Not everyone is brave enough to take up the quest inCryptmaster, but those who do will be rewarded with improved typing skills and quite a bit of fun. While the mysteries and puzzles in this word-based title can be a little confusing at first, it gets easier when you pick up the basics.

From learning the best places to get ingredients to opportunities that might be missed, there is plenty to do throughout your spelling adventures. More than anything, you’ll want to think on your toes and ensure you don’t run out of souls when you need them the most.

The Cryptmaster holds a chest while peering inside, the answer is shown by three blank letters above his head. The player has typed out ‘Taste’ in the prompt space.

Remember The Chest Words

When you first encounter the chests with the Cryptmaster, he will show you a list of words that you can use to get a sense of the object. It’s a guessing game, and you’ll need touse sense and descriptor wordsto get the information.

Not every word will be useful in every chest.Sometimes you will get told there is nothing ‘unusual’ about it, and sometimes he will outright refuse if it is not possible.

A skull gives a riddle that reads ‘I once knew a man called Silas. If the son of Silas was my son’s father, what was Silas to me?" with five blank letters for the answer.

These words include:

You have limited questions you can ask, as shown by the cards to the left of the empty spaces. If you guess before these cards are expended, it will alsocost you one of the cards, so it’s wise to be sure anduse every chance you canbefore guessing.

Chests And Skulls Are Best For Letters

As you progress through the dungeons and level your party, you’ll notice that the words attributed to their attacks and memories get longer. Getting one letter at a time is less helpful, but chests and the riddle skulls can help you immensely sincethey give a lot of lettersat once.

Letters won’t apply to your allies that have fallen, so make sure to return to an Altar before you open a chest or put in the right Altar answer.

A cave wall with stone pillars can be seen in the distance. The ‘Soothe’ command can be seen entered, with a minus six being shown on the total soul score.

Whileyou might lose some of the chestsand other receptacles by missing your guesses, theskulls will allow you to come backand provide answers to the riddle until you get it right. Either way, both options are great resources for filling out a letter or two, at least.

Abilities Can Be Used Outside Of Battle

While you’re primarily taught to use your skills in battle,they’re alsoavailable when there are no enemiesaround as well. For example, the Bard’s ‘Soothe’ skill can be used toheal one letter per characterat a time for as long as you have souls. The command will turn white if it’s usable.

Attack-boosting abilities that bolster moves won’t last outside of battle, so you can’t prepare bonus damage until a battle is initiated.

A black and wite cave wall above water, with a fishing line appearing from the bottom of the screen. ‘Bumfish’ can be seen spelled out above a fish in the black water.

Be careful about using your souls if you don’t need to, though. If you run out of souls and attempt to continue to type out more than each character’s base attack, you’ll start touse letters in your allies’ namesand likely die shortly after.

Acquire The Fishing Skill From The Fishing Pools

After the tutorial, you’ll enter the Rats' home of the Bonehouses and be able to explore the dungeons freely, and you shouldget the Fishing ability immediately. This is becausefish give you letters,souls,and ingredientsfor crafting.

Once in the central Bonehouses square with the four areas marked on the map:

The loot screen after defeating an enemy shows the letters SKROXL that the player can choose from.

When you get to the area,walk up to the Fishing Rat behind the counter and talk to him. He’ll talk to you about fishing and pose a riddle that will reward you with a fishing pole and the fishing ability when you solve it.

The Fishing Rat’s riddle is fairly simple, with him just asking you what he needs. There may be other answers, but “Nothing” is sufficientsince you can use his own words against him.

A screenshot from Cryptmaster showing the player character going through the tutorial for the ‘Whatever’ card mini-game with a rat.

Remember The Most Used English Letters

When it comes to word puzzles, it’s important to remember thatthe English languageonly has 26 lettersand the game is limited by that. Remembering the most common letters in the language can help you immensely when you don’t know what letters to choose.

You will get to loot one letter from defeated enemies and fish, but this can also be a lost opportunity.

A young woman with hair of flames. Her name, Agda, is displayed above. Her dialouge reads ‘welcome, friends, to the altar of purity.'

For example, vowels are a safe bet, butthere are some consonants more common than other vowels. According to studies, the 15 most common letters include:

Keeping this in mind,the list gives you decent starting pointsthat are statistically more likely to be in a blank word than any of the other letters. As previously stated, vowels are always a safe bet, but so are some of the common consonants, like R and T.

A portal shows in front of the player that distorts reality around it. Through the portal you can see a wooden bridge and a rat walking in the opposite direction.

Challenge Every NPC To Whatever

After you get tricked by the rat outside the Bonehouses’ tombs, he’ll offer to help you if you play the card game ‘Whatever’ with him. From this point on, you canplay any NPC with a card over their headby engaging the dialogue before entering “Whatever” during a blank prompt.

You can even challenge the Cryptmaster to the game by typing “Whatever” when not in an active battle or conversation with an NPC. This gives the ‘Crypt’ card when you win.

The first few NPCs will be easy to beat with practice, andthey give plenty of soulswhen you beat them. You’llalso get an additional cardfor beating them that can be used to bolster your deck, usually featuring the character you bested.

Claim Every Altar Immediately

Cryptmaster is a dungeon-crawler that doesn’t pull its punches when it comes to the damage dealt to you. You will frequently need healing andrelying on your party’s healing skills exclusivelywill take all of your soulsbefore you can even get out of the first area.

you may destroy the altar with simple commands like ‘Desecrate,’ but you can also get creative with it as well with more colorful words.

To this end,you should be constantly looking for Altarsthat you can desecrate and then claim as your own. Once you do, you’ll have a new save point and healing station that you can return to at any point. Once unlocked, ensure that youget as much use out of it as possiblebetween fights.

Use Teleport Frequently

This is especially needed in the Bonehouses when you’re first exploring, but it’s a tip that can serve you well throughout the adventure. There will be times when your party is damaged and beaten, but you’re too far into a section and the enemies have started to respawn. Use teleport to get somewhere safe.

When you start in the first real chapter,you’ll constantly be typing “Bridge” to teleport yourself back to the arearight next to the Altar so you can heal. That’s not the only use though, as it canhelp you get between each Chapter’s areaquickly once you’ve unlocked their words.