Populous FAQ
Version 1.12
By edwithgames
Created: October 2005
Updated on 02/09/2011. Spelling mistakes corrected, added a proper walkthrough,
added more to the list of worlds and generally revamped and polished the guide.
Updated on 19/09/2011. Slightly altered the formatting of two of the subsection
headings.
Updated on 31/08/2012. Added Hidden Messages section and added more information
to the Worlds section.
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****** Introduction ******
This walkthrough was created because at the time I could find no walkthrough
for the Sega Master System version of Populous. I've been playing Populous for
a very long time now and have completely mastered it and I want to share my
strategies and knowledge of the game with others.
This version, in my opinion, is much better than any other version of Populous
since the player can't change the laws of each world once the game has started.
For example, water fatality cannot be changed nor can Evil's statistics be
changed. The only bad things about this game are that there is no two player
option nor does this game actually end.
This FAQ is split up into several sections and subsections.
These are:
- Technical Information
- My Experience With The Game
- Story/Object Of The Game
- How To Play
- Starting A World
- The World Information Screen
- The Game Screen Buttons
* Pause And Place Buttons
* Search Buttons
* Power Buttons
* Behavioural Modification Buttons
- The Manna Bar
- The Close Up Map
- The World Map
- The Info-Shield
* Walker
* Settlement
- Population Meters
- Landscapes
* Grassy Plains
* Desert
* Snow And Ice
* Rock And Lava
* Futuristic
* Bitmap
- Settlements
* Grassy Plains
* Desert
* Snow And Ice
* Rock And Lava
* Futuristic
* Bitmap
* Ruined Settlements
- Walkers
* Regular Walkers
* The Leader
* Knights
* Craziness
- Strategies
* Raise/Lower Terrain
* Move Papal Magnet
* Earthquakes
* Swamps
* Knights
* Volcanoes
* Floods
* Armageddon
* Reducing Evil's Population
* Go To Papal Magnet
* Fight Then Settle
* Gather Then Settle
* Settle
* Invading
* Continental Shelf
- FAQs
- Bugs/Glitches
* Landscape Out
* Leader Knights
* Unoccupied Settlements
* Demoted Knights
- Worlds
* The Score Screen
* The Blue-Hooded Figure
* World Types
* World Name List
* The End?
* World 5995 NIMINGTORY
* World 5995 NIMINGTORY Screenshot Links
* New Information
- Hidden Messages
- Final Notes
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****** Technical Information ******
Populous was created by Bullfrog and Electronic Arts and released by Tecmagik
on the Sega Master System in 1991. Since then many clones have been made. It
also inspired other games to be made such as Command and Conquer and Sim City
to name a few.
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****** My Experience With The Game ******
I first played this game back in 1992 when my brother got it from a shop
advertised in Sega Power Magazine. I first thought it was boring but after
learning how to play it I eventually got to the point where I thought it was
one of the best games on the Sega Master System.
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****** Story/Object Of The Game ******
The story is that you are a deity who controls a population of followers. These
followers are what give you power. Unfortunately there is another deity with an
opposing group of followers... So the object is to wipe out the opposing
followers with the powers which you will later acquire and thus defeat the
other deity.
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****** How To Play ******
The controls are as follows:
D-Pad: Moves the cursor all around the screen to wherever you need it.
The cursor is in the form of a fist or a pointing hand. The cursor becomes a
closed fist when you are not permitted to perform an action e.g. when the game
is paused. The cursor becomes a pointing hand when you are permitted to do
perform an action.
Button 1: This presses the button on which the hand cursor is currently placed
and uses a pre-selected power.
Button 2: This is the cancel button. Use this whenever you want to cancel using
a power such as swamp. This also toggles between the three on-screen menus.
Button 1 + Up/Down: Press and hold button 1 and then press up or down. This
will raise/lower the terrain when the hand cursor is on the close Up Map.
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****** Starting A World ******
When you first start the game, you will see the title screens. After these you
will get to a red screen called the World Information Screen which describes
the first world called GENESIS. From here, you can either press Button 1 to
start playing GENESIS and the word "BUILDING" will appear before you're
transported to the world; or you can press Button 2 to go to the password entry
screen. Here you can type the name of a world and if you're successful, you
will be taken to that world's World Information Screen instead. A nice touch
the programmers added is that the higher the world number (from here on
referred to as "Battle Number"), the longer it takes to find the world so don't
be worried if the game is "SEARCHING" for a long time for the password you put
in. If unsuccessful, the game will eventually say that the password was not
found and you will be returned to the previous world's World Information
Screen.
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****** The World Information Screen ******
The World Information Screen will describe that particular world's attributes.
Please note that although each world is unique, some may have identical
attributes. See the Worlds section found towards the end of this guide for more
about this.
- World Name: This is the world name and is basically a password you can enter
in the password entry screen. It's a good idea to write them down so you can
enter them in the password entry screen and return to the world you were
playing before.
- Battle Number: This is the number of the world you are about to start.
Generally, the higher the world number, the harder the world will be although
there are exceptions.
- Landscape Is: This will describe which landscape type the world has. There
are six in total. These are explained later.
- Evil Is: This describes how fast your computer-controlled opponent (from here
on referred to as "Evil") creates terrain. There are five levels: very slow,
slow, average, fast and very fast. Generally, the faster Evil creates
terrain, the harder it will be to defeat him.
- Evil Rating Is: This describes Evil's Artificial Intelligence. Evil's
intelligence can be very low, low, average, high and very high. Generally,
the higher Evil's intelligence, the more difficult it will be to defeat him
- Build Near: This describes the rule for raising and lowering terrain in the
world. "Build Near Towns Or People" means that you can raise and lower
terrain on the Close Up Map as long as one of your settlements (the blue flag
must be visible) or one of your walkers is visible. With "Build Near Towns
Only", you can only raise and lower terrain when one of your settlements is
visible (the blue flag must be visible). There is a small exception to this
rule: you can still raise terrain one level up from sea level with just a
walker present but you may not lower terrain or raise it above one level
above sea level. This is so you can still allow a walker to build a basic
settlement or so you can build a small bridge for him to cross the water
when no settlements are nearby.
- The swamps Are: The swamps in a world can either be shallow or bottomless.
Shallow swamps disappear when a regular walker falls in and dies in them.
Bottomless swamps do not disappear when a regular walker falls in and dies in
them.
- Water Is: The water is either fatal or harmful. Fatal water means that a
walker will die if he falls into the water of this world; no matter what the
landscape, the walker will die immediately. When the water is harmful, the
walker will drown at a rate that depends upon the landscape type.
- Population: This tells us the exact number of walkers with which both Good
(you) and Evil start. The higher the number, the easier it is for either side
to establish themselves, build a sizeable population and gain manna quickly
at the start. The lower the number, the longer it will take at the start.
Generally, whichever side starts with the most walkers will find it easier to
establish themselves and gain manna during the earlier stages of each world.
The lowest number of walkers with which you can start is 1 and the highest
number is 15.
- Powers: Below the population number will be five YES or NOs. If you look to
the left, you will see that each YES and NO corresponds to a certain power.
This part basically tells us what powers both Good and Evil are able to
perform in this world. If the power has NO corresponding to it, then the
power may not be performed even if you have the required manna to perform it.
It is recommended that you make a note of all these details before you press
Button 1 and start the world because you will not be told again unless you
lose the world. Make a note of the powers you can perform and the attributes
of each world before starting so that you don't plan to perform powers that
you ultimately won't be able to perform.
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****** The Game Screen Buttons ******
After you've read and made notes from the World Information Screen, press
Button 1 to start the world. The word BUILD will superimpose itself over the
World Information Screen for a couple of seconds before you're transported to
the world. You will find yourself exactly in the centre of the world you just
started with the hand cursor over the two Papal Magnets. You can now begin the
game.
