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[This wiki page is updated with the changes from the developer's latest releases "Epic Battle 3: Time Cave" and "2019 Spring Festival".]

Overview

SPecial Surprise Pixel Dungeon (formerly Special Sprouted Pixel Dungeon), commonly referred to as SPS-PD, is an in-development fork of Sprouted Pixel Dungeon, but with some elements, especially items, borrowed from 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 a small 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 very 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, make gameplay much more fast-paced, less grindy and up the challenge to a relatively constant level. There are new items, new bosses and a boss rush, new floors, a whole lot of new items, a whole new hero, and much more added to the already sizable Sprouted package, some 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 (yes, they contain only SPS-PD's new elements), 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 that he/she needs 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 mostly put in correct form in this guide, occasionally with also a mention to the game’s initial language form.

Alchemy

Alchemy in SPS-PD seems like a combination of Sprouted's and Shattered's Alchemy before the great Alchemy rework, with a major innovation in the new cooking mechanic that is implemented. The Alchemy interface is changed and resembles that of Shattered before the rework (no alchemical energy needed, no exotic variants, no alchemical scrolls and bombs produced etc.), but there is a huge change made in that alchemy pots now can be also useful for cooking and can create 40 different food or consumable items. The Alchemist's Toolkit is also changed and makes cooking of more complex recipes possible, apart from its familiar function to brew potions with less seeds like Sprouted. Seeds have the same effects and make the same potions with Sprouted (with some exceptions), but Blandfruits have the same effects with Shattered, apart from not leaving chunks when thrown. Lastly, potions have mostly their familiar effects from Sprouted but also some new effects are added, mostly as additional side effects to the familar ones.

Book / Trial floors - Key / Challenge floors

The Key floors from Sprouted are renamed to Challenge floors, and have received various changes in their drops and rewards. They are all repeatable. A new mini-boss is added to them, the Gnoll King.

Main article: Key / Challenge Floors

The Book floors from Sprouted are renamed to Courage / Power / Wisdom Trial floors with none of these floors being repeatable anymore. The Book of the Living / Power Trial has its enemies changed.

Main article: Book / Trial Floors

Bosses

The main bosses remain the same with Sprouted, but Shadow Yog and Zot have different minions, some special enemy skills are added and some other are removed.

Main article: Bosses

BossRush Challenge

The Dolyahaven Mines have been removed from SPS-PD but their entrance hasn't. A new enemy is located there, which after being defeated gives the option to the hero to visit a new floor crowded with mini-bosses and with two unique rewards, the BossRush Challenge.

Main article: BossRush Challenge

Buffs and Debuffs

10 new buffs are added, either class - specific or available to all heroes, and 11 new debuffs.

Main article: Buffs and Debuffs

Challenges

[Not to be confused with the Challenge floors.] From all the familiar challenges from other mods and Vanilla, only the "Into Darkness" challenge is kept in SPS-PD (also having been changed in its details), and they all now have also an advantage added apart from the expected disadvantages. There is also one challenge that has only advantages. Here is a list of SPS-PD's challenges:

  • Abrasion: Weapons gets destroyed by the hero using them. On a positive note, the hero starts with one Scroll of Upgrade and one of Magical Infusion.
  • Dew Rejection: Less dew is dropped from high grass and enemies and more dew is spent when using the Dew Vial. On a positive note, the hero starts with 2 dewcatcher seeds.
  • Energy Lost: Eating food satisfies less hunger and wands have lower max charges. On a positive note, the hero also starts with a pasty.
  • Item Phobia: The hero spends more time in drinking potions, and gets damaged and silenced after reading scrolls. On a positive note, he/she starts with 1000 gold.
  • Into Darkness: The map does not get recorded. On a positive note, the hero starts with 2 Scrolls of Magic Mapping.
  • Listless: The hero earns less HP by leveling up. On a positive note, he/she starts with 2 Potions of Might.
  • Nightmare Virus: Any enemy that dies creates a nightmare virus, an enemy named "!!Data Delete!!" with a null item sprite that produces Demon Blood. On a positive note, the hero starts with an Ankh.
  • Test Time: It is the opposite of a challenge, as the hero starts with 10000 gold, 199 Scrols of Upgrade, 199 Scrolls of Magical Infusion, 199 Potions of Experience, a Skill Kit etc. You also start from floor 15

Classes and Subclasses

Classes have all been buffed very much compared to Sprouted, with many new abilities added to all of them, and boasting much more versatile starting equipment and higher stats. This greatly reduces the initial difficulty of the Sewers, which were sometimes nearly impossible in Sprouted without the help of an early lucky weapon drop and/or the initial 50 dew needed to start watering. A new class, the Performer, with its two subclasses, the Superstar and the Joker, have also been added. 

