Same story here, also i'll be using post rework champ stats for analysis now and am gonna edit critiques of champ related stuff in the past 2 posts since i got to play a full run with 'em, and know how they work.

spoilers for the entire game.

Halls normal enemies:

Succubi serve as the final "standard" enemy, sort of like a gnoll instead of a rat in terms of relative power, while also being able to close the gap between themselves and their target with the best way out of any enemy; instant teleportation. This forces every player to be competent enough in either regaining distance or melee combat (which succubi are still very good at, not to be underestimated)

Succubi also serve as the resident scroll dropper for any last-minute scrolls the player may need, or just a source of extra alchemical energy.

Evil eyes' beam attack both forces players to stay alert at all times for that windup while also posing a unique way to dispatch enemy clusters in how recklessly they fire said beam.

Given they can drop dew, seeds and runestones, they can somewhat be a renewable source of healing or alchemy fuel if desperately needed.

I can only see 1 real "issue" champion with evil eyes, and that's actually antimagic; it's redundant. evil eyes naturally get massive damage reduction while charging anyways, and the charging damage reduction is good enough to effectively make them take as much max damage per hit as a slime would. Overall i don't think antimagic can really help evil eyes much besides just being immune to mages' specialty in particular (and other wand related builds but you get the idea)

(and even with all that, i still think eyes are a very solidly designed enemy with few flaws if any, feel free to discuss this if you agree/disagree!)

Scorpios serve as the ultimate ranged enemy, complete with a total lack of a melee attack and a massive punish for getting hit by it's attacks (crippling from it effectively means you take 2x the hits, and scorpios can deal damage even with no doubled hitrate)

Blessed scorpios are honestly just annoying to fight without cornering them or looping surprise attacks, given how they're built to run away if in melee range, and are a massive threat otherwise, it's like trying to hit a gnoll trickster when your only weapon is a polarized flail.

Halls enemy variant:

Acidic scorpios are honestly just bass boosted scorpios. they punish you much more harshly but give you the opportunity to get level 30 before floor 25, if you need.

Halls minibosses:

Demon spawners serve as the final torch-bearer for the large enemy type lineage, taking inspiration from DM-301 (i know the spawners came first, just bear with me here) and improving on the immobility by increasing the sheer power it grants them in exchange; they can factory-print one of the more consistent threats in the halls!

If killed they reduce yog's enemy spawning capabilities and give the player an extra health potion, just as a way to keep them going through the final stretch.

Ripper demons serve as the result you would get if you gave dwarven monks a suit of heroic platemail and ordered them to unlock leaping. They are the main reason a newer player would want to take down a demon spawner, as they would want to stop such abominations from being created on every floor asap.

The one and only:

(i'll be using the BB yog for this, but with no spawners.)

Yog-Dzewa poses a fitting final challenge, constantly making spawn (simple cannon fodder that waste your time but can overwhelm you if left alone too long) and ripper demons (see above) while forcing you to keep mobile with its beams, preventing the player from abusing simple options like sungrass or earthroot for easy defense.

Each fist:

• Blazing can stop the player from over-relying on water, particularly nasty in combination with soiled (keeps you in fire a lot more, but suffers its own defense drop) and rotten (its method of avoidance requires water). in exchange for such a powerful strength it's most obvious counter is a simple potion of storm clouds or brimstone armor, it serves primarily as an ultimate knowledge check on dealing with fire in both environmental and debuff form.

• Soiled see above for blazing interaction, the soiled fist's counters are actually similar and check the player's knowledge on dealing with grass and rooting, as well as making sure they specifically do not rely on a single 'beatstick +15', as it's defense if left in full grass can nearly entirely nullify the damage dealt by it. Soiled fist is the most threatening in combination with blazing and the blinding fists.

• Rotten Forces the player to recall how they dealt with Goo or even acidic scorpios, as well as makes sure they aren't relying on slow-burn damage too much (as it's main weakness is big hits followed up by time to bleed). Works the best in collaboration with blazing/soiled fists since they both remove water for the player to use against it, as well as the rusted fist because of cripple making the toxic gas fired by rotten effectively deal 2x the damage

• Rusted Serves as a reminder of the final phase of the dwarf king fight, not very counterable by anything except maybe ranged attacks from a reasonable distance, chipping away at it? In exchange it's the only fist with a full downside (it can't fit in small gaps) and has the weakest ranged ability (simply crippling the player every once in a while)

i mean, i guess you could say it keeps up the large enemy tradition? i personally think it ends at the demon spawners though, feel free to discuss!

