared to Sprouted, Yellow dew is now worth 5 dew, up from 2, and Red dew is now worth 10 dew, up from 5. White and Violet dew drops remain at 1 and 50, like Sprouted.
New Abilities Available From The Beginning
- Escape: Only usable with 100 or more Dew in the Vial, drains all of the Dew in order to instantly escape a special level (Key level and Trial level). Although the ability is available technically from the first floor with the help of a Dewcatcher plant to gather 100 or more drops, it has no use before the hero can visit a special level and can’t be used in regular dungeon floors.
- Light: Grants invisibility and light at the cost of 10 dew. Can't be used if there is less than 30 Dew in the Vial.
- Peek: At the cost of 5 drops, players get 1 turn of Mind Vision and probably Treasure Search (shows loot and possibly keys – though exactly what it shows can be random) and get to see where the floor's exit is. Can't be used if there is less than 30 Dew in the Vial.
- Refine: For 10 dew, the player gets Clean Water which is needed for many cooking recipes. Can't be used if there is less than 30 Dew in the Vial.
Abilities Unlocked by the Dew Developer (Sprouted’s Tinkerer) on Floor 2
No matter what option heroes choose, they will always get to Draw Out Dew, and to a lesser extent, Water With Dew.
- Plant: The equivalent to “Water” in Sprouted, but nearly impossible to infinitely farm due to now costing 15 dew, up from 2. Generally, it’s only possible with an upgraded Ring of Haste and upgraded Greaves of Nature both equipped, or Greaves of Nature +10 inside of a 3x3 room. It's still only usable with a minimum of 50 Dew in the Vial.
- Upgread (i.e. Upgrade): Same as “Bless” in Sprouted, but it costs 70 Dew if you chose Accurate Upgrade, or 60 Dew if you chose Random Upgrade. Its behavior depends on which option of Dew Vial Upgrade the hero chooses. Only usable with 100 or more Dew in the Vial.
Abilities Unlocked by Rune Scholars Lynn (Sprouted’s Tinkerer) on Floor 12
- Clean: Costs 5 drops, Extinguishes Fire, and washes off Tar and Caustic Ooze. Only in the Demon Halls it can randomly also grant the Blessed buff. Can't be used if there is less than 30 Dew in the Vial.
- Speed: Costs 15 drops for a Haste buff (similar to Splash of Sprouted but without invisibility). Can't be used if there is less than 30 Dew in the Vial.
Abilities Unlocked by the Dew Developer at the Power Trial floor
The Dew Vial's max dew capacity will be increased to 350 after this upgrade, up from the usual amount of 300 in Sprouted.
- Speed grants Levitation in addition to Haste.
Food and Hunger
Changed NPCs
- Old Wandmaker: He is always located at Floor 7 of the dungeon, and gives an Adamanatite/Stregthening-Part-Wand to all classes, and not only to the Mage. On the option to choose between a battle and a non battle wand, the player should take into account that the game considers battle wands only the wands that have solely an offensive function (for example, the Old Wandmaker will give you a Wand of Flow for reward as a non battle wand). The reward wand is always upgraded and rarely cursed.
- Rune Scholars [i.e. Scholar] Lynn is SPS-PD's equivalent of Sprouted’s Tinkerer in Floor 12. Apart from the Dew Vial upgrade, she also gives a Mr. Destructo or a better version of it (Mr. Destructo 2.0), if the hero has already one from Goo, exactly like the Tinkerer in Sprouted. After the hero interacts with her in floor 12 for the first time, he/she will be finding Lynn in Dolyahaven for the rest of the game.
- Shopkeepers are now invincible, and don't care if anything tries to harm or debuff them. They are kinder, because they might offer discounts, when an Armband is equipped, but the hero also cannot steal from them anymore, due to the change in the Armband artifact. SPS-PD really likes shopkeepers.
