Xyphus(Commodore 64) FAQ/Walkthrough by Andrew Schultz
[email protected]
version 1.0.0 copyright 2007
Please do not reproduce for profit without my consent. You won't be getting
much profit anyway, but that's not the point. This took time and effort, and
I just wanted to save a memory of an old game and the odd solutions any way I
could. Please send me an email referring to me and this guide by name if
you'd like to post it on your site.
Preemptive thanks to apple2.org.za for this and in general.
http://www.apple2.org.za/gswv/a2zine/Docs/XyphusDocs.txt
Has a link to basic Xyphus instructions for the Apple. They all worked for
the Commodore emulator too.
I will refer the reader extensively to the map I made for GameFAQs, because
that can show you stuff that would take forever to describe (less
interestingly) in a FAQ.
================================
OUTLINE
1. INTRODUCTION
1-1. ABOUT THE GAME
1-2. VERSIONS
1-2-1. CREATING A XYPHUS DISK(C64)
1-2-2. VICE AND XYPHUS
1-3. MAPS AND SELF PROMOTION
2. CONTROLS
2-1. CREATING YOUR PARTY
2-2. MOVING YOUR PARTY
2-3. TWEAKING YOUR PARTY
2-4. PARTY ADVANCEMENT
2-5. ALIGNING FOR COMBAT
2-6. STUPID EMULATOR TRICKS
3. EVERYTHING ELSE
3-1. ITEMS
3-2. MONSTERS
3-3. SPELLS
4. GENERAL GUIDELINES
5. WALKTHROUGH
5-1. FIRST AREA
5-2. SECOND AREA
5-3. THIRD AREA
5-4. FOURTH AREA
5-5. FIFTH AREA
5-6. SIXTH AREA
6. CHEATING
6-1. CHARACTERS
6-2. RAZING THE OUTSIDE AREA
7. VERSIONS
8. CREDITS
================================
1. INTRODUCTION
1-1. ABOUT THE GAME
Xyphus is an RPG based on hexagonal movement, which sounds a bit weird, and
it is, but it is a fun change of pace. You must work your party through six
sub-worlds as you collect items and clear the place of fixed monsters. In
each scenario you need to collect certain items or defeat special monsters as
you work your way to the next fort, and safety. Unlike most games of its
time, Xyphus had no random combats. You have a finite amount of spells(your
spellcasters need a Xiphoid Amulet, which shatters after seveal uses) but
infinite healing away from fights. No random combats also means fixed gold.
It's an exercise in planning that was unusual for 1984 games, where most of
the challenge was repeating things faster and faster. In fact, it's unusual
now, and I have to admit I fudged my way through it the first time.
Unfortunately the major time-consumer, at least on the Commodore is getting
your party to move around. They run into each other, there's no way to toggle
making that a pass-move, and you have trouble figuring what to do. Plus it
takes forever to get to level 2.
Nevertheless Xyphus is robust enough to prevent you plowing through with
gross cheat techniques, and mapping the continents out is kind of fun. It
does go on a bit without much variety, and the hexagonal movement gets old,
but if you like retro games in general, you will like Xyphus 0once you
understand what to do.
This first version is not one of my better FAQs, because basically the way to
get through the game is to move through the screens and look for a big
treasure. Then run for the treasure, backing up if too many enemies attack
you. Save the game and see about resting everyone to heal, then go back in
and attack again until you can get through. Basically you can't take on too
many enemies at once. So, Xyphus in a nutshell:
1) look for treasure when moving to a new screen
2) collect the treasure
3) find the main special treasure in one scenario, usually behind a very
tough enemy
3.-01) maybe you needed a special sword to defeat that enemy, which is
somewhere else
4) find the "exit garrison," usually a few zigzags away from where you
started
So I believe at worst this FAQ will either 1) not tell you the right order to
get into fights, forcing you to learn about hexadecimal and save states if
you don't already(and you probably do, if you have a Commodore emulator) or
2) have a big obvious mistake that you will laugh at because it is so easy to
figure out, in which case, email me. After looking at this a couple different
ways I'm still not convinced I got all of it.