• Blinding Fists Dark and light are functionally identical unless i'm just unaware of something, they're the standard ranged magic enemy of the bunch and couple well with eachother (ever fought 2 dwarven warlocks that are on opposite sides of you?) rusted (it tanks for them and slows the player, allowing them to shoot more before the player closes the gap) and soiled (root, even despite the grass, allows them to get a lot of cheeky shots sometimes)

Overall, yog and the fists serve as an extremely consistent and unpredictable threat, fittingly so as it's the final boss. It also does this using exclusively methods the player is already familiar with (an invincibility gimmick that's been soft-tutorialed for a whole 2 bosses by this point, elements that the player is already guaranteed to be familiar with by now in each fist, beams that feel like a simple evolution of the ones used by evil eyes, etc.)

Misc. enemies:

Golden Bees serve as a mix between enemy and ally (when untamed) that can easily be used to the player's advantage, while also being generally weak for wherever they're at; simply being as strong as the weaker half of the enemies in the area they inhabit (gnolls/rats for sewers, skeletons/thieves for prisons etc.) and give a moderately strong upgrade to 1 healing potion at a time, low-medium risk medium reward.

Mimics are just hidden enough to sometimes catch players off-guard despite their nature, and due to this serve as a constant reminder to always pay close-enough attention to your surroundings no matter how empty they look (emphasized by how they have many obvious tells, but still can decieve some newer players by simply not having any enemy-count indicator until they've been interacted with in some way)

In exchange for paying enough attention to not get a chunk bitten out of you, you get the rewards of a standard chest - maybe even a necessary puzzle item for that floor.

Golden mimics are just the above, but stronger and better-rewarding (always uncursed items). another notable tell they have is actually that they don't cause a golden key to generate in the floor they're in, so that might tip off some new players that are wondering how to open it into using the examine button on it, which almost gives their nature away entirely if not for everything else about them.

Crystal mimics are standard mimics, but much more niche and harder to catch. In exchange for this they have some of the best items (wands, artifacts and rings) guaranteed uncursed.

The rat king- wait.

Ok, who stepped on the distortion trap this time?

Anyways...

Ascension enemy recap:

Scorpios generally don't change, be thankful for that. still generally worth fighting.

Evil eyes are roughly the same if not a bit stronger, still generally worth fighting.

Succubi get mildly stronger, still generally worth fighting.

Golems are substantially stronger, arguably still worth fighting? It takes up a chunk of resources to do so if your defense isn't sky-high.

Dwarven warlocks get decently stronger, still generally worth fighting* *with caution, do NOT get downgraded or hit by their magic in general.

Dwarven monks remain a massive threat, corrupt them or run if you can't kill them in time to avoid their melee.

Dwarven ghouls can easily overwhelm you if you aren't careful, you may need to save a scroll of psionic blast or retribution for them. Still generally worth fighting* *with the proper strength to kill them off before they gather a mob.

Elementals are moderately stronger, just exercise a bit of healthy caution around them. otherwise still generally worth fighting.

DM-300 get substantially stronger, it's not advised to fight them if your ranged options are a bit lighter than you would like by this point, just find a shaman instead.

Cave spinners remain a massive threat.

Gnoll shamans serve as an easy way to lower the amulet's curse, as their melee skills are just as weak. Very advised to fight* *in melee.

Gnoll brutes remain strong, but have the same weakness if enraged; outrun them. Generally advised to exercise caution, but fight.

Vampire bats are a massive threat due to their movement speed and buffed stats, advised to lead them away, then get away asap unless you can kill them before they land a hit.

Necromancers are substantially stronger, not in their own stats, but because they can summon skeletons with adrenaline. kill the necromancers on turn 1 or run away.

Prison guards can cause problems if they're nearby other enemies like necromancers as they pull you, but are generally somewhat worth fighting if you can handle the pull or kill them at above 4 tiles away.

DM-100 follow a similar path to gnoll shamans, same outcome.

Skeletons are a massive threat in melee range but can be dispatched fairly easily with ranged attacks, exercise caution and note that the buff applies to their explosion as well.

Slimes can pose a decent threat in melee, be careful around them.

Crabs pose a similar challenge to bats, but cannot heal making them substantially less threatening. despite this, it's advised to still be very cautious when fighting them and always have a backup route.

Flies get massively stronger and fighting them is not advised even with powerful attack and defense, try to find another curse-lowering target.

Gnoll scouts are a succubus-tier threat, same idea here.

Snakes are a very easy target if you can land a hit or 2, very advisable to fight.

Rats are slightly less of a threat than they were when you start the game, generally advisable to fight.

Next up in the analysis, Friends!

Feel free to discuss anything i may have missed, or just discuss this in general.

Same idea as the previous one, getting right into the new part:

Spoilers for the entire game

Caves normal enemies:

Vampiric bats serve as a sort of middle-ground between fodder enemy and consistent DPS check, they have the same movement speed based tricks as a sewer crab except they also heal on hit if they deal damage at all, meaning they require the player to have some consistent or powerful enough source of damage to reliably kill them before they win a battle of attrition against them. As a general reward (beyond just staying alive and general progression) it can drop health potions reliably, being the caves' main source of them.

