David discovered the following after he sent me the first set of items. Please read this part first! 1. The "mystery" of the first-floor music room is solved right in the manual! This is the one room which the Sprite cannot move items into or out of. This makes it the best possible "hoarding-room," unless it is in an inaccessible place. 2. Just a typo, but for a neophyte it could spell trouble--in my "walkthrough" section, I instruct people to look for the parchment on the third floor, but it is located the maze (big or little). 3. I figured out what the mist flowing down the east wall in the little maze is (I mentioned this in my map section notes)--you can JUMP MIST from that room, and end up in the room east and south from the pit in the little maze. A useful shortcut, but I was disappointed not to find treasure! 4. If you go to the room with music in the maze (not the one on the first floor), and PLAY FLUTE while holding the parchment, a secret ledge appears! Then, if you are holding the rope, you can CLIMB LEDGE and find a treasure. ================== 1. Information about spells: ================== Vetar = food + mushroom. Vetar is found on the first floor. It is used to get back your lamp if it is blown from your grasp. It is very important not to type anything before you type VETAR in this case--which can be difficult if you are moving fast! Mitra = parchment + Vetar. Mitra is found on the second floor. I haven't figured out what it does yet. Okkan = talisman + Mitra. Okkan is found on the second floor. If you type OKKAN in the room with the rocks with a dull, eerie glow, you get a treasure. Akhirom = rope + Okkan. Akhirom is the last spell found on the second floor. Typing AKHIROM in the Hydra's presence is the only way to kill the Hydra. Note that since you need the rope for Akhirom, and Akhirom kills the Hydra, it is of utmost importance not to TIE HYDRA before you get Akhirom. RUN past the Hydra if you need to, instead. Nergal = scepter + Akhirom. Nergal is found on the third floor. It is used to dispel fog, but doesn't seem to work. Just don't stay too long in foggy rooms and you'll be fine. Belrog = vial + Nergal. Belrog, the other third-floor spell, is used to get a safe ride across a pit. However, you only need a safe ride if you are at low health, and it is most unsafe to cast spells at low health, so this is mostly useless. There is a better spell for getting outside, if that's why you want to JUMP PIT. Crom = pendant + Belrog. Crom is found in the maze. It unblocks every blocked passage in a room. Sometimes this is useful, but usually you won't have to use it if you RUN judiciously. Ishtar = spellbook + Crom. Ishtar is far and away the hardest spell to get, since the Oracle never tells you what you need to get the spellbook. Through going through every possible combination of items, you can come up with your own list. I used to have one, and there were 4 possibilities if I remember correctly. Of these, I have only rediscovered 2: Pendant + Scepter + Crom, and Mushroom + Goblet + Crom. Ishtar is worth the trouble though, because casting it takes you outside from anywhere in the Labyrinth! ===================== 2. Item requirements ===================== Depending on the Oracle to give you needed information is very tiresome. With items, just try these combinations one at a time, and one will work. With monsters, it is more tricky; you lose a LOT of points for missing. It's best to save the monsters for the end of the game, giving the Oracle as much time as possible to tell you how to kill them. Even here though, you can usually have 2 of the possibilities in your possession at once, if you plan it right, giving you a 2/3 rather than 1/3 chance of killing the monster. With some, like the Scorpion, you can hold all three, and have a 100% chance of killing it, and a fig for the Oracle! Lightring: Powerring + Rope + Nergal Powerring + Ax + Okkan Powerring + Crom + Talisman Minotaur: Ax + Nergal Mace + Vial + Scepter + Mitra (Sword + Shield + Powerring?) Nymph: Food + Pendant Mushroom + Truthring (something else?) Powerring: Shield + Mace + Skull + Mitra Shield + Scepter + Parchment + Okkan Belrog Shield + Sword + Akhirom Satyr: Sword + Nergal Skull + Crom (something else?) Scorpion: Talisman + Powerring Skull + Crom Flute + Nergal Shield: Dagger Mace Sword Skull: Scepter Talisman + Pendant Okkan Spellbook: Pendant + Scepter (+ Crom?) Mushroom + Goblet (+ Crom?) Powerring + a spell (I had Crom). (something else?) Sprite: Dagger + Akhirom Skull + Powerring (something else?) Sword: Mitra Parchment (something else?) Troglodyte: Ax + Scepter + Mitra Spellbook + Crom Dagger + Shield + Nergal Truthring: Lightring + Ax + Okkan Lightring + Crom + Basket Lightring + Flute + Akhirom Vial: Parchment + Mitra Mushroom + Vetar Talisman + (Nergal or less) ======= 3. Maps ======== Each of the floors is on a perfect 8 by 8 grid. The rooms are square and the tunnels between them never turn. Of this, the top 5 rows of the first three floors are easily mappable. I'll leave out the names, but here is the plan. Note that | or --- is a 1 way passage, <-- or --> or ^ or v a one way passage. + represents a pit, hole, chasm, or pool to be jumped. Important rooms I have as numbers, see the number for an explanation; other rooms are represented by o. If you can go up, the room is preceded by a u, of down, succeeded by a d Floor 1. od o---o---o---o---o o<-- od | | | | o--- o---1u--o-- o---o--- o o ^ | | | | o+++o 2 o---o o o--- o | v | | | | od od-- o-- o o---o--- o o | | | | 12--13---o++ 0---o---o---od o v (maze) Floor 2. (maze) | u3--- o uo---o uo---o--- o uod ^ | | | ^ | o--- o---o--- o--- o o o o | | + | o o---o-- uo-- o--- o o--- o | | | | | | o uod o--- o o o---o o | | | o--- o--- o--- o--- o--- o-- od od Floor 3. o o---o---o---o---5 o-> uo | v | o o---6---6---o---o<-- o<-- o | | | | | + 4 o o o---o o uo o | | | | | | o---o---o o--uo---o-->od o | | | v | o---o---o--- o--7--- o<-- o uo | | | | | | ( m a z e ) Floor 4. Note that this floor is entirely maze. However, the upper 5 rows are a special maze in which you can only go a few directions, and never up or down. I call it the little maze, as distinct from the big, bad maze, taking up the lower 3 rows of all 4 floors. o---o---o---o---o---o o--- o | | | | o---o 8d 9---o o---o o | | | | o o o---o---o 10---o-- o | | | | | | o---o o o---o---o---o---o | | | | | | | 11--o---o o---o---o---o---o | (maze) Notes: 1. The room with the table and chair where you start. Going up from here gets you to the forest outside (8) but you can only go up if you are holding next to nothing and have very high health. You can only get the lightest treasures, like opal or tiara, outside this way. 2. The great library has a southern entrance. Maybe a quarter of the time it will get you to the east end of the great marble portal, which is one south on the map-grid. Usually you end up in the maze. 3. The room with a great pit. If you JUMP PIT, you'll end up on the northeast corner of floor 3. This is the first step of an important way to get outside. 4. The high narrow path with mist everywhere, two south of where you end up after jumping the great pit (3). If you JUMP from here (with no direct object--if you were really there this would be the scariest part of the game) you end up at the west end of a great pit filled with mist (5). This is the second step of an important way to get outside. 5. The west end of a great pit filled with mist. If you jump this pit, you end up at the room in the fourth floor maze with a pit (9). This is the third step of an important way to get outside. Note that this is the second-stingiest pit in the game, I highly discourage trying to jump it with anything in your possession except the lamp, and not trying to jump it at all if you're below 220 health or so. 6. There is a passage from the dark chamber to the twisting winding narrow passage and vice versa, but it rarely works--usually you end up in the maze. This is annoying because these rooms are difficult to get to otherwise, especially if there are any spells or blocked passages at all on that long, long route. 7. The stingiest pit in the game, bar none. It takes you outside if you make it, but if you are holding ANYTHING, and especially treasure, guaranteed you won't make it. Once you figure out the maze, you can get to the pit there in 30 seconds from here (barring blocked passages et al.), and if you need to get that sapphire outside I highly recommend going that route. 8. Outside, by a great forest. Where you need to take treasures in order to get 10 points for them. You can easily go down to the room where you started (1), but it is usually impossible to take any treasure back up again from below. 9. Jumping the pit here takes you outside (8). If you have full health, there is nothing in the game you cannot get outside by jumping this pit, not even the notoriously heavy rings. Just don't hold any more than one item (plus the lamp) at a time. 10. This room has green mist running down the east wall. I don't know what to do with the green mist, or if it does anything, but it is a good landmark if you get lost in the maze. 11. Going south from here takes you to a random place in the maze, either the part I have mapped, or the big maze, which I discuss next. 12. Almost forgot about these last two. This is the small dark tunnel. If you enter here with your lamp on, or LOOK after you light it in this room, yyou get a free treasure! 