Getting Started with Barony

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Overview: Barony is a first-person roguelike dungeon crawler developed by Turning Wheel LLC. You pick a class and a race, descend into a procedurally generated ...
Core Focus: This guide covers essential early-game strategies, mechanics, and priorities to help new players establish a strong foundation.
Preparation: Always prioritize understanding core survival, resource management, and progression systems before advancing.

Barony is a first-person roguelike dungeon crawler developed by Turning Wheel LLC. You pick a class and a race, descend into a procedurally generated dungeon beneath a cursed barony, and fight your way through 35 floors of monsters, traps, and loot. Baron Herx waits on Floor 20, but killing him only opens the path deeper. The true final bosses, Erudyce and Orpheus, lurk on Floor 35 in the Citadel. Death is permanent. There are no checkpoints, no mid-run saves you can reload after dying, and no mercy. If you die on Floor 33, you start from scratch.

The game released on Steam on June 23, 2015, after a successful Kickstarter. It supports Windows, macOS, and Linux, and runs co-op for up to four players over Steam, LAN, or direct IP. It has received three major DLC packs: Myths & Outcasts (four monster races, four classes), Legends & Pariahs (four more monster races, four more classes), and Deserters & Disciples (five additional races and five classes, released alongside the v5.0 update in January 2026). A typical first successful run through all 35 floors takes five to eight hours, but most players die dozens of times before they reach Baron Herx on Floor 20, let alone the true ending.

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Barony received a massive overhaul in the v5.0 "Instruments of Destruction" update (January 29, 2026), which restructured the magic system into three schools (Sorcery, Thaumaturgy, and Mysticism), replaced the Appraisal skill with the Lore skill, and moved Mystic Orbs from secret levels into color-coded Treasure Rooms on standard floors. If you are reading older guides or forum posts, many mechanics have changed. This guide covers the current version.

How the Game Works

You start in a safe hub area with access to the Hall of Trials, a tutorial dungeon that teaches basic controls and mechanics. After character creation, the game drops you onto Floor 1 of the main dungeon. Every floor is randomly generated with a new layout, enemy set, and loot pool. Your job is simple: find the stairs down, survive, and reach the bottom.

Here is the basic loop:

Explore the current floor. Kill or avoid enemies, open chests, loot corpses, and search for secret rooms.
Manage your resources. Eat food before you starve, identify items before you use them, and keep your equipment in good condition.
Find the stairs to the next floor.
Repeat for 35 floors, collecting Mystic Orbs along the way to buff your stats for boss fights.
Defeat Baron Herx on Floor 20, pass through the Hamlet, and descend through the Crystal Caves and Citadel to face Erudyce and Orpheus on Floor 35.

The dungeon is split into six main regions, each with its own tileset, enemy roster, and environmental hazards. The difficulty ramps hard between regions.

Character Creation

You pick two things at the start: a race and a class. Both affect your starting gear, stats, skill levels, and how you interact with the dungeon.

Races

The base game includes Human as the default race. The three DLC packs add 13 monster races, each with unique survival mechanics.

Race	Source	Key Trait
Human	Base game	Standard. Eats food, no special perks or drawbacks. The balanced default.
Skeleton	Myths & Outcasts	Does not eat food. Fragile, with specific elemental resistances and weaknesses.
Vampire	Myths & Outcasts	Feeds on blood vials instead of food. Damaged by water and smite attacks. The Vampire Doublet disables natural HP regeneration.
Succubus	Myths & Outcasts	Demonic powers. Benefits from curses that would harm other races.
Goatman	Myths & Outcasts	Can eat tin cans without a tin opener. Detects extra potions at fountains.
Automaton	Legends & Pariahs	Does not eat but must fuel an internal boiler with scrap, rocks, gems, or fire magic. Friendly to human NPCs.
Goblin	Legends & Pariahs	Adaptable with equipment but illiterate. Cannot memorize spells. Must cast directly from held spellbooks.
Incubus	Legends & Pariahs	Benefits from cursed equipment. Starts with demonic abilities.
Insectoid	Legends & Pariahs	Eats anything, loves sugar. Combines hunger and mana into a single Energy (EN) resource. Gains flight from wings.
Salamander	Deserters & Disciples	Gains heat, speed, and power during prolonged combat but risks burning out.
Gremlin	Deserters & Disciples	Mischievous vandals universally boycotted by shopkeepers. Explosive utility focus.
Dryad	Deserters & Disciples	Nature-based race that grows magical foliage. Plants healing shrubs and nutritious nuts.
Myconid	Deserters & Disciples	Fungal entity that grows defensive caps and plants toxic mushroom traps that double as food.
Gnome	Deserters & Disciples	Highly magical but physically frail. Can fashion jewels and detect gold.

