Grave March: Player's Guide

Play Grave March · Leaderboard · UnDeAd Legion

Rise, Marcher. The crypt is hungry, and it is your turn to feed it.

Grave March is a top-down dungeon crawl. Pick a class and a race, write your name on the roll of the dead, and fight down through floor after floor of crypt, graveyard, forest and desert. On the way you grab gold and gear, shop in town, and take on orc war camps and floor bosses. When the run ends, your score goes on the shared leaderboard. It all runs right in your web browser, and you can play alone or in a group of up to 5 Marchers on the Legion's server (12 players at once, in groups of 5).

Contents

1. Starting a run
2. Your name and the leaderboard
3. Controls
4. Classes
5. Races
6. Promotions and rank powers
7. Floors, biomes and exits
8. Town and the shop
9. Gold, loot and gear
10. Monsters
11. How floors get harder
12. Carcasses
13. Multiplayer
14. Leaderboard categories
15. Tips from the grave

Starting a run

Go to https://undeadlegion.pro/grave-march/ on a computer or phone and wait for it to load. You don't need to install anything or make an account. Play with the keyboard and mouse, or with the on-screen controls (see Controls).

Every run goes like this

1. Choose a class: Up/Down or click, then Enter.
2. Choose a race: same controls. Esc goes back.
3. Enter your name (see below), then press Start.
4. March. Each time you take the stairs, you pick a stat and drop to the next floor.
5. When you die (or end the run from the pause menu), you see a summary. Enter starts a new run.

Your name and the leaderboard

• You must enter a name before every run, right after picking your class and race.
• Names can be up to 20 characters. A name that's blank once cleaned up, or the name "Anonymous", is refused.
• Your last name is filled in for you, but you still have to confirm it with Start (or Enter).
• Click or tap the name box to type. On a phone, the keyboard pops up.
• That same name shows on the shared leaderboard and over your head in multiplayer.

The leaderboard is covered in Leaderboard categories. A Leaderboard button sits in the top-right corner of every screen (menus, name entry, the multiplayer join screens, in a run under the HUD bar, paused, and the run-over screen), on computers and phones. Press L for it too.

Controls

Keyboard and mouse

When the floor is clear, choose your stat with 1 / 2 / 3 or by clicking.

Phone and touch controls

The game draws these on screen. They work with a finger or a mouse, and you can use several fingers at once:

You can also tap your way through the menus: class and race lists, Join multiplayer, the name box with Start / Back, and the stat buttons between floors.

Some actions have no on-screen button and need a keyboard: switching wizard elements, rogue stealth and stealing, a manual werewolf surge (it still triggers by itself at low health), the Legionnaire shield and trench, the character sheet, and pausing. (The bag still shows up on a phone as the sell list whenever you're in town or trading.) You don't lose out on gear without a keyboard, though: new gear goes straight on if that slot is empty.

Classes

Legionnaire

• Shield (hold H): cuts damage from hits in front of you by half.
• Trench (X): after a short dig (0.7 s), a trench 3 tiles long appears that enemies can't cross. Floor bosses walk around it. A trench is only one tile wide, so a monster on the far edge can still reach across and hit you if you stand right on the near edge: step back from it.

Wizard

• Three elements:
  • Fire: 15 damage, burns.
  • Ice: 12 damage, slows.
  • Lightning: 18 damage, the shock jumps.
• Tornado (T): lasts 10 s and pulls enemies in. 30 s cooldown.

Necromancer

• Fires dark (necrotic) bolts.
• Raising: a monster you kill rises as your minion if its max health is lower than your current health. Monsters now have double health (see How floors get harder), but raising goes by their health before the doubling, so it works just as before. It comes back with half of that (at least 12, so tiny foes still make useful pets). You can have up to 4 minions.
• Minions can be hurt and killed. Monsters go after the nearest thing they can see, so a minion standing in front of you draws their swings and shots. Armor a minion wears doesn't block hits, but its health bonus counts. A dead minion is gone (a dead Abomination can be recalled). In multiplayer the server decides which monster hits your minion, and your game applies the damage.
• Orders (G):
  • Frenzy: minions hunt anything you can see.
  • Guard: minions only fight up close.
• Forge (V): with exactly 4 living minions, fuse them into one minion of the next rank: Raised → Stitched → Horror → Abomination.
• Recall (B): if your Abomination dies, spend two living minions to bring it back.