13. Since you can only get here by going through the small dark tunnel (12), you won't need to worry about this if you're smart. This is a narrow twisting stairway with no windows, and unless you have your lamp on, you will stumble and fall, and lose like 30 health points! ================ 4. The BIG MAZE! ================ The little maze I just mapped, from the upper five rows of the fourth floor, is relatively easy. The big maze taking up the southern three rows of all four mazes is much harder. The basic pattern is like this: uod-uod-uod-uod-uod-uod-uod-uod- | | | | | | | | -uod-uod-uod-uod-uod-uod-uod-uod- | | | | | | | | -uod-uod-uod-uod-uod-uod-uod-uod As if it weren't hard enough, with all those directions, going east from the rooms on the eastern edge of the maze wraps you around one row south and to the western edge. And going west from the rooms on the western edge wraps you around one row up and to the eastern edge. So you could go east 24 times from the northwest corner and end up at the southeast corner. Likewise, if you go down from the fourth floor, you end up on the first, and up from the first gets you to the fourth floor. However, you do not wrap around going north or south. So you always know if you are on the northern or the southern edge. The most annoying thing about the maze is that you are sometimes transported to a different part, and have no way of knowing unless you carefully keep track of where you are. The two easiest rooms to recognize are the northwest and southeast corner rooms, since they have fewer possible exits. If ever you are lost, head for one of these! The best way to explore the maze is to pick a floor, head to a corner, say the northwest, and go like this: S, S (at this point you should not be able to go further south), E, N, N (the furthest north you can go if you have not been transported), E, S, S, E, N, N, and so on, until you have gone east seven times and are therefore on the eastern edge. Now double check that the southeastern corner is where you expect, go down a floor, and do the same thing again in reverse. On the fourth floor of this maze, the southeast corner has an eastern exit. This exit will take you to the northwest corner of the little fourth-floor maze mapped above. Note that it is a one-way passage; there's no going back unless you type BACK quickly. This means two things. First, it is the best landmark you have in the big maze. If you need to get to the truthring on the second floor of the maze, go south and east until you get to any southeast corner, with no southern or eastern exit, then go down until there is an exit to the east. You are now on the fourth floor. (If suddenly you can't go up or down, you know you WERE on the fourth floor, type BACK to get back to the southeast corner.) Now go down twice, and voila! You're on the second floor, and well on your way to finding the item you remember seeing here long ago. Second, this gives you an easy route outside. If you just killed the Satyr and got the Crown, which is way too heavy to take up from room (1), or jump the pits in rooms (5) or (7) with, just take one of the many, many exits to the maze. Make your way to a southeast corner, go up or down until you can go east, and make your way to room (9) using my map above. ================== 5. Item locations ================== First floor: Food, bottle, dagger, shield Second floor: Urn, flute Third floor: Mushroom, ax, mace, basket, pendant Maze (either): Parchment, talisman, scepter, rope Can be anywhere: Vial, spellbook, sword, powerring, lightring, truthring ====================== 6. Obtaining treasure ====================== Treasure is obtained in the following ways: 1-6. Killing monsters--6 of the 7 have a treasure. 7. Having the lamp on in room (12) 8. There is another, random, room on the first floor which will yield a treasure if your lamp is on. 9. Casting OKKAN in the room with the rocks glowing with an eerie green light. 10. On the second or third floors there is a room whose walls "are a very strange color!" Turn your LAMP OFF, and LOOK. (Just remember to turn it on again!). 11. On the fourth floor is a fake pit. If you see a pit where one doesn't belong, and you can't JUMP PIT, type LOOK PIT. Yet another treasure for you. 12-15. The spellbook and the three rings count as treasure. This is all the treasure I know of, but there must be more, as I have never yet beaten the game, even when I have done all this. And 15 treasures * 10 points per treasure, + 7 spells * 10 points per spell, still only equals 220 points, out of a total 240. There are still mysteries which I haven't solved, so doubtless they result in treasure. ============ 7. Mysteries ============ 1. The first floor room with music. What gives? 