tip

For your first several runs, stick with Human. Monster races change survival mechanics in ways that add complexity on top of an already brutal game. Once you can reach Floor 10 consistently as a Human, branch out.

Classes

Barony has over 30 classes across the base game and three DLCs. Each one determines your starting equipment, initial skill levels, and how fast your attributes grow when you level up. The six attributes are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Perception, and Charisma.

Classes act as a starting point, not a permanent lock. A Warrior can learn spells if you find spellbooks and invest in Intelligence. A Wizard can swing a sword if you level melee skills. But fighting against your class growth weights is slow and painful, so pick a class that matches how you want to play.

Recommended starter classes:

Warrior. Heavy armor, strong melee. High Strength and Constitution growth. Durable enough to absorb mistakes while you learn enemy patterns.
Cleric. Starts with healing magic and decent armor. Keeps you alive through the early floors where food and potions are scarce.
Wanderer. Stealth-focused. Good Perception and Dexterity growth. Lets you avoid fights you are not ready for, which is most of them at first.
Monk. Fast tank with access to basic magic. High base speed and Constitution, plus enough Intelligence to cast utility spells.

The Dungeon Regions

Floors	Region	Environment	Threat Level
1-5	The Mines	Dark tunnels, basic enemies (rats, spiders, goblins, skeletons). Your training ground.	Low to moderate
6-10	The Swamp	Flooded corridors, poison hazards, stronger monsters. Green Mystic Orb found in Treasure Rooms here.	Moderate
11-15	The Sand Labyrinth	Desert ruins, magical enemies, complex layouts. Red Mystic Orb found in Treasure Rooms here.	High
16-20	The Ruins	Demons, liches, and lethal traps. Blue Mystic Orb found here. Ends at the Lich's Bastion (Baron Herx).	Very high
21-25	The Hamlet + Transition	Town intermission after Herx. Restock, trade, and prepare for the endgame descent.	Variable
26-30	The Crystal Caves	Crystalline environments, powerful elemental enemies. Home of the Cockatrice Lair secret level.	Extreme
31-35	The Citadel	The final stretch. Maximum difficulty. Erudyce and Orpheus wait on Floor 35.	Lethal

warning

The jump from the Mines to the Swamp kills more runs than any other transition. Enemies hit harder, poison becomes a factor, and food gets scarce. If you can survive Floors 6 and 7, you have a real shot at reaching the Sand Labyrinth.

Survival Basics

Hunger

Barony tracks hunger on a hidden integer scale from 0 to over 1500. Understanding the thresholds prevents both starvation and the penalties from overeating.

Hunger Value	Status	Effect
1500+	Oversatiated	Stat penalties (-1 STR, -1 DEX) and risk of vomiting. Do not gorge.
1000	Satiated	Default starting value for most humanoid races. No penalties.
250-50	Hungry to Starving	Gradual stat deterioration (-2 STR, -2 DEX, -1 PER, -1 INT at worst).
0	Wasting Away	Continuous health damage until you eat or die.

Bread, meat, and cheese restore hunger. Food quality (Fresh, Aged, Rotten) affects a percentage chance of vomiting.
Some races handle food differently. Skeletons do not eat at all. Vampires drink blood vials. Insectoids merge hunger and mana into Energy (EN).
The Ring of Slow Digestion multiplies your hunger duration by 4x. Keep one if you find it.
Starvation kills faster than most enemies. Keep at least one food item in reserve.