Xyphus mixes up the maps well with different terrain for the scenarios, which
branch to several places to explore without being overpowering, and a wicked
maze at the end, and it has some cool ideas for monster and weapon names. So
it is certainly fun for old school RPG fans. But be prepared for a bit of a
slog(it's too bad you can't force the game to move everyone in
unison/formation) and tough curve for character improvement, and be warned
that combats are not automatic.
1-2. VERSIONS
The Apple version is available at ftp.apple.asimov.net. I believe it is
corrupt as it is missing part of the maps for the first two scenarios. I was
unable to get it running past the utilities on AppleWin.
The Commodore version is available at
http://c64.hardwired.hu/. It is what I
used to complete the game. I used VICE's X64 to get the files running. See
details in the subsections.
The Mac version is available in a SIT archive at
http://mac.the-
underdogs.info. I have no idea of its fidelity to the Apple/Commodore
versions or of how to get it working, and from what I've read it seems to
have an improved interface, but I suspect the major items and the maps are
the same. So this guide should, generally, work.
1-2-1. CREATING A XYPHUS DISK(C64)
Xyphus comes with a player disk(Xyphus_C.D64) in the zip file when you find
it on the net. But to create a Xyphus player disk on the Commodore, designate
Xyphus_C.D64 and create a new disk for play. You'll be swapping disks a bit,
but eventually you'll get it done.
1-2-2. VICE AND XYPHUS
You can just google Vice and C64 if you don't have it. I used Xyphus to get
through the game and found it useful to save states, numbering them as I went
through the game, xyphus-a-* to xyphus-f-*. You can just type xy and use the
arrow to get to the most recent state. You can also save a state in the
middle of a fight to restore endurance, hit points or a xiphoid amulet that
shattered.
But perhaps the most important thing about Xyphus is that you have to switch
settings a few times to get through the game. For version 1.2.1 of Vice,
start with true drive emulation on. Before entering the garrison to complete
scenario 3, you need to switch it off. Switch it back on when you get to
scenario 4. When you have killed Xyphus and are going back to the garrison in
scenario 6, turn true drive emulation back off to see the ending.
Different versions of VICE may make this worse or better, but in any case,
save your state before walking into the garrison to seal the deal.
1-3. MAPS AND SELF PROMOTION
First, due to the zigzag nature of how maps are created, text maps are
impractical for this game, showing apparent diagonal jumps available where
there are none, or vice versa. So I wrote up a graphic map to help you
through more easily. My first draft does not denote everything accurately,
but you will be able to see things from a distance, and that should be good
enough for you to figure out what's where, or where to go.
The map itself may have some inaccuracies and leave out some spell scrolls,
but it should point where to go and what to do at the very least.
2. CONTROLS
2-1. CREATING YOUR PARTY
I went with a human fighter, dwarf fighter, and two elf spellcasters. Given
that you find about two xiphoid amulets per scenario, and the elves
eventually find nice weapons to swing around(staff of power,) which helps
with blood-and-guts combat, this seems like a good way to go about the game.
2-2. MOVING YOUR PARTY
Your characters may wind up stumbling about each other a bit. Keep in mind
that your dwarf is slower than the rest and so if you are making a big run
across the continent, your dwarf will be trailing everyone else, with bad
results if you run into monsters faster than yourself.
So what you want to do is move horizontally when possible and have your party
aligned in a column, or as close as Xyphus will let you. If your dwarf drags
behind, then push everyone else in the party back as you go forward. Save
frequently because, when monsters do appear, they can be persistent. Just
make sure your fighters are ahead to start, and if the enemies are vulnerable
to your spellcasters, try and surround them, too.
Diagonal movement is also a possibility. You can make sure no party member is
on the diagonal that you wish to move from the other. Vertical movement is
possible but a bit tricky since you have to zigzag, so I just use diagonal 5
SW, then 5 SE, etc. The important thing to remember is that large straight
distances should take little time to cover.