All Classes

  • Start with 30 HP, 10 Strength, 10 Accuracy, 5 Dexterity (Evasion) and 0 Magic Power (apart from the Mage, who starts with 3 - this stat increases the wands' damage). The players should have in mind that although in other RPGs and roguelikes Dexterity can affect movement speed and attack speed, in SPS-PD it only affects evasion. 
  • Gain 4 HP, 1 Accuracy, and 1 Dexterity on level ups. 
  • Start with a Random Soul which they can use to summon their first pet, something that most probably will need to deal with some of the dungeon's stronger regular enemies (even the game advises the player to do so, in the Floor 1 sign message). They all also have a Lantern of Soul Collect, that can be used to store any pet by throwing the lantern at it (it can be used only once, but lanterns are sold in every regular dungeon shop). The lantern's game description is misleading in the part that it describes the lantern's damage - the lantern can not be used as a thrown weapon. Lastly, the Lantern of Soul Collect, when it contains a pet, cannot get dropped, and when it is thrown it will release the pet and get spent.
  • Have a bag of Pet Food, which can give a pet several level ups immediately after hatching, as it instantly adds 120 XP to it. It offers enough experience to boost a level 1 pet to level 7. 
  • Get Jump Shoes, which are used to jump from two up to five tiles away (depending on the class), and come with class-specific bonuses in addition to slightly more or less charges, although the charge differences offer no serious impact on the gameplay. The Jump Shoes fill a main inventory slot, but cannot get dropped or thrown away.  
  • Receive an Ankh Shield, which has 2 charges and is used to deal 5 damage to enemies and stun every enemy in sight for some turns (it also damages pets but does not stun them). This is exceedingly useful throughout the entire game. From mobs that run away like Gnoll Archers, the Gnoll Trickster, and Crazy Thieves, to evasive mobs like Wraiths and the Giant Crab, and even extra difficult mobs for the hero’s level, when he/she first encounters them, like Living Mosses and Troll Warriors, the stun effect of this is one of the strongest in the game as long as it has enough charges to be used when needed. Despite being called a shield, the Ankh shield can’t be upgraded and doesn’t block damage like a regular shield in other mods would do (SPS-PD does not have equippable shields in general). The Ankh Shield fills a main inventory slot, but cannot get dropped or thrown. [Note: STG is an abbreviation for shoot-em-up games.]
Ankh shield
A powerful item that works like a bomb in STG games. It was created by the developer.
  • Are able to equip a third Ring or Artifact. 
  • No longer keep the Tome of Mastery after beating one of the second mini-bosses once. Instead, it is always received from the second mini-boss. 
  • Like Sprouted, a Ration of Food, a tier 1 armor and weapon, and a Key Ring are also included as starting items. 

Also two new bags are available to all heroes after some time in the dungeon:

  • A Scarecrow Heart that the hero gets from killing the Clockwork Scarecrow or the Test Mob in Dolya Town (formerly Dolyahaven), a bag that holds up to 22 different weapons, melee, missile or thrown.
Scarecrow Heart
A portable scarecrow which can hold some weapons.
  • A Shopping Cart can now be found in a garden, and can be used for storing all of the game's numerous 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.
Shopping cart
A modern trolley. You can put food in it.


Warrior

Warrior
Warrior starts with a shortsword.

When Warrior equips armor, he ignores 2 strength to use it.

Warrior starts with a shield, which can be used for defense or to stun someone.

Warrior gains more health after eating anything.

Potions of Strength are identified from the beginning.

Mastery

A succesful attack with a melee weapon allows the Gladiator to start a combo, in which every next succesful hit inflicts more damage.

When severely wounded, the Berserker enters a state of wild fury significantly increasing his damage output and reduces some damage when getting hurt.

Warrior has become a very stun-heavy class, in addition to his various defensive capabilities.