Rogue

• Stealth (F): lasts 2.4 s with an 8 s cooldown. Enemies don't go after you while you're stealthed, and your first strike out of stealth hits twice.
• Steal (S): only while the town shop is open. It's a 50/50 chance:
  • Success: you get a random shop item for free.
  • Caught: you lose half your gold. If you have no gold, you lose half your health.

Races

Werewolf feasting

• Stand next to a carcass and press E (or tap EAT).
• You spend 1 second as a wolf eating, and heal 10% of your class's base health (for example, 13 for a Legionnaire).
• At full health, nothing is eaten and the carcass stays put.

Human looting

• Stand next to a carcass and press E (or tap LOOT). The carcass is used up, at any health.
• Every 10 carcasses you loot craft one heal potion automatically; it goes straight into your potion belt.
• Your progress shows on the LOOT n/10 button (phone), next to the Potion badge (computer), and above the nearest carcass.
• In multiplayer the server decides: it checks you're a human in reach of a carcass that still exists, removes it for everyone, counts your progress, and tells your game when a potion is crafted. Two players can't loot the same carcass.

Promotions and rank powers

Each floor has a boss. Land the killing blow on it and you get promoted.

Rank I (first boss kill): five stat points and a rank power on P (or its button):

Master rank (second floor-boss killing blow while already Rank I): five more stat points and a 30 s summon (60 s cooldown). In multiplayer the host runs the summons so everyone sees them.

Summon health (it grows +10% per floor, like the monsters'): wraith caster 160, centurion 140, legionnaire 130, shadow assassin 70. For example, on floor 4 a wraith caster has 224. Monsters target and hit every summon (melee and shots), and a summon that runs out of health fades early. The snowman can't be hurt, and monsters ignore it. The Centurion's Rank I ally (130 health) can be hurt too.

Floors, biomes and exits

• Each floor is one large map (150 × 140 tiles) with biomes side by side:
  • a crypt maze (or a graveyard, see below),
  • a forest beside it,
  • a desert along the south edge (or Cinderstone on some floors, see below).
• Walk through the open gaps between them to change biome.
• Desert scorpions sting with poison.
• Graveyard floors: on floors 2, 5, 8, 11 and every third floor after that, the crypt half becomes a graveyard: dark grass and grave dirt, rows of tombstones and crosses, mossy crypt walls and iron fences. Ghosts, ghouls and wraiths live there and nowhere else (see Monsters). Tombstones block you like walls, but there's always a way around them.
• Cinderstone floors: on floors 3, 6, 9, 12 and every third floor after that, the south strip becomes Cinderstone instead of desert: dark volcanic rock, glowing cracks, and fire and steam clouds. Standing in a fire cloud deals slight fire damage over time; steam is lighter. Fire elementals and magma sprites live only there. Fire elementals take no fire damage and half damage from lightning and necrotic.
• Each floor has three exits:
  • the town stairs,
  • a crypt stair (a graveyard stair on graveyard floors),
  • a desert stair (a cinder stair on Cinderstone floors).
• Take any of them and the game pauses so you can pick one stat point: Damage +1, Health +1 or Speed +1. Then a harder floor is built.
• Every floor also has 4 healing potions lying around.
• Later floors have more monsters: 66 on floor 1, then about 20 more on each floor after that (86 on floor 2, 106 on floor 3, 146 on floor 5, 245 on floor 10). Floor bosses, Orc Chiefs and war camp waves come on top. In multiplayer, extra players add more (see Multiplayer).
• Your run's seed is shown on screen.

Town and the shop

Town is a clearing in the forest.