2-3. TWEAKING YOUR PARTY
It's always nice to have armor, but a lot of the time, monsters will miss you
throughout combat, and you can reload and retry if anyone gets offed, so it
seems it would not be too critical. But on the other hand, your fighters
could waste money first buying items that eventually get replaced by magic
ones.
So on the balance of things I would recommend basic weapons for your fighters
before cranking up the armor to level 6. Around then armor improvement gets a
bit expensive. Then buy armor if it is available. You get the +2 Longsword
early on and that will give someone a nice boost. The other guy can wait a
scenario for the Death Blade.
My spellcasters' most popular spells were Tirayama(to fight the undead,)
Bendicca(to take out werewolves and werefalcons,) and Matamosca(to cause mass
damage to guys you can't afffect otherwise.) I've found healing spells aren't
really worth it because even if a character is poisoned, he only loses 10
points walking across the continent.
Later on Hela is also useful because it just mows down demons.
As for found spells, Demonda is also nice when you are able to use it. Tree
is fun to use against the Treants in level 2, but it is not necessary because
they only guard a message that this FAQ spoils a bit anyway.
Obviously if you go the cheating road you can just give everyone whatever
weapon and armor and spell you want by flooding them with gold.
One point about Xiphoid Amulets: if you leave one behind in any scenario,
that is not efficient, especially if one of your spellcasters' is low. Cast
heal spells to shatter the amulet so you can replace it with another, as no
player can have two amulets at once. It's worth the trek back, especially
later on, and it can save a lot of time in middle scenarios as you can use
spells a bit more liberally in tough combats.
2-4. PARTY ADVANCEMENT
When any member of your party reaches 1536(0x600 in hex) experience, he gains
a level. This allows him to do more damage--one point per level. It takes a
while to get the first level, though, so you need to be careful. You can rest
at any garrison and it will show up automatically. If you have cheated your
characters up then some bonuses will twiddle the byte that contains character
information--in short, if something hits 256, it goes down to 0.
Maximum hit points are calculated easily enough.
Dwarf MaxHP = 12 + 10*L
Human MaxHP = 12 + 8*L
Elf MaxHP = 12 + 6*L
2-5. ALIGNING FOR COMBAT
Sometimes it's best to provoke just one enemy and then retreat, especially if
you are low on energy, or you got your butt kicked by a bunch of enemies you
just ran into. Don't stir things up more than you have to, and if approaching
one way caused too many monsters to see you, loop around another way. Of
course you want to save your Xiphoid Amulets for the very toughest monsters
that aren't hit by magic, so if you can get 4 guys to whale away on one enemy
at once, then that will make things a lot easier for you. Of course you can
heal after every combat, but if you get stuck in one and need a spell to get
you out in a pinch, your Xiphoid Amulet may shatter at a critical combat
later.
2-6. STUPID EMULATOR TRICKS
I've read that the interface is much easier for the MAC, but here is the best
way to avoid terrible nuisances on the Commodore(VICE.)
Use positional settings(settings:Keyboard) so that when you press Y it
doesn't think you pressed Z.
Push Z and set text delay at 4 and movement delay at 1 so you can read
important things but don't waste time moving around.
Custom speed of 400% is about right to get through combat to see what
happens. For moving across the continent, you can go to warp speed.
3. EVERYTHING ELSE
3-1. ITEMS
Every garrison has these staples of items:
Mace, short sword, morning star, trident, silver scimitar, battle axe, two-
hand sword, hunting knife, wooden staff
Once bought, you cannot sell an item back. In addition, you will find a
longsword +2 in the first scenario. There are also other magic weapons that
you get taken from you as you advance. They've got a cute excuse for this but
basically the save state shows there's a maximum of 16 items per scenario, so
special ones get recycled.
Armor does not vary between scenarios. You can't buy an outer veiling for a
while with the monsters/gold from the first few scenarios, but it's still
there. Each successive armor costs 25 more than the previous.