Item Identification

You will find weapons, armor, potions, scrolls, rings, and amulets throughout the dungeon. Many of them are unidentified when you pick them up. Using an unidentified item is a gamble. That potion could heal you, or it could poison you. That ring could boost your stats, or it could be cursed and stuck on your finger.

The v5.0 update replaced the old Appraisal skill with the Lore skill. Identification time now scales with the item's gold value. A common item worth under 50 gold takes about 15 seconds to identify. A rare artifact worth over 3,000 gold takes up to 12 minutes of uninterrupted holding. Your Lore skill level determines which items get identified on the fast (10-second) timer versus the slow timer.

danger

Cursed equipment locks onto your character and cannot be removed without a Remove Curse scroll or spell. A cursed weapon that deals less damage than your fists is a death sentence in the late game. Always identify before equipping.

Light and Vision

The dungeon is dark. Without a light source, you cannot see enemies until they are already attacking you.

Torches are cheap and common. They burn out over time.
Lanterns last longer but take up an equipment slot.
Crystal Shards provide light but shatter if you block attacks with them.
Higher Perception lets you see further in the dark.

Tools to Keep

Certain items are worth holding onto even when your inventory is tight:

Tool	Why You Need It
Pickaxe	Breaks through walls. Opens shortcuts, reveals secret rooms, and creates escape routes.
Lockpicks	Opens locked chests and doors without keys. Breaks on failed attempts, so carry spares.
Towel	Clears negative status effects like Messy and Bleeding. Sounds silly. Saves lives.
Tinkering Kit	Lets you salvage junk into scrap metal for crafting. Repair it before it breaks.
Alembic	Required for alchemy. Brew potions from base ingredients.

Combat Basics

Combat in Barony is real-time and unforgiving. Enemies do not wait for you to figure out what to do.

Melee works by getting close and swinging. Hold down the attack button to charge a heavier swing. Watch your stamina.
Ranged attacks use bows, crossbows, or thrown items. Ammo is limited and hard to replace in the early game. Ranged weapons do not inflict knockback (except with Springshot ammo), so you must master rotational kiting: sprint away, turn, fire, sprint again. Backpedaling is significantly slower than forward movement.
Magic requires finding spellbooks and learning spells. Casting drains mana, which regenerates based on your Intelligence. The three magic schools (Sorcery, Thaumaturgy, Mysticism) level independently through mana expenditure.
Stealth lets you backstab enemies for bonus damage. Crouch and approach from behind. Works best with the Wanderer and other Dexterity-focused classes.

Do not fight everything. Some enemies are not worth the health and resources they cost you. If a fight looks bad, run. You can often outpace enemies by sprinting through doorways and shutting doors behind you.

Your First Run

Play the Hall of Trials first. Learn the controls, practice combat, and understand basic mechanics before entering the real dungeon. There is no penalty for dying here.
Pick Warrior or Cleric for your first real run. Both are durable enough to survive early mistakes.
Explore every room on Floors 1 through 3. You need the experience, the loot, and the food. Rushing the stairs down gets you killed on later floors.
Identify everything before using it. Never equip unidentified gear. Never drink unidentified potions.
Carry a light source. Fighting in the dark is how you die to things you could have dodged.
Save food for emergencies. Eat when your hunger drops below Satiated, not when your meter is full. Oversatiation causes stat penalties.
Expect to die. Your first dozen runs will end on Floors 1 through 5. Every death teaches you something about an enemy, a trap, or a mechanic. That knowledge carries forward even when your character does not.
Unlock the Compendium. Every Steam achievement you earn gives you Lore Points. Spend them between runs to research enemy entries, permanently revealing their weaknesses, HP values, and damage types.

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Barony has an Assist Shrine in the early floors that can make the game slightly more forgiving. Using it is not a failure. If you are getting destroyed before Floor 3, turn on the assists, learn the systems, and turn them off when you are ready.

How the Game Works​

Character Creation​

Races​

Classes​

The Dungeon Regions​

Survival Basics​

Hunger​

Item Identification​

Light and Vision​

Tools to Keep​

Combat Basics​

Your First Run​

What to Read Next​