Overview
When I started this rather bare-bones game, I didn’t know much about it or how exactly it worked. I spent more time than I care to admit trying to get past some shaman early in the game and either being massacred in that battle or soon after. There were no guides I could find, nor any walkthroughs online. Soon I realized that the purpose of this game is basically to grind. That is probably what you will spend most of your time doing if you wish to complete the game – just grinding the same type of creature over and over again. I know, not too exciting, is it? But if you’re like me and have the urge to finish what you’ve started, hopefully this guide can help you.
First Things First
If you’re just starting this game, you may have trouble with some of the controls. I know I did. You may be asking yourself things like…
– How do I equip a weapon/piece of armor? Hold down the left mouse button over the item you want to equip. Click where it says “Use” and then you can move the item around. Move the item to where you want it equipped at…including on another character if desired.
– How do I equip/light a new torch? Hold down the left mouse button over the torch. Click where it says “Split Torches” and you will pick up just one of them, leaving the rest in the inventory. Move the torch to the hand. Hold down the left mouse button on the torch in hand and choose “Light”.
– How the heck do I use an arrow with my bow? When a battle starts, a quiver icon will appear next to your archer. Click on it to be taken to an arrow inventory. Hold down the left mouse button over your arrow type of choice and choose “Split Arrows”. You can then place the arrow in the empty square (next to the square that shows your bow) above the arrow inventory. The quiver icon should have changed to a taut bow, ready to shoot. You will not have to load your bow every time, luckily; only if you want to use another type of arrow or run out of them entirely.
– How do I attack? When a monster gets close enough, weapon icons will appear next to your characters (above their shields). To attack, simply click on the weapon icon of the character you wish to make the attack. The archer and magician will have a bow (if there are arrows in it) and a spellbook, respectively; they can use these things even from a far distance, though how well they are used depends on your level.
– How do I cast a spell? Two of your characters have spellbooks (the magician and the archer), and you may cast spells with either of them. When in battle, only someone wielding a spellbook can use it. Just simply click on the book icon, which will in turn open up a spell inventory to the side of the screen. Choose which spell you want by holding down the left mouse button over it (it will tell you the name of it when you do this) and clicking on “Cast”. If it’s an offensive spell, it will set off automatically. If you’re trying to heal someone, it will turn into a box that you can carry to the person you wish to heal. Simply click on their face during this and it will heal them. Outside of battle, anyone with a spellbook can cast a spell even if they’re not holding the book. Just click on the character’s face and click the little red book icon to go into the spell inventory that way.
– How do I eat food/ingest a potion? Hold down the left mouse button over the item you wish to ingest, and either choose “Split” (if you just need to use one) or “Use” (if you plan on using several at a time). Then carry the item up to the mouth picture (next to the hunger bar) and click on it. You can do this with any character by simply clicking on a face, and bringing the food or potion to their mouth. I know, you’d think they’d be able to feed themselves.
– How do I see a character’s stats/how much EXP they need for leveling? Just click on the face of the character you wish to look at. In the upper right corner is what appears to be a paper icon (next to the icon of two swords together, which is selected by default). Click on it to see all stats as well as how much EXP is needed.
Important Things to Know Before Starting
– It’s good to save constantly, perhaps even having a few different save files. In the beginning, if you take a lot of damage, it’s better to reload a previous save rather than use your precious mana or potions trying to heal.
– Torches can be hard to come by, so use them wisely. You can attack things just fine in the dark, so if grinding, it’s not necessary to light a new torch when the old one dies. Save that for when you’re done grinding and ready to explore again.
– Hunger is based on movement; you will become more hungry the more you move, even just turning. If your hunger guage empties entirely, you will begin to take periodic damage, so it’s best not to let this happen until you’ve gained some levels (when the damage becomes miniscule).
– Chest contents (and whether the chest is locked or not) are always random. Always save before opening a chest. If it explodes, reload. If the contents are not to your liking, reload until they are.
– Your health/mana will replenish when your characters reach a new level.