  • His Short Sword can't be reforged anymore. Instead, it has the "rupture" weapon attribute which causes bleeding and has an excellent upgrade scaling, making it useful as a melee weapon as far as the end of the Mining Caves (but not for the DM-300/Spider Queen mini-bosses). 
  • Now has a Wooden Shield, which can either be thrown like a boomerang to stun an enemy, or can be used to switch to "defense mode" that increases the Warrior's defense but decreases his attack. Like the Ankh Shield, the Wooden Shield can’t be upgraded, and doesn’t block damage by itself, like a regular shield would in other mods. 
Wooden shield
A simple wooden shield. Can be thrown. You can use it to reduce damage.
  • Requires 2 less strength to use armors, instead of having +1 Strength in general. This is represented in-game as an armor's strength requirement dropping by 2 points if it's equipped, but showing its regular strength requirement otherwise. 
  • His Jump Shoes can get him five tiles away and stun enemies adjacent to the place where he lands. Fully charged his jumps shoes have 2 jumps available (32+33=55 charges in sum).
Jump shoes of Warrior
Warrior can use a charge to stun an enemy he is touching or close the distance quickly.
  • No longer starts with any darts (simple darts are removed from SPS-PD in general). 
  • Like Sprouted, he gets more HP by eating. 
  • Like Sprouted, Potions of Strength are automatically identified. 
  • His subclasses are almost identical with Sprouted: a) Gladiator gains the Combo buff, which grants bonus damage with each successive succesful hit, ranging from +20% bonus damage with a 3-hit combo to +120% bonus damage with a 8-hit combo (after that, the combo counter starts again), b) Berserker gains the Furious buff, when his HP are below 60% of max HP, and retains it as long as he stays below 60% HP, getting his physical damage increased by 25% and the damage dealt to him reduced by 25% (but does not get resurrectted, like he does in Shattered). 
  • From all the available items he can equip, he is the only class with ease to equip heavy armors due to the -2 strength requirement, and when he chooses the Gladiator subclass, he is benefited very much by a Ring of Accuracy, a Ring of Furor and also by Ring of Force, due to its bonus damage modifier which stacks with the combo damage modifier (Ring of Force is changed in SPS-PD and enhances generally weapon damage, and unarmed damage only to a lesser degree). Berserker will be benefited much by a Ring of Tenacity and by wearing heavy armors, as they will work well with his tanky character. 

Mage

Mage
Mage starts with a Magebook.

Mage spends less time when using wands and gains +3 magic power.

Mage gains one charge after eating anything.

Mage has higher limit when using dew upgrade.

Scrolls of Identify are identified from the beginning.

Mastery

Battlemage spends less time when using wands and gains more magic power.

After using the wand to attack an enemy, the Warlock will consume his soul. It heals his wounds and satisfies his hunger.

Mage is now focused around the new Magic Power stat (MIG), which increases damage dealt by wands.

  • Starts with a Magic Book instead of the Knuckledusters. The Magic Book can stun enemies with its "blunt" attribute, and it's also one of a few weapons to have its strength requirement decreased by upgrades. 
  • Uses wands faster than normal. 
  • Starts with 3 Magic Power instead of 0. 
  • His starting Wand of Magic Missile can no longer be disenchanted. Instead, it has 1 higher max charge than normal. 
  • Also gets a Wand of Disintegration from start. 
  • His Jump Shoes can take him two tiles away, allow him to teleport past enemies (or through them), and have a chance of giving the Arcane buff to increase his Magic Power by 10. Fully charged they have 3 jumps available (3Χ14 + 8 residual = 50 charges in sum). 
Jump shoes of Mage
Mage was studying in the tower, so he can use blink instead of jump, and improve his magic power sometimes.
  • Like Sprouted, he gains a wand charge after eating, has a higher upgrade limit, and automatically identifies Scrolls of Identify. 
  • His subclasses are somewhat similar to Sprouted, but with many differences, especially for the Battlemage: A) Warlock can "Soul Mark" enemies with a succesful wand hit, and from that point on he will be slightly healed with any succeful melee hit to them. After the enemy's death he's slightly healed again and also his hunger is slightly satisifed (usually for +10). Soul marked enemies emit a dark gas and have a skull sign in their tab when examined. After some turns, the soul mark can get erased from the enemy, if no succesful wand hit is repeated. 
  • B) Battlemage doesn't equip wands. Instead, choosing this subclass allows wands to take even less time to be used, have higher attack speed, and also more damage as the subclass gains +5 Magic Power. The absence of the subclass' ability to equip wands and therefore to recharge them quickly by using them as melee, makes familiar Battlemage builds from Sprouted with very highly upgraded wands lose some of their advantage in SPS-PD, unless the Battlemage has a Ring of energy available, which boosts the wands' recharging rate. On the other hand, even without a Ring of Energy, a highly upgraded ring of Magic can make this build viable, as all wands will do tremendous damage and require very few zaps to defeat enemies. Important note: a highly upgraded Wand of Firebolt is SPS-PD doesn’t backfire, so it is probably the best choice for a highly upgraded wand due to its damage output. 
  •  From all the available items he can equip, Rings of Magic (bonus wand damage) and Energy (bonus recharging rate) apparently benefit all mages very much and can make a Battlemage OP when upgraded as the three bonuses (subclass magic bonus damage + Ring of Magic bonus damage + Energy quick recharging) stack.
  •  The Book of Heavens / Wisdom Trial is not repeatable by falling into the chasms anymore and Phase Pitchers are generally a rare resource in SPS-PD, so transmuting all the Scrolls of Magical Infusion to Scrolls of Upgrade and putting all of them on a wand Sprouted-style, is simply not possible in SPS-PD. The closest a hero can get to this build, is to use all of his/her Scrolls of Upgrade in one reinforced wand (and a Ring of Magic / Energy to get them above +15, if they are available) and use the Scrolls of Magical Infusion on his/her end-game weapon and armor.

