Just for transparency… Looking at my history, I have 1 new yred win (EDIT: 2 new yred wins now :D, EDIT 2: 3 wins), 1 0.31 yred win(13% yred WR overall), and the other new yred run I was remembering as solid was a cosplay run (so extra challenges) that I lost in Zot.
This advice really only applies to a 3 or 4 rune game, but due to the nature of Bind Soul and demons being able to turn into ghosts Yred is viable for 15 runes. Also mostly applies to easy/noob builds and can be workable for moderate difficulty builds. I’d even say Yred can be used to win a challenge build but you need to have a good understanding of mechanics and support skills.
Yred favors a defensive build, whether that’s a melee oriented defense around AC or EV or a defensive caster using hexes/alchemy. Immediately on worshipping you start getting homies when you kill bad guys and pretty quickly thereafter you’ll get a few summons and torch blasts every level, so Yred very quickly helps you out in the early game… might not always be worth picking in a temple but absolutely should be picked on D:1 or 2. Yred also builds piety pretty quickly, newb builds should be rocking max piety most of the time and even challenge builds should be able to maintain access to god powers.
Melee: AC or EV focused, or hybrid… doesn’t really matter just push total D and pick up a shield. Single pips of resist are worth losing a little D. The idea here is you’ll be up close and personal pulling agro while you get passive damage from all your homies around you. Your homies will be a rotating pack of mobile body armour that self heals by killing more bad guys around you. Choke points can usually be double wides so your dudes have room to get by you.
Casters: Push Int. Instead of pulling agro, you want to use your spells to reduce the damage going into your homies. There’s a bunch of low level spells that help fill in here, but mephitic cloud is a no brainer; especially once you’ve got rpois and can drop it on a home you’re hiding behind. Some of the support buff summons are good here, but don’t use the explodey golem. It’s probably worth picking up a pole arm and memorizing one of the low level smite targetable (scorch, the l2 vapor spell, grave claw(really good), are even airstrike). OTR and Ignite Poison should be immediately memorized, and some points into Necro to get dispel online covers your biggest weak point. Summoning can be solid here as well. If you didn’t start with smite targetable stuff or RNG just doesn’t go your way its not unreasonable to skill up polearms and put some points into dodge until the spells you need show up. Long term goals would be something like manass, ignition, MCC, summon horrible things, or haunt; you can make any of them work but the underlying play style looks a little different.
Invocations: Bare minimum get bind and shackles to <10%. Torch damage scales pretty well with each point of Invo boosting average damage by 2, my current Ds I just pushed it to 27 for shits and giggles and its reporting 3d31 damage - Nice nuke in a 4 rune.
Early Yred: Before you get to * you’re mostly just getting free undead on kills and shaft protection… Unless you’ve already gotten the early D shaft there is no downside to lighting the torch before leaving the staircase. The undead are really powerful still and give you the ability to run away. This is more than a lot of other gods give you at no piety.
Lighting the Torch: Stair peek. Most levels you should peek all 3 stairs and decide which sets you up for the best initial pack. Once you’re at * piety you want to save your torch until you’re ready to start killing bad guys. That could mean right on the stair case to clear out a nice orc welcome party or after you explored a bit and found someone to kill… Avoid killing stuff as much as possible, but you can usually kill 3-5 things on a floor before lighting the torch and still have a good response from Yred.
Recall Homies: Use it to reset fights, bring in big guns you parked elsewhere, save your bound soul, block an OoD. You should be using it pretty regularly. If you’re fighting in a doorway you can recall in your forces on the other side of the bad guys and stuff. If you’re in the middle of a big battle trying to figure out what to do, see how spread out your homies are and what a recall might do to the battlefield.
Throw Torch: You get a set number per floor and they’re pretty cheap from a piety perspective. Use this pretty liberally on packs, it gives your undead might too so you can use it as a buff on a fast attacking zombie or bound soul. When you first get it you only get 2 shots, but it does a respectable amount of damage. It scales pretty well with invo investment but if you’re just doing bare minimum for shackles then the damage won’t scale well through a 4-rune. Pushing to around 18-21 you’ll still hit pretty hard with it even in Zot. You might as well use it since you have it.
Bind Soul: One of the best god powers in the game, and easily the most fun god power in the game. Literally anything in the game that strikes fear into players makes an awesome bound soul, go find the forum and reddit threads for examples. There’s no reason to hold off on binding anything that seems strong unless you’re right on the cusp piety wise… even an orc warrior with an axe or orc priest can be a solid soul until something better comes along. This also encourages the use of monster inspection in a positive way; you’d be amazed at how strong many of the non-uniques can be when bound (culcivora heals your homies, etc.). Have fun with it. If you can bind a strong unique though, it’s worth protecting them with consumables.
Fathomless Shackles: Outside of crypt, you’re going to be fighting a lot of enemies that are susceptible to the life draining effects of this. I wouldn’t say use it liberally, but if you’re facing a strong pack and your lift is starting to go down don’t be afraid of the piety cost… If you’re maxed out you’ll still be at ****** after using it. Even without the life drain, it holds enemies and can give you an escape option.
Rune Branches & Depths: Yred is one of the best gods for the rune branches. Ouside of some undead and demon vaults, you’re mostly fighting stuff susceptible to your god powers that also keep you supplied with homies. Take an offensive approach to branch entries, if it looks at all winnable immediately light your torch and use some consumables.
Crypt: Really dependent on your build. Fred doesn’t help you much here. A couple normal enemies have souls. There’s usually some decent uniques to bind in here though, so if you’re heading into Zot without a good soul you might check Crypt to see who spawned.
Zot: Yred is solid for most of Zot since you’re fighting a lot of lizards that can give you strong undead (while not having to worry about quicksilver disabling reap/channel) support; unfortunately, Yred themself doesn’t nothing to help you with the biggest Zot threats: OOF, Electric Golems, Big Toes, Death Cobs, Liches. It’s really on the player to come up with options for these. If you’re strong melee just do the needful, casters might need to flex into something like bombard if they don’t have other options… Dispel Undead is a no brainer for the undeads. My best advice for using Yred in zot is to Throw torchlight at drac and dragon packs so they don’t kill your homies and you might have more homies to throw at the major threats.
