The guide will be split into two parts, a quick and dirty bunch of tips for someone who generally knows what they're doing or doesn't want to read a bunch, and a more in-depth novel because I can't be concise. The in-depth novel will be badly organized.

Contents:
[1] Overview
[2] Quick Guide
[3] Classes
[4] Races
[5] Why Magic Device?
[6] Training Alchemy
[7] Training Anatomy
[8] Other Important Skills
[9] About Attributes, or "About Learning"
[10] Gods
[11] AP and You
[12] How Coffins/Spooks Work
[13] Types of Spooks
[14] Necro-Force
[15] DD Cemetery Key
[16] Necro-Remodel
[17] Gearing for Spooky
[18] General Tips

Overview [1]

Necromancy in Elona is closer to playing an Artificer archetype. Your undead summons, here after to be known as "spooks", are what will end up doing all your damage and acting as the wall between you and death. Their strength is based off of the alchemy and anatomy skills, and so yours is too. Anatomy is trained naturally over time and so long as you're fighting will go up on its own, luckily your spook's kills also train the skill. Alchemy practically requires you to play as a magic device user considering the "Duplicane" special action trains alchemy with each use. Once you have a decent army behind you your own attacks really only serve to direct theirs as well as training your alchemy and magic device skills. With the exception of learning, stat growth is almost entirely meant to increase your defenses and nothing else. The Necromancer is weak and scared and happy he brought so many rods of teleport, but his 15 Dead Eyes Blood Dragons aren't.

Quick guide [2]

-Play as a magic device build because duplicane trains alchemy
-Lich or Fairy, Mutant if you're using riding
-Don't use any pets outside of possibly riding
-There is no reason at all not to get barrier with your first 2000 AP, get it
-Kumi or Yacatect for gods
-Carry potions of defender, feather, resistance, trolls blood, and whatever else you feel comfortable with. No need to train those spell's levels.
-A rod of bubble ball will save your spooks constantly.
-Learn how to maximize the DD cemetery key's storage if you plan on self destructing your spooks.
-Learning is your most important stat in late game followed by willpower and then magic.
-Control magic reduces the damage you take from your spooks, it's not a significant threat regardless
-Use mostly Dead Eyes, a few Dragon Zombies and 2 or 3 Liches maybe.
-Give Dead Eyes, Dragons, and Liches control magic by remodeling with an eye
-Get more coffins via pickpocketing them from towns
-Seriously, get barrier.

In-depth guide

Classes [3]

None of the class feats really benefit Necromancers too much. If you're playing something other than a magic device user then pick whatever benefits that playstyle the best. Beyond that just pick a class that starts with magic device and preferably either anatomy or alchemy.

Races [4]

Fairy - Arguably the best race in the game for anything magical, being a Fairy will make your early game a lot easier because of their high speed. Their high mana will also make barrier stronger in the mid and late game. They come with pickpocket which will let you collect coffins earlier. Their equipment limitations may be a problem when gearing for skills however.

Lich - It's a Lich, you're a Necromancer. Go spooky or go home. They start with magic device meaning if you pick a class with magic device as well you'll have a very easy early game assuming you can get a few rods of magic missile. Their 140 starting mana means barrier will be extremely powerful from the get-go.

Mutant - If you decide to take riding you'll probably want to go Mutant. I've never played one so take this with a grain of salt but because Necromancy is entirely based off of skills more gear slots means more skill boosts means stronger spooks. You don't even need to save-scum for hands.

Why magic device? [5]

The main reason to use magic device is because Duplicane trains alchemy with each use. Since your own damage will be so unimportant late game this means every attack will be using Duplicane and thus training alchemy. Duplicane also means your stamina is effectively your mana bar allowing barrier to do its job unimpeded. Since barrier is so great for this build rods of mana will be precious treasures, magic device makes them "heal" for much more. Drinking potions or juice trains both alchemy and magic device at the same time as well. The two skills just support each other far too well. I'm sure it's completely possible to make a 6 armed dual wielding mutant Necromancer that stabs things to death but if you want your spooks to be the main focus of your build you'll need to go magic device.

Training alchemy [6]

-Alchemy will be your main focus in pretty much everything you do. Alchemy and anatomy can be trained at the same time by using Duplicane in dungeons and the majority of its levels will probably come from this. Before you get Duplicane you'll need to just chug every potion you can get your hands on since those first 30 levels of alchemy are a game changer.

-You should also grab yourself a juice maker and a lot of fruit trees as well as save up all those veggie and fruit seeds from early game harvest time quests since drinking juice trains both alchemy and magic device. Veggie juice is better than fruit juice because it trains learning, but fruit trees are easy to come by. The same goes for milk but I never understood how stat gain works with that so I just save it up in case of anorexia, but more on that later.

-One tedious but very effective way to train alchemy is to just spam any ball rod using Duplicane. Just sitting in your house spamming rod of bubble ball until you're at -100 stamina is going to get you a lot of alchemy experience. If you're just jogging around the world map reseting vendors then take the chance to drain your stamina polishing your rod first. Of course this will also train magic device at the same rate.

-Your extremely high alchemy and magic device skills will mean buff potions will be very strong. You'll end up drinking a lot of them to keep your buffs up constantly. This isn't a great source of experience but it's something.

- Skill points will become a big factor in raising alchemy. Your high learning will eventually get you around 10 skill points a level, but more on that in the AP section.

Training anatomy [7]

- This isn't nearly as complex or time consuming as alchemy. Anatomy is pretty straight forward, if something dies you get some experience toward it. If your spooks kill something you also get anatomy experience (and AP) as if you had done the job.

- Since anatomy is raised so passively and is hard to specifically grind it's important to keep its potential high, probably more important than alchemy since you can actually grind that.

- I recommend using an anatomy skill book in your shelter. The experience gain is nothing to laugh at and you're using the shelter to reset vendors anyway. The reason you don't use an alchemy one is again, because alchemy has other methods to grind while anatomy does not.

- Your anatomy skill will probably lag behind your alchemy skill by a few levels. That's normal considering the difference in training methods.

Other important skills [8]

Weight lifting:
- You're going to be carrying around a lot of items like potions, rods, more rods, more potions. You'll also likely need to keep a coffin or two in your inventory for at least a few turns even with a DD cemetery key. A lot more items than most characters. Weight lifting shouldn't be a focus but you should make sure to keep its potential at least respectable.

Magic device:
- Probably your third most important skill behind alchemy and anatomy, magic device will be your focus in the early game. Once you can start your career as a Necromancer it becomes a lot less important as a damage dealing tool though. Its main purpose in the mid and late game is for use with support rods. Rods of slow and silence are very powerful and a high magic device will let you cripple that boss monster without wasting 50 turns on "x resists the hex". Rods of mana and heal are also very important and a higher magic device could be the difference between a full mana bar from 1 or 2 casts and an empty barrier. Something to note is that rods of speed are more powerful than potions of speed, even with a  much higher alchemy level rods still give about 100 more speed than potions.

Control magic:
- This protects you from your own spook's damage. You'll be remodeling them for control magic anyway, but an extra layer of defense is never a bad thing. All the best spook types have some kind of breath or bolt spells, and although these will almost always pass through you just from remodeling them your dragon's "Convergence Breath" gauge ability will not. It can hit you pretty hard and without a combination of remodeling and your own control magic skill could even kill you outright. Luckily it's extremely easy to train since every spell you cast is going to hit a bunch of spooks, and every spell they cast is going to (hopefully) pass through you. This isn't as big an issue as I make it sound, but try to keep its potential at at least 100% if you're able.

Pick pocket:
- Not much to say about this. It doesn't matter if you train it. It's only important because it's your best source of coffins. There's one coffin to steal in Palmia, and four in Ruoza. There's probably more places but those two more than filled my needs. You can also steal fruit trees for juice.

About attributes, or "about learning" [9]

Strength:
- "Second weight lifting", a bit of health to I guess

Constitution:
- Pretty important. The health and weight limit are good of course but you also get 1 more max stamina for every 5 constitution. Max stamina is very important for use with Duplicane.

Dexterity:
- Dodges, not useless but not something to focus on at all

Perception:
- Dexterity

Charisma:
- For pets in your ranch and shop. Necromancers are not charismatic.

Magic:
- Very useful, but not for damage. Magic is very important for increasing your barrier and the potency of buff potions.

Will:
- Very similar to constitution in that it should be focused on for the stamina increase. It also boosts both health and mana so it helps barrier as well.

Learning:
- This is the big one and the reason I even touched on attributes. Learning is overlooked by most players because it has such a minor effect on most playstyles. It is however a Necromancers most important (and easily trained) attribute.
- Learning of course increases the effectiveness of your barrier very slightly
- Alchemy and anatomy both train learning. You're going to have very, very high learning. This means you'll be getting a lot of bonus skills points on level up which in turn increases your anatomy and alchemy even more.
- The most important effect of learning is the experience gain multiplier. Since your offensive (and therefor defensive) power is entirely based off skills and not spell levels or weapon stats the skill experience multiplier from learning is incredibly powerful.
- This deserves another bullet point, learning will multiply the experience you gain in alchemy and anatomy, as well as all other skills. That experience will then translate to even more learning experience which will slowly increase the amount of alchemy and anatomy experience you gain even more. Your entire character is devoted to using every method available to raise those two skills, meaning learning is your best and most loyal friend.

Gods [10]

Kumi or Yacatect are your best choices.

- Kumi is probably better considering he not only gives an alchemy boost but also a learning boost too. His passive that increases stamina regeneration is incredibly powerful for use with Duplicane.

- Yacatect is a great choice as well though. Her alchemy boost is larger and she also increases travelling and constitution, which are both useful. Her passive that massively increases the chances of monster parts dropping has obvious benefit for a Necromancer and will be very useful early game where you get so excited you're able to craft another Lich. One important note about her passive however is that you'll already be carrying around a large amount of items. Inventory space will be a major concern if you choose her.

AP and you [11]

You just came back from the void and you have 2000 AP. You've already bought barrier because you're handsome and good at video games, so you're all ready to boost that speed. Stop for a second and consider how useful 100 skill points would be. Speed is extremely important in Elona and you should always try to be at least as fast as your enemies, but Necromancers can't do much with an extra turn or two, what's important is our spook's speed. Now I'm not saying you shouldn't value speed, that extra movement could save you or that extra turn to rod of mana your super cool barrier could turn the tides, but it isn't as important. If you aren't getting much AP yet then increasing your speed is just going to lower how much you're getting even further. Meanwhile getting a good 10 levels into your anatomy/alchemy as well as increasing their potentials back to 200% could allow you to dive even further and start getting way more AP, thus allowing you to start boosting your speed without worry.

All about spooks

This is the important part. Aside from alchemy and anatomy everything else about your character's statistics is meant for survival while these guys actually do all the work. I'll go into as much detail as I can about the different kinds of spooks and give them a rating out of 10, talk about Necro-Force, etc.


How coffins/spooks work [12]

-Spooks each have a different level multiplier. A zombie cat will be less than a third the level of a Dead Eyes even at the same combined anatomy+alchemy level. This means that some types will be ineffective even if they bring something to the table a higher level type doesn't (skeleton warrior).

-Your alchemy/anatomy level when creating the coffin doesn't matter. Each time the spook is re-summoned (including when moving areas using a DD cemetery key) their level is re-adjusted to your skill levels. This means you could potentially put on your Necromancy skill outfit when changing floors, then change back to a magic device outfit or something with no disadvantage. Seems tedious though.

-The base gold value of the monster part used to create the coffin determines the spook it summons, this cannot be changed once it's crafted. The valuable skins of ranched monsters likely won't work because those are valuable thanks to a multiplier, not via base value. If the base value of the ranched monster's parts is high enough you could still get something good though.

-Spooks will attack anything that you attack or that attacks you. I've had them just sit there and take a beating when a monster attacked them while I was resting.

-If a spook dies its coffin will be left on the ground with a 24 hour cooldown. If you "remand" it or use Undead Return it will only have a 1 hour cooldown. When a spook enters its coffin and is resummoned it is completely healed because it's treated as a different creature, this means any debuffs or buffs are gone including something like a blessed potion of restore body. This is also true for when the DD cemetery key resummons them on moving areas.

-Your spook's kills give you anatomy experience as well as AP if applicable. I don't believe they give you the level experience for the kill however, as my character has had a terrible time leveling up even in level 600 awakened dungeons.

-You can have 15 spooks out at once. If you try to summon more while at this limit their coffin will go on a 1 hour cooldown. Both pets and spooks contribute to this limit. This means if you kill a Big Daddy then remand one of them before capturing the Little Sister it just won't work and she'll disappear.

-BEFORE CAPTURING A LITTLE SISTER REMAND AN UNDEAD IF YOU HAVE 15 OUT OR SHE'LL DISAPPEAR

-All spooks are extremely weak to fire. Carry a rod of bubble ball to put out any patches of fire and wet them for a bit of fire resistance. They are also oddly weak to bleed so make sure to alchemic rain some healing potions when that happens.

-Their stats scale with their level the same way monsters in the void work. This includes speed which is the defining factor between a fully focused Necromancer character and a character who just made some coffins. If you aren't putting a large amount of effort into your alchemy and anatomy your spooks will be a fair bit slower than you and will seem extremely sluggish. With proper focus their speed will stay relevant and may even be faster than you.

-The maximum level of your spooks is limited by your highest cleared dungeon level multiplied by 150%. So if you have cleared a level 400 dungeon your spooks could get up to level 600. This is really more of a limiter in the early game but is something to remember when deciding on if you're ready for that level 489 king's fort.

Types of spooks [13]

From lowest to highest level multipler/value of part required to craft

Cat Zombie:
0/10
It's basically just the game telling you to wait longer to make coffins. They're completely useless. There are a few free ones at the Lumiest Graveyard, I guess you could use them to self destruct. Attacks in melee range and nothing else.

Zombie:
1/10
I only used one of these. It's a terrible version of a skeleton warrior. You'll probably never make one. Attacks in melee range.

Mummy:
2/10
A better version of a zombie. Very slow compared to everything past this point. I think it uses touch of weakness. Don't use them.

Skeleton Warrior:
5/10*
These are probably my favorite type but still don't really deserve use. The only reason they aren't good is because they have a low level multiplier. They're much faster than anything before this point and attack extremely aggressively. I've never seen one move away from an enemy and when there's a corridor to block it's always these guys that get there first. Really they're more of a 4/10 at best but if you were to get to a point where your spooks had maxed out stats regardless of multiplier you'd want at least a few of these out. They also don't require control remodeling so you're free to give them tactics or swimming. I keep a few in my DD key just because.

Lich:
7/10
This is where Necromancy really starts. Liches are fantastic for a very long time and only fall off a bit even in late game. They attack with ice and dark bolts as well as sometimes stabbing enemies. They have an okay level multiplier that will make them a bit squishy in late game but still worth using. This is the point I transitioned into full Necromancer. The first monster part that gave me a Lich was a Titan heart that sold for 800 gold, as a reference. Give them control remodeling so they don't shove you in a coffin.

Necro Doll:
5/10
Much better on paper than in practice. They're mostly melee but try to (very rarely) debuff enemies too. They're worth using if you accidentally make some trying for a Lich or Dragon Zombie but I wouldn't seek them out. Still, with a decent level modifier you might find it useful having one in your army. They don't require control remodeling so you can give them anything you want, I'd recommend swimming so they debuff more but tactics would be great too.

Dragon Zombie:
8/10
A great spook with the second highest level modifier. They're like a mix between a Lich and a Dead Eyes. They mostly attack from range with poison and darkness breath. This means their gauge abilities is convergence breath which is extremely powerful but can damage you as well (reduced by their and your control magic). They also use death word hex which isn't as useful as it sounds, but can still create some possibilities. Make sure you get equipment that negates blindness as these guys are going to do it, a lot. Have a few out at all times for variety in elemental damage and to blind monsters. Control remodeling is mandatory.

Dead-Eyes Blood Dragon
10/10
I sometimes think an army of just 15 Dead Eyes would be best. With the highest level multiplier and a combination of abilities letting them fit most roles they are by far your best spook. My Dead Eyes are always over 150 levels higher than my Liches and currently 70 higher than my Dragon Zombies. They attack with a mix of power breath and melee attacks. While they aren't as aggressive in melee as skeletons, they're going to be your spooks that swarm that <Fuck your butt> and keep him busy. Even if they can't reach a monster in melee they'll spam power breath to similar effect, this means they can also use convergence breath with all the pros and cons that come with that. They are extremely tanky and your best option for a wall against danger. They're also just really fucking cool.

Necro-Force [14]

When you first craft a coffin of necromancy you'll get the ability "Necro-force". Necro-force gives you a few extra options for your spooky army. It's not incredibly useful but it's convenient and Undead Bomb is a risky life saver. When you use necro-force a menu with several options will come up.

Undead Return:
Really just a convenience thing. It automatically remands all your visible spooks into their coffins at your feet. Can be useful if all your spooks are low on health and bleeding.

Undead Strengthen:
Useful before you get barrier. Increases your spook's main stats and speed by a decent amount. Will probably use all your mana and then some. Doesn't cause magic reaction but puts you into negative mana. Costs more the more spooks you have out and the stronger they.

Undead Restore:
Very risky to use but beyond resummoning it's really the only way to heal your spooks. Works identical to Undead Strengthen but with health instead. It can put you to negative health but won't kill you. I assume if you take damage in that state you'll die, not sure if barrier would block that. I never took the risk. Doesn't always heal them to full but it's a pretty significant amount.

Undead Bomb:
The most interesting ability here. It makes all your currently summoned spooks act like bomb rocks and run at monsters before self destructing. Does fantastic damage. It's a risky move though since that will put all those spooks on a 24 hour cooldown and require you to recollect their coffins. It's recommended to have a second army waiting in your DD cemetery key just in case it wasn't enough. I believe the damage is based off their max health so Dead Eyes will deal the most damage considering their level multiplier. If you have enough backups in your cemetery key it's a good way to clear a swarm of monsters quickly or kill that super regen'ing Zombie Queen or Meshara.

Undead Call:
Draws all your currently summoned spooks to your location. Use it before using Undead Return. It can also be useful if a Lich decided to be the one blocking that choke point and you'd prefer a Dead Eyes there. Spooks act like they've been leashed by default so it really isn't all that useful and more of a convenience thing.

DD Cemetery Key [15]

A DD cemetery key is a combination bank for your coffins, and convenience item for moving areas. What it does is allow you to store coffins inside it, up to 15 stacks. It will also temporarily remand any summoned spooks into your inventory, then immediately resummon them between areas. If your inventory is full their coffins will be put into the key (can go beyond the 15 limit). You can get a free one at the Lumiest Graveyard, which is good since this item is mandatory for Necromancers. If you don't have one and move areas any spooks will remain in that area.
One thing to note is that you can hold 15 stacks of coffins, not 15 coffins. Sometimes coffins of the same type refuse to stack and I think it's due to the cooldown mechanic. Any easy way to fix this is to summon as many as you can of the same type, then Undead Return them and quickly pick them up into a single stack. Keep in mind you can't take out only 10 Dead Eyes of a 25 coffin stack, so maybe keep a few stacks of varying sizes in case you need to bring some replacements out mid fight.
You can find a replacement key rarely in dungeons, or on goods/general goods vendors.

Necro Remodel [16]

The second step in creating a coffin is to remodel it. This is done by adding a second monster part through the "Necro Remodel" recipe in the pot of fusion. What this does is increase the spooks level by 5 and give them a very large bonus to a skill (if they don't have it to start with they receive the skill at a high level). The type of part determines the skill or other effect, as follows:

Cards/figures: Changes the appearance of the spook into that of the monster in the card/figure. Cards give a purple tinge to the model.
Bone: Turns it into a coffin-Aggressive and gives it a large bone-us to tactics.
Heart: Turns it into a coffin-Tough and gives it a large bonus to constitution.
Eye: Turns it into a coffin-Control and gives it a large bonus to control magic. This is the remodel type you'll be using on most of your spooks. Dead Eyes, Liches, and Dragons all practically require this and since they are the best types, you'll pretty much exclusively be using this. Theoretically if you got your own control magic skill high enough you wouldn't need your spooks to have it, allowing you to make them extremely powerful with tactics or swimming.
Blood: Turns it into a coffin-Drench and gives it a large bonus to swimming
Skin: Becomes a coffin-Refractory and gives it a bonus to fire resistance.

You can only remodel each coffin for one type, a second remodel will overwrite the first.

Gearing for spooky [17]

Because Necromancy is entirely based around skill levels skill boosts on gear becomes incredibly important. Early on you'll want a few magic device pieces but as soon as you get Duplicane you're going to start gearing for spooky (alchemy/anatomy). This is pretty much the same as gearing for any other specific purpose but here's some tips regardless:

- Robes always come with "It grants you knowledge of alchemy ##"
- Kitchen knives always come with "It grants you knowledge of anatomy ##"
- The sages helm static artifact has "It grants you knowledge of anatomy ##"
- As far as I know the sages helm is the only static artifact that gives either anatomy or alchemy
- Artifact fusion will become incredibly useful for raising both these skills. If you find a godly robe or kitchen knife make sure to hold onto it.
- Mutants may outpace the other races here. Being able to wield several kitchen knives or other boosting equipment will make their spooks very strong. They will require riding however reducing their spook count to 14.
- Grab the shield tonfa early. It may not raise either skill but since your biggest hurdle is making sure your character can survive the areas your spooks can it becomes extremely useful.
- Don't forget you can equip anything in your ranged slot you could in your hand slot.
- Make sure you're immune to blind and poison. Dragon Zombies are great at inflicting these statuses on everything, and I mean everything.

General tips [18]

Almost done rambling now. Just a few more odds and ends

- Never underestimate the potency of buff potions with this build. Drink them before going down stairs and be glad you did
- Stockpile some juice and milk. You're likely to become anorexic at least a few times from all the potions I told you to drink. Sorry about that.
- Get barrier. No, just do it. You're raising your MP boosting stats anyway and you're probably not touching that bar much. It even prevents one shots since so long as an attack is only a single hit it will take your MP bar into the negatives without touching your health. Barrier is mandatory.
- I've been spending my small medals on scrolls of growth rather than hermes blood. This follows the same logic as in the AP and you section. It's been working very well.
- Know which monsters use fire magic. Fire kills your spooks very, very quickly. Even a red baptist could pose a threat if not silenced. Either rod of silence or rod of change creatures them. As previously mentioned grab a rod of bubble ball to take care of ground fires, or even acid and other issues.
- You should be buying scrolls of gain material anyway, so since you now have a large stock of materials you can probably earn a free alchemy level or two by just making 300 potions with whatever you don't need.
- You're eyeing those crystal bomb and makenn tensei recipes in the pot of fusion. They use all the skills you've been leveling like crazy so they must be good, right? Unfortunately from my limited testing they aren't. It's surprising but even with stupidly bloated skills they hardly do any damage. The crystal bomb may come in handy since it's a ranged ball spell though, who knows.
- Disasters and aqua sanctios are pretty damn potent though