the first installment can be found here: https://forums.demigodthegame.com/350112

so now that you've learned how to avoid becoming overextended (and thus resulting in an embarassing death) you need to learn how to avoid getting killed even when you're not overextended. the focus of this installment of the Survival Guide is how to develop your Sixth Sense and avoid walking into the most common kinds of death traps. 

Part 2: It's a Trap!!!!!!

1) What is a trap in Demigod and how can I detect them?

A trap is a situation where you are at a major disadvantage but don't know it. This is very different from being overextended, where you should have already known you were in a weak state. In trap situations you can be at full health and mana and have spent your gold wisely on items and citadel upgrades and yet still get killed easily because the enemy knew something that you didn't.

Thats the crux of it. Traps in Demigod are based on hidden information. You can get seriously friggin killed because you made assumptions about a situation based on incomplete information. There's also know way you can ever have complete information so what you need to learn to do is to start playing defensively. I don't mean defensive as in "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" turtling, walling, territory guarding defense. I mean defensive as in defensive driving defensive. Make your decisions as if the situation could get alot worse in a hurry at any given moment. 

2) What are my clues? 

i) you don't know the position of each member of the enemy team. 

 - what should you do? : you're at risk of getting jumped 2on1. go buddy up with a team mate and advance as a pair. safety in numbers and whatnot.

ii) your own team-mates are too far away to respond to a help request in enough time to matter. 

 - what should you do? : finish whatever it is you were doing over there in the wilderness (flag cap, etc.) and then go find your buddy again. don't linger in a region all by yourself for too long. you're inviting an ambush.

iii) you see something suspicious (more on this just a little further down the page)

 - what should you do? : gotta take a guess at whats really going on. this requires more explanation. see below.

iv) its been a long time since you last made contact with an enemy player. you don't have a good sense of what their current stats and abilities are like.

 - what should you do? : test the waters. go engage that player briefly with the intention of retreating early after you've got a sampling of their current power level. don't give away too much about yourself. just run near them and see how they react. retreat right away as soon as you've learned what you need to know. 

- did they advance or retreat? did they attack you with spells, with minions, with regular attacks? how much health do they have? how much damage do they take from one of your attack swings? this is what you're trying to find out. 

v) one of your team members just got killed unexpectedly

- what should you do? : ask your team-mate what happened. if your team-mate is a hothead he might interpret this as you telling him that he sucks or something like that. if he interpets it like that then you know that he does suck. if he's trying to figure out how he died then he's a good player and he might even have an idea about what killed him. 

3) Suspicious Things to look out for and Tricky Things you can do. Remember, if they can use it on you, you can use it on them.

i) there's a minion in a weird spot

- alot of players of General type Demigods like to use their minions as scouts. or to guard a flag so by the time they run back to defend it the intruder has already taken quite a few hits. the general will then just resummon the minions and you can be in a load of trouble in a hurry.

ii) feigning weakness

- a player approaches you even when his health is too low. he might be a noob or he might be trying to trick you into pursuing him into a dangerous spot. he can use a potion to easily get his health back up and if you made the mistake of chasing him down you're now badly out of position. you can get tricked into overextending this way if your not careful.

iii) unexpected teleports

- teleport scrolls aren't just for getting back to base faster. they can be used as deadly offensive weapons under the right circumstances. always be careful of fighting an enemy player near one of their flags or buildings. its very easy for an ally of theirs to port in from anywhere and then you're in a 2on1 and probably a dead man. 

iv) powerful activated items

- there are alot of items (particularly artifacts, but some regular shop items as well) with powerful activated effects. if you don't know your opponent has one you might killed and never know what hit you. alot of these items have no graphics associated with the effect either. 

- for example: Did you know that the Orb of Veiled Storms can nail everyone in a 20 unit radius for 500 damage and that there's no graphic for this at all? thats right, its a tricky mystery weapon. its a stealth shotgun in your back pocket. there's plenty of stuff just like it.

- You'll never be able to tell that your opponent just popped his Bracelet of Rage and is now hitting like a dump truck for 10 seconds. the list goes on and on. be careful with this. this is the reason why i recommend constantly testing your opponents and trying to get them to reveal their powers in a controlled situation where you can get out alive if things go badly. 

that's it for this installment. again, hope this helps people up their play level. none of this is advanced strategy and i don't think i could tell you how to play at the highest level (since i'm not there yet either). however, if you learn the basics like the stuff that i'm writing about you'll be able to play longer and better games against the good players and really improve quickly. 

next installment: Late Game Strategies