For veterans, vampire bats are still challenging enough to keep the game interesting but their counters (generally having up to date equipment for the occasion, or some niche-er source of dispatching enemies) prove to be enough to keep them from being as annoying as, say, a crab while you've had no new equipment since the start of the sewers - you have plenty more options now.

Gnoll Brutes serve as a test for newer players after they were taught about last-resort abilities by skeletons, and even if those failed to properly teach the player in time they can always use the inspect button while they're berserking to understand exactly what's going on.

Despite the simplicity of dealing with brutes after they begin berserking, they can still prove especially dangerous even to veterans if the player ever runs out of escape options/gets cornered as the brute is still mobile, as by that point it's just down to either a massive hit getting taken (for the player or the brute) that often results in death, or a few decently hard evasion checks that realistically should never be trusted in the first place.

Gnoll shamans serve as the resident "ranged options check" of the caves, while also being a soft tutorial for the dwarf warlock's debuff. Instead of the warlock's heavy penalty (degrading any equipment that has high upgrades, which could have been a crutch for newer players encountering it and crippling it heavily) they simply debuff a stat indicated way beforehand by the color of their masks (red for attack, easy enough since red is a color often associated with hostility and they would debuff that, blue for defense with similar reasoning, and purple for... the hexed status effect, i think? it's a looser connection to be sure, but does anyone know why purple if not for the hexed status?)

For all players the gnoll shaman complicates interactions with other, otherwise simply countered enemies (sniping you while you outrun an enraged brute or forcing you to take a few hits from a bat in order to use it as a temporary shield for its blasts, for instance - a similar case to DM-100s.)

This enemy also uniquely rewards the player with wands, though at a rate that specifically discourages farming them. The wands given make gnoll shamans worth actively engaging if seen, just for that chance at an extra - possibly invaluable in the long run - piece of equipment.

Cave spinners act as a sort of next-step for prison guards, instead of blindly running in and keeping you in melee range, they deliberately restrict you still - except they poison you once, then run away in order for the full poison damage to take effect. This cycle keeps the player very motivated to think of ways to break past the spinner's web and avoid any direct confrontation with it, the web blocking any projectiles (or at least the 1st one if it isn't a bow shot, as bow shots don't break webs at all) prevents the otherwise simple solution of just spamming it with ranged attacks before it approaches too close, as you need to spend a turn to even enable that idea. Despite this, the spinner still has a few subtle flaws the player can exploit, like the way it aims it's web or the fact webs are very much flammable, or that every item that hits a web destroys it.

Overall, cave spinners still prove to be a massive challenge for even veterans because of their complexity. Especially notable is the projecting cave spinner, since they give you much less time to counter them and can often jump into the room, hit you once, then leave until the poison they inflicted wears off.

edit: (post rework, projecting cave spinners still do pose a threat but are much more reasonable to fight, keep alert nonetheless! A new possible threat could be antimagic ones, since the only thing that can pierce a web in 1 turn is a disintegration beam; magic (or fire, but guess what a fireblast wand is)

DM-200s introduce the player to 3 concepts, each one also forshadowing the boss: -Enemies can be large, making them unable to fit through gaps that are small but often being an indicator of massive power. -Large enemies will have some sort of coverage for ranged attacks, even if they cannot move themselves to where the attack will hit them from (gas venting, this also discourages hiding in a doorway they can't reach and hitting them with any extra-reach weapons since the gas reaches a bit further than the DM can even see and takes a short while to dissipate, making the entire method tedious - your satiety being a timer that inherently punishes tasks that take unnecessarily long. -Large enemies will often have very strong melee attack and defense to further compensate for their size having caused issues, making direct melee combat with little forethought still a very harshly punished strategy.

Notably, these enemies also foreshadow the Giant champion type for the reasons above. These can also combine into a giant-championed naturally large enemy, providing such a challenge to defeat that, once again, the player - even if they're a veteran - is forced to seriously contemplate the idea of simply avoiding it or sneaking past to loot the room it's in, then leaving that room alone for the rest of the run.

Caves variants:

Armored brutes complicate the process of dealing with enraged brutes by lasting much longer compared to their unarmored brethren. This means that, if left alone after getting enraged, the armored brutr could potentially *re-enter the room the player is in and pose a threat again, despite already having been brought to 0 health beforehand. This encourages the player to still try to keep dealing damage to the brute in order to expedite the process significantly instead of letting a walking threat stay alive. In exchange for this, armored brutes drop a relatively strong armor for the caves and guarantee the player has at least a little extra equipment to keep themselves going.

DM-201 continue the idea of a strong but mobility-challenged behemoth a bit too extremely; they cannot move and can be entirely avoided if deemed too much of a threat - so long as you leave their 3x3 melee range in peace - but continue to offer the reward of an extra cursed metal shard if defeated (boss drop alchemy items are among the strongest, so this is both a reminder to new players that alchemy matters and a gift to veterans)

my only issue with 201s would be how difficult it was for their visual distinction from 200s to catch on - at least for me, if it was for you as well then please say so because i don't know if this was just a "me" problem.