Getting Started (Finally)
When you begin a new game, the first thing you should do is juggle some inventory items between your characters. For instance, the archer (character in the lower-right corner) has a dagger for some reason. Transfer it to the torch holder in the top-left, since he has no weapon. He does have a shield, which will be handy to give to the guy on the top-right.
Explore this 1st floor, looting all the chests you can find and killing any enemy that gets in your way. Remember to save after each enemy killed – if one of your party gets killed or you take too much damage (it’s bound to happen), you can just reload to before the last battle. There are some walls that you can walk through, so if you arrive at a dead end, try to run into the wall – there’s a decent chance you will enter a secret room leading to more treasure.
After looting everything, you’re going to want to start grinding. Otherwise you’ll soon have a really bad time. Go to a place where the wall is directly in front of you, and move back 1 space. Then press the “Wait for Monster” button, and one will appear right in front of you. You may have to right-click (or press the X button that appears next to the information box) once for it to come to you. Then just use your top two characters taking turns hacking away at it until it dies. I found using the bottom characters for fighting at this stage to be completely unecessary, so after I used both the top two attacks, I just right-clicked to start a new round.
Remember, if a character gets killed or you take a lot (more than half) of damage, reload the previous save.
As long as you don’t move from this spot, you’ll never have to worry about hunger. Your torch will eventually die, but that doesn’t matter, so DON’T light another torch. You’ll need them for exploring later. Just happily kill monsters in the dark, making sure to save after each monster (or every few if you’re not taking much damage) until you level up.
Continue on until you’re at least a few levels in. I did this until I was level 5, and by that time the “monsters” were rarely getting a hit on me, and I was one-hitting them almost every battle. When you decide to go back to exploring is up to you, and whether you want a bit of a challenge ahead or not. If you’re not sure, just save in a new slot, light a new torch, and continue on – if you’re still too weak for your liking, just reload and continue the grind again.
After that first grind session, at level 5, I was pretty much breezing through the game. A few floors down, I came to a beast-like creature that was causing me a little damage and giving about 500 EXP for each kill. I decided then it was time for another grind session! It worked pretty much the same way as the first, except this time I had a lot more strength and defense, so saves could be made more few and far between – which also made everything go more quickly. I leveled up until 8-9, and went on through the rest of the game without having to grind again.
Achievement Info
If you’re interested in not only completing the game but getting all the achievements, this section may be of interest to you.
– Hero in the Making: Just level your characters up to 5 for this one.
– Help the Woman: When you get down to the (I believe) 2nd floor from the top, a text popup will inform you of this woman who needs your help. Choose to help her, and you’ll not only get this achievement but some experience. Sometimes there is a glitch where you can do this multiple times, but remember each time will remove a torch so it’s best not to do this more than once.
– Animal Lover: Simply donate one of your potions to the wolf for this achievement.
– Grouping Up: After you save someone from a monster, you will have the option to have him in your party. Just choose yes to get an extra character along with the achievement.
– Making Progess: This achievement will pop up when you first step onto the 5th floor.
– Master of Ammo: Just collect all the arrows you can find, until you have collected 100 of them. It’s easier than it sounds; arrows are some of the most plentiful things to be found in chests.
– Strike It Rich: Have a certain amount of gold. I think this achievement popped for me when I had 50 gold on hand, but I’m not 100% sure. Gold is found quite often in chests, some more than others. Try to look for chests which have over 10 gold at once if you’re going for this achievement.
– Torch-Bearer: Have 25 torches in your inventory at once. This is something that will quite likely take most of the game to achieve. Try to look for (or reload until you have) chests with a decent amount of torches inside, like 3-5.
– Neverdead Adventurer: This is the one I had the most trouble with. You need to collect 50 health potions. I’m not sure if you have to have 50 on hand, or just need to collect 50 throughout the game, so to be safe you might want to make sure you have 50 total in your inventory. Try to target your chest looting toward chests that have a good amount of potions in each one (3-4) in order to get this game-long achievement.
– Close to the End: The moment you step out onto the 10th (bottom) floor, this achievement should pop up.
– Mission Completed!: Simply beat the game for this one.
Conclusion
I hope this guide has been helpful to you in some way. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask in the comments. If I can answer it, I will add it to the guide!