Shield, padded jerkin, leather tunic, hauberk, breast plate, inner veiling,
outer veiling
Thus the total cost is 25 + 50 + ... + 175 = 700.
3-2. MONSTERS
F=fast A=average S=slow
Gold=estimate but experience is exact
The person who kills the monster gets the full amount of experience and gold,
and his friends get half of that. So your characters will be a bit
imbalanced.
Monster | HP|Exp $$$ Spd Areas|Special
--------------+---+---+---+---+------+-----------------------------------
Hawkman | 7| 24| 24| F |1 |
Centaur | 9| 54| 40| A |1 |
Giant Slug | 32| 36| 10| S |1 |
Anthrodon | 26| | | |1 |
Demon Captain | 22| 60|100| A |1 |Very resistant to attacks. Use Hela
Werefalcon | 6| 32| 0| F |1 |Use Xiphoid amulet in 1
Werewolf | 10| 46| 26| A |1 |Use Bendicca
Rhinotaur | 24| 38| 10| A |12 |
Toothpaw | 3| 10| 10| A |1 |
Stone Golem | 9| 44| 10| S |1 |Use magic weapon
Hyena | 4| 14| 0| F |1 |
Bandit | 5| 22| 26| A |1 |Your 1st opponent
Crocodile | 16| 40| 0| A | 2 |
Lizardman | 15| 60| 44| A | 2 |
Maripo Goblin | 12| 30| 0| A | 2 |
Giant Spider | 32| 40| 0| A | 23 |Poisons you
Sand Asp | 4| 20| 0| A | 2 |Poisons you
Bushmaster | 7| 30| 0| A | 2 |Poisons you
Cyclops | 50| 80| 60| A | 2 |in NE
Sedento Goblin| 12| 30| 20| A | 2 |
Siam Weretiger| 26| 70|100| A | 2 |Guards end, Benedicca
Skater | 21| 20| 12| F | 3 |
Kurayan Falcon| 16| 40| 20| F | 3 |?
Water Sprite | 20| 16| 18| A | 3 |?
Nightstalker | 25| 50| 0| A | 3 |Guards Death Blade
Hobgoblin | 26| 40| 24| A | 3 |
Mazanti Goblin| 25| 30| 16| A | 3 |
Goblin Zombie | 26| 40| 0| A | 3 |Undead in E center
Ogre | 54| 64| 40| S | 3 |in NE, just fight him
Maripo Zombie | 30| 30| 0| A | 4 |Undead
Elf Zombie | 36| 30| 0| A | 4 |
Homan Zombie | 32| 30| 0| A | 4 |
Dwarf Zombie | 48| 30| 0| A | 4 |
Ghast | 40| 50| 0| A | 4 |
Glass God | 28| 28| 0| A | 4 |Matamosca
Erse the Shama| 35| 80| 60| A | 4 |Duck in the garrison a lot
Cotico Goblin | 25| 20| 20| A | 4 |
Skeleton Warri| 25| 30| 10| A | 4 |Undead
Demon Guard | 32| 30| 0| A | 5 |
Malakee Goblin| 35| 16| 10| A | 5 |L5, sucker it to bridge
Lich | 40| 30| 0| A | 5 |Undead
Goblin Warlord| 35| 40| 40| A | 5 |
Loupgarou | 50| 30| 20| A | 5 |Need Bendicca
Bear | 83| 30| 0| A | 5 |Slug it out
Sucucbus | 38| 30| 0| A | 5 |
Mimic | 68| 20| 70| A | 5 |
Ernagh | 73| ?| ?| A | 5 |Need Blade of Ernagh
Banshaee | 40| 20| 0| A | 6|
Hell Hound | 32| 20| 0| A | 6|need magic??