Caves Miniboss(?):

Vampiric bat (but you have a pickaxe) can genuinely pose more of a threat than the average enemy because instead of whatever else you've been using, you have to use a mediocre tier 2 melee weapon with effectively no strength-buffed damage for the region. This makes it a test of your armor or other damage reduction tactics, to ensure you didn't somehow make it all the way to the blacksmith with a purely unga-bunga fighting style.

Caves Boss:

The DM-300 takes what you've learned from 100/200/201 (inorganic so immune to tox gas/bleeding, large enemy qualities) and emphasizes them greatly, having not only constant vents of toxic gas with massive range, but a (well-foreshadowed) rockfall that further allows it to catch up with the player should they outrun it and make a mistake in the process.

The pylons serve as a forced break so that the player both has something extra to do as opposed to "kite the big man until he falls over" and as an added challenge since 1, you're being chased by an overloaded DM-300 and 2, the pylons force you to keep running around while hitting them in order to dodge their electricity. This is further enforced by their taken damage cap which both prevents new players from accidentally not learning to dodge the shocks, then getting taken by surprise once they try to wail on it without dodging the next time, and prevents veterans from flying straight past the challenge posed by each pylon. (also a slight foreshadow to a certain miniboss in the demon halls, by the way.)

Similarly to the DM-201 issue, i actually think that the electricity for the pylon segments might be too little of a foreshadow, both from personal experience and having seen a few people ask about it in the past, unaware/unsure what the direction meant.

City normal enemies:

Dwarven ghouls serve as a more extreme case of vampiric bats, being a mullti-target DPS check while having 2 built-in failsafes if the player has enough defense to tank them but not enough offense to properly dispatch multiple in the span of a few turns: 1 - they get back up at very low health every time 2 - they take increasingly longer every time they get back up, meaning you can eventually whittle down even a horde using high defense and low dps - although this will still discourage high defense strats in the future (for good reason, FiMA prep) in favor of builds that can speedily dispatch or otherwise deal with every threat they come across.

As well as this, the ghouls also wander around in pairs to keep the gimmick going always. These pairs are tight-knit and subtly encourage alchemy even further, since enhanced bombs tend to be unlocked in the alchemy book by the time the player reaches the city for the first time, and they tend to deal with groups of enemies spectacularly. Some potions can also do the job just fine as well, like toxic gas or dragon's breath.

A particularly dangerous type of ghoul would have to be blazing for a very similar reason to flies.

edit: (this is still true after the blazing nerf, but i would say the new biggest threat is likely antimagic or giant ghouls, since they can tank most aoe/most single target dps options much better than their cohorts and can distract you while backup arrives (leading to the player getting overwhelmed and dying)

Elementals (fire and frost) serve as one of the 2 resident magic attackers of the city, however elementals are much more mixed in their approach; they fire off debuffs that will - in some way - (slowing you down increasingly with chill, burning you to reduce the health amount you can work with over time) make the player want to speed up the encounter and kill the elemental quicker, while still approaching them after firing off that 1 bolt.

Notably with fire and frost elementals, their most obvious counters are also a way to keep the player feeling like they solved the puzzle instead of the game doing it for them; nobody ever directly tells the player to freeze a fire elemental outside of the newborn in the prisons, or ignite a frost elemental ever. Despite this, they have these weaknesses and players who exploit them are greatly rewarded with having just skipped a fight against an otherwise moderately powerful opponent.

Dwarven monks further punish the idea of running into combat headfirst with their unexpectedly high melee damage and speed, as well as their reusable focus. Their focus also discourages running for doors and sneak attacks (or in general) since it renews much faster if they're moving, which effectively resets the encounter's toll on them by granting another free hit to tank.

Veterans find plenty of ways to deal with these melee-range menaces, like how they simply cannot parry magic or elemental effects or are just as vulnerable to corruption as any other enemy (meaning they serve a greater purpose for you if corrupted as opposed to most other enemies due to their mindless power)

Overall, monks serve as the greatest punishment for unreliable noob-trap-y strategies, and would be a great forced learning moment for any players that only relied on those for the entire run. In exchange for this massive challenge, they get rewarded with the ability to effectively turn back the clock on their satiety timer (rations drop frequently)

Dwarven warlocks serve as a test for the tutorial you get given by gnoll shamans and DM-100s, with the aforementioned downgrade status. This discourages running towards the chapter's resident "magic blasts zoner" the most, as it cripples what you would be using to both deal with it's surprisingly decent melee damage capability and hit it back. This also heavily punishes ranged vs. ranged for a similar reason, meaning most often your best bet with them is to use the terrain of dwarven city to your advantage and lure them into melee range without having ever fired a single bolt.