Rogue

Rogue
Rogue starts with a dagger.

Rogue has a unique Cloak of Shadows.

When Rogue equips a weapon, he ignores 2 strength to use it.

Rogue is more proficient in detecting hiden doors or traps.

Scrolls of Magic Mapping are identified from the beginning.

Mastery

The Freerunner moves faster when unencumbered and not starving, and if he is invisible, this speed boos ti increased.

When performing a surprise attack, the Assassin inflicts additional damage to the target.

Rogue is now very much about good weapons, in addition to even more invisibility-related techniques.

  • Instead of having high accuracy, his starting Dagger has “puncture” to hit enemies with a second, weaker attack with each successful swing. 
  • Has 10 Throwing Knives instead of 10 Darts (plain darts are removed in general from SPS-PD). 
  • Requires 2 less strength to use weapons. This is shown in the game as a weapon's strength requirement being lowered by 2 when equipped, but showing its regular strength requirement otherwise. 
  • His Cloak of Shadows has been altered to work more like Shattered's current version of it, where it only starts with 3 max charges, but each individual charge lasts several turns. 
  • No longer starts with a Bomb. 
  • No longer lasts longer without food, gains free evasion from light armor, or instantly identifies equipped rings. 
  • His jumping range with the Jump Shoes is only 2 tiles, but he gets 2 turns of levitation when jumping, effectively allowing flight-on-demand that offers a distance of about 10 tiles if started at full charge. There is also a chance to become invisible for 5 turns when jumping. Fully charged his Jump Shoes have 4 jumps available (4X10=40 charges in sum). 
Jump shoes of Rogue
Without training, Rogue can't jump far away, but he can hide his body after jumping and also hover in air.
  • Like Sprouted, he is more proficient as detecting traps and identifies Scrolls of Magic Mapping. 
  • His subclasses are identical with Sprouted: a) Freerunner is very quick, when unencumbered and not starving, and although the game does not display a speed stat or a speed buff with a description, practically he can be almost a quick as a cave vampire bat, b) Assassin inflicts additional damage, when he performs a surprise attack (SPS-PD has the pequliarity though, that among its 21 new weapons' attributes there is not an "effective against unaware enemies"). 
  • From all the available items he can equip, when he chooses the Assassin subclass, he should prefer light armors, as they have the highest stealth stats, and should avoid at all costs heavy armors, as some high tier ones even have stealth penalties and can make a surprise attack miss. Apart from the Ankh Shield, all blunt weapons by stunning the enemy provide the Assassin with extra surprise attacks, so they should also be preferred. When he chooses the Freerunner subclass he is benefited very much by a Ring of Haste as its bonus speed stacks with the subclass bonus.  

Huntress

Huntress
Huntress starts with a knuckleduster.

Huntress has a boomerang, and gets bonus damage from excess strength when using missile weapons. [The second part does not apply in SPS-PD]

Huntress has a chance to recover a used missile weapon.

Huntress senses neighboring monsters, even if they are hidden behind obstacles, and gains more health from dewdrops.

Potions of Mind Vision are identified from the beginning.

Mastery The Sniper is able to detect weak points in an enemy's armor, effectively ignoring it when using a missile weapon.