You will notice several things on the screen. You will notice the Close Up Map
which is the big map in the centre of the screen; you will notice the World Map
at the top of the screen which is located inside a large book; and you will
also notice many grey tiles surrounding the Close Up Map with strange symbols
on them. The grey tiles with symbols on them are buttons and placing the cursor
on them and pressing Button 1 will do a variety of different things. The grey
tiles with no symbols on them do nothing so you can ignore them safely. You
will also notice a large red and white shield in the upper-right of the screen.
This is the Info-Shield and it will display information about the bearer of the
shield throughout the game.
As stated, once the world is started, your hand cursor will be on the Close Up
Map in the exact centre of the world. Pressing Button 2 here will transport the
hand cursor to the group of several buttons on the left of the Close Up Map.
Pressing Button 2 again in this are without pressing any other button before
will transport your hand cursor to the group of four buttons below the Close Up
Map. Pressing Button 2 again will return the hand cursor to the Close Up Map.
By doing this, you can gain access to all the buttons at your disposal.
*******************************************************************************
Here I will list and explain the functions of all the buttons on the left of
the Close Up Map.
*** Pause And Place Buttons ***
- Pause: This button is on the far left of the tiles and has the symbol ZZZ on
it. This is the Pause Button. When you press pause on your Sega Master System
Power Base, this tile will be highlighted and will turn a lighter shade of
grey. If you wish, you may press this button instead of pressing the button
on your Power Base. Regardless of that, it's very useful for telling you if
the game is paused or not. When paused, you may not perform any powers nor
can you alter terrain. You can however, still move around the world, use the
search buttons and place the Info-Shield on walkers and settlements.
- Papal magnet: This button is in the middle at the botton of the first group
of buttons and it looks like an ankh. Providing you have enough manna, you
can press this button and your hand cursor will both turn into an ankh cursor
and be transported to the Close Up Map. With this new cursor you can place
the Papal Magnet on any tile of flat land on the Close Up Map. If you do not
want to place the Papal Magnet, simply press Button 2 to cancel and the
cursor will again be a hand cursor on the Close Up Map.
- Info-Shield: This button is located next to the Papal Magnet button and has a
? symbol on it. Pressing this button will change your hand cursor into a
shield cursor and transport it to the Close Up Map. With this cursor you can
place the Info-Shield on any Good or Evil walkers on settlements. This will
cause information about the walker or settlement to show up on the main
Info-Shield located in the upper-right of the screen.
*******************************************************************************
*** Search Buttons ***
The next four buttons are search buttons. These will search for specific
walkers and settlements when pressed. This means that when you press them, the
Close Up Map will move to the location of the searched walker or settlement.
They are located just to the left of the Close Up Map and each has a symbol in
brackets.
- Papal Magnet In brackets: When pressed, this will move the Close Up Map to
four different things in this order:
1. When pressed once, the Close Up Map Will move to the position of the Good
leader.
2. When pressed twice, the Close Up Map will move to the position of the Good
Papal Magnet.
3. When pressed thrice, the Close Up Map will move to the position of the Evil
Leader.
4. When pressed four times, the Close Up Map will move to the position of the
Evil Papal Magnet.
Note: If Good or Evil have no leader the button will skip them so for example,
if there is no Good leader, the button will go from step 1 to step 3 and then
to step 4 before repeating the cycle.
- Shield In Brackets: When pressed, this will move the Close Up Map to where the
bearer of the Info-Shield currently is whether it be a walker or a
settlement. If no walker or settlement is holding the Info-Shield, pressing
this button will do nothing.
- Swords In Brackets: When pressed, this moves the Close Up Map to the location
of a battle. If more than one battle is happening, it will choose one at
random and place the Close Up Map there. If no battles are happening, it will
place the Close Up Map on one of the Good settlements. If more than one Good
settlement exists it will choose one at random and place the Close Up Map
there.
- Knight Helmet In Brackets: When pressed, this will place the Close Up Map on
one of the Good knights. If there is more than one Good Knight, it will
choose one at random and place the Close Up Map there. If there are no Good
knights it will place the Close Up Map on one of the Good walkers. If more
than one Good walker exists, it will choose one at random and place the Close
Up Map there.
*******************************************************************************
*** Power Buttons ***
The next six buttons are power buttons. With these buttons, various powers can
be performed that will have some effect on the Close Up Map. I have described
the symbols on the buttons and what power they perform.
- Earthquake: This button performs an Earthquake and has a sound wave symbol on
it. Providing that you may perform this power and have enough manna, pressing
this button will randomly raise and lower the terrain that is currently
displayed on the Close Up Map thereby making it unsuitable for building upon.
You will notice also that with repeated use on the same area of terrain, the
Earthquake power will gradually lower the land while also unflattening it. To
Earthquake a different area, go to the Close Up Map, move to a different
location, return to the button and perform the power on this new area of
terrain.
- Swamps: This button will make swamps on the Close Up Map and has a symbol
that looks like a man drowning. Providing that you may perform this power and
have enough manna, pressing this button will transport your hand cursor to
the Close Up Map and will transform it into a swamp cursor. Pressing Button 1
here will place a random number of swamps on tiles of flat terrain on the
area shown on the Close Up Map. If no flat tiles are shown, no swamps will be
made so try and find an area with lots of tiles of flat terrain. Swamps can
also not be placed on tiles with settlements, rocks or trees but can be
placed in water although they are invisible in it. Walkers may not be able to
walk on the water but if a swamp is in the water, the walker will walk in it
and die.
- Knight: This button will transform your leader into a knight and has a helmet
symbol. Providing that you may perform this power and you have enough manna,
pressing this button will immediately transform your leader into a knight. If
your leader is currently occupying a settlement, the settlement will
disappear and the knight will take its place.
- Volcano: This button performs a volcano and has a mountain symbol on it.
Providing that you may perform this power and you have enough manna, pressing
this button will cause the terrain shown on the close up map to be raised in
a peak much like a mountain. A number of rocks will also be created but no
lava or crater is formed. With repeated use over the same area of terrain,
more rocks are created and the terrain will gradually be raised to its
maximum height.
- Flood: This button performs a flood and similarly to the Swamp button, has a
symbol of a man drowning on it although it's located a bit higher than that
button. Providing that you may perform this power and you have enough manna,
pressing this button will raise the sea level by one and will submerge all
terrain which was previously one level above sea level. All settlements will
disappear and all walkers will either die or start drowning depending upon
the water type.
- Armageddon: This button will start Armageddon and has a Skull and Crossbones
symbol on it. Providing that you have enough manna, pressing this button will
remove all Good and Evil settlements and place the Papal Magnets in the
centre of the world. All Good and Evil walkers will all go towards them,
gather together and then fight until only either one Good or one Evil walker
remains. This will end the game.
I will go into further detail about these powers in the Strategy section of
this walkthrough.
*******************************************************************************
*** Behavioural Modification Buttons ***
The next four buttons are behavioural modification buttons and can only be
pressed one at a time and will alter the behaviour of the Good walkers. To get
to the buttons, press Button 2 twice from the Close Up Map.
- Settle: This button looks like a flag and will command your walkers to build
settlements. Fights will still happen and the walkers may gather but they
will not go out of their way to do so. Building settlements becomes their
priority.
- Gather Then Settle: This button looks like a walker and will command your
walkers to gather first then settle when there is one person remaining.
Gathering is the process wherein one walker joins with another to make one
stronger walker. This process is vital for winning the game.
- Fight Then Settle: This looks like two swords and will command the Good
walkers to fight the nearest Evil walker or settlement. When none are
nearby, your walkers will settle.
- Go To Papal Magnet: This looks like a Papal Magnet and will cause the Good
leader to go to the Papal Magnet. Your walkers will go to the leader and
gather with him. If there is no Good leader, all Good walkers will go to the
Papal Magnet and the first to get there is the leader. While this button is
on, no settlements will be built by any of your walkers.