Golems serve as the resident large enemy, keeping you inside their range if you try to run away or hide as opposed to simply hitting you with a weaker gas-based effect. This further emphasizes the general design of large-type enemies and has most of the same implications as a DM-200.

Notably, Golems have the ability to teleport themselves across rooms as well, as a substitute for natural hallway-based movement. This can both help and harm the player as they can awaken a golem, then make it leave the room by running back out - leaving the room open in exchange for having just activated a teleporting menace.

City variants:

Shock elementals serve as a slight juxtaposition to the standard 2, as they have no elemental counter and hit enemies harder generally in water. they are also uniquely one of the 2 enemies that can reliably counter an ally-centric build, since they deal chaining damage with every melee hit if they are hitting more than 1 target. This ensures that just about every build has some counter while also providing a great reward on death, frequently dropping a scroll of recharging (wands are incredibly useful and reliable, faster recharge is always a bonus!)

Chaos elementals generally pose a random amount of risk since they relybon cursed wand effects as their specialty, however they do this very well and are arguably a subtle hint at cursed wand builds being slightly viable, due to all the useful things cursed wands can do for the user (albeit with massive risks on every zap if the user isn't properly equipped to handle them)

even if they're immediately dispatched with total ease, chaos elementals serve as the 1 enemy that can reliably drop scrolls of transmutation, which some newer players might never have even seen until the moment they slay one. This in itself is reason enough to appreciate their existence.

Elder monks are monks, but they have unencumbered spirit and +16 gloves. They drop an even better food reward but i lack any serious way to add to their analysis besides a generic "harder enemy variant, better reward".

City miniboss:

ERROR: NOT FOUND. REFER TO PROTOCOL H FOR INSTRUCTIONS.

City Boss:

Dwarf King poses as a mixture of tutorial and boss, his phases' general structure acts as a tutorial for how Yog fights, with phase 1 encouraging you to hit the big bad (yog without any fists active), phase 2 requiring you to hit the summoned enemies instead in order to return to damaging the big bad (yog's fists being active) and phase 3 showing that you can return to damaging the big bad after phase 2.

DK also expands the player's arsenal with their armor ability on death, as well as a quick warning about what lies below.

Misc. enemy/variants

Animated statues serve as both a mini-tutorial on the gimmicks of certain weapons or enchants, and a way to always make sure the player has some way to arm themselves at various points of the game. These statues seem very threatening in direct melee combat for good reason, however their lack of any proper high defense or gimmicks besides simply having weapons makes them exposed to plenty of things like standard ranged attacks and zoning, elemental damage and falling into pits.

Summoned guardians serve as a "punishment" for triggering alarm traps and have large amounts of bulk, although only ever have a +0 unenchanted weapon. The best way to handle them would vary depending on your build but they carry the same weaknesses as a standard animated statue.

Wait...

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU GAVE THE STATUE ARMOR?

in all seriousness, armored statues are in a similar situation with normal ones as elder monks are with their younger counterparts. They pose a much greater risk, and serve a much greater reward in return.

Lastly, a bit of a reminder: You do not have plot armor.

Be careful with how you approach any threat in the dungeon. A grim-weaponed statue could be your ticket out of the sewers, or if handled poorly it could result in your run ending before you ever made it out of said sewers.

Disclaimer: i also love playing bobylev versions and a bit of scorched, this just happens to be the version i've got a lot more experience with.

Spoilers for the entire game.

Sewer normal enemies:

The marsupial rat is your most basic "fodder" enemy, perfect for introducing any new players to the combat system and somehow remaining fresh and complex threats for veterans by being the baseline of how enemies can change via challenges (most notably with HC on, but even more subtly like FiMA making everything hurt more or OD making your natural regeneration a much more drainable resource)

alongside the rat, you have the sewer snake - a great way to introduce the player to the invaluable nature of sneak attacks (or higher-accuracy/guaranteed hit attacks like the bow at a distance or a wand zap), while being weak enough to only require 1-2 hits if handled correctly. the only flaw i can really see in it's design is how a giant-championed snake could pose an unnecessarily hard challenge for particularly the warrior, as he has no real reliable baseline method of taking it by surprise or high-accuracy attacks at the start without doorways or corners to run through - both being massively complicated by the snake not having the ability to pass through narrow areas.

Gnolls act like a direct upgrade in power to rats, but give gold sometimes - an important signal to newer players that sometimes the enemies they face will end up rewarding them for defeating them in ways other than simple room progression, all while keeping the general difficulty aligned with what the average player's equipment would be for the area.

