Before anyone opens the first door, agree on what the group came for. If the next job is a Smelter and a Charcoal Kiln, you're looking for ten Surtling Cores between them. That is a building target, not a promise about the chamber you're entering. Eat, repair the kit you're carrying and decide who calls the retreat before a roomful of Skeletons makes the decision for you.
A first clear doesn't need to be a perfect clear. Bringing cores home and marking an unfinished branch is useful progress. Losing the whole party because the last room might contain another core is an expensive way to avoid making a second trip.
Pack for the enemies, then assign the jobs
Start with a blunt weapon for Skeletons. Their listed resistances make blunt and fire favourable choices, while pierce is resisted and poison has no effect. A basic Club has 12 base blunt damage, so it gives you a blunt option to consider for that slot. That doesn't mean a particular upgrade guarantees a kill in a fixed number of swings. Carry the weapon in good condition and use attacks you can recover from when another enemy approaches.
Bring a shield you know how to use, and check its condition before entry. Judge the first encounter before committing to the next room: if blocking leaves you exposed, back out and change the plan. Leave enough room behind the front player for that retreat.
Food should leave room for both mistakes and movement. Cooked Deer Meat gives 35 health and 12 stamina; Honey gives 8 health and 35 stamina. Those are useful examples of the difference between a health-heavy and a stamina-heavy choice, rather than a fixed menu everyone must copy. Eat before entry, bring replacements and check the remaining duration at a quiet point. A group that can still move and withdraw has more options than one waiting for a last hit to settle the argument.
For a party, name a player to inspect the next doorway and call the immediate threat. Have someone keep track of the route back, and agree who carries or counts the cores. Everyone else still needs to know when the group is leaving. These are jobs, not rigid combat roles: if the caller is hurt or a room becomes awkward, stop and redistribute them before opening another door.
Take a light source too. It belongs in the kit because you need to read the room, see the return path and notice what has not been searched. A Torch's damage includes fire. Keep the lighting job separate from the choice of weapon for the next enemy.
Read the doorway before choosing a target
The first question at a new room is whether you can deal with the enemies from the space you already control. Look for a ranged threat, an enemy close enough to interrupt you and any visible spawner. Then decide what the group can safely reach.
Check the route to an archer before choosing it as the first target. Reaching the back of a room may mean running past enemies the group still needs to handle. If moving forward would separate you from the group or the exit, hold the advance. Deal with the threat you can reach, withdraw to cleared space if necessary and reassess from there. A bow gives you another option when you have a clear shot, even though pierce isn't the preferred damage type against Skeletons.
Use doorways as landmarks and possible fighting positions. Keep the return route open and leave enough room for a hurt player to come back through it. In co-op, a doorway full of friendly bodies can be as awkward as the room beyond. Let the player in trouble withdraw before someone else commits to the same space.
If you see a spawner, call it out. Removing a source of pressure is a sensible objective when you can reach it safely, but it doesn't make the enemies between you and it disappear. Clear an approach or change position first. If you can't make an approach safely, withdraw and leave the room for a better-equipped visit.
After a messy fight, pause. Check health, food, weapon condition and which door actually leads back. The next room can wait while the group gets its bearings. It is much easier to keep a chamber under control when each advance begins from a place you've already searched.
Change the plan when a Ghost appears
A Ghost is a different target from a Skeleton. It resists blunt, pierce and slash, takes normal fire damage and is weak to spirit. The Club that suits the Skeleton encounter therefore doesn't have the same damage advantage here. A Ghost has 60 base health and a slash attack; those figures don't tell you how many hits your shield will withstand or how quickly your particular weapon will finish it.
Call the Ghost's position and keep the route toward cleared ground visible. If the group is crowded into a corner, make room before trying to force more attacks through. Use an attack you can land without losing that route. Fire is worth considering because it isn't resisted as the ordinary physical damage types are, but don't turn that comparison into a guaranteed kill time.
A Torch has 4 blunt and 15 fire base damage, so it gives you light and another damage option to consider. Keep the response simple enough for everyone to follow: call the Ghost's position, leave room to move and withdraw together if the fight becomes awkward. Choose a different weapon or return with better supplies if the current kit isn't getting you through.
Rancid Remains need their own callout. The creature has 100 base health and a listed attack containing both blunt and poison damage. Blunt and fire are weaknesses; poison is an immunity. Your blunt weapon is relevant, but give the party room to handle this enemy without another one pressing in. If the party is already hurt or has no room to retreat, leave that encounter marked rather than spending the rest of the food trying to save the trip.
Search branches, not a promised final room
Burial Chambers are assembled from different room pieces. The room set includes bends, corridors and end caps as well as larger chambers, and their contents differ. Some larger room designs include Skeleton or Ghost spawners, core stands and chests. An end cap can have none of them. Don't use the size of a room, or the feeling that you've reached the end, as proof that the remaining loot must be there.
Work through one branch at a time and keep track of the ones you deliberately leave unfinished. A simple group call—this branch searched, that door still closed—is enough to prevent everyone from wandering back through the same rooms. If the layout becomes confusing, return to a recognizable junction before choosing the next direction.
Look for Surtling Core stands in cleared rooms and collect the cores from them. The stands are the recorded pickable source; lights and spawners are separate objects. Breaking every brazier isn't a reliable way to reach the build target, and a cold light doesn't tell you whether somebody has searched every branch. Check the actual stands, chests and paths that remain.
Keep timber gathering separate from the core count. A breakable root can drop ordinary Wood; it isn't a reason to budget a haul of Corewood. Don't plan the next weapon or workshop around the claim that a chamber supplies a predictable haul of Corewood. Count what you actually brought out and make a separate materials trip for anything still missing.
Spend the cores on a build you can finish
A Smelter costs 5 Surtling Cores and 20 Stone. A Charcoal Kiln costs the same, so ten cores and forty Stone cover that pair's listed materials. A Portal uses 2 Surtling Cores, which gives the group another possible use for the haul. Decide which job comes first, then keep its share of the cores together until the other recipe materials are ready.
That also gives a partial haul a purpose. Seven cores can cover the core costs of one Smelter and one Portal, while twelve cover one Smelter, one Kiln and one Portal. Those are alternative allocations of the same stock, so decide which helps the group before spending it. If a Kiln is already standing at the main base, another five cores there may be less useful than the next missing structure. Count the existing builds as well as the cores: a materials target is only useful when it describes what the party still needs.
The wooden Portal has two other material costs: 20 Fine Wood and 10 Greydwarf Eyes. A Smelter-and-Portal plan therefore needs 20 Stone, 20 Fine Wood and 10 Greydwarf Eyes alongside its seven cores. Both pieces are placed with a Hammer and require a Workbench nearby. Put those materials at the chosen site before dividing the dungeon haul between players. This is especially useful when one player gathers wood while another carries the cores: each can work toward the same finished build instead of arriving with enough of one ingredient and none of another. If you want two Portals rather than one, budget their full recipes twice, including four cores for the pair.
This is where a shared count helps. If one player has most of the cores and another has the rest, settle the total before someone starts another build. Use the compact Smelter and Kiln layout to plan their working space, and bring the Stone to that site before calling the processing setup finished.
If the chamber leaves you short, mark what you searched and take the safe haul home. Note why a branch was left: a Ghost the group couldn't handle, damaged equipment or simply a run that had gone on long enough. That note gives the next trip a useful starting point. Return with the missing food or equipment, and open the unfinished door with a group that knows why it stopped there.
