Enter the Gungeon: Beginner's Guide & Best Tips

Introduction

Welcome to the Gungeon, Gungeoneer. If you've ever wondered what it would feel like to wade through a bullet hell while dual-wielding a shotgun that shoots bees and a crossbow that fires actual icicles, Enter the Gungeon is your answer. Released by Dodge Roll and Devolver Digital, this is a dungeon-crawling, rogue-lite shoot-em-up that has earned a cult following for its absurd weaponry, pixel-perfect art, and punishing yet deeply rewarding gameplay.

The setup is simple: you are a fallen hero (or a depressed pilot, or a time-traveling convict) who has come to the Gungeon to find the ultimate treasure—a gun that can kill the past. But the Gungeon isn't a friendly place. It’s a labyrinth of bullet-firing enemies, trap-filled rooms, secret floors, and bosses that will test your reflexes and your patience. The game's genius lies in its balance of chaos and control. One run you might feel like an invincible god with a rocket launcher; the next, you'll be scrambling with a peashooter, praying for a single green chest to spawn.

What makes this game so special is its depth. It’s not just about dodging bullets—it's about managing your blank charges, mastering the dodge roll i-frames, knowing when to open a brown chest vs. a black chest, and learning to read enemy patterns across dozens of room layouts. The learning curve is steep, but every death teaches you something. This guide will get you past that initial wall, teach you how to survive the first few chambers, and turn you from a bullet magnet into a Gungeon veteran.

Getting Started / First Steps

So you've just loaded into the Breach. Before you dive into the elevator shaft that leads to your doom, let's cover the absolute fundamentals that the game doesn't explain well.

Starting Characters: You begin with four main Gungeoneers. Each has a unique starting weapon and an active or passive item.

• The Marine: Best for beginners. Starts with a reliable pistol (good accuracy), a supply drop active that gives you full ammo for your current gun, and a passive that increases reload speed and accuracy. The supply drop is a lifesaver in boss fights.
• The Convict: Aggressive playstyle. Starts with a revolver and a sawed-off shotgun. When you take damage, you get a brief damage buff. She’s high-risk, high-reward.
• The Pilot: The loot goblin. He has two active item slots, can open chests without a key 50% of the time, and gets a shop discount. His starter pistol is terrible, but his utility is unmatched for resource management.
• The Hunter: The balanced hybrid. Starts with a crossbow (which one-shots most early enemies) and a dog named Junior. The dog occasionally digs up items, keys, or hearts. She’s fantastic for clearing rooms quickly.

Your First Five Minutes: You'll start in Chamber 1: The Keep of the Lead Lord. Your first goal is to clear rooms to gather currency (Shells) and find the Shop and Chests. Here is your immediate checklist for Chamber 1:

• Find a gun immediately. If you don’t find a weapon in a chest or in a room, you will struggle against the boss. Explore every room.
• Do not open every chest. You have limited keys. If you find a brown chest (worst tier) and you already have a decent weapon, skip it. Save keys for green, blue, red, or black chests.
• Check the shop. The shopkeeper sells keys, hearts, and ammo. Buy a key first if you can afford it. Never steal from the shopkeeper (shooting him or using a blank on him) until you know what you're doing—it makes him hostile for the rest of the run.
• Kill the boss. Every floor has a boss at the end (the elevator room). Defeating the boss gives you a weapon or an item, plus a large pile of Shells and usually a Master Round if you take zero damage. A Master Round increases your maximum health by one heart container—this is your #1 priority for survival.

Core Mechanics & Progression

Understanding the game's core loop is what separates a player who survives three floors from a player who reaches the Forge. Let's break down the systems that matter.

Dodge Rolling: The most important button in the game. Your dodge roll has invincibility frames (i-frames) at the start of the animation. You are fully invulnerable during the roll, but you are vulnerable at the very end (the recovery animation). You can roll over pits, through bullet walls, and even over trap spikes. The key is to roll through bullets, not away from them. If you roll away from a bullet that is following you, you’ll land right in its path.

The Blank: You start with one blank per floor (and can find more). A blank is a room-wide pulse that destroys all enemy bullets and damages nearby enemies. It also reveals secret rooms. Do not hoard blanks. Use them when you are cornered, when a boss fires a massive spread you can't dodge, or when you need to clear a room quickly. That said, try to save one per floor for finding secret rooms (shoot walls with a non-starter gun—if the wall cracks, use a blank to open the secret room).

