Long, long ago, in the kingdom of Dotnia, an evil king plunged the world into an age of darkness. But, from the shadows emerged a hero, who with the help of six sages, trapped him in the powerful Dark Orb. Dotnia celebrated, and many people came to visit, ensuring a prosperous time. But, over the years, the visitors waned. "People are no longer interested in 2D," exclaimed the king. "It's time to make the move to 3D!" And so the kingdom of Dotnia became 3D... but now, the princess has disappeared, and monsters have begun to overrun the kingdom. Could the evil king be returning?

3D Dot Game Heroes is an action game with light role-playing elements, heavily inspired by the original Legend of Zelda. As with the Zelda series, the player character doesn't actually 'level up' through gaining experience, but instead discovers items which make them more powerful or allow them to access new areas, such as a boomerang which lets you hit faraway switches and bombs which can destroy rocks that block your path. There are six temples which must be found, as these contain the sages who can help seal away the evil king and rescue the kingdom.

The player can also find more powerful swords as they progress through the game. When the player's health is full and they swing their sword, the sword quadruples in size, annihilating anything in its path. If the player is hurt, then their sword only swings at its normal size. The player can visit a blacksmith to forge the sword and add to its length, width, power and more. The game also allows players to create their own custom characters with the game's easy-to-use character editor.

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Gameplay Basics, Notes, and Tips

Controls

The controls for this game are fairly straightforward:

X is the \"action\" button. It is used to open doors, talk, swing the sword, etc.
Square is the \"dash\" button that you use to dash once you obtain Dash Boots (or Miracle Boots).
Triangle is the \"menu\" button, which opens up the item menu. Using R1 and L1 you can switch to the status screen and the sword screen.
L1 is the \"map\" button, and bring up the world map. In temples it will instead bring up the temple map.
The Start button pauses the game. From the pause menu you can save, load, take snapshots, view your bestiary, and tweak settings such as camera style and text speed.
Circle is the \"item\" button, which uses a secondary item. You can press L2 and R2 to cycle through secondary items without selecting them from the item menu.
R1 is the \"guard\" button, which makes you use the shield.
Basic Items

Sword

It doesn\'t always take the form of a sword, but this is your weapon. There are 24 different swords in the game, each with its own attributes. Depending on the sword, you can upgrade it in seven stats: strength, length, width, spin, beam, pierce, and special. Pierce makes your sword go through obstacles and walls, beam makes your sword fire projectiles, and special varies by sword (for those that have it to begin with). Spin makes it so that you can rotate your sword after striking, effectively sweeping it in an arc. Note that all upgrades you apply to a sword require you to be at full health to take effect. Different swords will be better in different situations, but in general you will probably be sticking mainly to a single sword for large portions of the game at a time. For in-depth information, see the Swords section.

Shield

You know, that thing you use to block. There are a few shields in the game, each better than the last and each replacing the last once you obtain it. You cannot upgrade stats on a shield. For more information, see the Shields section.

Gol

The basic unit of currency in Dotnia. It drops in the form of coins, of which there are three varieties. Bronze coins are worth 1 gol, silver coins are worth 10 gol, and gold coins are worth 100 gold. The maximum you can hold is 9999, and there is no way to upgrade your wallet.

Apples

There are two varieties of apple: red and green. Red apples will recover one point of health each, whereas green apples recover one vial of magic each.

Magic Containers

Magic containers will restore one vial of magic.

Potions

Potions will restore different amounts and combinations of health and magic. They require empty bottles to store in. There are a total of 4 empty bottles in the game. See the Empty Bottles section for details.

Small Blocks

Small Blocks are traded to King Block in area E2 for swords. See the Small Blocks section for details.

Colored Keys

This game has 3 special types of colored locks (red, blue, and green) in temples and a few other places. The only way to open them is by buying a key of the corresponding color for 1000 gol at Jim\'s Shack (or by finding one in one of the later temples). Unless, that is, you have the Super Key, which opens them all and eliminates the need. For information about the Super Key, see the Special Signboards section.