2. The packrat on the third or fourth floors. I've tried everything! 3. The room with mist in the little maze (10). Surely there is some significance! ============8. Walkthrough of early game ================ 1. Explore the first floor thoroughly. Get the lamp first; you will always find it if you follow the progression, S, BACK, N, W, BACK, E, E, E, S, W, W, W, W, W, N. Turn the lamp on immediately when you find it. I've never had a game where I had to worry about oil too much; when you run out you can refill it from the urn, and when that runs out pools of oil start appearing everywhere. Now explore the rest of the floor. Note which room is crackling with enchantment. See if you can get the shield with the dagger. If you can't find something, it might well be in the Great Sloping Shaft, in the northeast corner, which is only accessible after a long trip through the second and third floors. Drop everything but the lamp in the room with the table and chair (1), or some other hoarding-room (see the hints section). 2. Get the mushroom. It is always on the third floor. The easiest way to explore a lot of it is to jump the great pit. From the room with the table and chair (1): W, W, N, D, JUMP PIT. Now you're on the third floor, you might find it on any of the following rooms. Pick up everything you find, as some of these places you won't be visiting much in the future. S, S, JUMP. Even if you found the mushroom, do not jump the pit in this room (5)! W, W, W, W, BACK. If you have the mushroom, you can go up twice here to get to the third floor. Otherwise, continue S, S, S, W, N, N, BACK, S, W, S, E, E, E, E, E. Now you've covered most of the third floor. If you still haven't found it, you'll have to go back to the second floor--the best route by returning to the large cavern, W, W, W, W, N. Then up twice to the east end of the marble portal. Put whatever you've found back in your hoarding-room, wherever that is, and return to the Great Pit room (2). From here: E, S, W, S, S, S, E, E, E, N, N, E, E, S, E, N, E, S, S, D. You'll never get all that way without some adventure; but if you use the maps at least you'll know where you're going. From here you can explore the rest of the third floor: N, N, JUMP PIT, W, S, BACK, N, E, BACK (very important, since there is no west), S, W, W, W, BACK, E, S, S, E, BACK (again very important), W, W, N, E, S. Hopefully you've found the mushroom by now. You can either return to the first floor by S, W, W, W, N, U, U, or by going south twice into the big maze, and getting to the room with the pit (9) the way I described above. 3. Return with the mushroom to your hoarding-room, take the food, and go to whichever room was crackling with enchantment. Congratulations, you have learned the secret of the magic spell VETAR! 4. Return to your hoarding-room, drop the food and mushroom, and go off again in quest of the parchment on the third floor! This is also a good time to explore the entire maze, picking up all the objects you can, and noting where there are magic objects and crackling rooms. The dark floors are a bit scary before you learn VETAR, since a gust of wind can easily end your game, but now you have nothing to fear! 5. You are now well on your way as long as you follow these general tips: ================ 9. General tips ================ 1. RUN is the most important command in the game. Why? Because except for the Very Powerful Magic Spell (which disappears after awhile, I'm starting to think after Mitra) nothing, not blocked passages, not magic spells, not even the Hydra, gets in the way of a run. Rather than bump against a magic spell 50 times, and losing 50 health points, before you can get to that room crackling with enchantment, just stand in an adjacent room and RUN, and there's a chance you'll end up where you want. (Of course, if you're near a one-way passage, especially one to the big maze, RUN carries its own annoyances.) Note that RUN is very powerful when used in conjunction with BACK, which I deal with next. 2. BACK is important for the same reason. The manual says it is useful when you are in a room with blocked passages. It is--since unlike RUN (which would also get you out) you don't drop things. But there are three other uses for it, which are less obvious. Let's say the Wine Cellar on the first floor is crackling with enchantment, but a magic spell pushes you out when you try to enter. Following my directions above, you take your food and mushroom to the room one south, with the green