Flame Golem | ?| ?| ?| S | 6|
Flame Lizard | ?| ?| ?| S | 6|
Azulus | 40| 20| 10| A | 6|
Demon Warrior | 34| 30| 0| A | 6|use HELA
Ice Dragon | 90|120| 40| A | 6|
Demon Guard | 37| ?| ?| A | 6|
Xyphus | ?| ?| ?| A | 6|need Heart of Xyphus
Inatamos | 46| 20| 10| A | 6|in NE
Sand Skimmer | 35| 20| 10| A | 6|
3-3. SPELLS
You need 3 points less to cast a spell per level. This causes problems when
the points needed go below zero. Then you need ~250 points to cast a spell,
which just won't happen. Fortunately, getting up to level 10 won't happen
without cheating.
4. GENERAL GUIDELINES
--Rest after each big fight. Or motor back to a garrison if one guy gets
poisoned.
--Never try to take on too many enemies at once.
--Remember to watch your endurance. See if you can retreat a bit if you're
almost going to win a battle.
--There's no way to miss major items. But if you see one, be aware a big
fight may be ahead.
--Xiphoid amulets are OK weapons for spellcasters.
--Don't feel cowardly retreating to a garrison when monsters come at you.
However, it may be inefficient.
5. WALKTHROUGH
5-1. FIRST AREA
It's not clear what you need to do to solve it, but I cleared out all the
monsters and got the two Xiphoid Amulets. I tried to cheat and reach the fort
by editing the byte map(so that the road t othe east is not blocked by that
single water square,) I couldn't advance with only one amulet. This map is
very winding and so you need to go find a lot of dead ends and work through
them. You start in the northwest, and your object is to get to the northeast.
You will probably want to explore other areas before plowing through, though.
There are a lot of relatively easy enemies to beat to pick up gold once you
get the hang of things.
So the basic pattern of the level is
1. get to the fort, go south and mess with the centaurs
2. loop clockwise around the lake to get the first Xiphoid amulet, then go
east to the next garrison
3. Clear out the northeast
4. Across the river, take out the werewolves with a spell and get the other
Xiphoid Amulet
5. Loop around the southwest to beat up some more enemies and get the
Demodana spell
6. Sneak your spellcasters into the +2 long sword area. Cast demodana at the
Demon Captain once, then hack at it with Xiphoid Amulets. Give your human the
+2 long sword.
7. Back up and take the SE passage where there are a lot more fights with
rhinotaurs and stone golems.
8. Go north to the garrison, where you will be congratulated and kicked to
scenario 2.
Everyone starts with 30 gold. Go south and you can win 2 quick fights to up
this to 56 each. Buy everyone a mace and equip it. Go a bit more south to
defeat a centaur and then buy everyone shields. You can go a bit further to
the south to wipe out a few more centaurs, which give good gold. The enemies
get a bit tougher and you will want to eventually get really good weapons for
your fighters. But for now you can just improve your armor when you can
afford it.
Then go to the northwest where you get to fight some toothpaws. They only
have 3 HP each. Don't be scared to flee if you get nicked, or to flee when
you see the first one and then work it out from there. They are slow, and you
can always come back for more. Resting is free, remember. Eventually you will
be able to get the Xiphoid Amulet in the NW hills. You may need to retreat so
you aren't swarmed, but afterwards you can hook around to the northern areas
where there are monsters.
And enemies here don't really hit for much damage once you've got decent
armor, so you should be able to wiggle out of any fights as long as too many
don't come along. For enemies like werefalcons you may need your spellcasters
to use Xiphoid Amulets(these do 3 damage but even the +2 longsword is
ineffective,) but ones like Anthropons are beatable just hacking away, and
giant slugs, which seem intimidating, are actually very slow and vulnerable.
The difference in damage from weapons is so little that you might as well
hold off on getting 2 handed swords and ship all your money for your fighters
to armor. Your spellcasters will want Bendicca for one and and Hela for
another. There are a few garrisons on this level, so you have plenty of
chances to recharge.
But in general you will have a bunch of hit-vulnerable enemies where you can
put the fighters in the front line and have the spellcasters off to the side
where they can do spare damage with their maces. The exception may be
centaurs where if there are two, you have one fighter and one spellcaster on
each.