I will go into further detail about these buttons in the Strategy section of
this walkthrough.
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****** The Manna Bar ******
The Manna Bar is directly above the Close Up Map. An arrow points to where you
are on the bar. You start each world with the arrow on the right of two arrows.
This means that you can raise and lower terrain as long as either a settlement
or a walker are in view on the Close Up Map (see above). The arrow on the Manna
Bar moves to the right gradually when your population increases and sometimes
will move a lot to the right in instances of good fortune. The more population
you have, the more population you will produce so it makes sense that when you
start and therefore have a low population, the Manna Bar will move to the right
very slowly. As the game progresses and your population increases, the faster
the arrow will move to the right. You will notice that symbols are placed upon
the Manna Bar and that the majority of these symbols correspond to the power
buttons mentioned earlier. When the arrow is pointing at a symbol, it means
that you have enough manna to perform that power and providing that you are
allowed to perform it (as explained on the World Information Screen), you can
press the appropriate button to perform the power. As the arrow moves towards
the right, it should make sense that you have enough manna to perform all the
powers that are to the left of it and that you haven't enough manna for the
powers that are to the right of it.
You start off only able to Move Papal Magnet and Raise and Lower Land. You then
get the power to Earthquake, Swamp, Knight, Volcano, Flood and start Armageddon
in that order.
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****** The Close Up Map ******
The Close Up Map is the section of the World Map covered by a + sign. Moving
the Close Up Map will move the + sign around the World Map. The Close Up Map is
where most of the action in the game will take place so it is vital that you
know what all the symbols mean and that you know how to manipulate things in
it.
Many objects can be seen on the close Up Map. They are explained here. Please
note that many of the objects will look different depending upon the type of
landscape the world uses. Landscapes are explained below.
- Clear Terrain: Terrain is the land upon which your walkers settle, walk,
fight etc. Flat terrain is needed to build settlements. Much of your time
will be spent flattening terrain so that walkers can build settlements on it.
- Water: Water appears whenever the terrain is lowered enough. Settlements
can't exist in water and walkers can't survive in it either. Walkers will
either die or will drown depending upon the water type.
- Walkers: Walkers are your followers and as such are the source of your power
as a deity. Walkers roam the terrain either building settlements on flat
terrain, fighting, gathering or dying. The blonde-haired walkers are Good and
the brown-haired walkers are Evil.
- Settlements: Settlements are buildings created on tiles of flat terrain by
walkers in which to live and grow. Every settlement will have either a blue
flag if it is a Good settlement or a red flag if it is an Evil settlement.
- Cropland: Cropland surrounds every settlement. Depending upon the
availability of flat terrain surrounding the settlement, the amount of
cropland will vary. The more flat terrain, the more cropland will be made and
the more cropland that's made, the better the settlement will be. Good
cropland is white uniform dots on normal terrain; Evil cropland is uniform
grey specks on normal terrain. Cropland cannot be built upon; it can be
built next to and if the buildings are both Good or both Evil, cropland will
be shared. If the two buildings are different (i.e. one Good and one Evil),
the cropland will not be shared and will hamper the other cropland in the
same way as a swamp, rock, ruined settlement or tile of ruined cropland will.
- Trees: Trees cannot be created by anything in the game and are scattered
about randomly on the original terrain at the start of each world. Trees
cannot be built upon but can be removed easily by cropland or by sinking them
into the water. Sinking them into the water shouldn't be necessary unless
there are lots of trees grouped together. Trees come in different forms
depending upon the landscape of the world.
- Rocks: Rocks are created by volcanoes and are also scattered about randomly
on the original terrain at the start of a world much like trees. As
settlements cannot remove them with cropland and as settlements cannot be
built next to them, it is a good idea to remove them. To do this, lower the
terrain on which they lie till they disappear into the water. This can take
a long time especially if there are a lot of them but it's the only way to
remove them.
- Good Rocks: If you notice, some rocks are darker than others. I call these
rocks "Good Rocks" because they need not be sunk in the water to remove them.
Simply raise then lower the terrain on which they lie (or vice versa) and
they will disappear. Other than that, they still behave like normal rocks in
that settlements cannot remove them with cropland and settlements cannot be
built next to them. They are not created by volcanoes; instead they're
scattered about randomly on the original terrain at the start of a world.
They are also created by Evil, who seem to possess the unique ability to
transform normal rocks into good rocks.
- Papal Magnet: The Papal Magnet is a unique structure occupying a single tile.
Placing the walkers' behaviour button on "Go To Papal Magnet" will cause your
leader (Good) to gravitate towards it until he touches it and stays there.
Your walkers will gravitate towards and gather with your leader. The Papal
Magnet can be placed anywhere - even in the water - and can only be done if
you have both enough manna and have a leader. The second condition is
sometimes easy to forget. Placing the Papal Magnet upon swamps or ruined
cropland will also revert the terrain to normal terrain. Papal Magnets can
be placed on top of settlements and can also be built upon.
- Swamps: Swamps are created using the Swamp power. Depending upon the
landscape type, swamps can look different but generally they are either
speckled tiles or black holes on single tiles. Swamps never occur unless
either Good or Evil have created them first. Swamps are tiles of terrain that
can kill walkers instantly; if a walker falls in a swamp, he disappears no
matter how strong he is and no matter who created the swamp, Good or Evil.
There are two types of swamp: bottomless and shallow; shallow swamps
disappear when one walker falls in and dies and the swamp will change back
into normal flat terrain; bottomless swamps do not disappear. Swamps are not
removed by cropland and have also to be removed to allow cropland to spread.
- Ruined Settlements: These are settlements that have lost a battle with a
knight. They cannot be removed with cropland and have to be sunk in the water
to remove them. However, unlike rocks, settlements can be built next to them.
- Ruined Cropland: Ruined cropland surrounds ruined settlements. Settlements
cannot be built upon it but can be be built next to it. Walkers will not be
harmed by it but it must be removed so that walkers can build settlements. To
remove ruined cropland, simply raise then lower the terrain on which it is
(or vice versa).
- Invisible Trees: In the Desert and Rock And Lava landscapes, you might notice
tiles of terrain with no cropland on them next to settlement No. 9s. These
act like trees in that they cannot be built upon but can be removed by
cropland. For some reason, they only exist in these two landscapes.
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****** The World Map ******
The World Map is located on the top of the screen and is situated on what looks
like a page of a book. The book symbolises the huge "book of worlds." On the
World Map are several symbols:
- The + sign is the current location of the Close Up Map in relation to the
World Map.
- Flashing black dots are Good settlements.
- Flashing grey dots are Evil settlements.
- Flashing blue dots are Good walkers.
- Flashing red dots are Evil walkers.
The terrain is represented by the basic colour of the terrain on the Close Up
Map. For example: terrain on the Close Up Map for the Grassy Plains landscape
type is many shades of green and so on the World Map it is a single shade of
green. The water is represented in the same way; for example, the water on the
Close Up Map for the Grassy Plains landscape type is many shades of dark blue
and so on the World Map it is a single shade of dark blue. Relief (hills,
mountains, lowlands) is shown on the World Map with shading.
The World Map is very useful in locating volcanoes, earthquakes, walkers and
settlements so it's good practice to refer to it when you need to.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
****** The Info-Shield ******
The Info-Shield is located to the right of the Manna Bar and displays
information on the bearer of the shield be it a walker or a settlement.
The Info-Shield will display different information depending on whether the
bearer is a walker or a settlement. I will explain the Info-Shield for both
walkers and Settlements.
*** Walker ***
When the shield bearer is a walker, the strength bars will be displayed in the
bottom right quarter of the shield. As I explained earlier, walkers gain
strength by a process called gathering. This is when two walkers combine to
become one.
