SPecial Surprise Pixel Dungeon

SPecial Surprise Pixel Dungeon
Developer(s)	• Hmdzl001 (reddit)
Download	• (github)
Source Code	• (github)
Current Version	0.9.2 part 2d

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 these guide sections are rather extensive, they presuppose knowledge of the items and mechanics of Sprouted Pixel Dungeon, on which SPS-PD is based (or else they 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 - when a reader thinks that some information about SPS-PD is missing, he/she should search for it in the Sprouted pages of wiki and there is a 99% chance he/she will find it there. Also, whenever a feature, item etc. is described in the guide sections 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 unable to be unequipped 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 (Accurate vs. Random Ugrade), 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, farming is 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

Main article: Food

Changed NPCs

[Only NPC's that the hero meets in the regular dungeon and the Book/Trial floors are mentioned here. The 30 or so NPCs of the Dolyahaven village will be presented in a forthcoming article.]

• 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 the hero 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 (those in floor 2 and in the Book of Life / Power Trial level) are renamed to Dew Developers. The Tinkerer in floor 12 is transformed to Rune Scholars Lynn.

Extra Bosses

Main Article: Coming Soon

Weather Rooms

Main article: Weather Rooms

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. Don't do it.]

Weapons

Main article: Weapons

Dolyahaven

Main article: Dolyahaven

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: Key Floors

Book Floors

Main article: Book Floors

Safe Room (Floor 50)

Main article: Safe Room

Pets

Main article: Pets

Enemies

Main article: Enemies

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 leveling 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 + 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 or 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: Sokoban

About Grinding

If it is Considered Needed

Ankhs, Blandfruits and Honeypots: Honeypots produce Honey in alchemy pots, which has the best hunger fulfillment effect compared to almost all food (only Perfect Food has equal and Hamburger an even better effect), is an ingredient for other good recipes, and also adds permanently 4 to 8 HP to the hero maximum HP, so grinding for them might be considered useful (grinding for Ankhs is obviously useful, if the hero wants to live dangerously in the dungeon). The Power Trial / Book of Life special level spawns approximately 15 to 30 Honeypots, 1 to 4 blandfruits and 5 to 10 Ankhs each time and with the Escape ability of the Dew Vial, it can be repeated as many times the hero considers needed. Homeypots are also sold by the Fruit Cat in Dolyahaven.

Dew: The Dew Charge buff has a rather limited duration in regular floors, even if the hero has finished the previous floor many turns before the goal level and has a Ring of Haste equipped. Fortunately, almost all the key floors (Forest, Prison, Caves, City) provide generous amounts of Dew. The hero should wait and not visit at least three or all of them until he/she reaches floor 24, so he/she can level up his/her equipment up to the dew level cap of +10. The Plant ability of the Dew Vial, due to costing 15 dew, is efficient in farming dew only with an upgraded Ring of Haste and +10 Greaves of Nature both equipped, or with +10 Greaves of Nature in a 3X3 room, unlike Sprouted, where watering with dew costs only 2 drops.

Enchanted upgraded weapons: Like Sprouted, the Wisdom Trial / Book of Heavens level has Animated Steels that drop upgraded weapons with various enchantments and of various tiers. It is repeatable either by using the Escape ability of the Dew Vial, or by traditionally falling in the chasms below, so the hero can visit it many times, until the specific weapon with the specific enchantment he/she needs is dropped (although farming for Scrolls of Magical Infusion in the Courage Trial / Book of the Dead floor and applying them successively to his/her preferred weapon is probably a more time – efficient way to achieve this, if Weightstones haven’t already provided the desired enchantment).

Food: Most enemies in the Sewers drop regular or mystery meat, and Dwarf Monks in the Metropolis drop regular rations of food or pasty, with an upgraded Ring of Wealth helping the rate of these drops very much (although Sewers get depopulated, after the hero reaches a rather high level). Additionally, the Caves key floor is ideal for grinding meat from the piranhas, especially when a Ring of Wealth is equipped.

