Getting Started: How Slots & Daggers Actually Works

Slots & Daggers is an indie game that fuses slot machines with a turn-based roguelike. You spin 3-6 reels, and whatever symbols land is what happens — weapons hit enemies, shields stack up, apples heal. Goal: beat the final boss of the 10 stages, Lord Slotor, then take on the endless Arena.

One Minute to Understand: The Core Loop

Each turn

Spin

Resolve

Enemy

Each run

Earn coins

Shop & upgrade

Next stage

When the run ends, score becomes chips → buy modifiers → play again.

A run is about 20–40 minutes; clearing the game takes 3–6 hours. Tagline: “Steady your blade - and spin!”

Game Structure: 11 Stages + The Endless Arena

#	Stage (English)	End boss
1	Plains of Pain	The Queen Of Snakes
2	The Black Cemetery	The Butcher of Kul
3	Cursed Swamp	Knight of Baghar (Demo end boss)
4	Red Desert	The Rider of Kul
5	Sewers	The Deceiver
6	Cathedral of Smoke	High Priest
7	The Citadel	Helga
8	The Petrified Forest	King Lino I
9	The Ministry	The Minister
10	The Final Floor	Lord Slotor (final boss)
11	The Arena	Endless mode, 100 floors of egg enemies, with the holy sword Eggscalibur at the end

Each stage has 5 fights with a fixed enemy order (see the bestiary for each enemy’s stats). Clearing The Final Floor unlocks the Arena (Egg Arena), the place to farm chips and chase high scores.

Two Currencies: Coins vs Chips

This is what confuses new players the most. One is per-run, the other is permanent:

	Coins	Chips
Scope	Current run only	Permanent save
Cap	100 (anything beyond is wasted)	None (1000 per run in the Arena)
Sources	Kills, Coin symbols, Quick Kill rewards	Score conversion: 1 point = 0.1 chips
Use	Shop: symbols/items, upgrades	Modifiers (permanent power-ups, 12 types)
On death	Reset to zero	Kept

Score sources: 75 points per enemy kill / 60 per stage cleared / 80 per new item unlocked. New player bonus: each of your first 3 runs awards 50 bonus chips.

Quick Kill: killing an enemy within a single turn pays coins; consecutive kills in the same turn pay 10 / 5 / 3 / 2 / 1 coins in sequence.

Glossary

Term	Meaning
Critical	3 matching symbols stopping adjacent to each other, damage ×3 (multiplier varies by symbol)
Skill Check	Some symbols trigger a minigame (bar/aiming); success = full damage, perfect = critical hit
Mega Crit	A successful follow-up check after a crit chain, multiplier ×2 again
Respin	Respin a reel that hasn’t stopped yet
Shield	Temporary HP that takes damage before your health
Poison	Resolves at the end of each turn, then decays 20%/turn; stacks infinitely
Stun	The enemy skips a turn
Modifier	Permanent power-ups bought with chips, 12 types
Aggro	Some enemies have it: respin too often and they use their big move early

3 Steps to Get Rolling

Pick 3 starting items: For a first run, take Poison Blade + Hammer + Coin. Full breakdown in Starting Loadout.
Spend early coins on upgrades: Upgrading symbols at the shop pays off more directly than buying new ones (upgrade cost = base price + 4 × current level, see the symbol database). Rush 1 main attack symbol to level 3 first.
Don’t panic when you die: Death converts your score into chips → buy modifiers. Spend your first pile of chips on the Extra Wheel (200 chips): going from 3 reels to 4 takes your crit chance and damage output up a notch.

Common Misconceptions

❌ “Magic symbols are useless”: Wrong. Physical damage feels more intuitive early, but Stage 7’s Guardian of the Seven carries a massive shield (HP multiplier of just 0.05, it relies entirely on its shield). Without magic or shield-breaking tools you’ll be stuck there for a long time.
❌ “Save your coins for later”: The coin cap is 100 — you can’t stockpile them. A shop reroll costs only 5 coins; reroll when you need to.
❌ “Healing symbols are trash”: They matter for mid/late-game boss fights, and a triple crit heals for ×3-4. They’re just lower priority than attack symbols early on.
❌ “The more respins the better”: Respins cost resources (limited Respin symbols/items per run), and enemies with an aggro bar will rage early after roughly 10 respins.
❌ “I’ll just take whatever lands”: You can stop reels manually with the spacebar (timing). It’s the game’s core skill — leaving it to pure luck will make the game miserable. See Critical Hits & Timing.