DPS Idle, the latest incremental idle game from John Timpson, evokes the days of tabletop RPG sessions with friends, and manages to leave all the dice rolls and illegibly pencilled in character sheets at the door. Whether you call them idle games, click games, clickers, or webtoys, DPS brings plenty to the table in terms of features. You might expect character stats, character classes and leveling from an RPG-themed clicker, but how about an extensive inventory system, three different skill trees you can buy your way through, item upgrading, and gem-based enchanting? DPS manages to bring plenty of creature comforts with it. The first of these is a sophisticated mouse-based menu system — and if you're anything like me the first thing you'll want to do is mute the repetitive wet SHWUNK! of your attacks. There's a manual save option, but it also happens automatically every thirty seconds. By default monsters will spawn every thirty seconds as well, but that's adjustable and you can have them appear constantly if you like.
Each encounter will involve you trading attacks until one of you is dead, and unless it's you you'll be rewarded in gold equivalent to the creature's toughness. DPS features a diverse array of monsters to encounter, and you can increase the level of monsters yourself when you feel ready to take on more, but you'll find the creatures themselves don't vary — only their attributes scale. Encounters will often provide you with loot that shows up in your inventory, which you can refine, sell, upgrade or enchant. One of DPS' niceties is the option to automatically sell off or refine loot based on how common or rare it is. That will keep your inventory from cluttering up with too many common items you're never going to use. The emblems at the right are clickable to bring up your inventory as well as the various enhancements like shopping, achievements, and enchanting. Your battle stats and item upgrades are available for mere gold, but there are also skill trees with buffs that require Skill Points, and which eventually unlock special abilities unique to each skill tree. DPS is still being actively developed, and we found that it struck a nice balance of having some very sophisticated features and enhancements while still being at its core the sort of clicker game we've all become so comfortable with.
I've started to become curious about the word 'clicktoy'. What is it about this kind of work that makes it not a game?
We've never said it wasn't a game at all, and in fact it's still tagged as such. :) We needed something to describe this type of game at a glance since it's a genre that's becoming prevalent, so we came up with something that describes how it's played and combines it with "webtoy".
It'd be nice to be able to look at the "help" screens again, after the 1st time - they're kinda info-dense, so I started skipping them after the 1st few... Any way to get those again? (can't figure it out)
trans.fors, those should reappear upon saving and reloading the game.
Is it more profitable to fight bigger creatures slowly, or lower creatures quickly?
neo1973, that depends on just how slowly or quickly, and whether you're able to survive fighting the bigger creatures.
neo1973,
I'm not that far into the game myself, but the strategy I've seen recommended the most is:
Fight the highest level where you can 1-shot the smalls and 2-shot the mediums. If you're playing sorcerer, which most consider to be the best class for making money, you can set your skill on "elite and up," and move it down slowly as you increase your energy regen. Once you reach around 2k regen, you can use it on all mobs and never run out. Be aware that crit is worthless with this strategy.
This one was a bit too dense for me to get into.
The font in the article graphic is funky. What would the letter that makes it DPS Jdle instead of DPS Idle look like?
Satori, nope, doesn't work, but thx. Guess I'll muddle thru.
It's.....slow. Not really a clicktoy imho....not enough clicking. I think it's accurate as a webtoy. It's basically playing itself, you just occasionally monkey with the stats and equipment.
I also agree with tran.fors, that being able to see the help screens again would be nice.
But my biggest complaint is the speed a which things happen. For most clicktoys, the pace really picks up. I've been using the Instant Battle option the whole time, and honestly I'm bored. It's not about the difficulty....just the rate at which you fight.
shipoopie, the font used in the banner image is called Perry Gothic, a free font available at dafont.com. If you check it out, you'll find that a capital J looks even freakier in that font!
trans.fors, ooh you're right. It worked in the last update, but there you are. =T
Doesn't seem to work on Chrome(34)/Windows 7. I pick a class, spawn a monster, and then can't do anything. Monster never takes damage, I never take damage. I've tried clicking on everything in the main window that seems clickable. Is it borked or am I missing something obvious?
notawebmaster, I've alerted the game developer to player feedback here and invited them to stop by.
Thanks, but a reboot seems to have fixed the issue. Guess my computer was just messing with me!
There are a few strategies I see. This is a grinding game, and there is nothing to spoil, so I will dispense with the spoiler tags altogether.
1. grinding gold. As mentioned above, set the items to auto-refine and pick a level to where you can just barely kill a small enemy in one hit.
2. Grinding items, levels, and skill points. When you die, the only thing that happens is that (1) you don't get the gold/xp from the current enemy, and (2) you lose half your gold.
First, spend all your money. At very least buy gems so your cash isn't vulnerable-- I recommend diamonds as these are useful for upgrading items.
Second, deselect your instant spawn and up your appearance rate to 60. Type in a level that is well above yours (e.g., if you are level 40, try level 200) and as soon as a monster spawns, hope for a small. A small level 100 gives you a massive xp bonus even though it may take as long to kill as a elite level 50.
Then check your inventory for items. A level 100 sword at level 40 is quite nice.
Has anyone else noticed that at least some of the monster art seems to have been...er...borrowed from the Dungeons and Dragons fourth-edition Monster Manual?
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