The shop

• When you walk into town, the shop opens with 7 items: potions, weapons, armor from several bases, a trinket, and sometimes a wand.
• The stock changes each time you walk back into town.
• To buy, press 1–7, click, or tap.
• Shops never sell Legendary gear.
• A Heal Potion costs 20 gold and goes into your potion belt.

Selling

• In town (and while trading with the wandering merchant) your bag opens as a sell list on the right: a scrollable list with a scroll bar, each item with its price. Tap an item to pick it (it's highlighted), then Sell Ng sells just that one; Equip wears it. Scroll with the mouse wheel, by dragging the scroll bar, with Up / Down / PageUp / PageDown, or by swiping the list on a phone. Delete sells the picked item, Enter equips it.
• Press N or tap Sell all (or the top-bar Sell) to sell everything in your bag that you aren't wearing.
• Equipped gear and your equipped wand are never sold (they show worn in the list).
• The town buys for less than it sells, so buying something just to resell it loses gold.

Gold, loot and gear

Drops

Every monster you kill leaves something:

• About 90% of the time it's gold. Floor 1 drops 4–16 gold, and the amount grows each floor. Bosses drop 3× as much.
• About 10% of the time it's gear. Ranged monsters (casters) can drop wands instead.

Walk over a drop to pick it up.

Potions

• Potions heal 28 health or a third of your max health, whichever is more.
• Walking over a potion (or buying one) puts it in your potion belt. Nothing is drunk automatically.
• Drink one with Z, by clicking the Potion ×N badge (bottom-left), or with the round POT button on phones. The badge and button show how many you carry.
• At full health the potion is kept, not wasted. There's a short 0.6 s pause between drinks.
• Humans also craft potions from looted carcasses (see Races).

Gear slots

You have three gear slots: weapon, armor and trinket. A wizard or necromancer can also carry a wand.

• Gear you pick up goes into your bag.
• If that slot is empty, the new piece is equipped automatically.
• Press C to open the character sheet. It shows your class, race, health, damage, speed, defense, money, bag, and what you're wearing. Click any bag item to equip it. The piece you take off stays in your bag.

Armor bases

Defense is taken off every hit you take, but a hit always does at least 1 damage.

Enchantment tiers

Higher tiers make the speed penalty on heavy armor smaller and smaller.

Wands

Necrotic (lingering damage), Ice (slow), Lightning (jumps) and Wind (knockback). A wand adds damage and its effect to your shots, but only for a wizard or necromancer.

Monsters

Regular monsters

Some monsters only start showing up on later floors.

Melee reach: every melee monster (Orc Chiefs, trolls, ghouls and floor bosses included) strikes one tile further than it walks up to you. That's enough to hit you across a one-tile trench from the far edge. Walls still block every hit.

Cinderstone monsters

Standing in fire clouds deals a little fire damage over time; steam clouds deal less.

Graveyard monsters

These three only appear in the graveyard (floors 2, 5, 8 …). They grow with the floor like every other monster and leave carcasses when they die.

Orcs and trolls

War camps and the Orc Chief

• Every floor hides an orc war camp with a campfire. From floor 4 on, there are two camps.
• The Orc Chief guards each camp. He has 3× an orc's health and 1.5× its damage.
• The camps hunt you from the start of the floor: you don't have to find them first. War drums sound when you arrive, and after a short grace (6 seconds) the first war party of 6 orcs and 1 troll marches out. Another follows every 30–45 seconds.
• The Orc Chief stays at his fire. You have to go to him.
• Kill the Orc Chief and the camp goes cold for good: no more war parties from that camp (in multiplayer too, whoever lands the killing blow).

Named legendaries

Floor bosses have an 18% chance to drop one of these (names show on the map and in your character sheet):

They work the same in solo and multiplayer (the server applies explosions, burns and stuns for joined players).

Map events

Each floor may hide rare events (rolled from the seed; about 22% merchant, 18% cursed chest, 20% fallen legionnaire — you will see each every few floors):

Hunting war parties

War-party orcs and trolls hunt the nearest living player across the whole map. Running away only buys you time.