Flies act as a secondary tutorial to sneak attacks if the player is willing to experiment enough in combat with them (hitting the split-off flies the moment they separate from their main cluster) as well as a subtle encouragement to start using narrow paths as a risky (you can get sandwiched between 2 enemies) but rewarding (you can only have to deal with 1 enemy at a time as opposed to a cluster of them at once) melee combat option, while also being a reliable source of invaluable health potions for newer players. My only major issue with any later-game impacts they can have is when they're blazing. Blazing flies can ruin even the most well-prepared run if there isn't a source of water or escape route available, while being very difficult to brute force your way through given the sheer overwhelming damage output a single swarm can have - even on death. There are ways around this and blazing champions in general can always be useful to the player as well, with the on-death aoe igniting their neighbors if positioned well enough - but that just isn't enough to compensate for the damage these can do to an otherwise good run.

edit: (the blazing issue is massively toned down, the only other problematic fly type i can think of is giant and even those can be avoided for the most part by not splitting them.)

Sewer crabs can challenge the player with not running away or baiting doors too much thanks to their increased speed, while still crippling themselves because of it - they're easy to lure away from their own allies even if those allies are also awake and know of your presence. Overall they serve well as extra difficulty ramping and another teacher for singling out enemies. Despite the obvious "blazing crab scary" jokes that a lot of people - even myself - have made, i personally believe that projecting crabs are an even bigger threat. This is because crabs already have a slightly more-than-solid damage output and giving them a buff to that while also making them stay the furthest back in their pack can significantly increase how much damage they can deal to even an experienced player.

edit: (This has largely been toned down with the nerf to projecting enemies, no longer a problem. The biggest crab issue i can think of now would likely be blessed ones due to their massively increased consistency, given how solid their stats are already.)

Slimes are a very good teacher of how sometimes raw damage output just can't help you alone - they have respectable damage output and can't be killed in just 1 blow or 1 turn, you need to get creative with fighting them. For instance, a new player could have learned by this point that traps can be used in their favor if an enemy is closest to it, so they could set off a poison dart trap and watch the health of the slime they feared so much whittle away in just a few turns.

Sewer Variants:

Albino rats serve as a light introduction/foreshadowing to the fetid rat and the idea of other rare enemy variants while posing some reward for getting defeated - food.

Caustic slimes do the same for Goo, and could also serve as a subtle hint that alchemy is more of a major mechanic than one would think at first with their goo drop, since the albino rat gives such a staple item as it's drop and the caustic slime gives an alchemy item, then surely the alchemy system must be a staple in some way too right?

Sewer Minibosses:

The fetid rat serves as a mild introduction to the Ooze status and the idea of keeping away from your enemies if they're overpowering in melee (the stench acts as a sort of parallel to Goo's pump-up) while being entirely forewarned by the sad ghost (it telling you to avoid the stench)

The gnoll trickster serves as a temporary introduction to enemies that can attack from more of a distance, while having a very simple counter (not letting it run away from you). This especially helps because the next enemy with any ranged capabilities outside of Goo would be DM-100, who follow the exact same idea save for trying to fight with weak melee attacks if brought within range instead of running. The trickster can also be cornered with some dungeon generation luck, leading to the primary challenge becoming herding it into a place it can easily be killed - rewarding smart movement and planning from the player.

The elder crab serves primarily as a sort of "ultimate" sneak attack tutorial, while also being easy enough to conquer if you manage to get your hands on a beehive or stone of aggression that early, rewarding deeper knowledge of the game and expanding your ability to work around it as opposed to having the same 1 solution always.

Sewer boss:

Goo takes everything you learn in the sewers (avoiding the "stench" of power buildup from it's charge-up attack, landing sneak attacks, cleansing yourself of the oozed status) and challenges you as a major test for all of them combined. Assuming the player doesn't already know about how breaking line of sight immediately cancels the charge-up attack, they could try to outrun it and only barely escape the blast. The oozed status it applies on hit can easily be cleansed if you occasionally step in water, but it will do the same, and it will heal from doing so as a sort of punishment to those who linger too long in water (and they can try to stay in a tile of water while goo is on dry land, but thr pump-up will put a stop to that, forcing them to relocate and forge a more reliable strategy.)

Even if you're a veteran fighting goo, you still need to be vigilant and dodge it's charge-up via grassdancing or turning a corner, since it still deals massive damage and cancels it's related challenge (slime janitor) if you allow it to use a pump-up at all, as well as it's aquatic healing doing the same which puts you on a defacto timer if you want to get it (the timer being your health, ticking down steadily with the oozed status) that can only be rewound by consuming precious resources or slowed down by stepping in water, which becomes massively risky as it's next pump-up attack will become the last - for either you or it. (assuming you aren't using the rogue's cloak for a sneak attack chain)

Goo also encourages the use of throwable weapons the most out of any sewers foe, as it has no option for ranged attackers outside of blindly approaching them - this works in tandem with it's non badder bosses charge-up attack having enough time to allow the player to gain a bit of distance from it on escape, letting them throw something at it for the reward of having shaved a little off of it's health bar.

Prison normal enemies:

Thieves can make the player start trying to delay melee combat for as long as possible until an enemy reaches them, an overall useful practice that further encourages the use of throwing weapons for specific enemy encounters. Personally, though, i have an issue with how they can take Ankhs in particular - a new player might get unlucky and have their ankh stolen right before death, then think "Wow, that thing didn't help me at all! i better not waste my money on such an expensive dud next time!"

Even still, thieves can serve an alternative purpose opposite from crabs in the sewers - posing a difficult question to the player. Do you want to get your stolen item back and risk following the thief into a probable enemy-filled room? Or do you want to leave the thief for now, letting it get away with your item in exchange for your ability to handle the upcoming room as best you can under less stressful circumstances?

In terms of veteran play and challenges, the most issue most people have with thieves is when they're given the projecting champion title. Projecting thieves can show up at the opposite doorway of a room you're in, take an item of yours, run away, and repeat until they're caught.

edit: (this has been fixed with the projecting champion nerf! Another threatening thief type is likely blessed since they can avoid you for longer and will very easily steal items on their first few hits.

Skeletons serve as the sort-of upgrade to gnolls in the sewers, never truly not being a threat since they have such solid stats. They also serve a new challenge and tutorial to some specific enemies having a last-resort style attack, in the form of their bodies exploding in a small aoe near their re-death site. This encourages newer players to stay as far as they can from a dying skeleton if they want to take minimal damage, but also poses a rather niche use similar to blazing champions in general - hurting the enemy's allies by their own reckless attack.

Skeletons in general pose a massive challenge in most runs surrounding FiMA since their death explosion is very hard to avoid reliably and can deal massive damage if their target has little to no defense (as is the case for anyone at all with the challenge enabled) so some rework may be in order, like one i've mentioned before where they could amplify the next hit you take in a short time by some decent number instead of dealing extra direct damage on explosion, to punish the player recklessly running into the next room/enemy immediately after a skeleton while still preserving it's useful qualities in both teaching newer players and being indirectly helpful to experienced ones.

DM-100s force the player to think a lot more about how they approach groups of enemies, as they will need to draw in the machine before anything else or suffer the constant heavy, armor-piercing, accurate damage they can throw out from a distance. This gets complimented by their rather weak melee attacks, showing that closing the gap 1 way or another is truly the best say to handle an encounter with them.

With challenges enabled there's a single issue i can see with DM-100, and that's blazing. Blazing enemies explode into 3x3 fire when they die, and DM-100s' normal drop is random scrolls, which will immediately burn up if they're blazing. This makes fighting a blazing DM-100 less rewarding than a normal one for most purposes besides just getting it out of your way.

edit: (blazing champions' nerf has fixed this by providing a way to avoid the scroll getting burned up / the fire spawning entrely, that being killing the DM-100 on water tiles.)

For experienced players, they can pose a very interesting - albeit still workable challenge if there is a prison guard in the same room, but decently far away from the DM itself (see below for details)

Prison Guards actively work to close the gap between them and the player, forcing them to have enough upfront melee encounter skill and power to fight through them or enough ranged attack potency to finish them before getting drawn in. The chains they wield being able to cripple the player also helps discourage over-use of the sneak attack mechanic, since you can't just endlessly run through doors if it catches up to you repeatedly.

This compounds well with the above scenario involving DM-100, since then the player (if drawn in by the guard) needs to either: -Get behind the guard in a way that forces the DM to approach and get in melee range, then fight both in melee simultaneously -Finish the DM-100 with a particularly strong ranged attack before it can deal too much damage, then fight the guard in melee -Approach the DM-100 initially, costing extra turns due to the guard having crippled them but allowing them both to be taken head-on again -Use extra resources they found to escape the situation and recover elsewhere, or reposition for a better angle of attack than they previously had

Overall, guards can do a lot to force the player into very uncomfortable, unusual or otherwise undesirable situations that they need to get creative to escape from intact - even for veterans.

edit: not a correction, but i feel like giant guards can be particularly powerful as their already very solid and tanky stats get boosted by extra reach, effectively turning the guard into a proto-golem.

Necromancers summon endless skeletons to deal with if you don't challenge them head-on or find a position that locks their summoned skeleton from being able to reach you, providing a sort of ignore-the-fighter, hit-the-healer fight that no other enemy in the game can provide, while also rewarding the player with more precious potions of healing if they succesfully take on this new and different threat.

In higher chalenges, necromancers can become particularly brutal because of how taxing skeletons can be to certain challenges already on their own - FiMA for instance. Champion necromancers also pass on their title to any skeleton they summon, proving that skeleton to be a high priority target if you can't access the necromancer in a given moment.

Prison variants:

Bandits pose a much greater risk/reward than thieves, however can do some massive damage if not handled properly - especially if other enemies are around as they land a succesful hit on you. This works well enough, however, due to their frailty thanks to being a thief variant.