Curse: This hidden mechanic changes your run significantly. You gain Curse by stealing from the shopkeeper, picking up cursed items (their descriptions will mention "Cursed"), or killing NPCs. High Curse (above 6) increases the chance of Jammed enemies spawning—these are glowing red enemies that deal double damage and have more health. However, high Curse also increases the chance of rare rooms and items spawning. As a beginner, keep your Curse low. Avoid picking up items with a skull icon unless you know what you’re doing.

Chest Tiers and How to Prioritize: Chests have a hierarchy of quality. From worst to best:

• Brown (D-Tier): Usually contains weak guns or passives. Skip these unless you have nothing else.
• Green (C-Tier): Solid items. Worth a key if you need an upgrade.
• Blue (B-Tier): Great items. Almost always worth unlocking.
• Red (A-Tier): Excellent items. Top priority.
• Black (S-Tier): The best items in the game. If you see a black chest, use a key immediately. Items from black chests can literally carry a run.
• Rainbow Chest: Extremely rare. Contains a pile of high-tier items. If you find one, your run is blessed.

Rainbow Runs (Unlockable): After you rescue certain NPCs (like the Sorceress), you can unlock the Rainbow Mode. In this mode, you only get one free item per floor (a rainbow chest appears), and you cannot open any other chests or buy items. This is actually a fantastic way to practice because you are forced to use a single powerful item per floor, teaching you resourcefulness.

Expert Tips & Tricks

Alright, let's graduate from surviving to thriving. These are the tips that the game's community lives by and that will drastically improve your win rate.

• Master the "Pitfall" Trick. If you dodge roll over a pit, you will land safely on the other side. But did you know you can use pits as weapons? If you have a gun with knockback (like the Shotgun or the Cannon), you can shoot enemies into pits to instantly kill them. This is especially effective in the Gungeon Proper (Chamber 2) where pits are everywhere.
• Always check for Secret Rooms. On every floor, there is at least one secret room. It can connect to chest rooms, the shop, or the elevator room. Use a non-starter gun to shoot the walls of these rooms. If the wall cracks and makes a hollow noise, use a blank to open it. Secret rooms often contain chests, items, or the Ox and Cadence NPCs who sell excellent items.
• Use the Map for optimal routing. Your map shows you which rooms are connected. The Shop is marked with a blue icon. The Boss room is marked with a red skull. The Elevator is a green arrow. Try to visit the shop before opening chests, because the shop might sell a key that you can use on a high-tier chest. Also, look for the Crest rooms (small rooms with a glowing item on a pedestal)—these often lead to the Oubliette (secret floor 1.5).
• Know your "Dodge Roll" limits. You cannot dodge roll while reloading. You also cannot dodge roll if you are holding a beast mode active item like the Box. Practice the rhythm: shoot, dodge, reload, reposition. The best players never stand still. They are constantly strafing, weaving between bullet streams, and using corners to break enemy line of sight.
• Guns are not "better" than passives. A common newbie trap is hoarding guns. Most of your damage will come from your best gun. Don't be afraid to use your strong guns on tough rooms or mini-bosses. Ammo is plentiful if you check the shop and break pots and crates (they sometimes drop ammo, keys, or hearts). Prioritize passive items that increase damage, accuracy, or speed over mediocre guns.
• The "Table Tech" secret. Flipping tables destroys enemy bullets that hit the table. This is huge. Always have a table between you and the enemy when possible. There are also rare Table Tech items that make tables explode, heal you, or bounce bullets back. Always flip tables.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Even experienced players fall into these traps. Brace yourself, because these habits will end your runs prematurely.