Having a strong connection with forces of nature allows the Warden to gain additional health from dew, seeds and dew from plants, and to hide when trampling grass.

Out of all the classes, she is changed the least, as she retains all her basic characteristics from Sprouted, with some minor changes in the subclasses' special abilites (which also remain basically the same). 

  • Starts with a Knuckleduster that can cripple enemies, instead of a dagger. 
  • Still gets a Boomerang as her secondary starting weapon, still recovers more missile weapons, but no longer gets bonus damage for excess strength with missile weapons, although the game states so in its introductory screen. 
  • When jumping with the Jump Shoes, she can move two tiles away and has a chance to throw Spectral Blades at nearby enemies (but also the pet) for extra damage based on the strength of her melee weapon. Fully charged her Jump Shoes have 3 jumps available (3Χ14 + 8 residual = 50 charges in sum).
Jump shoes of Huntress
With guidance from nature, huntress can attack some mob when jumping.
  • No longer gets unlocked after a hero first beats DM-300. Instead, she is unlocked only after killing 10 monsters, so she is practically available after the first game with any other class.
  • Like Sprouted, she starts with a Boomerang, can recover a used Missile Weapon from enemies, gains more health from dew drops (even if this isn't stated), senses mobs behind walls, and identifies Potions of Mind Vision. 
  • Her subclasses are similar to Sprouted; a) Warden gets more seeds and dew from trampling grass (as if she was having a +3 Sandals of Nature equipped), gets 4 times the regular HP from dew drops (4 HP from one white dew drop/one dew vial drop, 20 HP from one yellow etc.) and instead of the Barkskin buff she gets Invisibility for 2 turns for each tile of high grass that she steps on b) Sniper gets the Sniper's Mark buff after each succesful hit with a missile or thrown weapon (but loses it after an unsuccesful hit, if she switches targets, stops attacking or the target dies), wihch grants quicker attack speed and armor penetration. 
  • From all the available items she can equip, when she chooses the Warden subclass, she is benefited much by also equipping the Sandals of Nature artifact. When she chooses the Sniper subclass she is benefited very much by the ring of Accuracy as its bonus accuracy stacks with the subclass bonus, by the Ring of Sharpshooting as it increases her ranged damage output and by the Ring of Furor, as its bonus attack speed stacks with the subclass bonus. 

Performer

Performer
Performer starts with a triangolo.

Performer starts with a shovel, which can be used to break walls.

Performer finds bombs more easily.

After killing enemies or levelling up the Performer will gain the Rhythm buff, which upgrades his accuracy and dexterity for a limited time.

After levelling up the Performer will gain the Glass Shield buff, which can reduce the damage he takes for 10 turns.

Mastery Super-Star is much more powerful in music. He can upgrade his Rhythm buff to Echo and Rhythm buff.

Joker is good at battle. He can attack an enemy with +1 range and knock it back.

A completely new class focused around the Rhythm/Echo buff of defeating enemies to gain accuracy and evasion bonus, the Glass Shield buff that grants much higher defense, and the ability of breaking almost every dungeon wall by using his shovel or the excess amount of bombs he can find (as a Performe, he sure makes a lot of noise). 

  • Starts with a Triangolo, a new weapon with the "resonance" mechanic that lets attacks also hit enemies (and pets) adjacent to the target. 
  • Gets a unique Shovel that can be used to destroy any regular wall, even those that belong to pit rooms and locked rooms. It has three charges (3X50/150). The Shovel fills a main inventory slot, but cannot get dropped or thrown. The player should be very careful when using the shovel in an outer dungeon wall, as it can cause the only major bug in the game: if a hole is created that does not lead to another wall tile but to the void space, if the hero or a pet step on this void tile, the game will crash and the save file will probably be corrupted (this is the death the game message is talking about). Don't do it.
Shovel
Shovel can be used to break walls. It will cost some charge. Breaking edge walls will cause death.
  • Finds bombs more often.
  • Gains the Rhythm buff, which grants increased Accuracy and Dexterity (Evasion) for 5 to 10 turns after levelling up, killing monsters or using the jumps shoes. 
  • Leveling up or using the jump shoes also provide the Glass Shield buff, which reduces damage by about 80% for 10 turns. (Currently there is a happy bug concerning the Glass Shield, as from floor 1 to floor 7 or 8 it often does not wear off at all, making the Performer OP during this period). 
  • His Jump Shoes can move him three tiles away and provide both the Glass Shield and Rhythm buffs. Fully charged his jumps shoes have 2 jumps available (10+10=20 charges in sum). 
Jump shoes of Performer
To become an a idol, performer has spent lots of time training in dance. It allowed him to immerse in his own rhythm and have a chance to reduce the next damage he takes.
  • If he chooses the Superstar subclass it grants him the Echo buff after killing enemies, which increases Speed for 10 turns. 
  • If he chooses the Joker subclass, his attack range is increased by 1 and also knocks back enemies. 
  • He is not benefited permanently from any ring or artifact like the other classes, but the Rings of Accuracy, Evasion, and Haste effects will stack with his temporary buffs and melee weapons with extra range gain even more range by his special ability. 