mist, and you run. On the fourth try, you finally get in. However, your food and mushroom have been dropped from the room you ran from! What to do? Go south, and very quickly, type TAKE MUSHROOM, and BACK. You will not be pushed out. S, TAKE FOOD, BACK -- Congratulations, you have learned the secret of the magic spell VETAR! A second useful use for BACK is when you're trying to go UP with something big, when you have low health. DROP TRUTHRING, U, D, TAKE TRUTHRING, BACK will get your heavy treasure up a floor. Note that this does not work between the starting room (1) and the forest (8)--trust me, I've tried. One last thing about BACK is that it works even if you've gone through a 1 way passage (except those to the big maze). For example, after you've killed the Minotaur in the Small Cave filled with Minotaur Tracks, and he threw the Crown at you, you find that you cannot carry the Sword, Shield, and Powerring you used to kill him, and still pick up the crown. Yet you don't want to go all that long way to pick up what you dropped. No problem--Go up to the Edge of the Great Stone Shaft, using the technique I just mentioned, then W, DROP POWERRING, BACK. You are free to TAKE CROWN, W, DROP CROWN, BACK, TAKE SWORD, TAKE SHIELD, W. And hey presto, you've taken everything to the first floor very easily. 3. HOARDING-ROOMS are very, very important. Pick up everything you find, whether it is useful or not, and put it in a single room--then you know where it is! If you have to drop some stuff--say you just got the Powerring, and you didn't want to wander around with it and the heavy things you needed to pick it up, for fear the floor cave in--make sure you come back to get it, and return it to a hoarding-room, before you forget. Actually, I usually have two hoarding rooms--the principal one on the first floor is usually the room with the table and chair (1). Of course, when I need to figure out how to get the spellbook, I transfer my hoarding-room to wherever it is. The room with the pit in the little maze (9) makes a good temporary hoarding-room, especially for treasure. If you got the Gold, but are at 220 health and don't want to risk your health by JUMP PIT, just drop it there, and wait for a better moment to return to it. At least you know where it is, and don't have to transport it anywhere except over the pit. The main things a hoarding-room has to be are easy to access (both getting there, and leaving) and out of reach of the Sprite. (The Sprite has a nasty habit of moving things around, and an equally nasty habit of hanging out on the first floor!) 4. Keep your health high! If you are below 200, you are useless. Even below 220, you should be fixing up, since you'll be afraid of every pit you come across. The food repairs 30 health, as does the water (if you haven't drunk in awhile). The Mushroom repairs 60 points. It can be useful if you just took a risk trying to kill a monster without knowing the right combination, and got unlucky. But only use it if you are below 200 (i.e. in dire straits). There is some chance, increasing the more you use it, that it will be poisonous and end your game right there. Luckily all these things ARE REPLENISHABLE--the food and mushroom tend to reset after a bit in a random place in the non-maze first, second, or third floors. The bottle is refillable anywhere there is water in the room description--for a good example the Great Stone Tower in the NW corner of the first floor. The potion replaces all your health, but I do not think it reappears. Since it is a treasure, only drink it if you don't care about your score, and just want to play a little longer. Do not use BELROG or ISHTAR, tempting as they are, unless you have no choice (i.e. at 10 health, stranded in the maze without hope of food, mushroom, or water.) They both pack a nasty wallop on your health. If you are up to ishtar and have 255 health, and are holding nothing else except the lamp, there is no treasure you cannot JUMP PIT with from the pit in the little maze (9). The two really stingy pits which you might be tempted to use BELROG on are completely avoidable if you know how to get through the big and little mazes. Lastly, and maybe this is obvious--never JUMP PIT holding more than one item plus the lamp! It's much better to take your items one at a time, even if it means jumping a pit five or seven times. Health in this game is too precious to waste because you're LAZY. Need to get the Powerring with the shield, mace, and skull, but have a pit to cross? DROP MACE, DROP SKULL, JUMP PIT, DROP SHIELD, JUMP PIT, TAKE MACE, JUMP PIT, DROP MACE, JUMP PIT, TAKE SKULL, JUMP PIT, TAKE MACE, TAKE SKULL. See, it's not so hard.