Gold: An upgraded Ring of Wealth certainly helps very much with gold drops in regular floors (the Sewers, Prison and Caves all have enemies that drop gold), but the Forest key floor with a Ring of Wealth equipped is a literal gold mine. Conversely, due to the extremely high dodge/evasion/speed of the stealing golden thieves in the special City floor, the hero should not visit it to grind for gold in early and medium levels, because he/she will lose even the gold he/she has. After he/she reaches level 120 or higher, a level that allows dodging of most melee attacks from the thieves, it is safe to visit the floor to grind for gold, but at this time he/she will probably have already gathered most of the gold he/she needs (also the hero can beat Zot in the final fight already by level 75, so reaching level 120 presupposes a lot of previous grinding for XP). Alternatively, in earlier levels, the only other tactic for gathering gold from this floor is a) the hero to go penniless, b) not to pick any gold at first, c) kill enough thieves for dew to be scattered all around the floor, d) constantly use the “Light/Invisibility” ability of the Dew vial by refilling it with the scattered dew and pick all the gold, e) teleport away. The hero can also repeat the Sokoban puzzle floors as the gold chests contain good loot as many times as the hero visits the level. Lastly, if the player is interested in a higher ranking, in which having a lot of gold helps, he/she can collect all the +10 upgraded and enchanted weapons that are dropped by Animated Steels in the Mirror Otiluke battle and sell them at a Dolyahaven shop, but collecting gold in literal end-game will have no other effect.

Mushrooms: They are useful in good cooking recipes, so a hero might need to farm them. The only monsters that drop mushrooms are the prison thief (rarely, even with a Ring of Wealth equipped) and the Living Moss (always, but after the hero levels up much, the sewers spawn few or no enemies). Practically, in late game only piranhas in the Caves can be farmed for mushrooms, but with limited results even with an upgraded Ring of Wealth equipped. Also, all the floors with lots of high grass (Forest, Prison, Power Trial) can give good drops of mushrooms with +10 Greaves of Nature equipped.

Norn Stones: Their drops are limited to 6 but are easier to gather, as they can be farmed from Golems in the Dwarven Metropolis or bought in the Dolyahaven shops.

Phase Pitchers: The Wisdom Trial / Book of the Heavens has been slightly nerfed in how many Phase Pitchers are spawned each time the hero visits it, but it is repeatable either by using the Escape ability of the Dew Vial, or by traditionally falling in the chasms below, landing in the “What are you doing here?” floor (34), ascending to floor 1 and using the book again.

Scrolls of Magical Infusion, Regrowth and Upgrade, Upgrade Items/Goos: As it is described more extensively in the Rings section a +15 Ring of Wealth gives normally only a 50% to 75% chance, and a +30 ring a 75% to 100% chance of Scrolls of Upgrade and Magical Infusion dropping from grave Wraiths. Fortunately, the Courage Trial / Book of Death floor with its many graves is repeatable with the Escape ability of the Dew Vial, so it can be visited as many times the hero considers needed. Apart from these sources of Scrolls, Sokoban puzzle floors drop some, and there are also always new ones sold in the Dolyahaven shops, along with Scrolls of Regrowth, for 2500 gold each. Lastly, like Sprouted, the many +10 weapons that are dropped from the Animated Steels in the Mirror Otiluke floor, can get transmuted to Upgrade Items / Goos for some final upgrades before the batte with Zot.

Scrolls in general: If the hero wants to upgrade the Unstable Spellbook, he/she will need many scrolls to add XP to the artifact. Gnoll Shamans in prison, caves and metropolis, Broken Robots in caves and metropolis, and Succubi in demon halls, all drop scrolls, especially when an upgraded Ring of Wealth is equipped. Also, like Sprouted, the hero can leave a Robot Printer intact in the DM-300 battle, and after he/she has beaten DM-300, he/she can equip the Ring of Wealth and farm scrolls of Recharging from the Broken Robots that will constantly spawn from the Robot Printer.

Seeds and Nuts: The only regular enemy that drops seeds is the Dust Elemental (always, but after the hero levels up much, the sewers spawn few or no enemies). Also, as stated right before, the Plant ability of the Dew Vial, due to costing 15 dew, is efficient in farming only with an upgraded Ring of Haste and Greaves of Nature both equipped or with +10 Greaves of Nature in a 3X3 room. Besides that, the Forest, Prison and the Power Trial special floors are filled with high grass, like Sprouted, with all being repeatable by using the Escape function of the Dew Vial, and especially with Greaves of Nature they can drop many seeds and nuts. Lastly, scrolls of Regrowth are not unique items anymore, but rare, and are sold in the Dolyahaven shops, so they can be repeatedly used to fill a big floor with high grass (with the Vault floor having been removed, the Dolyahaven village is the best candidate as it is one of the biggest game floors and with no aggressive enemies at all).