Shadow necromancers emphasize the classic necromancer's hit-the-healer concept to an extreme: hit the healer before it out-summons you and surrounds you in wraiths. In exchange for this even more unique challenge, the player gets a 1-use save from having equipped any cursed item, a great reward for a very challenging enemy.

The only major issue i see in Shadow Necromancers is that they can be Blazing champions, for 2 reasons: 1 - the wraiths will all explode into fire as well on death, not to mention set you alight with every hit. 2 - the necromancer's scroll is all but guaranteed to be lost because of it's immediate fire spreading on death, similarly to blazing DM-100.

edit: (both of these issues have been alleviated by the blazing champion nerf!)

Prison Minibosses

The corpse dust's graveyard is noticeably different from all other locations in the prisons, and provide you with a sense of danger due to sheer unfamiliarity alone - which is immediately proven to be warranted with the skeleton(s) resting inside, as well as the wraiths that constantly come from the corpse dust as you hold it. The dust itself provides a sort of escape-rush feeling to the player as they get quickly surrounded by wraiths, and need to give the dust to the wandmaker as fast as possible before they get consumed by the amount of vengeful spirits that truly want that dust to remain their own.

For veterans, the corpse dust is well known to be an easy gateway to a necromancer build, provided they already have a stable source of wand charges and a non-wandmaker wand of corruption.

The rotberry plant (i am assuming post rework for this, see evan's update sneakpeek if you haven't already) room makes you deal with enemies that are stationary and avoidable, but still a major hazard and very deadly if mishandled. The heart itself forces you to kite it's gas in a very confined space assuming you didn't kill any vine lashers, leading to an interesting minimal-scale battle scenario. This all happens while you must contend with any enemies that happen to walk in on your little seed-harvesting mission, which further complicates the entire ordeal.

For veterans, the seed can pose alternative uses like for the warden (+1 strengty temporarily as well as renewable toxic gas cloud generation), footwear of nature (renewable ranged toxic gas cloud placement) or in alchemy with a blandfruit (permanent +1 strength to equip upgraded gear a whole tier earlier than usual) as well.

The newborn elemental is a mini puzzle (in a non-obnoxious way, as if you don't already know the answer it's relatively simple, while if you do it's very quick to solve) to fight, while providing a tough challenge to those who didn't have the resources to freeze it. (this also, by the way, serves as a tutorial for elementals down the line too)

The embers it drops can also be used to summon an elemental of your own, which can definitely help carry you through the fight with Tengu and the caves all the way to the early dwarven city.

Prison boss:

Tengu's design rewards 2 things primarily; haste and forethought. You need to keep the phase 1 traps in mind as you navigate your way towards him, but must do so quickly as every turn spent is another suriken to your torso.

In phase 2, after being whittled down significantly, tengu gives you a moment to rest before opening the door to his next phase in which he throws multiple new attacks your way that force you to think and adapt very quickly to what he does next, or else you take large amounts of damage or get a very harmful debuff (fire)

This gets emphasized by the Prison Warden badge's challenge, in which you need to know all about what tengu does and how to best deal with all of his tricks - even if your initial attempts to dodge them won't work. This subtly teaches the player to bring backups for every major encounter they face incase their primary plan doesn't work, what Goo did with forced repositioning but taken to a whole new level.

As a veteran player you become able to sometimes take advantage of his phase 1 traps by using a Talisman of Foresight on them - leveling the talisman up significantly, for just a few turns of shurikens in exchange.

Misc. enemy/variants:

Piranhas teach the player 2 things: Sometimes, conflict avoidance is the best option (sneaking past them in flooded treasure rooms) and sometimes you can take down powerful enemies with an achiles-heel or 2. (pulling/confusing them onto land, attacking them from where they cannot reach) In exchange for exploiting a weak point in an otherwise very powerful enemy, you get food (always a good thing)

Phantom piranhas help ensure both of these are taught much better, as you can't exactly cheese a phantom piranha, but they give an even greater reward upon being killed (phantom meat), showing that you can still get a proper and worthwhile reward if you're ready to hunt one, but if you aren't, you need to once again simply avoid conflict for the best result.

Wraiths serve as a great baseline risk to the reward of looting corpses or tombstones while also keeping the idea of sneak attacking and the optimization of such as fresh as possible in the mind of the player.

Red wraiths further this goal while also providing a workaround for those who want an extra reward as a sort of tradeoff - uncurse the wraith and save it while consuming a scroll of remove curse, get a piece of equipment that is guaranteed not to be cursed.

(personally, i think red wraiths should be guaranteed to drop at least +1 equipment on cure as well, but even as they are now it's a good way to get equipment if you're particularly starved for it early on.)

If you disagree/agree with any of my takes here, feel free to comment about it! I'm open to discussing anything here and just wanted to make a sort of open-love-letter sort of thing for SPD. Discussion about it would almost surely help everyone involved learn something.