- The Troll Blacksmiths (renamed from Bip and Bop to Troll Blacksmith and Troll Welder) are always located at floor 11. Adamantite items are now renamed to "Strengthening-Part-[Item]”. Also, all classes and not only the Mage get the Strengthening-Part-Wand, after they finish the Wandmaker quest and there is one extra adamantite / stregthening-part-ring, that drops from the Gnoll King in the Treasure Map key level.
- Two of the Sprouted’s Tinkerers are renamed to Dew Developers, apart from the one in floor 12, who is transformed to Rune Scholars Lynn.
Extra Bosses
Main Article: Coming Soon
Weather Rooms
Main Article
Stronger Classes and Subclasses
Main Article: Coming Soon
New Armor Characteristics
Armor has an extra tier, so there are 6 tiers of armor is SPS-PD: cloth (Strength 9, 4 armor at +0), leather (Str. 11, 12 armor at +0), disc (Str. 13, 20 armor at +0), mail (Str. 15, 28 armor at +0), scale (Str. 17, 36 armor at +0), plate (Str. 19, 44 armor at +0). An important difference of SPS-PD from Vanilla and all other mods is that all types of armor (regardless of tier) and even the epic armor gain +2 defense by each upgrade. Armors’ upgrade rate is same for all, but they differ from each other in their starting stats, so higher tier armor is almost always better than a lower tier one, in most of the times even if it is without any upgrades (for example a +5 cloth armor is still lower in defense in comparison to a leather armor with no upgrades at all, but this rule may not apply to a fully upgraded mail or scale armor in comparison to a non upgraded scale or plate). Also armor can be identified through use, unlike weapons. [Note: Equipping armor of higher strength requirement can be very punishing in floors with high attack speed enemies, like the Dwarven Metropolis, even if the armor is just +1 higher.]
Weapons
Dolyahaven
Main Article
BossRush
Main Article: Coming Soon
Limited Saving
Rarely, the player can find rooms that are always hidden and are listed as Memory of Fire in the Journal, but have the same appearance as Vanilla's sacrificial chambers. They allow the player to create a single save point (up to the number of 5): this save point can be used only once, and the save file persists for each class even after a run is complete. Each chamber can also be used only once, and that only if it's found (be careful not to check on the pedestal but decide to leave saving for later, as the game considers the save point used and deactivates it). A similar save is offered with the Chocolate Pudding Cup item that is found after beating Yog-Dzewa in the same place that the Amulet of Yendor is normally found [In relation to Sprouted, it is a swapping: the Chocolate Pudding Cup is located where the Amulet is in Sprouted, and Otiluke in the end of SPS-PD gives the hero an Amulet of Yendor instead of a pudding cup.] Due to their limited nature, it's best to use them after important milestones, or before attempting something very risky.
Rebalances and other Changes
Strength and Strength Requirements
There are many changes to how the game handles the player's Strength, and what equipment can be used. No longer is it possible, at all, to decrease almost all items’ strength requirement through upgrades. Additionally, Potions of Might give +15 max HP and no additional Strength instead of +5 max HP and +1 Strength, and no longer always transmute into Potions of Strength. Effectively, this means that methods of gaining strength are few and far in between, so players will be switching to higher tier weapons at a much slower rate, even possibly as late in the game as the Demon Halls.
Key Floors
Main Article
Book Floors
Main Article
Safe Room (Floor 50)
Main Article
Pets
Mobs
Main Article
End Game Boss Changes
Main Article: Coming Soon
New or Changed Buffs
There are some new buffs, some class specific to the Performer, and some other caused by the consumption of food or the use of enchanted weapons or artifacts.
Class specific / Performer Buffs
Echo: Only the Performer’s subclass Superstar can gain it after killing enemies – it increases Speed for 10 turns.
Glass Shield: Only the Performer can gain it after leveling up or by using the jump shoes - it is a strong Defense Up buff that reduces damage to the hero by 80%. Mini bosses can also gain a glass shield, with various degrees of damage reduction.