Now there are also some tricks you may wish to try to get through things
quicker. First, you want to take the road to the east after one of your
spellcasters has Bendicca. Follow the top of the river SE and have one player
continue along the bank even when werewolves pop up. They are tough, but they
can't cross the river. You want to avoid the Demon Captain for now, so only
go below the treasure to the left, but five werewolves should pop up. When
they do, save the game and cast Bendicca. You should get them all. If not you
can restart/pick up the save game and blast them again. This will leave the
Xiphoid Amulet ripe for the taking.
After you get to the southeast, where you will find a relatively useless
Dormuert spell, a few Rhinotaurs guard the gap in the river, then there are
Stone Golems to the north. Get your +2 longsword guy to take them out. They
only have 9 hit points, so one hit should do the trick. You can use your
other players as buffers.
5-2. SECOND AREA
More open looking than the first area, you have some deserts to navigate
here, but winning the level works as follows: Go south for the special item,
work your way through the invisible bits, then go east along the north, then
south and follow the upper river SW. There is a break at the far west. Go
through it and go back east.
The real trick is learning where the invisible barriers are, and for that I
have a map. You also have to deal with poisoning. I found I could make it
across the continent maybe losing 10 hit points, i.e. 1 per 6 moves. You also
run into a lot of worthless spells, but it's fun to muck around, and it's
fairly linear despite how wide open it seems.
Work to the southwest to get a Staff of Power(give to a spellcaster) and a
Tail of Saddhu, which is the big item for this level. There's also a Sling of
a Sage spell, which is pretty useless.
Maripo goblins guard the Cienito spell by the pool.
A Xiphoid Amulet is in the hills by the start. Another one is by the lake in
the SE of the part NW of the river.
The Magic Fire Bow spell is by the lake in the center which is guarded by the
desert, some of which is impassable.
Bushmasster guards the N scroll in the nook.
Magic Fire Bow by center lake.
There is an Ebony Dagger too, and I am not sure where it is.
5-3. THIRD AREA
This is an interesting one with a lot of side quests to find information
that, with this FAQ, you don't need. Still, in the interest of completeness,
I'll list it. You can find the Blade of Ernagh here, but I think that is a
bug. ??
To the south you have some skaters who should fall to physical combat, and
there is a Xiphoid Amulet to the east of the starting garrison. You will
probably need it, because you will have a bunch of Arachnoids to zap. For
them, it is actually best to have one spellcaster run in and cast MATAMOSCA
when most of them are around. The fewer times you need to cast it, the
better. It's useful to kill these guys off just when you are near the amulet.
Then you can work your way SW. The +3 Death Blade south of the big lake is
very useful here. It's in a clearing by the hills. You may need to approach
it a few times, getting closer with each fight, as there is a hobgoblin to
the west, and nightstalkers should be dispatched individually. Goad one guy
to come back to you. If you really want to be tricky, you can use the
information you shouldn't know right now to entrap enemies. This is worth the
wait of slugging through, however. It gives you both fighters with magic
items.
The next item you need is in a cul-de-sac in the hills, across the mountains
where you have some tough fights. There is also a nasty fight in a mountain
pass with some Arachnoids. You will have to blast them with magic.
--the "quick way" through tough fights is to use the ford that you find about
in the treants' area. Let people surround your enemy as he comes back to
fight you.
5-4. FOURTH AREA
I was highly amused with my own solution to this, which I am sure cannot be
correct. There are some tough fights here and two Xiphoid Amulets, so cast
away on the tough fights and take the time to pick them off. There's an item
surrounded by a circular river with a vampire guarding it.
There are four garrisons here but the only one that lets you advance is in
the SW. One of the garrisons helps you with a particularly challenging fight.
One Xiphoid Amulet is south of the starting road. The other one is in the NW-
-to get to it, go along the very top so as not to disturb the tough monsters
below.
Your first major challenge is to get the Ebony Staff. There is a garrison
right by this big fight(the one in the north,) so you may just beat up most
of the monsters by hand and constantly let your guys go back in the garrison
to heal them. The shaman Erse is tough to beat and you do very little damage
attacking him directly, so you may just need to duck in, take him for a few
damage points, and go back in when your endurance/hit points sink down.