All of your walkers at the start of a world will have two black and orange bars
in the bottom-right quarter of the Info-Shield if you place the Info-Shield on
any of them. When the right bar is full and becomes completely orange, a notch
will be placed on the left bar. Slowly but surely with more gathering,
eventually the left bar will fill and become completely orange. When this
happens, the right bar will disappear from view, the left bar will move to the
right and take the right bar's place and in the left bar's former place will be
a new yellow and black bar. This new bar fills up even more slowly than the
other bars and walkers with this bar are much stronger than walkers with just
two orange bars. The yellow bar never gets completely full as a small black
notch is always visible. Although it will not be shown, walkers with a maximum
yellow bar can keep gathering and become stronger. Walkers like this are very
powerful indeed. When a walker has two empty bars, he is about to perish and
die so try to provide him with some flat terrain as quickly as you can.
The top-left quarter of the Info-Shield will show either an ankh or a skull
depending on whether the walker is Good or Evil.
The bottom-left quarter will display the walker who currently bears the
Info-Shield. This walker can be Good, Evil, normal, a knight, or drowning.
The top-right quarter shows a different weapon depending upon the walker that
bears the Info-Shield. The weapon represents the settlement from which the
walker originated. A sword will be on a walker that originated from a castle
and a fist will be on a walker that originated from a tent. Apart from that,
the weapon appears to be useless. Strength is what determines the outcome of
fights as I've seen a walker with a fist defeat a walker with a sword simply
because the winner had more strength.
When a Good and an Evil walker are fighting, the bottom-right quarter which
normally represents strength will be replaced by two new bars. The bar on the
left represents the Good walker and the bar on the right represents the Evil
walker. Depending on who is winning the battle, the Good bar will fill up blue
and the Evil bar will fill up red. If the walkers are almost evenly matched,
the bars will both fill up half way and then one will empty and the other fill
up depending upon the winner. After the battle, the bottom-right quarter will
again represent the strength of the Info-Shield bearer.
*** Settlement ***
When the shield bearer is a settlement, the bottom-right quarter of the
Info-Shield will be two bars. The left bar will be yellow and black and the
right bar will be green and black. These of course can change.
The left bar represents the quality of the settlement. The more yellow there
is in the bar, the better the settlement. Tents have one notch of yellow while
large castles have completely yellow bars.
The right bar represents how much population is in the settlement. The more
green the bar, the more population is inside the settlement. When the bar
becomes completely green, the settlement will be full and a walker will leave
the settlement to search for somewhere else to settle.
Both these bars are proportional to one another. The more yellow there is in
the left bar (thus the better the settlement), the more population the
settlement can hold which means in a better settlement, it will take longer to
fill the right bar to maximum green and therefore longer for a walker to leave
it; conversely, the worse the settlement, the less time it will take for a
walker to leave it. As better settlements take longer to fill up with
population, the walker that comes out when it is full will represent more
population and because of this, will be stronger; conversely, because it takes
less time for a walker to leave a worse settlement, the walker that comes out
when the settlement is full will represent less population and will thus be
weaker. Even though better settlements take longer to fill up and produce a
walker, they do produce population at a faster rate. This means that having
lots of settlement No. 9s for example will cause your population to increase
more quickly and thus the manna bar will increase more quickly too.
The top-left quarter of the Info-Shield will show either an ankh or a skull
depending on whether the walker is Good or Evil.
The bottom-left quarter of the Info-Shield will show either a red or blue flag
depending upon whether the settlement is Good or Evil.
The top-right quarter shows a different weapon depending upon the settlement
that bears the Info-Shield. The weapon represents the advancement of the
settlement. A sword will be on a settlement that was built by a walker with a
sword or a settlement that has been undisturbed for a long time; a fist will be
on a settlement that was built by a walker with a fist or on a settlement that
is relatively new. Apart from that, the weapon appears to be useless. As with
walkers, you can play the game not paying any attention to the weapon as it
doesn't affect anything.
As with walkers, settlements can also fight. When this happens, the Info-Shield
will go to the fight mode for walkers mentioned above. When the fight is over,
the shield will represent the winner be it the original bearer or the
aggressor.
*******************************************************************************
You will notice that the shield gets passed around on its own from time to
time. This is because when a walker leaves a settlement that bears the shield,
the walker will take it with him. When a walker gathers with another, the new
combined walker will bear the shield. When a walker loses a fight, the shield
will go to the victor be it a walker or a settlement. You can of course give
the shield to whomever you wish and break the cycle whenever you want. When a
walker perishes and dies in the water or by wandering, the shield will not be
passed to anyone and so the Info-Shield will not display any information and be
blank.
Pressing on the search buttons will cause the object of the search (such as
a leader or a knight) to be given the shield for a few seconds before it is
returned to its original bearer or returned to being blank. This is so
information can be seen quickly about the object of the search without changing
the shield bearer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
****** Population Meters ******
You will notice on the sides of the Info-Shield are two bars. These represent
the amount of population Good and Evil have. The bar on the left will slowly
fill up with blue as Good population increases and the bar on the right will
slowly fill up with red as Evil population increases. When a sharp drop in
population occurs, you will see the amount of blue or red decrease instantly.
It is good practice to keep an eye on these bars as they determine who is
currently winning the world. The more population Evil has, the more powerful
Evil will be. Bear in mind that like strength, the population does not stop
increasing once the bars hit their maximum. Unfortunately you will never be
able to discern how much population above the maximum you have.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
****** Landscapes ******
Here is an explanation of the six different types of landscape that appear in
this version of Populous. I will describe the different appearances of the
objects and the effect the landscapes will have upon walkers.
Walkers will slowly lose strength as they wander around the terrain: I call
this perishing. Different landscapes have different perish rates. When the
water type of a world is harmful, walkers will start drowning when they fall in
and will slowly lose their strength although at a faster rate than perishing.
Different landscapes have different drown rates. Please note that the drown
rate is proportional to the perish rate; generally the faster the perish rate
is, the faster the drown rate will be.
*** Grassy Plains ***
- The terrain is green grassland.
- The water is blue.
- The trees look like normal trees.
- The rocks are white crags.
- The good rocks are dark grey crags.
- The Good Papal Magnet is a white ankh.
- The Evil Papal Magnet is a dark grey skull with horns.
- The swamps look like speckled green tiles of terrain.
- Good cropland looks like white dots on tiles of terrain.
- Evil cropland looks like dark grey dots on tiles of terrain.
- Ruined cropland looks like white and dark grey dots on tiles of terrain.
- The perish rate is very slow.
- The drown rate is slow.
*** Desert ***
- The terrain is yellow sand.
- The water is blue.
- The trees look like differently shaped cacti.
- The rocks are brown pyramids
- The good rocks are light grey crags.
- The Good Papal Magnet is a brown cross.
- The Evil Papal Magnet is a white star.
- The swamps look like speckled green tiles of terrain.
- Good cropland looks like white dots on tiles of terrain.
- Evil cropland looks like dark grey dots on tiles of terrain.
- Ruined cropland looks like white and dark grey dots on tiles of terrain.
- The perish rate is fast
- The drown rate is very fast.
*** Snow And Ice ***
- The terrain is white snow.
- The water is blue.
- The trees look like frosty normal trees with no foliage.
- The rocks are white crags.
- The good rocks are dark grey crags.
- The Good Papal Magnet is a frosty white ankh.
- The Evil Papal Magnet is a frosty dark grey skull with horns.
- The swamps look like black and white speckled tiles of terrain.
- Good cropland looks like white dots on tiles of terrain.
- Evil cropland looks like dark grey dots on tiles of terrain.
- Ruined cropland looks like white and dark grey dots on tiles of terrain.
- The perish rate is fast
- The drown rate is very fast.
*** Rock And Lava ***
- The terrain is dark grey rock.
- The water is red lava.
- The trees look like dead black trees with no foliage.
- The rocks are white crags.
- The good rocks are dark grey crags.