Rhythm: Only the Performer can gain it, after levelling up or killing monsters - it increases Accuracy and Dodge for 10 turns.
[Note: Epic armor in general is bugged, but whenever it does work, the class specific special abilities are:
- Hunter Instinct for Huntress, which gives randomly a buff like Imbued with Earth, Mind Vision and Treasure Search or Regeneration.
- Molten Earth for the Mage, a Caustic Ooze, Fire and Slowed debuff to enemies.
- Shadow Bless for the Rogue, which gives randomly a buff like Haste, Invisibility, Strength.
- Source Power - Blood Imbue for the Warrior, a Crippled, Rooting and Stun debuff to enemies.
- Special Dance for the performer, a +25% Attack and Defense buff.]
Hero Buffs
Arcane Buff: it is gained by all classes by using a Scroll of Recharging or visiting a room with this climate and by the Mage also by using the jump shoes, and provides +10 Magic Power.
Attack Up: It is gained by using an enchanted with Energy weapon, or activating the Robot DMT (randomly) / Glass Totem (optionally) artifacts and provides +20% to attack. Various enemies and especially mini bosses can also have an attack buff with various degrees of attack increase.
Blessed: It is same with its equivalent in Vanilla and other mods (increased accuracy and evasion) and not with that of Sprouted (increased damage). Note: The Starflower plant doesn’t grant the Blessed buff, but the Strength/Fury buff, like Sprouted.
Defense Up: It is gained by using an enchanted with Dance weapon, or activating the Robot DMT (randomly) / Glass Totem (optionally) artifacts and provides +20% to defense. Various enemies and especially mini bosses can also have a defense buff with various degrees of defense increase.
Muscle: A +2 Strength buff for 200 turns, which is gained after consuming a Power Pill.
Overfed: An Attack Up buff, which is gained after overeating, that is consuming food without being hungry.
Recharging: Unlike Sprouted, Scrolls of Recharging don’t instantly recharge all wands to full charge, but grant a much higher rate of recharging, like Shattered.
Strength: It is the Fury and the Moon Fury buffs of Sprouted just renamed – one or many extra powerful hits.
Debuffs
- Attack Down: caused by various monsters and mini bosses, reduces the hero's Attack.
- Armor Break: caused by the Dwarf Musketeer and various mini bosses, reduces the hero's Armor > increases damage to the hero.
- Cold: caused by certain climate or Animated Statues with a Coldwave enchanted weapon equipped, makes the hero Slow.
- Dry: caused by certain climate, reduces Damage from hero.
- Hot: caused by certain climate or Animated Statues with a Tar enchanted weapon equipped, causes Easier Damage to hero.
- Leech Seed: caused by the Living Moss and Animated Statues with an Earth enchanted weapon equipped, causes a DoT vampiric effect that heals all nearby characters.
- Locked: caused by Thieves in Prison when they flee, makes the hero unable to consume anything.
- Raise Dead: caused by certain climate - Skeletons are probable to spawn (not according to level, but same with those in Caves, so this climate can be lethal in early levels).
- Silence: caused by regular level Skeletons when they die, makes the hero unable to use scrolls and wands.
- Tar: caused by the tar gas of Broken Robots and Golems or by Animated Statues with a Tar enchanted weapon equipped, and makes the hero slower - also the fire debuff does not go away at all until the hero steps on water or uses the Clean function from the dew vial.
- Weakness: It is applied by much more monsters and mini bosses compared to Sprouted, but is same with Sprouted in all the rest (except that when it is caused specifically by Dwarf Warlocks it causes -3 instead of the regular -2 strength reduction, unlike what the game says).
- Wet: caused by certain climate or Animated Statues with a Coldwave enchanted weapon equipped, causes Reduced Accuracy and Dodge for hero.
New Bags
- A Scarecrow Heart that the hero gets from killing the Clockwork Scarecrow in Dolyahaven, a bag that holds up to 22 different weapons, melee or missile.