Key Items

Key items are items that you receive from various sidequests and events. They aren\'t usable in any way, but they do show up in your Key Items list which is on one of the menus when you press the menu button. They don\'t do anything practical in it of themselves, but some events do lead to rewards such as swords or upgrades. And before you decide to ignore useless events, consider that one of the game\'s most powerful swords requires you to have 100% event completion to obtain. See the Key Items section for details.

Store Items

There are a few items that are sold frequently and are occasionally worth purchasing. There are candles and lamps, which illuminate dark rooms. Then there are sleeping bags and magical bags. These will restore all your health or magic and create a restore point on the world map. This can be useful in certain cases, especially in Spelunker mode, although they become completely unnecessary once you purchase the Tent. The Tent restores both health and magic fully, and can be used an infinite number of times on the world map. For those annoying unexpected deaths, you can bring along Wonderdust, which will revive you when you die. Finally there are Wind Wings. These teleport you to a location of your choice and are extremely useful.

Playable Characters

When you start a new game and every time you load up a save, you can pick which character you want to play as. This is not just for aesthetics. The first difference to note is between genders. Male characters get an automatic +1 strength boost on all swords, and female characters get an automatic reduction in spell casting cost by 1 magic vial. In addition to this, the characters vary in terms of their skill at magic and their stamina. High stamina characters will have extra health whereas high magic characters will have extra magic vials. Choose a character suited to your play style. In general, being stronger and having more health is more important, unless you are going to heavily use magic for a specific situation.

Advanced tips

Ledges

Lots of people don\'t seem to realize that in this game there are ledges you can hop down. The easiest example is the cliff just south of Dotnia Castle. There are two different spots here where you can hop down below by jumping off the ledge. These spots are marked by different texturing and/or roughness. Learn to spot them, because they are required for lots of optional things as well as to reach at least one of the game\'s temples.

Crowned Enemies

Some enemies will have a crown over their head at random. These enemies are faster than their normal counterparts, and often times much more dangerous. Be careful around them, and if too many spawn in an area try exiting it and coming back, as they re-spawn at random.

Attacking

In 3D Dot Game Heroes, any sword that has the \"spin\" attribute can be rotated after pressing the \"action\" button to attack. This means that once the sword is already out in front of you, you can sweep it in an arc and hit things all around you. If you are a Zelda fan, most likely you\'ll instinctively walk right up to an enemy and then attack it. However, you\'ll quickly learn that in this game that is not the safest way to attack. It is much more effective to position yourself diagonally opposite the enemy, where it cannot easily hit you, and then extend your sword and rotate it in the direction of the enemy, hitting it with the sweep. This is also extremely effective for hitting multiple enemies at once.

Sword Upgrading Tips

Since most swords don\'t give you enough upgrade points to max them out, you often have to prioritize what matters. In general, the most important attribute is pierce. If your sword has the ability to add pierce, it should be the first thing you do, due to how useful it is for your sword to be able to pass through obstacles and walls. Next would be spin, although most swords that can spin come with the ability from the start. Next you probably want to focus on strength and length. Width is not as important on a sword that can spin, and beam is practically useless. Actually, beam can work against you when you\'re trying to selectively attack enemies. Swords with a \"special\" feature are generally worth upgrading in that category first, most notably the Wing Sword which increases your speed. Make sure to max out a special ability like that before anything else on that particular sword, as those swords will be outclassed as actual weapons by other swords anyways.

Dashing

Dashing seems like a faster way to get around at first, but every time you hit a wall it causes you to crash and stall for a moment, which is annoying. This is greatly reduced if your sword has pierce, because then it will not hit the wall left and right. In Spelunker mode the time penalty for hitting a wall is even worse, but it does make you invincible for a few frames in that mode. You also accelerate every time you turn, which is what makes the Dash Circuit so difficult.

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