Dew Vial and Dew / Upgrading

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” (if by chance the hero meets the developer with the Toadstool Mushroom but without having the dew vial, the Developer will just say "This is a great place", so apart from the mushroom, also the dew vial must be in the inventory for the quest to get fulfilled). Heroes who choose Accurate Upgrade can identify their items through upgrades from the Dew Vial, and can choose a single item to upgrade - when the item is cursed the negative stat will sometimes get reversed to positive or just get decreased but the curse will not be removed (for example a cursed -1 weapon will become +1 with an accurate upgrade, but will remain unable to be unequipped until a scroll of Remove Curse is used). Accurate upgrade can also randomly give +2 upgrades to an item, even surpassing the floor dew level cap by +1, based on luck and dungeon depth. Random Upgrades uncurse the player's inventory as a whole, but randomly choose any amount of items to upgrade and do not identify the items they upgrade (rarely they do not upgrade anything at all). The amount of items upgraded is displayed but how many times the upgrade message gets repeated, as the Random Upgrade does not identify the items it upgrades. The only upgading mechanism in SPS-PD that is accurate and also uncurses is reading a Scroll of Upgrade or Magical Infusion. Lastly, unlike Sprouted, this choice wil follow the hero until the end of the game, as the Dew Developer in the Power Trial / Book of the Living floor, will not change random upgrading with accurate upgrading, as he does in Sprouted.

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 Drop buff (the Dew Charge buff of Sprouted).

Initially items can get upgraded with dew up to +2 in floor 2 (and by the Mage up to +3) and up to +3 in floor 3 (by the Mage up to +4), but from that point and on 1 extra Dew Upgrade is possible only every 3 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 all armor and almost all weapons 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 the player 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 like in most other mods, 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

  • Drink: The familiar Healing ability from Sprouted. Can't be used with only 1 Dew in the vial.
  • 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 2 turns of Mind Vision 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.
  • In previous versions of SPS-PD there was also the Escape ability available, that allowed the hero to leave all Key and Trial floors and repeat them, but it is now removed from SPS-PD.

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 the Draw Out Dew from Sprouted, and to a lesser extent, the Water With Dew from Sprouted, as the "Plant" ability.

  • 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 the hero chooses Accurate Upgrade, or 60 Dew if he/she chooses Random Upgrade. Their different behaviors have been described in the first paragraph. Both are only usable with 100 or more Dew in the Vial.

Abilities Unlocked by Rune Scholar 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.
  • The heroes who had chosen Random Upgrade won't have it changed to Accurate Upgrade, as it happens in Sprouted, and will continue to upgrade equipment randomly.

Dolyahaven / Dolya Town

Dolyahaven is renamed to Dolya Town and now contains almost 40 new NPCs, two new sidequests and a portal to a new challenge, the Boshrush Challenge.

Main article: Dolyahaven / Dolya Town

Enemies

In comparison to Sprouted 3 new enemies are added in the Sewers (Dust Element, Leech Seed, Patrol UAV), 3 in the Prison (Armor Skeleton, Troll Warrior, Zombie), 1 in the Caves (Sand Mob), 2 in the Metropolis (Dwarf Musketeer, Spider Bot), 3 in the Demon Halls (Demon Flower, Sufferer, Thief Imp), 5 in the mini-boss floors (Plague Doctor, Sewer Heart, Sewer Lasher, Prison Warden, Spider Golder, Spider Jumper, Spider Minder, Spider Queen, Tank), 2 in the Challenge/Key floors (Gnoll Keeper, Gnoll King), 1 in the boss floors (Fiend), 3 in Dolya Town/Dolyahaven (Clockwork Scarecrow, Gurdian Dragon, Test Mob), and there is also a new BossRush challenge with 2 new enemies (Ice Corps, Shadow of Amulet), that is 25 in sum. Some more are renamed and/or duplicated with different name and abilities in other floors and/or have the floor they appear changed, and most of the familiar enemies have their stats rebalanced and skills more or less changed.

