Enter the Gungeon Beginner's Guide [Updated] - VGU (2024)

With the released of gunfight dungeon crawler Enter the Gungeon, prospective Gungeoneers will soon be facing the terrors found within its many chambers. As someone who has been exploring the depths for a long while now, here are some useful tips, tricks and bits of information that should make your excursions into the depths that little bit easier.

This guide is by no means exhaustive, as dedicated explorers will soon be at work to discover every last little secret found within the walls of the crypt but it should point you in the right direction. For more information about Enter the Gungeon as fans crack the game open and discover all its secrets, check out Gungeeoners, the official wiki site for the latest discoveries and information.

1. Stop, drop and roll.

The dodge roll is so important to Enter the Gungeon, the developers named their studio after it. If you want to survive and get to the final floors, you will have to master the art of precise dodging in order to deal with the storm of bullets coming your way. You become vulnerable as soon as you come out of the roll so try not to dodge into bullets when you are trying get away from a big shot. Rolling in the right direction is almost as important of timing the actual input, as you could roll into an enemy or into a pit full of spikes. You can actually kill or hurt some enemies, like the Rubber Bullets or the smaller Blobulions by rolling into them so save your ammo against the tiny enemies. Certain pits can be crossed over via rolling and you can roll from minecart to minecart in Floor 3, which is invaluable for getting a certain artefact.

2. If it looks suspicious, it’s hiding something.

Just like how you should always look under the waterfall in any adventure game, always check out that suspicious looking altar or wall when exploring the Gungeon. Secret rooms can be exposed through enemy gunfire so if you see a crack suddenly emerge in a wall during a gunfight, you know something’s behind it. Secret walls can be dispelled by firing off a Blank so if you have a hunch about a room hiding something, just let off a shot and listen for the discovery jingle. There are also secret levels which can be discovered by interacting with certain objects. I know of at least two but I can only access one of them consistently, which is on the first floor. To find this secret level, you need to first put out the fireplace that spawns in random locations. You either need to roll a water barrel into the fireplace, fire a liquid based weapon like the Tearjerker or Mega-Douser at the fire or use the goo trail of a Blobulion to put the flame out. Once you have done so, walk into the fireplace and press the interact button at the back of the chamber. You should hear a click and a secret room should appear on your map. Find the room, use two keys to open the grate and voila, you’ve entered the Oubliette. There are way more secrets to find but that’s one to get you started.

3. Never trust a chest.

You are in a dungeon, there are bound to be Mimic chests hidden somewhere in the depths so be wary when opening that chest you’ve just found. Give it a quick shot with a gun of your choice just to check it’s safe before you go to unlock it. Just as chests get bigger and contain better loot depending on their size, Mimics get more powerful based on the chest they are copying so be prepared for a decent fight if you come across a red chest Mimic. Chests go from brown to blue to green to red to black, with black chests occasionally containing cursed items which I’ll talk about later. If you are low on keys, you can actually shoot open chests to get the loot inside but this often results in you either getting a piece of junk as the item or the chest exploding in your face. There are also super rare glitch chests which warp you to a special battle area where you fight corrupted bosses. These glitch bosses seem to blend bosses together, with my only glitch encounter seemingly blending the Trigger Twins and the Beholster together to fight Twin Beholsters. I could be wrong but be prepared for a really difficult fight if you open up one of these chests.

4. Demonic shrines and you.

5. Buy your friends.

Speaking of money, many of the NPCs you find in Enter the Gungeon are all about making fat stacks. Most of these shopkeepers are found after you free them from jail cells which start to appear from Floor 2 onward. The first people you find in a jail cell are Ox and Cadence, who return to the Breach to run the Acquisition Shop and sell you additional items and weapons to go into the item pool. The majority of shopkeepers return to the Breach where they will sell items that get added to the item pool. These shopkeepers trade in Credits, which you get from killing bosses or completing hunts for Frifle and Grey Mauser, who are also trapped in a cell in the Gungeon. Other shopkeepers like the elderly Blank or the talking lock start to appear in the Gungeon by themselves, either in their own rooms or in the Shop on every floor. Do note that apart from Ox and Cadence who you always find first, discovering jail cells is randomised and you may not find another NPC to free for several runs.

6. Guns don’t kill Time, bullets do.

The ultimate goal of Enter the Gungeon is to find a gun that will kill the past. In order to fire that gun, you are going to first need a bullet. You find the four pieces of this legendary bullet on every floor past Floor 1, with them appearing either in Shops or in special puzzle rooms that you need to solve. If you can collect these consistent parts and bring them to a special NPC on Floor 5, you can forge this amazing bullet. Don’t worry about getting all the bullet pieces in a single go, the pieces stay with the NPC once you hand them over and you can craft this artefact over multiple playthroughs.

7. Have some trigger discipline.

You wouldn’t go into a kitchen shop, buy a knife and then test it out by stabbing a staff member, so don’t do the same when you buy a new gun. Firing off shots will quite rightly annoy the shopkeeper, who will first double the prices of all of his inventory, before pulling out his own mega shotgun and filling his room with hot lead. If you survive this hail of bullets, the shopkeeper will disappear from the Gungeon and you will not be able to buy stuff from him for the rest of the run. So, be courteous and wait till you get outside before testing out that brand new gun which shoots the word ‘BULLET!’ instead of actual bullets.

8. Keep your personal belongings on you at all times.

Just as you are looting anything you can get your hands on, there are certain nefarious characters who will loot your stuff if you leave it lying around in the Gungeon. If you leave either a gun, an item or some ammo unattended and leave your current room for long enough, a rat faced crook will warp in, steal your treasure and replace it with a cheeky note. You can interrupt this theft by running back into the room and firing off some warning shots to scare the bugger off, but he’ll always try again if you let him. The only things you can leave to pick up later are keys, armour and hearts so feel free to let them sit for a bit if you are in a hurry to fight the floor boss.

9. Disrespect your surroundings.