40 Fun Facts About Crypt of the NecroDancer

In Crypt of the NecroDancer, what does the villain steal from Cadence, forcing her to move in time with his music?

Her heart is taken by the NecroDancer moments after a fatal fall into the crypt, and he curses it to keep time with his music forever. Every step she takes has to land on that pulse.

In Crypt of the NecroDancer, Nocturna can cast her Transform spell to become which flying creature?

A bat is Nocturna's second form: it flies over every trap and floor hazard and hits for four damage, but she cannot use any item except spells while transformed.

Which Nintendo series teamed up with Crypt of the NecroDancer for a 2019 Switch crossover starring Cadence?

The Legend of Zelda crossover, Cadence of Hyrule, began as a pitch for downloadable content. Nintendo liked the idea enough to turn it into an entirely new game.

Besides a keyboard or gamepad, which unusual controller can players use to play Crypt of the NecroDancer?

A dance pad can stand in for the keyboard, letting players stomp out every move and attack with their feet. The game even has a dedicated mode for it.

The Crypt of the NecroDancer boss Deep Blues fields a full set of enemies modelled on which board game?

Chess pieces fill the Deep Blues arena and borrow the real game's moves: knights jump in an L, pawns that cross the room promote to queens, and one rook even castles with the king.

Which Crypt of the NecroDancer character gets one free item in every shop but dies instantly on touching gold?

Monk has taken a vow of poverty, so shopkeepers hand him one item for free and a single coin picked up ends the run. Enemies still drop their money, so every kill leaves a new hazard on the floor.

In Crypt of the NecroDancer, the bell-headed boss Dead Ringer is revealed to be which missing relative of Cadence?

Her father, the treasure hunter Dorian, had been turned into one of the NecroDancer's minions. Beating Dead Ringer breaks the spell, and he joins her for the final fight.

Which virtual pop star joined Crypt of the NecroDancer as a playable character in 2024, bringing her own soundtrack?

Hatsune Miku arrived as a character DLC with a soundtrack of her own songs. It includes two new tracks written just for the game by its original composer.

Which composer of the Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac soundtracks also scored Crypt of the NecroDancer?

Danny Baranowsky wrote a score that speeds up and grows more complex the deeper a run goes. A friend of his nicknamed the style Spookhouse Rock.

Which currency in Crypt of the NecroDancer survives a death and buys permanent upgrades back in the lobby?

Diamonds are the one thing a failed run leaves behind. Weapons, armour and coins all vanish on death, but these stay to be spent on extra health and other lasting upgrades.

Which parrying sword does Nocturna carry at the start of a Crypt of the NecroDancer run in place of a dagger?

Cutlass in hand, Nocturna can parry a monster's melee attack while striking, taking no damage and sliding back one tile. The blade rarely turns up in a level, so players tend to keep it.

Which prequel expansion for Crypt of the NecroDancer added the vampire Nocturna, a fifth zone and helper familiars?

Amplified entered Steam Early Access in January 2017 and is set before Cadence's story. Beyond the new zone, it added the mole boss Fortissimole and three more playable characters.

Which Crypt of the NecroDancer character, Cadence's mother, is brought back to life at the end of Cadence's story?

Melody returns from the dead under a curse: she must keep playing the instrument that revived her or die again, so it is the only weapon she can ever hold.

Which Crypt of the NecroDancer character, Cadence's grandmother, dies the instant the player misses a single beat?

Aria starts with half a unit of health that can never be raised, and she plays the zones in reverse order, climbing out of the crypt from its deepest floor to its first.

Which Crypt of the NecroDancer character, the villain before his curse, can move at any pace without following the beat?

Bard is the minstrel Octavian before he found the instrument that turned him into the NecroDancer. With no curse on him yet, enemies simply wait and move right after he does.

Which Vancouver indie studio, founded in 2013, developed Crypt of the NecroDancer as its first major hit?

Brace Yourself Games later turned publisher as well, opening its own label in 2022 to help other small developers get their work noticed.

Which cursed instrument does the villain of Crypt of the NecroDancer wield, later used to raise the dead?

A golden lute gives the NecroDancer his power, but it slowly consumes the humanity of whoever plays it. The story's last chapter is a quest to destroy it for good.

Which Crypt of the NecroDancer boss fights in a water-filled arena, with tentacles that surface around the player?

Coral Riff hides behind its tentacles, which shake one beat before they strike. Throwing a weapon at the body first makes the fight harder, because everything then attacks at once.

Which indie platformer hero joined Crypt of the NecroDancer as a playable character in 2025, with his own soundtrack?

Shovel Knight arrived on PC in a release timed to match a pack of his own for the spin-off Rift of the NecroDancer. His tracks keep their original length and speed, and even loop.

On the first three levels of each Crypt of the NecroDancer zone, what must be defeated to unlock the exit stairs?

A miniboss such as a dragon or a minotaur guards each exit, and the clock is ticking. When the song ends, a trapdoor drops the player to the next level regardless.

Which mad scientist is the final boss of Nocturna's story in Crypt of the NecroDancer, beaten by draining her batteries?

The Conductor never takes a direct hit. Players first smash four shielded instruments, then drain five batteries by striking her summoned monsters while standing on the wires.

Nocturna's boss Frankensteinway in Crypt of the NecroDancer takes half his name from a famous maker of which instrument?

Pianos built by Steinway & Sons supply half the pun, and Frankenstein supplies the rest. The boss fills four tiles and loses both arms as the fight goes on.

Which music collective recorded the extra soundtrack that arrived in Crypt of the NecroDancer alongside Nocturna?

OverClocked ReMix is the fan arrangement community where the game's original composer first got involved with video game music, back in 2001.

Which Crypt of the NecroDancer character, Cadence's one-armed uncle, fights with an endless supply of bombs?

Eli can kick his bombs up to three tiles away, which is how he fights at range. Any attempt to pick up a normal weapon kills him on the spot, a death the game labels cowardice.

Which Crypt of the NecroDancer character cannot hurt enemies, confusing them with a flower and skipping boss fights?

Dove carries bombs that do no harm either: they teleport monsters somewhere else at random. The price of all that mercy is a hard deadline, because the character dies when the song runs out.

Which Crypt of the NecroDancer character plays at twice the normal speed, with every enemy sped up to match?

Bolt is described as an athlete whose pulse runs far faster than normal. The achievement for finishing every zone with the character is called Tachycardia, the medical term for a racing pulse.

The Crypt of the NecroDancer boss King Conga sits on a throne guarded by two conga lines of which monsters?

Zombies form two lines of eight that snake after the player. The fight's music skips every eighth beat, so players must move for seven and hold still on the next.

The creator of Crypt of the NecroDancer wanted deaths to feel like the player's own fault, as in which roguelike?

Spelunky showed him that a game could be brutally hard and still fair. He kept the turn-based feel of older roguelikes by shrinking each turn to a sliver of real time, which led him to music.

Which publisher co-published Crypt of the NecroDancer on PC and later published its spin-off Rift of the NecroDancer?

Klei Entertainment co-published the full PC release in April 2015, after the game had spent about nine months in Steam Early Access being tuned with player feedback.

The Synchrony expansion for Crypt of the NecroDancer added three new characters and which major feature?

Online multiplayer for up to eight players arrived with Synchrony, in both co-op and competitive modes. The expansion spent over a year and a half in early access before its full release in March 2024.

The YouTube musician FamilyJules recorded an alternative Crypt of the NecroDancer soundtrack in which genre?

Heavy metal is how he rearranged the entire score. In the fight against the boss Death Metal, there is a small chance that a polka version plays instead.

Japanese releases of Crypt of the NecroDancer added a Masafumi Takada soundtrack rearranged from which game series?

Danganronpa arrangements were cut to match the length and tempo of the original songs, so runs played to them still count on the same leaderboards. Spike Chunsoft character skins came with them.

Which Zone 1 monster in Crypt of the NecroDancer freezes and cannot be attacked while the player faces it?

Ghost enemies pursue one tile per beat, but only while the player is looking away. Face one and it stops dead and cannot be harmed.

In Zone 1 of Crypt of the NecroDancer, which colour of slime stays on its tile and never moves?

Green slimes are passive, yet their damage value is set to fifty, far above any other Zone 1 monster. Blue ones hop between two tiles and orange ones circle a small square.

Zone 3 of Crypt of the NecroDancer swaps rooms and corridors for an open cave themed around which two elements?

Fire and ice give Zone 3 its two big hazards, hot coals and frozen floors. Its monsters come in matching pairs, such as beetles and elementals of each kind.

In Crypt of the NecroDancer, what is the coin multiplier called that resets when the player misses a beat or is hit?

Groove Chain is more than a score counter: obsidian weapons deal one to three damage depending on its level. It reaches its top level after five kills in a row.

Which handheld console received Crypt of the NecroDancer in February 2016, the same day as Sony's home console?

PlayStation Vita owners got the game less than a year after the PC launch. An iOS port followed that June, with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch versions in the two years after.

Which Canadian programmer created Crypt of the NecroDancer after setting out to build a fairer kind of roguelike?

Ryan Clark first demanded strict timing, as a music game would, then found it too tense. He widened the window for hitting each beat and added automatic calibration to cut the frustration.

Which team took over Crypt of the NecroDancer's updates in 2022 after starting out by making a fan mod?

Vortex Buffer rebuilt the engine from scratch for its first official update, which also added a mode that lets any character ignore the beat.

Which Crypt of the NecroDancer character, unlocked by beating All Characters Mode, combines three others' handicaps?

Coda plays at double speed, dies on any missed beat and dies on touching a single coin, all at once. The character also starts on half a unit of health that can never grow.