Floor bosses

• The floor boss isn't there at the start. After 45 kills on a floor, it appears right beside you and hunts you down.
• Each boss is one class mixed with one race, using that kit. It walks around walls and trenches.
• A necromancer boss raises a skeleton every 1.5 seconds while it's fighting, up to 8 of them at once. Kill the boss quickly, or the skeletons keep coming.
• Bosses drop triple gold and are the only source of Legendary gear.
• Floor bosses also have an 18% chance to drop a named legendary (see below). Orc Chiefs do not.
• If you land the killing blow, you get a promotion.
• The on-screen counter "Boss in …" shows how many kills are left.

How floors get harder

Every monster grows with the floor in three steps:

1. Base growth: health goes up 22% per floor and damage 12% per floor.
2. On top of that: - Health: +10% for every floor number. - Damage: +1 for every floor number.
3. Double health: every monster's health is then doubled (+100%). That includes floor bosses, Orc Chiefs and the elite chief, in solo and on the multiplayer server.

The bonuses stack, so by floor 100 monsters have 22× health and +100 damage on top of base growth. Since monsters take twice as long to kill, each kill counts double on the leaderboards (see Leaderboard categories). Some examples straight from the game:

Carcasses

• Every kill by a player leaves a carcass. That includes melee, spells, burns and other damage over time, and minion kills.
• A carcass lasts 30 seconds and fades out over its last 6.
• At most 24 carcasses stay on the map. When a new one drops, the oldest goes first.
• Werewolves eat carcasses to heal, and humans loot them toward crafted heal potions (see Races). Either way the carcass is used up. For other races they're just grim decoration.

Sound

Short procedural sound effects play for combat, pickups, heals, stairs, war camps, bosses and menus. Volume is modest by default. Press M or tap Mute on the HUD to mute or unmute (remembered in the browser). If audio cannot start, the game carries on silently.

Multiplayer

Basics

• Multiplayer happens on the Legion's server. Just tap Join multiplayer: there's nothing to type or set up.
• The server holds 12 players at once, in groups of up to 5. Each group is its own game: its own map, its own run and its own Group-board entry.
• You join the first group that has room. When every group is full, a new group starts on a fresh map. If all 12 places are taken you'll see The Legion's server is full (12 players) - try again in a little while.

How to join

1. Open https://undeadlegion.pro/grave-march/.
2. On the class menu, press J or tap Join multiplayer. You'll see Joining the Legion's server...
3. Pick your class and race, enter your name, and press Start.
4. If you see The multiplayer server is offline right now, the server isn't running. Play solo and try again later.

Floors: everyone at their own pace

• Taking the stairs moves only you. Your group mates stay on their floor, and that floor keeps running for them. Players on the same floor share everything on it: monsters, carcasses, war camps, map events and summons.
• When you join, you land on the floor where most of your group is (if it's a tie, the shallower floor), at that floor's start. A new group starts on floor 1.
• If you die and start a new run, you come back on the floor you were on.
• A floor nobody is standing on is closed, and the server frees it.

What's shared

• Players on your floor see each other, their names, health and attacks. You all fight the same monsters and see the same carcasses. All the damage you deal counts on the server: your level-ups, gear, rogue openers, werewolf surges, spells, burns and poison, and your minions. Monsters you kill are dead for everyone on that floor, and an Orc Chief you kill shuts his camp down for everyone.
• Monsters hit everyone the same way they hit you solo: armor, shields, dodging, stealth and race rules all count. If you die, your run ends (it counts toward your group's entry on the Group board, not the Solo board).
• More players, more monsters: each extra player on the same floor adds 25% more monsters (2 players +25%, 3 players +50% … 5 players +100%). If someone arrives partway through a floor, the extra monsters appear far away from everyone, not on top of you.
• If the connection to the server drops, your run carries on as a solo run (the monsters around you keep fighting). Go back to the menu and press J to join again; you can rejoin with the same name, and you go back to your group if it still has room.
• Gold, loot, potions and the shop are still each player's own. Carcasses are shared: a werewolf feast or a human loot removes the carcass for everyone (the server decides who got it).
• A necromancer's minions (and a Centurion's ally) show only on their owner's screen, but the damage they do counts for everyone. The server's monsters see them too: it decides who gets hit, and your game applies the damage to your minion.
• A slow or busy connection only delays your updates; it doesn't drop you. While your tab is in the background, monsters leave your character alone, and you catch up when you come back (after about 90 seconds away, your seat is freed). Rejoining with the same name takes your old seat back right away.