• Opening brown chests with keys. I cannot stress this enough. A brown chest will almost never give you something that justifies spending a key. Brown chests can be opened for free if you have a Lockpick (Pilot's item), but otherwise, just destroy them (shoot them until they break) to get a small chance at a heart or a blank. Do not waste keys.
• Standing still while shooting. The #1 cause of death. Bullets in this game are designed to punish stationary targets. Always be moving. Even a slow circle strafe will save you from 90% of the bullets in Chamber 1. When fighting bosses, practice moving in small, circular patterns around them.
• Ignoring the Oubliette. The secret floor (Chamber 1.5) is accessible by falling into a grate in the fireplace room (you need a key to unlock the grate, then a blank to extinguish the fire). This floor is harder, but it gives you an extra boss (more loot) and another shop. Skipping this floor means you are deliberately reducing your item count. Always go to the Oubliette if you have a spare key and a blank.
• Using blanks too early or too late. The most common mistake is using a blank when you are about to get hit by a single stray bullet. Save blanks for when a wall of bullets is filling the screen and you have no escape. Conversely, do not die while holding a blank. Use them. A dead Gungeoneer with 3 blanks in the inventory is a tragedy.
• Not destroying "Poison Pots" and "Wolf" enemies. In Chamber 2, there are pots that spawn poison pools when broken. Do not break them near you. Similarly, the Wolf enemies (the ones that spawn a volley of red bullets) should be killed IMMEDIATELY. They are priority targets. Ignoring them is a guaranteed hit.
• Hoarding junk items. Some items are just bad. The Orange (fruit) literally has no effect. The Cookie is a meme item. The Explosive Rounds passive can actually make some guns worse by adding knockback that pushes enemies away. Do not feel obligated to pick up every item. Sometimes, leaving a bad item on the ground is better than contaminating your item pool.

FAQ

Q: How do I unlock the other characters (Robot, Bullet, etc.)?
A: The Robot is unlocked by finding the TV in the Oubliette and carrying it to the blacksmith on the Forge (Floor 5) without dropping it. The Bullet is unlocked by finding his Cult of the Gundead NPC and giving him a Red-Caped Bullet Kin (a rare enemy that appears and runs away—do not kill it; let it escape to spawn the NPC in the Breach). The Gunslinger requires you to kill the "past" with the Bullet, then clear a run with the Paradox (unlocked by finding a special item in the game).

Q: What is the best starting character for a beginner?
A: Undoubtedly The Marine. His accuracy bonus makes the first two floors manageable, and his supply drop active ability refills ammo for your best weapon. Once you feel comfortable dodging, switch to The Hunter for the early game power of the crossbow and the dog's utility.

Q: How do I get more heart containers?
A: You start with 3 heart containers (6 health). You can get more by acquiring Master Rounds (no-damage boss kills), finding Heart of Gold items, or using specific passives like Heart Locket. You can also find Brother Albern's items that convert armor to health. Be careful, though—you can only hold a maximum of 10 heart containers (20 health) without specific items.

Q: What does "curse" do exactly?
A: Each point of Curse increases the chance of Jammed enemies (doubled damage/health), reduces the chance of random drops, and at high levels (10+), a Jammed Boss can appear. However, higher Curse also increases the spawn rate of money and the chance of finding the Devil's Room (a secret room that trades health for powerful items). For new players, keep Curse below 5.

Q: I keep dying on Chamber 3 (The Hollow). Any tips?
A: The Hollow is a difficulty spike because of the wide-open rooms and Mine Flayer enemies (they shoot bouncing mines). The key here is to stay mobile and use line of sight. The rooms have many pillars—use them. Also, be aware of the Wall Mimic enemies (chests that turn into monsters). Shoot chests before opening them to reveal mimics. If the chest is a mimic, it will jump at you—dodge roll to avoid the hit.

Q: Is it worth stealing from the shopkeeper?
A: Only if you know what you're doing. Stealing gives you high Curse (2 points per steal) and makes the shopkeeper hostile for the rest of the run. However, if you have the Ring of Mimic Friendship or a Decoy, you can steal safely. Generally, avoid stealing until you are comfortable with high Curse runs.

Q: How do I reach the real final boss?
A: To "kill the past," you need to beat the game with each of the main four characters. You must collect the Bullet that can kill the past (which requires four components—primers, arcane gunpowder, etc.—found in specific chambers). On your fifth successful run (with any character), you will face the true final boss and unlock the Gunslinger. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Remember, Gungeoneer: every death is a lesson. The Gungeon is designed to break you, but it rewards persistence, pattern recognition, and a little bit of luck. Now get out there, find some absurd guns, and kill your past.