Main article: Enemies

Food and Hunger

The hunger mechanic is slightly changed but most importantly, a new cooking system is added with 40 new consumable items recipes. Also 5 new holiday food items are added.

Main article: Food

Grinding

Special Surprise Pixel Dungeon is based on Sprouted Pixel Dungeon, which is famous (or infamous) for its grinding nature. Although some parts of farming and grinding are kept (mostly related with dew collecting for upgrading), grinding for many other resources (phase pitchers, upgrade eaters, norn/magic stones etc.) has either become unnecessary in SPS-PD or is simply prohibited (like falling from the Book of Heavens / Wisdom Trial floor or the Thief King's main floor).

Main article: Items

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 for each class): 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 and with Robot D.M.T. when it gets upgraded to +10 and the option "determination" is activated. Due to their limited nature, it's best to use them after important milestones, or before attempting something very risky.

Mini-Bosses

5 new mini-bosses are added in the regular dungeon along with the old ones, 2 in Sewers, 2 in Prison, and 1 in the Mining Caves.

Main article: Mini-Bosses

NPCs

[Only NPC's that the hero meets in the regular dungeon and the Book/Trial floors are mentioned here. The almost 40 NPCs of the Dolya Town are presented in the Sokoban and Dolya Town section.]

  • Old Wandmaker: He is always located at Floor 7 of the dungeon, and gives an Adamant (Sprouted's Adamantite) 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 makes the distinction between battle and non battle wands rather randomly because most of its wands are offensive, and the Wandamker will give as battle wand reward a Wand of Acid / Blood / Disintegration / Firebolt / Freeze / Light / Lightning and as non battle wand reward a Wand of Charm / Flock / Flow / Meteorite / Poison / Thundercloud (with almost all of these wands apart from the wands of Charm and Flock being also offensive). The reward wand is always upgraded and rarely cursed. Picking up he Rotberry Seed will release a cloud of toxic gas and root the hero, but will not function as an alarm trap.
  • Rune 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 Dolya Town for the rest of the game, with her saying that she had fixed the altar and and the hero can use it now (it is the altar that the T6 weapons are created).
  • Shopkeepers also sell the Dolya Slate (formerly Sokoban Journal) in floor 1, the Sweet Home (formerly Safe Room) page in floor 5, and the Home Town (formerly Dolyahaven) page in floor 10. They are now also invincible, don't care if anything tries to harm or debuff them, and never leave their shop with their goods, unless the hero tries unsuccesfully to steal from them.
  • The Troll Blacksmiths (renamed from Bip and Bop to Troll Blacksmith and Troll Welder) are always located at floor 11. Adamantite weapon/armor/wand/rings are now renamed to Adamant weapon/armor/wand/rings, without any change to their function. Also, all classes and not only the Mage get the Adamant Wand, after they finish the Wandmaker quest and there is one extra Adamant Ring, that drops from the Gnoll King in the Treasure Map challenge floor.
  • 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 has transitioned to Rune Scholar Lynn.

Pets

9 new pets are added to those existing already in Sprouted, and also their stats, leveling up, special skils, eating habits in all pets have changed.

Main article: Pets

Scrolls

Scrolls remain basicaly the same with Sprouted, with some minor changes, mostly in additional side effects.

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 like they do in Sprouted, and they also 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.

Sokoban

The Sokoban Journal is renamed to Dolya Stale (that is, Dolya Slate), the Vault and the Dragon Cave floors are removed, the Spring Festival Land is added, Dolyahaven is renamed to Dolya Town, and many changes and retexturings are made to all Sokoban flloors and puzzles,

Main article: Sokoban and Dolya Town (Dolyahaven)

Weapons and Armor

20 new regular weapons, 4 unique drop weapons, 7 holiday weapons and 4 thrown weapons are added to those already existing in Sprouted, and they almost all have a regular, enhanced or holiday attribute. Also 11 new weapon enchantments are added.

Main article: Weapons

Tier 6 armors are added, and each armor tier now includes three different types of armor: light (less defense, more stealth and dexterity), heavy (more defense, less stealth and dexterity), and normal (the more balanced in their stats), as a consequence SPS-PD has 18 different types of armor available. There are also 12 new armor glyphs.