Leaderboard categories

The shared board on the site tracks four things for each run:

• Kill score: 2 points for every monster slain (graveyard ghosts, ghouls and wraiths count too). Monsters have double health, so each kill is worth double. Older runs from before this change counted 1 point per kill; they stay on the board as they were and are marked 1×.
• Gold: gold picked up
• Levels completed: floors cleared through the stairs
• Bosses killed

There are two boards, with a Solo / Group switch at the top of the leaderboard page:

• Solo: single-player runs. Each player's game sends its own run.
• Group: multiplayer runs on the Legion's server. One entry per group run lists every player's name and adds up their scores (kill score, gold, levels and bosses).

Each board has tabs for each category, plus Overall and Recent runs. Open it with the Leaderboard button (top-right on every screen) or L, from the site home page, or the Leaderboard page. In the browser the board opens over the game (Close or Esc returns, a solo run pauses first); there's also an Open in new tab link.

When a solo run is sent

• A run is submitted once, when it ends: when you die, or when you pause (Esc) and press Q to end it.
• Runs with nothing scored (no kills, gold, floors or bosses) are skipped.
• Runs played on the site go to the shared leaderboard.

Group runs

• A group run is everything one group does on the Legion's server, from the first player joining until the run ends. Players who split up across floors still count toward the same group run.
• It ends, and is sent once, by the server (players can't send group scores), when:
  • the group wipes: everyone in the group is down at the same time for 3 seconds (the group then starts again on floor 1, as a new group run),
  • everyone in the group leaves, or
  • the server restarts: the run in progress is saved and sent when the server is back.
• How it adds up: the server counts every player's kills (2 points each) and bosses, gives each player one level each time they personally take the stairs, and adds up the gold each player picked up (capped by what the group's kills could drop). The entry shows the deepest floor anyone reached.
• A player who dies and starts a new run in the same group keeps adding to the same group entry.

Tips from the grave

• Watch the "Boss in …" counter. The boss spawns right next to you at 45 kills, so be ready before you get there.
• Save your potions. They wait in your belt until you press Z (or tap POT), so pick them all up and drink when a fight turns.
• Humans: loot every carcass you pass. Ten of them make a free heal potion.
• Find the Orc Chief fast. The first war party comes for you a few seconds into the floor, and every 30–45 seconds you let the camp burn, another 6 orcs and a troll follow.
• Undead shrug off cultists, wraiths and ghosts: poison and necrotic damage do nothing to them.
• Ghosts slip through mist and trenches. A trench won't hold them back, and your sword does less to them, so use spells or fire.
• Necromancers: raising only works on monsters whose max health (before the doubling) is below your current health, so stay healthy to raise the big ones.
• Werewolves: fight near fresh kills. Carcasses last 30 s, and each bite heals 10% of your base health.
• Ghosts: Scream before you get surrounded, so the pack freezes while you slip away.
• Legionnaires: a trench across a corridor lets you fight on your own terms. Bosses walk around trenches, though, so they won't stop one. Monsters can reach across a trench, so step back from the edge (or fight from range).
• Rogues: start fights from stealth to get the double first strike. Steal only when you can afford to lose half your gold.
• Sell in town. Unworn bag gear is just dead weight; turn it into potions and upgrades.
• Heavy armor: Plate slows you a lot at base tier, but enchanted tiers ease the penalty.
• Pick your stat: Damage +1, Health +1 or Speed +1. Choose for your class.