The vampire is in the southeast island and since you approach from the west
there may be a lot of goblins that slow you down--in fact you may want to go
to the southwest to pick up a Staff of Power for a spellcaster, which should
make everyone useful on physical attacks except against special monsters. You
also want to be fully healed to face the vampire.
I didn't figure out how to kill the vampire(I think you use the Ebony Staff,
looking back) but I did manage to sneak one guy(Human) in while the others
kept the vampire busy. I ran them away to the NW and the vampire followed my
one guy, who also could outrun the vampire by going to the NW. The point is
that the vampire tries to follow you to the NW, but the lake cuts him off. I
guess his brain rotted with the rest of his body when he died.
The rest is pretty easy. You want to get to the garrison way on the west edge
of the continent. You have some other tough enemies like Glass Gods, who are
wiped out by a Matamosca, and they are guarding a Cieno spell, which is not
so great.
5-5. FIFTH AREA
The quest: to find the Blade of Ernagh, kill him, and get to the SW. There
are a lot of demons here but fortunately you can dispatch them without an
amulet, as long as you fight them one or two at a time, because there is a
Demon Sword if you know where to look. You can't walk across the desert in
this scenario.
There are some Nekebnee Orcs guarding an Ice Cloud spell to the south. The
spell isn't particularly worthwhile, but the fight is easy enough if you need
the cash. Plus it leads you to the next bit to the southwest. Cross the
bridge nearby and have one point man sucker the enemies back to the crossing.
Have them wait like so.
3 2 1
4
In other words, the enemies can fill up two squares, but you can have a
fighter attack each one. It's useful to have a Staff of Power for your
fighters, and you do not need magic to mow your enemies down. You may need to
walk in twice to do this, but it shouldn't be too bad.
Once you've done that, the Demon Sword is there for the taking.
- -
- - $
Along the north of the continent, you have some demons you may want to beat
before crossing the next river. Take the southwest of the two bridges across
and here you have a HUGE advantage as you can place your guys as follows
after using one guy as bait.
1 2
~ 3
~
Two fighters on one goblin. That's pretty unfair in your favor.
Now go down to the bottom center and you can lure out more enemies to get the
Blade of Ernagh. Give it to whoever doesn't have the demon sword among your
fighters. It's probably a lot easier to use another guy to lead--keep other
guys 0'ing until he starts getting chased. Then you can just whack the
enemies as they arrive.
Technically you can defeat all monsters this way, but in some cases the setup
may be tedious, so only do it for groups of monsters.
The bridge across the swamp leads to a mimic and a few demons. Switch from
the +2/+3 to the demon sword and Blade of Ernagh after defeating the mimic.
Again only provoke one monster at a time. Ernagh goes down pretty quickly
when you smack him with "his" blade.
For the next part you may need to face a couple demons at once, but with the
sword that should not be a huge issue.
5-6. SIXTH AREA
This is a ghastly map with some squares you just can't pass through. There
may be a demon captain or two you will have to whale on and use your spells
to beat up. Or in the very worst case you can retreat all the way to the
garrison in the center and keep dropping your players in there to heal them,
just as you did in the fifth area. The difference being that you may get one
guy to act as bait. He can run out and everyone else can hit 0. Then when
enemies come after him, he can run backwards. Your dwarf is the fastest
player here, so you can run him ahead.
To solve this level effectively, you need to get the Heart of Xyphus in the
SW. Then you want to get the Crystal Key in the NW. I ran out of Xiphiod
Amulets and cheated a bit here, but here is basically where to go.
The monsters here are actually not too bad. The big dragon has 90 hit points
but is very vulnerable to plain old physical attacks, and the other monsters
have tough sounding names and do a lot of damage, but given that combat is
somewhat luck-based, you should be able to beat them eventually.
I did not explore NE and E of the main area. So it is possible there are some
extra goodies there. ??