- The Good Papal Magnet is a brown wooden cross.
- The Evil Papal Magnet is a brown wooden dressing table with a mirror.
- The swamps look like small black triangles on tiles of terrain.
- Good cropland looks like white dots on tiles of terrain.
- Evil cropland looks like dark grey dots on tiles of terrain.
- Ruined cropland looks like white and dark grey dots on tiles of terrain.
- The perish rate is average.
- The drown rate is fast.
*** Futuristic ***
- The terrain is white and light grey checkered tiles.
- The water is blue.
- The trees look like polyhedral pot plants and conifers.
- The rocks are brown crags.
- The good rocks are blue crags.
- The Good Papal Magnet is a blue ankh.
- The Evil Papal Magnet is a brown skull with horns.
- The swamps look like single large black squares on tiles of terrain.
- Good cropland looks like white dots on tiles of terrain.
- Evil cropland looks like dark grey dots on tiles of terrain.
- Ruined cropland looks like diagonal lines on tiles of terrain.
- The perish rate is very slow.
- The drown rate is slow.
*** Bitmap ***
- The terrain is green and white computer paper.
- The water is green Tecmagik words in blackness.
- The trees are coke cans, green pencils and coffee cups.
- The rocks are blue floppy disks.
- The good rocks are yellow cigarette packets.
- The Good Papal Magnet is a white computer mouse.
- The Evil Papal Magnet is a black and red video game joystick.
- The swamps look like torn black holes in the computer paper terrain.
- Good cropland looks like uniform hollow black squares on tiles of terrain.
- Evil cropland looks like uniform black glasses on tiles of terrain.
- Ruined cropland looks like green and white squares on tiles of terrain.
- The perish rate is fast.
- The drown rate is very fast.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
****** Settlements ******
There are 9 types of settlement. Generally, the more flat land that surrounds
settlements, the more cropland that will be planted and the more cropland a
settlement has, the better quality the settlement will be.
Just like everything else, the settlements will vary depending upon the type of
landscape the world has. Here, I will list the 9 types of settlement for each
landscape in descending order of quality e.g. "1" equals the worst type of
settlement and "9" equals the best. All settlements occupy one tile of terrain
except No. 9 which always occupies nine tiles of terrain. Settlement No. 9
cannot be built on the edge of the world while all the other types can be.
Settlement No. 9 can only be built where there are twenty-five tiles arranged
in a 5x5 square. Rocks can be present but must not occupy the corner squares
otherwise the castle cannot be constructed.
*** Grassy Plains ***
1. A tent.
2. A brown mud hut.
3. A tumble-down stone cottage.
4. A log cabin.
5. A thatched roof cottage.
6. A modern brick house.
7. A round, grey fort.
8. A white castle turret.
9. A large castle made from four white castle turrets.
*** Desert ***
1. A small brown tent.
2. A small white tent.
3. A white Bedouin tent.
4. A grey and brown stone house.
5. A log cabin.
6. A brown shop.
7. A white chapel.
8. A brown castle turret.
9. A large castle made from four brown castle turrets.
*** Snow And Ice ***
1. A frosty tent.
2. A frosty brown mud hut.
3. A frosty tumble-down stone cottage.
4. A frosty log cabin.
5. A frosty thatched roof cottage.
6. A frosty modern brick house.
7. A frosty round, grey fort.
8. A frosty castle turret.
9. A large castle made from four frosty castle turrets.
*** Rock And Lava ***
1. A white Bedouin tent.
2. A brick mobile.
3. A small house.
4. A grey arch.
5. A small tower.
6. A white and pink hotel.
7. A miniature grey castle.
8. A round, white castle turret.
9. A large castle made from four round, white castle turrets.
*** Futuristic ***
1. A gold tent.
2. A burgundy tent.
3. A purple pyramid.
4. A structure made from three green pillars.
5. A multicoloured pyramid.
6. A glass pyramid.
7. A glass cube.
8. A blue and white sphere.
9. A large castle made from four blue and white spheres.
*** Bitmap ***
1. A Newton's cradle.
2. A typewriter
3. A ZX Spectrum.
4. A yellow keyboard computer.
5. A Sega Master System cartridge.
6. A small white computer.
7. A smaller white computer.
8. A brown rubber stamp.
9. A large castle made from four brown rubber stamps.
*******************************************************************************
*** Ruined Settlements ***
Ruined settlements are created when a settlement has lost a battle with a
knight. The settlement will then turn into a ruined settlement which looks
exactly like the settlement it was before except it will either have holes in
it, be broken, or look flattened. The cropland of the settlement will turn into
ruined cropland. To remove ruined settlements, lower the terrain underneath
them until they disappear into the water; to remove the ruined cropland, simply
raise then lower the terrain (or vice versa). The instruction manual does not
mention sinking the ruined settlements in the water and simply advises the
player to ignore them and just to concentrate efforts on removing the ruined
cropland. I believe it says this because unlike rocks, settlements may still
be constructed next to ruined settlements and sinking them can take a lot of
time and effort - especially when there are knights with which to deal first
and other problems. The best strategy is simply to remove the ruined cropland
first since this takes the least time, and then when the threat of the knight
is gone, start tidying up the terrain and remove the ruined settlements too
because they do hinder settlements - especially settlement No. 9s.
As with any problem, prevention is better than the cure. When a knight is
about to fight one of your settlements, check the Info-Shield (good practice is
to place the shield on Evil's knights to keep an eye on them) and try to
predict whether or not the knight will win (most of the time the knight will
win). If the knight is going to win, remove your settlement by raising or
lowering the terrain underneath it BEFORE the battle starts and you won't be
left with any ruined settlements or ruined cropland.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
****** Walkers ******
Here I will describe and explain the different types of walker found on
Populous.
*** Regular Walkers ***
Walkers are visible amounts of population that walk around the world searching
for somewhere to build a settlement. Good walkers (yours) have blonde hair
while Evil walkers have brown hair. The behavioural modification buttons will
affect their behaviour towards each other and towards enemy walkers. See above
for explanations of these buttons. In this section, I hope to describe and
explain the different types of walker that exist in the game. It is important
to understand that a walker's strength is relative to the amount of population
he represents. The stronger a walker is, the more population he represents.
Unless the Go To Papal Magnet behavioural modification button is on, walkers
will build settlements of various types on tiles of flat terrain. After playing
for some time, you will notice that fewer and fewer walkers stay in the
settlement after its creation and instead will walk away and build other
settlements or do something else. As I explained earlier, walkers represent
amounts of population and when a walker builds a settlement whose population
capacity is less than the population the walker who built it represents, the
walker will leave the settlement. This knowledge can be used to your advantage.
As I explained earlier, settlement No. 9s (large castles) take a long time to
fill up to their capacity and thus take a long time to produce a walker;
however, if you lower the settlement's quality by removing some cropland by
raising or lowering terrain without removing the actual settlement itself, you
can lower the population capacity of the settlement and thus a walker will come
out. To understand this technique better, try it yourself: place the
Info-Shield on a settlement and keep your eye on the green bar which represents
the amount of population in the settlement. Lower the quality of the settlement
and you will see the green bar go higher as the capacity of the settlement
lowers. When the green bar is at maximum, a walker will come out. Remember also
to flatten the land again after this technique is employed.
This technique should rarely be used on any settlement of lower quality than a
settlement No. 9 (large castle) because every walker from any settlement of
lower quality such as settlement No. 8 (castle turret) will only have orange in
the right strength bar and will have an empty left bar. Walkers from settlement
No. 9s will have a lot of orange in the left bar if the settlement is left for
a while to fill up. Generally, the amount of green in the settlement No. 9 will
roughly correspond to how much orange is in the left strength bar in a walker
that is acquired from the settlement using this technique. Walkers with any
yellow strength bar always represent more population than any settlement can
hold so don't expect a walker with any yellow strength to come out of a
settlement.
If this technique is not used, the walker that comes out "naturally" (i.e.
without using this technique) will only have his left strength bar filled up to
a quarter with orange and a lot of the population will remain in the settlement
No. 9. Of course, using this technique almost completely empties the settlement
No. 9 which of course leaves it quite weak and vulnerable to attack so
sometimes it's best to leave the population in the settlement No. 9 if it is
located near a large amount of Evil population.
This technique also works the other way. If a walker that represents a large
amount of population goes over a settlement that is not at full capacity, some
of the walker's strength will go inside the settlement. Usually this isn't a
problem if weak walkers lose a tiny amount of their strength to a weak
settlement but when a particularly strong walker (your leader that you're
trying to make strong for example) goes into a settlement No. 9 (which can hold
a fair amount of population) that isn't at full capacity, the walker will lose
quite a bit of strength. When this happens, use this technique to get the
population out again so he can rejoin the leader if you so desire. When a
walker that represents a smaller amount of population than the current capacity
of the settlement, the walker will go into the settlement and the population of
the settlement will be augmented with the population of the walker; this will
look as though the walker disappeared into the settlement. Sometimes this is a
good thing because the walker might be close to perishing but other times this
might be bad because the walker can no longer build a settlement of his own.
When Good (your) walkers fight Evil walkers, the loser will disappear and cease
to exist. When one of your walkers fights an Evil settlement (or vice versa),
the winner will take the settlement for his side i.e. in this example, Evil
will keep the settlement if he wins and Good will take the settlement if he
wins. As a fight has occurred and population has cancelled each other out and
if the original occupier wins the fight, the settlement will contain less
population and so the settlement will be weaker. If no walker of the same side
enters the settlement in the mean time, each fight will cause the settlement to
contain less population if the original occupier keeps winning. This continued
weakening of the settlement will eventually mean it will be taken after many
fights. The number of fights needed to take the settlement depends of course on
the amount of population inside it and the strength of the walkers attacking
it.
When a walker wins a settlement, the same principle above applies. If the
walker that won the settlement represents more population than the capacity of
the settlement, the surplus population will walk away in the form of a walker.
If the walker represents less population than the capacity of the building, the
walker will not leave the settlement and stay inside.
*** The Leader ***
The leader is a unique walker in that there can only be one Good leader and one
Evil leader at any one time. The leader is a special walker and having one is
necessary for doing several things. At the start of every world, no matter with
how much population you start, you will have a leader. You can see he's a
leader because he will be carrying a miniature ankh symbol; the Evil leader
will carry a miniature skull. When leaders are occupying a settlement, the
symbols they carry will be displayed on the settlement whatever the type. The
first walker to leave the settlement once it's full will take the symbol and be
the leader much in the same way that the first walker to leave a settlement
bearing the Info-Shield will become the new shield bearer.
With the behavioural modification button on Go To Papal Magnet, the leader will
gravitate towards the Papal Magnet and any walkers will gravitate towards the
leader. Remember that without a leader, you cannot place the Papal Magnet.
With this ability of being attracted to the Papal Magnet, the leader can be
used to build settlements in uninhabited parts of terrain or fight settlements
belonging to Evil; simply place the Papal Magnet in those places and once the
leader gets there, switch the behavioural modification button to either Settle
or Fight Then Settle. If you want, you can place the Papal Magnet on top of
Evil Settlements and your leader will fight them without your having to
change the behavioural modification button.
The leader has an effect upon the manna bar. When your leader dies in a fight,
you will be punished by having some manna taken away; conversely, when the Evil
leader is defeated in a fight, you will be rewarded with some manna. When
leaders die, no matter how they died, they will leave the Papal Magnet behind.
You will be unable to move it to a new location until a new leader is created.
*** Knights ***
Knights are very special walkers that can only be created under special
circumstances. Knights look different from other walkers in that they wear a
helmet, a cape (blue for Good, red for Evil) and a suit of armour. They are not
affected by the behavioural modification buttons so will not settle or go to
Papal Magnet; they do however, gather with normal walkers which is useful for
adding some strength to them. Knights fight; they have more intelligence than
other walkers in that they will know where each and every opposing walker or
settlement is and can successfully hunt them down even when they're on
different sides of the world. When knights win a fight against a walker, the
same will happen as when a walker wins a fight against a walker i.e. the walker
dies; when a knight wins a fight against a settlement, the settlement will
become a ruined settlement. Details on how to deal with these can be found
above.
To create a knight, several conditions must be met:
1. You must be permitted in the World Information Screen to create
a knight. Without this permission, creating a knight will be impossible.
2. You must have enough manna; that is, the arrow on the manna bar must be
pointing to the knight symbol (a helmet) or to any of the symbols to the
right of it.
3. You must have a leader. If you have no leader, you will not be able to
create a knight.
If you meet all these conditions, you may create a knight. Before you do
though, it is good practice to place the Go To Papal Magnet behavioural button
on and allow your leader to gather with lots of your walkers to make him very
strong. However, this isn't required and you may create a very weak knight if
you wish but such an act is foolish since the knight won't be able to win many
fights and lower Evil's population. Good practice is to create a knight that
has at least a small amount of yellow in the strength bars found on the
Info-Shield. Remember that strength and population are relative: the more
strength a walker has, the more population he has in him and thus if a knight
has more strength, it means he can fight and cancel out an equivalent amount of
population in Evil. If you do choose to create a weak knight and your leader is
occupying a settlement, the settlement will disappear and the knight will
appear in its place.
If you have met the three conditions above and have created a strong enough
leader to your liking, press the knight button located to the left of the Close
Up Map; a "dong" sound effect will happen and you'll see your leader turn into
a knight. Although your leader has not died per se, he has ceased to exist as a
leader and so as a result, the Papal Magnet will be placed on the tile of
terrain on which the knight was created. After the leader has turned into a
knight, you will no longer have a leader and will have to create a new one to
make a new knight and to move Papal Magnet so it is a good idea to create a
knight in an area close to your population so that a new leader can be created
more easily.
Just because knights look different, they are not invincible; they are only
as strong as their strength bars and if a knight fights a walker or an opposing
knight who is stronger than he is, the knight will die and cease to exist which
is why it is important to make a knight as strong as possible.
As soon as the knight is created, his mission will begin and he will begin
walking in the general direction of the nearest Evil walker or settlement.
If water separates the knight from the Evil settlements and walkers he wishes
to fight, you will have to create a land bridge for him to walk upon. To do
this, simply raise land for the knight to walk upon and he will eventually wend
his way to his target.
As stated, knights can gather with walkers to augment their strength. They
will not specifically go searching for walkers with whom to gather but will do
so if they pass a walker and the opportunity presents itself. Knights can and
will gather with your leader which will cause your leader to cease to exist.
The Papal Magnet will be placed on the tile of terrain on which this happened
and you will have to create a new leader if you wish to make a knight or move
the Papal Magnet.
There is nothing stopping you from creating more than one knight. If you have
another leader who you think is strong enough, you may knight him also and he
will go off in search of battle. The knights can and will gather into each
other but will only do so if they fight the same walker or settlement. They
will not wait for each other and will not deviate from their target in order to
do so as they do when gathering with walkers.
Knights are subject to the same rules that apply to other walkers in that they
perish, drown, can fall in swamps etc. A knight can be killed if he falls in
fatal water and will lose strength via perishing when he wanders. He will also
lose strength at the same rate as normal walkers if he starts drowning in
harmful water. Swamps are slightly more complicated. A knight is slightly more
intelligent than a other walkers and as a result he will never walk into a
swamp. The knights know of their danger and will attempt to walk around them
and avoid them in the same way that a walker avoids the water. This does not
mean they cannot fall in a swamp though; if a swamp is created underneath the
knight, that is if a swamp is created on the same tile of terrain on which the
knight is standing, he will fall in and die.
*** Craziness ***
All walkers (walkers, leaders and knights) will go "crazy" from time to
time and will walk around in circles. This can be quite frustrating -
especially when the perish rate is depleting their strength rapidly. Walkers do
this either when they hit the edge of a world or when they reach water. Try to
prevent walkers from touching the edge of worlds by putting it on Go To Papal
Magnet and they will turn around and follow the leader. Eventually the
"craziness" stops and they start behaving normally again but the process will
start afresh if they touch the edge again. Knights can do this when they reach
water and there is no bridge for them to cross. Simply create a bridge and wait
for the craziness to disappear on its own or when an enemy walker appears to
snap them out of it. The craziness isn't really a problem when your population
is firmly established and there are several walkers who can build for you; but
when you only have one active walker, the craziness can cause problems.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
****** Strategies ******
Here I will list various strategies for various actions in the game. The powers
that are performed in this game all have times when doing them would be
beneficial and times when they would be a hindrance. Similarly, Evil can also
perform all these powers and knowing how to deal with the consequences of
Evil's actions is knowledge necessary to complete worlds.
Generally, as Evil's population rises, their ability to perform powers rises as
well and the more population they have, the more manna they will have to
perform powers that require more manna. Evil are still bound by the rules laid
out in the World Information Screen however, and I can't stress enough how
important it is to make notes on Evil's abilities and attributes before
starting the world. Evil can perform all the powers you can except Armageddon
which is a power reserved only for you (Good).
I will also list strategies and patterns in Evil's behaviour. Depending upon
Evil's intelligence and the powers Evil may perform, his strategies during the
game will differ.
*******************************************************************************
*** Raise/Lower Terrain ***
Raising and lowering terrain is the most basic power and the most essential one
you have. Although raising and lowering terrain is simple enough, there are
certain techniques of doing it which can save time and effort. When you first
play the game, you will indubitably raise and lower the terrain one tile at a
time and you will soon get very tired of this. An easier method to create a lot
of terrain is to keep the hand cursor stationary and simply create a mountain
by raising the terrain to two or three levels above water and then to get it
down again also without moving the hand cursor. You should be able to flatten
the new terrain completely by only moving the hand cursor up and down and not
sideways. Only create a small mountain up to a maximum of three levels above
water level because otherwise you won't be able to flatten the terrain without
moving the hand cursor sideways. This may seem strange first but keep
practising with this technique and you'll soon discover it's much more
efficient. You can also use this technique to lower terrain as well. To lower
a mountain, simply keep the hand cursor stationary and keep lowering the
terrain. Because mountains come in different sizes, this probably won't flatten
the terrain completely but it will make the process much more efficient than
simply lowering the mountain one piece at a time.
Evil don't know of this technique and will simply raise and lower terrain one
tile at a time. Depending upon how fast Evil is (on the World Information
Screen), they will create terrain one tile at a time either shockingly fast or
extremely slowly.
*******************************************************************************
*** Move Papal Magnet ***
There isn't much to say about this. I've already mentioned that the Papal
Magnet can be used to remove swamps and ruined cropland. Evil will move their
Papal Magnet a lot over the course of the game and the sound effect it makes is
a good clue that Evil are starting to create a strong leader. Evil will usually
do this just before their population gets to a quarter full.
Another irritating thing Evil do is move the Papal Magnet many times in a row
in the same location. Because of the way the game works, doing this repeatedly
slows the game down and it can get quite frustrating.
*******************************************************************************
*** Earthquakes ***
Earthquakes are a weak power. All they do is unflatten and shake up the terrain
displayed on the Close Up Map. The terrain will be randomly raised and lowered
in different areas making flat tiles of terrain more scarce and thus making
settlement building more difficult. You will notice that earthquakes gradually
lower the land when used repeatedly and because of this, they can be quite
useful as a tool for lowering terrain and volcanoes. When the Close Up Map
displays nothing but water, earthquakes do nothing since there is no terrain to
shake up. Earthquakes can be used to remove single tiles of terrain in the
water because most of the time, when a single tile of terrain is displayed,
earthquakes will remove it and just leave water but be careful with this as
sometimes one tile of terrain is enough to create a lot of terrain.
Evil can also perform earthquakes when permitted. If earthquakes are the only
power they can perform, then earthquakes will be performed a lot throughout
that particular world. Evil will earthquake any random areas of terrain that
have your settlements on it. They will do this at set time stages so when Evil
hasn't done one for a while, expect one soon. Evil will earthquake settlements
that are right in the middle of a group of his settlements which is a bit
stupid but having a single tent far away from your main settlement group might
be enough to avoid an earthquake on your main settlement group. Evil will also
earthquake you as a "punishment"; by this I mean that Evil will do one when
they steal one of your castles or defeat your leader in a fight so a random
earthquake might be a signal that they have done such an act. Earthquakes are
visible on the World Map as they change the relief of the terrain so finding
where Evil did one is not difficult. Most of the time, earthquakes are just an
annoyance and not really a direct threat to your population; the only time they
become a problem is when they are all Evil may perform and Evil will perform
them non-stop throughout the entire world. They perform them so frequently in
fact that you'll soon be repairing the damage to your flat terrain while they
do another one. When this happens it's best to strip them of manna which I will
explain below. If you have it on Go To Papal Magnet and Evil do a volcano,
immediately switch to settle otherwise all the walkers from the uprooted
settlements will vacate the terrain and your settlements will be much more
difficult to get back.
*******************************************************************************
*** Swamps ***
Swamps are a very useful power and if used correctly and expertly, can spell
the difference between defeat and victory. Like fatal water, swamps have the
ability to kill a walker without fighting him. I talked earlier about how
fighting is really population cancelling each other out and that to defeat a
walker, a walker must represent an equal or larger portion of population than
the opposing walker. With swamps, this is not necessary and strong walkers such
as leaders that have been gathering with others can be killed so immediately
that you can see the population fall in the Population Meters. If you haven't
much manna and you can do swamps, save up the manna until you are allowed to
perform them. Don't waste them by swamping on random bits of terrain to get a
few weak walkers; instead, save it up and when Evil create a strong leader, do
a swamp to kill the leader and the threat will be eliminated. Swamps are random
in that doing one on flat terrain will place a random number of swamps on the
tiles of flat terrain. Swamps inhibit cropland so doing them on areas of
terrain that have settlements will remove the cropland and thus lower the
quality of the settlements. This in turn might cause walkers to leave the
settlements and fall in the swamps. When doing a swamp, bear in mind that they
can only be created on tiles of flat terrain not occupied by a settlement,
trees, rocks, good rocks, Papal Magnets and invisible trees. Swamps can also be
placed in water and walkers will walk into the water to fall in them. Walkers
do not usually walk in the water and are unable to do so unless a swamp is
there. Worlds with bottomless swamps are rarer than worlds with shallow swamps
but it doesn't matter since their best use is to swamp leaders and knights for
which bottomless swamps make no difference. Bottomless swamps remain after a
walker falls in and dies in them but since a knight will never fall in one and
must have a swamp created underneath them for them to fall in and since leaders
immediately remove the swamp as soon as they fall in them since they leave the
Papal magnet behind after they die, bottomless swamps make no difference in
these endeavours.
Evil do swamps too and when they've started doing swamps, they will give up on
earthquakes for the time being. Swamps are invisible on the World Map and this
means they are very difficult to find once Evil has done one. The best strategy
is to press the Pause button as soon as you hear the noise and then go and
search for the swamps. If you haven't many settlements, finding the swamps
shouldn't be a problem since the swamps will always be placed upon areas of
terrain containing your settlements. When you have many settlements, a good
trick is to use the Swords In Brackets button. As explained earlier, this
button is used to find fights; when no fights are occurring however, the button
will cycle randomly through all of your settlements one by one. I find the
swamps easier to find this way. Remember to keep the Pause button on while
doing this otherwise your walkers may fall in them. When you've found the
swamps, press the Pause button to unpause and raise and lower the terrain (or
vice versa) to remove the swamps. In worlds where one can build near towns
only, you may find yourself in a situation where one of your walkers is about
to fall in a swamp and you cannot raise and lower the terrain to remove them.
There are, of course, other ways to remove them. Placing the Papal Magnet (if
you can) on swamps will remove them. This may be time consuming but it is
effective. Using earthquakes and volcanoes too although a bit extreme, will
remove them as well but you'll be left with the consequences afterwards so
you'll have to decide whether it be worth it or not. Swamps are not removed by
performing Armageddon and you will be powerless to remove them after pressing
the button so make sure you remove any swamps before pressing this button.
Evil are thankfully oblivious to their usefulness as exterminators of powerful
walkers and will never purposely swamp your leader or your knight. Like
earthquakes, swamps will be used as a "punishment" too.
*******************************************************************************
*** Knights ***
Knights can be extremely useful in the right circumstances
or the process of
creating them can be a hindrance to your fortunes. To create the best knights,
make sure you make him with at least a bit of yellow so that he can eliminate
as much Evil population as he can. It is important to remember that the amount
of population you have is approximately proportional to the maximum amount of
strength you can give your knight. Say for example you have a population meter
that's a quarter full, if you put the Go To Papal Magnet behavioural button on,
get as many walkers out of settlement No. 9s as you can, the leader whom you're
going to turn into a knight will not become stronger than about a quarter bar
of yellow strength. When the population is at its maximum, you will be able to
create a leader with maximum yellow strength. Based off this knowledge, I would
say that the minimum population you need to create a decent knight would be
slightly less than quarter full on the population meter. Remember that this is
the minimum I recommend so if you need not make a knight urgently, try and wait
for a bit of extra population before knighting your leader.
Once you knight your leader, he will go off to battle and will seek out any
Evil settlements and walkers. If there are Evil settlements near a large number
of your settlements it would be a good idea to follow your knight and remove
the settlement just before the knight fights it so as to stop a ruined
settlement appearing. You can place the shield on your knight if you wish so as
to monitor his progress. For some reason, if you leave a knight to his own
devices he will inexplicably become idle. This is a strange phenomenon because
as soon as you centre the Close Up Map on him, he will be about to fight a
walker or settlement. Just be advised that you should check up on your knight
every so often just to see what he's doing. Knights will avoid swamps so there
is no worry there just be sure to create a bridge for him if he need cross
water to get to his target otherwise he will go crazy and start going around
in circles.
You can make more than one knight if you wish but as Evil's population
diminishes, the knights will target the same settlement and walker and will
therefore gather into each other. The maximum number of knights with which I've
ended a world is three so I advise not bothering to create more than this
number because it won't increase the speed at which they kill Evil population.
Evil can and will make knights if they are permitted to. In fact, they will
start dedicating their game to the creation of knights once they can and will
mostly ignore the other powers they have at their disposal. Evil have a
different way of strengthening their leader which will not work for the you.
Evil place their Papal Magnet on top of settlements and make their leader enter
the settlement to gain strength. In theory, this would work for you with small
settlements but for settlement No. 9s, this would be a problem because they
hold so much population. Evil walkers will also leave settlement No. 9s and
other settlements without the green bar being full. So basically, don't expect
Evil to play the game by the same rules that you play and concentrate on your
own game. Evil will usually knight their leader by the time he's gotten his
strength up to about three quarters full of the left orange strength bar.
Sometimes it's more and sometimes it's slightly less; expect Evil to knight at
roughly three quarters though. It is a very good idea to keep the Evil leader
shielded at all times because although you can search for their leader using
the Papal Magnet In Brackets button, once Evil knight the leader, the knight
cannot be searched for. Do not attempt to find Evil's knights by pressing the
search knight (Knight Helmet In Brackets) button because it simply doesn't
work. With the leader shielded, the knight created will also be shielded and
can be searched for using the Shield In Brackets Button which locates the
shield bearer. If you lose the Evil knight, look at the World Map and try to
spot an anomalous flashing red dot moving towards your settlements. The chances
are that this dot is the Evil knight. It is good practice to pause the game as
soon as you hear the "dong" sound effect which signifies that a knight has been
created. As soon as you hear this sound, pause it and search for the knight.
Another good way of finding a knight is after you've paused it, search for
their Papal Magnet. This should find the knight if done quickly since knighting
the Evil leader will cause their leader to cease to exist and thus the Evil
Papal Magnet will be placed where the knight was created. Knights are extremely
destructive and dangerous and dealing with them should become your top priority
as soon as you hear the sound effect. Ignore Evil knights at your peril.
There exist several strategies on dealing with Evil knights. Your goal is to
kill the knight with as little destruction to your settlements and population
as possible. The easiest method for killing them is swamping them. If you can
place swamps, press the swamp button and wait for the knight to walk through an
area of flat terrain without many settlements, trees or rocks. Press the swamp
button and with luck the swamp will land underneath the knight and he will die.
If you were unlucky, the swamp didn't appear underneath him and he carries on
walking. If the swamp appeared in front of his path, Evil will raise (always
raise, never lower) the terrain one level to remove the swamp. Try again with
the swamps until you either get him or run out of manna. If you run out of
manna or cannot perform the swamp power you will have to try and drown the
knight in water. This can be tricky because depending upon the world type, you
will either need a settlement in view or just a walker. Obviously with just a
walker it's easier. Lower the terrain quickly underneath the knight and try and
make him fall in the water. This can be quite tricky; the best way for me is
to wait until the knight is fighting a walker and therefore will be stationary
and drown both the knight and the walker he's fighting (a necessary sacrifice).
The drowning process is made much easier if the water is fatal since the knight
will die immediately and then you can concentrate on doing something else but
if the water is only harmful, the knight will drown at a rate depending upon
the landscape type of the world. While the knight is drowning, it's a good idea
to keep him shielded because depending upon Evil's rating (intelligence), Evil
will sometimes raise the terrain and the knight will be back fighting your
settlements. If that happens, simply drown him again and keep the shield on
him. While he is drowning, if your manna has increased so that you may perform
the swamp power again, you can try to make a swamp in the little patch of water
in which he's drowning. If successful, or once the knight has finished
drowning, raise the terrain and get on with the game.
Another strategy for dealing with knights if they're not too strong and you
have enough population, is to place the behavioural modification button on Fight
Then Settle and get some walkers out of settlement No. 9s to fight him. Keep
the Info-Shield on him and remove any settlements he can defeat just before he
fights them to avoid the creation of ruined settlements. You can also try to
position your Papal Magnet near where a knight is so that your strong leader
can fight and kill him. One of your knights will sometimes target the Evil
knight and the battle is quite intense. Just make sure that you make your
knight extra strong so that he can deal with this possible outcome.
Lastly, when Evil makes a knight when another is already around, do not panic.
Try to deal with the first one quickly and when he's dead or drowning, go for
the other one. Knights are a consequence of Evil having a large enough
population. To deal with the knight problem more effectively, steps should be
taken to lower Evil's population and Evil's ability to make more population.
Details on how to do this can be found below.
*******************************************************************************
*** Volcanoes ***
Volcanoes are a very strong power. Not only do they raise the terrain high and
uproot all the settlements on it but they also scatter a number of rocks on the
terrain for good measure making resettlement difficult even after reflattening
the terrain. Volcanoes are an excellent way of both lowering Evil's population
and lowering their ability to make more population. The effect can be
devastating on landscapes with a faster perish rate. For the best use of
volcanoes, try to place them in areas where there is a high number of Evil
settlement No. 9s. While useful, you will find that single volcanoes can be
gotten down fairly quickly by Evil and so you should find it necessary to
perform double volcanoes or even triple ones, manna permitting. