What is Under The Tree?

Under The Tree (‘UTT’ for short) is a first-person dungeon crawl inspired by the original Wizardry first released on the Apple ][, simplified to suit the screen and controls of the Playdate.

See a YouTube review of UTT by Attack Slug here!

If you’ve played the original Wizardry then UTT is a kinder, gentler version of the original. If you haven’t played the original Wizardry, then UTT may seem a bit more difficult than you’re used to. If you’re in that second category, this FAQ is intended to fill in any gaps and help you get the most out of the game.

I’m having a rough time getting started… is there a Walkthrough of some kind?

Yes! There’s a beginner’s walkthrough here.

Is there some backstory to the game?

The player wakes up with a nasty bump on the head in Liam’s Urgent Care, one of the areas up in the Luskwood tree. Each of the shopkeepers there give you a little background on your current situation in their introductory greetings:

Liam: "Feeling better? You were pretty chewed up! Lucky for you, Kumba found you and dragged you back up here."

eltee: "I made that wooden sword you have. I whittled it from a branch of this very Tree, years ago."

Michi: "Ugnet dug that Dungeon down under our Tree and filled it with Monsters. Go make him regret it, kid."

Kumba: "I found you wearing nothing but rags and that wooden sword you wouldn't let go of. Everything else was gone."

If you want to go back and revisit these, they are the first four entries made in your Notebook.

How do I pick the lock on a chest?

(Note: for the most authentic Dungeon experience when opening a Chest, use the instructions that follow below. If you’re still having trouble picking locks, though, you can adjust Lock Difficulty in the ‘Settings’ option of the Main Menu).

The lock will open when you have the lockpick at the ‘sweet spot’ angle for that lock, held steady, with ‘Up’ held on the DPad. The trick, of course, is finding that ‘sweet spot’.

There are both visual and audio clues: If you are not in the sweet spot there will be a visual clue: the pick and the keyhole with both give a small single wiggle, and an audio cue: there will be a double-clicking noise. If you are close to the sweet spot when you tap the DPad in the ‘Up’ direction the keyhole will move a bit further before it stops, and there will be a single-clicking noise. The closer you have the lockpick in the sweet spot when you press ‘Up’ on the DPad the further the keyhole will move before the lockpick wiggles and the single-click happens.

Once you are in the sweet spot for that particular lock, pressing and holding ‘Up’ on the DPad will rotate the keyhole a full 90 degrees and the lock will click open.

How to do it: put the lockpick at the completely upright (12-o’clock) position, then give the DPad the barest tap in the ‘Up’ direction. If you’re not in the sweet spot, move the lockpick a few degrees clockwise and try again… you’ll either hear the double-click (in which case move the pick another few degrees clockwise) or the single-click (in which case you’re getting closer, move just a little more clockwise) and try ‘Up’ on the DPad again. Keep going until you either find the sweet spot or you have the lockpick at the 3-o’clock position… if you get that far without hitting the sweet spot, go back to the 12-o’clock position and repeat the search, this time moving a few degrees counter-clockwise until you get close to or actually find the sweet spot.

If the lockpick breaks, there will still be a stub of the old pick (don’t move it) and a new one will pop up in the same location, just continue your search from where you left off.

The sweet spot for a given chest will reset if you leave it and come back again.

As chests become more difficult, the sweet spot will become narrower.

Example video of picking a lock: in English.

Example video of picking a lock: in Japanese.

Is there a purpose to Healing at Liam’s Urgent Care?

Yes, if you want to top up your Health if you're there and it’s a little low. If your play style is 'fight in the Dungeon until you’re defeated' then you won't need to use that Menu option very often ('Emergency' care in Liam's shop is always free).

Note that you can always go back up the stairs from the first Dungeon level back out of the Dungeon, you don’t have to just slog it out with Monsters until you’re defeated and Kumba comes to haul you out :).

Are there faster ways to get out of the Dungeon than simply retracing my steps?

Yes! Most (if not all) of the ‘tunnels up’ you might find will take you very close to the stairs leading up out of the Dungeon. The deeper into the Dungeon you go, the more of these tunnels will be scattered about. Be careful, though, as these escape tunnels are often guarded.

I’m noticing a bit of input lag when moving about in Ugnet’s Dungeon?

UTT is a turn-based game, and the default internal settings use a low refresh rate so as to conserve battery life. This can lead to a bit of a delay (about 1/10th of a second) between pressing a button and seeing a response, which some folks find annoying/irritating.

As of UTT 1.0.6, there is a ‘Settings’ option on the Main Menu, it allows you to set the Game/Menu speed (options are: Normal, Fast, Faster and Turbo). Setting beyond ‘Normal’ will reduce Dungeon travel response time (reduce perceived ‘input lag’) and Encounter menu and scroll rate. Note that settings faster than ‘Normal’ may decrease battery life over long playing sessions.

Without any Spoilers, what can you say about the mini-games scattered throughout Ugnet’s Dungeon?

The first four mini-games reward the player with in-game items that can assist progression in some way. The first two of those are completely free-to-play, the next two require 5 Gold pieces per play (this is in-game ‘Gold’, there are no dreaded ‘micro-transactions’ in UTT).

The last five mini-games start out very simple and progressively become more… sophisticated? Fancier? Arguably more complex. They cost nothing to play and lend no aid or assistance for in-game progression… they’re simply games that Ugnet collected over the years and put out for his Monsters to enjoy in their spare time. Hopefully you’ll enjoy them as well.

Is there any penalty for dying or consequences for repeatedly falling to a hard fight?

Nobody ever dies Under The Tree, not even the Monsters (the Luskwood Tree is a happy place, even if Ugnet did build a Dungeon underneath it). If you are defeated down in Ugnet’s Dungeon you are simply rendered unconscious; the Monsters will then lose interest and leave you alone, and Kumba will eventually come by and haul you up to Liam’s Urgent Care.

You won’t lose any Levels, Items or Gold. The only consequences for defeat during a battle is that you’ll need to trek back down to that same spot in the Dungeon if you want a rematch (the mini-map helps you find any Monster that defeated you by placing a :( marker on that position).

If you keep being defeated over and over by the same Monster you’re probably either over-matched or are using the wrong strategy. One solution is to simply adventure in some other area of Ugnet’s Dungeon until you’ve leveled up enough to try that problem encounter again.

How does Magic damage work?

There are three types of Magic damage - Fire, Ice and Shock. Some monsters can resist one or more Magic types, or have a specific weakness to a Magic type. Once you’ve met a particular type of Monster you can look up their resist(s) and/or weakness (if any) in the Monsters Met menu at Camp.

Magic damage bypasses any Armor points and directly reduces Health. Shock damage has an additional effect in that it also reduces (to a lesser extent) Mana. If a Monster resists that Magic type, or you are wearing a Shield, Helmet or Armor that resists that Magic type, the damage done to Health is reduced by half.

I found a Brass Ingot but when I go to eltee’s shop I don’t see any Brass items for sale. Why?

eltee is a very experienced Blacksmith, and knows just by looking how strong you are. If you don’t have enough Strength to Equip Brass items, you won’t be offered any for sale. Come back to eltee’s shop when you’ve leveled your Strength up enough to Equip Brass items (you can see what different metals you have enough Strength to Equip on the Statistics page in Camp).

How does Armor/Helmet/Shield damage work?

Shields take damage before Helmets, Helmets take damage before Armor. An item’s resistance enhancement stops working if the item is 100% damaged… this means it’s usually a good idea to put the most desirable enhancement on Armor, the next most desirable enhancement on Helmets, and the third (if any) on Shields.

Do Shield/Helmet/Armor enhancements stack?

No. Having two items with the same resistance enhancement does not increase resistance, so it’s a good idea to wear items with different enhancements.

Do carried Shield/Helmet/Armor armor points stack with worn items?

No, not really, though it may look that way during combat if you have Auto-Equip on (Auto-Equip is on by default - see more about Auto-Equip further below).

Example: you’re wearing a Tin Helmet and a Tin Shield, and carrying another Tin Shield, each of the three of these at full armor points (20), making your effective total Armor points for that combat round 40 (not 60).

What does Auto-Equip do?

Auto-Equip takes care of the usual sort of inventory juggling you would otherwise have to do manually during turn-based combat (you can also turn Auto-Equip off if you’d rather manage those sorts of things yourself).

Example: you’re wearing a Tin Helmet and a Tin Shield, and carrying another Tin Shield, each of the three of these at full armor points (20), making your effective total Armor points 40.

A Monster then takes a whack at you for 30 points of melee damage, effectively making your Shield and its enhancement (if any) useless, and reducing your Helmet to half armor points (10). If you have Auto-Equip off, at your next turn at combat choices you could then go into the Equip menu and equip the second Tin Shield, bringing your total Armor points up to a new total of 30 for the next combat round. This sort of thing can be tedious to do manually, so Auto-Equip does this equipment swap for you.

Auto-Equip will also make an attempt at the beginning of each combat round to Equip the best offensive Spell, Scroll or Vial to use against the current Monster. You don’t have to accept those choices - you can choose Equip from the combat menu and pick something different to use for that round.

Auto-Equip will not equip which Sword to use or a Heal spell over an offensive spell - if you want to switch Swords or cast a Heal spell during combat you should use the Equip menu.

I have a Tin Sword and I just found a Fire Gem. How do I get eltee to use it to enhance my Tin Sword?

‘Sell’ your existing Tin Sword to eltee, you’ll receive some Gold and a Tin Ingot in return. Then you can ‘Buy’ a Fiery Tin Sword from eltee to replace it.

eltee says I’m carrying too much weight, what should I do?

You should probably sell one or more of your Shields/Helmets/Armor back to eltee until eltee is no longer alarmed at how much weight you’re carrying. Note that Swords and any Ingots you have do not add anything to your weight allowance.

But, you don’t have to do anything. You can carry a little more than your Strength allows before it will affect how much damage your Sword does (but not much more). You can even carry way more Shields/Helmet/Armor than eltee recommends, at the expense of your Sword damage - if you want to max your Armor Points and mostly rely on Spells/Scrolls/Vials to do damage instead, that’s up to you.

I don’t see any Keys or Arcade Tokens in my Items list?

The game keeps track of your Keys and Arcade Tokens for you. You’ll automatically open a door that requires either if you have them, and if you can’t open it then you don’t have the required Item.

<POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW>

I wish the Bricks minigame was much faster! Also, balls can be trapped inside the paddle if you hit them at the right angle!

If you tap the 'B' button briefly you can reset the Breakout field and bump up both the ball speed and the reward level significantly (this is described in the instructions you see when you first start the minigame). And the ball-trapping, when it happens, should show 'Wobble Bonus!' and reward you extra points. Put another way, it’s not a bug, it’s a feature ;) .