Main article: Armor

Weather Rooms / Light and Darkness

In the dungeon the hero might encounter rooms with special climate, that either buff or debuff any character that is located inside them, and also might experience a sudden shortening of his/her vision during nighttime, similar to the "Into Darkness" challenge.

Main article: Weather Rooms / Light and Darkness

Miscellaneous changes and differences from Sprouted

Cursed Items

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 and any form of upgrading can even reverse the negative stat to positive (e.g. from -2 to +1) and always decrease it. Accurate upgrading with dew doesn't uncurse items, but only upgrades them (they function with upgraded stats but can't get unequipped). In contrast, random upgrading with dew, Scrolls of Upgrade and Magical Infusion uncurse also the item they upgrade.

Bookshelves

In rooms 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, but not generally in floors with bookshelves.

Monsters' special abilities

Few 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 or skill activated from the enemy.

Pit Rooms

They 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.

Quickslots

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" option selected, one is added at the bottom of the screen and two are added below the one next to the menu button.

Traps new and changed

  • Alarm, Blazing, Chilling (don't shatter potions, unless the hero steps on water afterwards), Confusion Gas, Cursing, Disarming, Disintegration, Explosive, Flashing, Frost (don't shatter potions, unless the hero steps on water afterwards), Gripping, Guardian, Lightning, Ooze, Paralytic gas, Pitfall, Poison, Rockfall, Shock, Spear, Summoning, Teleportation, Toxic gas, Venom and Weakening traps exist all in the game, borrowed from Shattered or Sprouted and exactly the same in function.
  • Distortion and Grim traps exist also in the SPS-PD code but are extremely rare and sometimes happily bugged, as they don’t seem to work at all.
  • Fire traps when activated cause a fire cloud like those in Shattered and not a single tile explosion like those in Sprouted.
  • Storm traps create a cloud of Paralytic Gas and Electricity.
  • Trap tiles in general can’t be activated or destroyed by bombs.
  • Warping traps teleport the hero to a previous dungeon floor without unidentifying their floor, like they used to do previously in Shattered. The pet is also teleported along with the hero (but not when he/she steps on a regular teleportation trap).

Walls

Walls in general can be destroyed by bombs or the Shovel. The only walls that the shovel and bombs can't destroy are a) special colored walls (dark gold veins etc.) and b) the pit room air walls.

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 (some unique items like the Boomerang or the Cloak of Shadows either cannot get transmuted at all, or they can get transmuted, but are never the product of a transmutation - not that there is any reason to transmute a Boomerang or a Cloak of Shadows). Perhaps due to the nerfing of the Phase Pitcher seeds drops, Wells of Transmutation are much more common in SPS-Pd than in Sprouted.
  • The Well of Awareness, unlike the Scrolls of Magic Mapping and Blueberry, does show hidden doors and traps and also loot, keys and the exit.

And lastly, some 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

  • The only major bug currently in SPS-PD is when using the shovel or a bomb in the outer walls of a dungeon floor, that have no wall afterwards but only void space. If the hero destroys that wall and he/she or a pet steps on the "chasm" that is opened, the game will crash and the save file will be possibly corrupted. Don't do it.

Minor bugs

  • Dolya Slate (Sprouted's Sokoban Journal) can’t be used, if the hero is stepping on a ladder tile.
  • The Dried Rose artifact has four minor bugs related to it. The Sad Ghost is sometimes bugged when summoned along with a pet, as it can disappear when the hero goes down a floor without a pet and come back to get it and it can also make the game crash if summoned along with a pet in a challenge. If the Dried Rose is found before the Sad Ghost quest, it can get equipped and summon a ghost without a problem. Lastly, another bug related to Dried Rose is that the hero might stop finding rose petals before the Dried Rose gets fully upgraded.
  • Ethereal Chains sometimes can't get upgraded or their upgrading stops midways.
  • Honey water as a consumable and also its recipe are both bugged. The food item doesn't seem to have any effect and the recipe produces garbage.
  • Hunter Instict, the special skill of the Huntress, when it activates Regeneration, healing wears off instantly. All its other effects work fine though.
  • Pets in the BossRush Challenge might not be able to eat and heal, which is a serious problem because they are not immune to Demon blood. Also if the Sad Ghost is summoned along with a pet, it can vanish without a reason, or very rarely make the game crash and the save file corrupted if it is summoned in a challenge with a pet also present.
  • Shadow Dragon when is ready to get hatched, nothing is heard from inside the Soul Mob.
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