So, basically I found how to win every time (one exception, noted later).
1) Immediately upgrade core, tap it for 6 mana, summon 2 skeletons to serve as token defense (summon more with all available mana to mob heroes).
2) Wait for an earthquake, something about this happening causes you to gain a bunch of meat. This is good, because without this influx it is almost impossible to stockpile enough meat (it expires!?)
3) Spam summoning rats near skeletons to farm them for meat until you have 20
4) Place a poison flower in the tunnel leading to your core
5) Sit back and relax
Every hero ignores the flowers and is susceptible to poisoning--except the final dragonslayer who is immune. Both levels 2 and 3 will end before you ever have the resources for anything else no matter what you do (no joke, just as I got 10 gold to build a chest and a door and plonked them down for building, the level was over), as knights do 8 damage on an attack (skeletons have about 5 hp) and are 100% resistant to skeleton attacks. You'll start seeing knights almost immediately.
Even "big minions" have 15 hp and don't last very long against knights (and as such are completely useless against the dragonslayer). The giant mole lasted about two seconds and got in one attack. Even seven of them all at once did zero damage total. Spiders do ~3 damage each and fire snakes do about 7.
Other issues:
- Meat rots and/or is consumed by some unexplained process (apparently skeletons eat it? Why?).
- Skeletons die from poison flower spore
- Dead fixed-place defenses (spider, thorns) permanently block that cell from ever getting another defense placed in it forever. Can't even build a floor.
- Plant growth across the dungeon complicates the simple task of "summoning a humandoid minion" to handle things like digging and building.
- Plant growth overrides wooden floors. AND STONE FLOORS. AAAA.
- The costs of all things (other than rubble and possibly mana) are so outrageously high that those items may as well not exist. I've never managed to mine a single crystal, have never had more than 20 gold at one time, and meat rots.
- Heroes level up WAY too fast. Why is the 4th hero that enters my dungeon doing 4 damage per hit and have 15 hp and 2 defense?
- Floors marked for having something built (or a wall dug) that have plants grow onto them cancel the build/dig action.
- Ore deposits can have plants grow onto them and there's no way to revert it.
- If you have zero gold and zero chests you can place a door.
And then it crashed (I was attempting to fast forward while the only hero left was the dragonslayer).
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FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event2
for object oUnit:
Variable <unknown_object>.<unknown variable>(100564, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_oUnit_Step_2
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_oUnit_Step_2 (line -1)
called from - gml_Object_oGameManager_Step_0 (line -1) - <unknown source line>