- A Shopping Cart can now be found in a garden, and can be used for storing all of the game's edible items, from berries to mushrooms to other such foods, up to 24 different items. A shopping cart in a garden always spawns in each run, and usually by the end of prison one will have already been spawned, but rarely this can happen in caves and even in the metropolis or demon halls. If by the time the hero reaches floor 24 he/she hasn’t found one yet, it would be useful to go back to the previous floors and map them, until he/she finds the hidden garden.
Sokoban Changes
Main Article
Misc.
- Ankhs are now stackable, but don't fit into any bag other than the player's main backpack.
- Bombs, along with the Performer’s Shovel, can break any wall, even those of Mini Boss floors, Locked Rooms and Pit Rooms (oddly enough, the only wall they can’t break is the “air wall” of the pit rooms). This function becomes very handy if the hero wants to take a pet along in a mini boss fight, can’t find a key to a locked room or wants to avoid the damage of falling in a pit room from the floor above. Bombs can’t destroy traps or dew.
- Break Magic Hammers are SPS-PD's equivalent to the Dwarf Demon Hammers of Sprouted, that open the exit to the next floor in Demon Halls. They work exactly the same with Sprouted, apart from the fact that one is needed also in floor 24.
- Cursed armors, weapons and rings can have negative levels (for example a cursed Cloth Armor can be –2), but not cursed wands. Scrolls of Remove Curse change the negative stat to positive, but dew upgrades and Scrolls of Upgrade don’t.
- Honeypots dropped in Phase Pitchers or Wells of Transmutation don’t produce Steel Honeypots anymore, and the item is generally removed from the game. A Steel Bee is hatched normally by a Random Soul like all the other pets.
- In Rooms with Bookshelves that don’t contain scrolls, there are instead hidden bone piles behind the bookshelves, that contain items and spawn Red Wraiths, so the hero has to burn the bookshelves to get to them, like YAPD. If there is a room like that in a floor, a Potion of Liquid Flame will spawn.
- New Item: Ghost Elevator. Yog-Dzewa drops this, allowing the hero to travel up and down regular floors with ease, however, pets will not be taken along. It is sort of an alternative version of Lloyd’s Beacon, it doesn’t get equipped though, and only teleports the hero and not enemies.
- Norn Stone and Seed of Upgrade Eater drops are no longer limited. There are also no Gullins in the game anymore, and Norn Stones are dropped by Golems in the Dwarven Metropolis and also sold in Dolyahaven.
- Pit Rooms have two differences from all other PD mods: a) Their walls can be destroyed by bombs or the shovel, so the hero doesn’t have to jump into pits any more, if he/she has either of these two items available b) they don’t have a locked entrance, but an “air wall” which cannot be unlocked or destroyed by any means.
- Rankings screen is bugged and shows the details about the last game in all the rankings. QuickSlots are no longer shown in the rankings screen.
- The pickaxe is now upgradeable but although it doesn’t show its damage, it is obviously a very weak melee weapon.
- Traps new and changed: Storm traps create a cloud of paralytic gas and lightning. Fire traps when activated cause a fire cloud like those in Shattered and not a single tile explosion like those in Sprouted. There are also Blazing, Confusion, Cursing, Disarming, Disintegration, Explosive, Flashing, Gripping, Guardian, Ooze, Pitfall, Rockfall, Spear, Venom and Weakening traps added in the game, all borrowed from Shattered and exactly the same in function. Distortion, Grim and Warping traps exist also in SPS-PD but are extremely rare and sometimes happily bugged, as they don’t seem to work at all. Trap tiles in general can’t be destroyed by bombs.
- Upgrade Goos are renamed to “Upgrade items” but work exactly the same with Sprouted.
- Various monsters’ special abilities (like the Shielded Brute’s rage), have a “No text found” message displayed instead of a relevant message by the game. Thus, when the hero sees a “No text found” message during a fight, he/she should expect a special attack from the enemy (unless he/she also has a Steel Bee pet, for which the game also displays a “No text found” message - in this circumstance the player will just have to guess).
- Wells: The Well of Health now fills the whole Dew Vial, even if it is upgraded to the capacity of 350. The Well of Transmutation, like the Phase Pitcher plant, no longer necessarily drops the same tier weapon, and due to the artifacts not being unique drops anymore, the well can rarely drop back the same artifact. Lastly, the Well of Awareness, unlike the Scrolls of Magic Mapping and Blue berry, does show hidden doors and traps and also loot, keys and the exit always, that is it has a proper “Treasure Search” function.
- Without the "More QuickSlot" option selected, there are two quickslots at the bottom of the screen and one at the right side, under the menu button. With "More QuickSlot" Selected, one is added at the bottom of the screen and two are added below the one next to the menu button.
Bugs
Special Surprise Pixel Dungeon is still in development, so the existence of bugs is rather expected and to a major degree forgiven. The following list doesn’t intend to shame the developer or the mod, but only to compile a list that will be useful for the new player, who might already be struggling with the huge amount of changes and novelties in SPS-PD that do work.
Major Bugs
- Epic armor’s defense might decrease (or more rarely increase) permanently if the player exits and reenters the game, or even the regular dungeon by the hero visiting a Sokoban level. Also, epic armor is supposed to have a special ability for each class and this special ability to be charged every 1000 turns approximately, but there is no counter showing in how many turns the special ability will be available and until it gets charged no special ability will be shown in the armor. [See armor section for details on the special abilities.]
Minor Bugs
- Dolya Stale can’t be used, if the hero is stepping on a ladder tile.
- Ethereal Chains might stop getting upgraded at some point with no reason, and also when they are dropped and picked up from the hero, they might lose their upgrades.
- Eye of Skadi: The game message about upgrading it is wrong, as it asks from the hero to add scrolls. Nevertheless the Eye of Skadi gets upgraded by adding stone ore to it.
- Horn of Plenty: While it receives food and upgrades, a “No text found” message is displayed by the game.
- Hunger’s upper limit is supposed to be 800, but practically gets almost always to 805, thus preventing the hero from benefitting from the bonus +1.5 in hunger reduction when he/she eats.
- Pets in the BossRush Challenge might not be able to eat and heal.
- Pets of high level in the City key floor don’t take damage but also don’t deal damage and the game takes many seconds before it allows the hero to take his/her next turn.
- Pets when taken along to the Trial floors can make the game crash.
- Random Soul’s Energy counter resets itself whenever the game is reloaded, and it will also ignore any elemental influences it gets.
- Rankings screen shows the details only about the last game in all the rankings.
- Regular Rations of Food cannot be used in cooking recipes.
- Sad Ghost can disappear as if it has died, when it has been summoned along with a pet and the hero goes up or down a floor.
- Shadow Dragon when ready to get hatched, nothing is heard from inside the Soul Mob.
- Spidersilk Klik when killed can make the game crash.
- Steel Bee’s attack when it is ready, the message that the game displays is “No text found”, which can be rather confusing in floors with enemies that are also bugged and their special attack has also a “No text found” message displayed.
- Various monsters’ special abilities (like the Shielded Brute’s rage) or descriptions (Like Yog’s Fists) have a “No text found” message displayed instead of a relevant message by the game.
Exploits
- Alchemist’s Toolkit: Even though there are messages about potions being put in the Toolkit and mixtures thrown away, no potion gets consumed through the procedure of leveling it up.
- Honey reduces hunger by –600, although it is supposed to fill 0 hunger.
- Distortion, Grim and Warping traps sometimes don’t seem to work at all.
- Wands in the Energy Core battle usually don’t aggravate other enemies, apart from the one they attack. Also, the Lightning Shell in the Crab king floor doesn’t counterattack when zapped with wands.