Loot in general: Item generation has been heavily nerfed in both the Thief King’s’ Lair basement and the Wisdom Trial/Book of the Heavens, so even with an upgraded Ring of Wealth, the amount of wands/rings/artifacts etc. spawned there will be rather limited. In regular dungeon floors an upgraded Ring of Wealth still has a very positive effect in item generation in general and spawning of Scroll of Magical Infusion and Potions of Might in particular.

When Grinding isn’t Needed

Among the most famous (or infamous) characteristics of Sprouted Pixel Dungeon is its grindiness: in order to survive the Dolyahaven Mines and especially to win the final Otiluke and Zot Battles, the hero must do at least some of the following: a) Grind Red Wraiths until they drop a Ring of Wealth b) Reinforce and Upgrade the ring to +28 and grind Grave Wraiths for Scrolls of Magical Infusion, c) Grind the Book of Heavens floor for an equal number of Phase Pitchers to the Scrolls of Magic Infusion that he/she has already collected, d) Drop all the scrolls one by one to phase pitcher wells of transmutation, e) Farm for all or most of the 15 Upgrade Eaters available in the game, f) Upgrade 15 items to +10, g) Throw these 15 items to the Upgrade Eaters and collect the 15 Violet Upgrade Goos, h) Drop all the new Scrolls of Upgrade and Violet Upgrade Goos to his/her Tier 6 weapon (for which the Norn Stones he/she has also grinded in the Dolyahaven Mines) and possibly to some other equipment. All this procedure takes days, literally.  

From all these grindings, none is really needed in SPS-PD. Without repeating any of the Trial floors, the game provides the hero with approximately 110 to 130 Scrolls of Magical Infusion if he//she has upgraded his/her Ring of Wealth to +30 and had a little success in the Sokoban puzzles. There are no Dolyahaven Mines any more, and no enemy in general has high resistance to highly upgraded Tier 5 weapons, so there is no need of transmuting the Scrolls of Magical Infusion to Scrolls of Upgrade, in order for them to be able to upgrade a Tier 6 weapon (these weapons also have a rather worse rate of upgrading compared to the T5 and even some of the T4 weapons). He/she should just reinforce his/her weapon of choice, drop most of the Scrolls of Upgrade and Magical Infusion on it (some builds would benefit also from upgraded rings, and the Battlemage will need a small collection of rather upgraded wands or one very highly upgraded, but you get the spirit) and then proceed to the Shadow Yog and the two Final Battles without any real problem. Fans of grinding from Sprouted or other PD mods and games in general can still grind the Trial floors as much as they want by using the Escape ability of the Dew Vial. As a matter of fact, SPS-PD allows infinite grinding of Scrolls of Magical Infusion/Upgrade, Phase Pitchers and also Upgrade Eaters, so for the fans of “super builds” a, say, +600 Ares Sword with a +300 Epic armor of Viscosity are absolutely possible in SPS-PD. They are just not needed. 

Misc.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 Bug

• 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 buffs section for details on the special abilities.]

Minor Bugs

• Dolya Stale (Sprouted's Sokoban Jurnal) 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. Nevertheless it gets upgraded normally.
• 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 (one of the two equivalents to Sprouted's eggs) Energy counter resets itself whenever the game is reloaded, and it will also ignore any elemental influences it gets. Therefore it no stronger pet can get hatched from it, apart from the steel Bee.
• Rankings screen shows the details only about the last game in all the rankings.
• Regular Rations of Food cannot be used in cooking recipes, unlike Overpriced Food Rations and Pasties.
• 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 is ready to get hatched, nothing is heard from inside the Soul Mob.
• Spidersilk Klik when is killed, can make the game crash.
• Steel Bee’s attack when 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

[These are "exploits" in the sense of making full use and deriving benefit from a resource (a bug in the specific circumstance) and don't involve any cheating from the part of the player.]

• 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.
• Exploding, 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.