1. SW to the corner. You have to follow a path west to hook W SW SE. Beat the
monsters, get the Heart of Xyphus(an Elf must take this) and return to the
garrison.
2. For this you may want to bring your guys to the 3rd room mentioned so the
backtracking is not so bad. NW and then go W NW where you will be at a
branch. NE E and at the next room, NW W and then at the next room, SW NW and
there is a dragon guarding the final bit. A dwarf must take the Crystal Key.
3. Back to the garrison, SW and at the final big room before the Heart, go SE
E and there is a tunnel to the right. You may want to kill the sand swimmers
below first. They can be beaten physically. Then keep going east and you will
be able to ford the river to get to the east--there's a Sana spell along the
way and if you can't get out of a fight without getting poisoned, now is a
great time to cast one. You won't need magic to beat Xyphus. NE and zigzag up
and you can turn off to the right with the crystal key and then go SE where
Xyphus awaits. He'll just sit there. Defeat his minions, heal up, and have
someone ready the Heart of Xyphus and go up to him and smack him around.
Now retreat to the garrison, remember to turn off True Drive Emulation on the
Commodore emulator, and YAY! You win the game. A picture of a crown,
treasure, and a castle. With music too. Whoopee. Well, the journey was pretty
fun.
6. CHEATING
6-1. CHARACTERS
Editing your characters is not hard once you know where to look. Here is
information about editing the characters' save state information on VICE.
0x5080 = start of character 1's information.
0x50c0 = start of character 2's information.
0x5100 = start of character 3's information.
0x5140 = start of character 4's information.
Key offsets from this include:
0x10 = current hit points
0x40 = information for items. A is 40, etc., F is 4f. You must set 4x to x
for it to show up in the inventory.
Slapping items onto your characters, you should be able to bypass the fights
you need to get through the game, but that's not the fun sort of cheating.
Some character attributes are a bit back in the save state, for instance,
with least significant byte first, gold is at
0x4e82 0x4e86 0x4e8a 0x4e8e
Experience is at: 0x4d82 0x4d86 0x4d8a 0x4d8e
Max hit points: 0x4f82 0x4f86 0x4f8a 0x4f8e
Endurance at: 0x4f80 0x4f84 0x4f88 0x4f8c
Status at: 0x4f81 0x4f85 0x4f89 0x4f8d (set to 1 is poison, 0 is cured)
You also should take into account that values are stored in one byte. In
other words if you get to level 25 with your dwarf, his maximum hit points
are 12+10*25=262 which is cut off to 6, which is not fun for you. You'll do a
lot of damage but take it too.
6-2. RAZING THE OUTSIDE AREA
The outside area map starts at 0xd80 and is 64x72. Therefore if you can write
a program that goes in and adjusts all bytes in that area valued at 5(water)
to 6(trail) you will have an easier time getting around. Actually you can
point everything to that except fortresses(0xf) as nothing really impedes
you. But it would ruin the point of the game to do too much. Some levels
switch these values a bit, so be careful.
End of FAQ Proper
Stuff to do: look at scenario-specific items and spells in the save state
file(0x4000 or so)
================================
7. VERSIONS
1.0.0: sent to GameFAQs cheating-complete on 7/1/2007. I didn't play it
honestly, but it dragged a bit when I did. I plan to play honestly next time
through.
8. CREDITS
Thanks to the usual GameFAQs gang, current and emeritus. They know who they
are, and you should, too, because they get/got some SERIOUS writing done.
Good people too--bloomer, falsehead, Sashanan, Masters, Retro, Snow
Dragon/Brui5ed Ego, ZoopSoul, War Doc, Brian Sulpher, AdamL, odino, JDog and
others I forgot. OK, even Hydrophant in his current not-yet-banned message
board incarnation. I am not part of his gang, but I want him to be part of
mine.
Waylon Jennings, whose "Toe the Mark" song got me through this with a laugh.
That bit about never could walk the line.
Special thanks to apple2.org.za.
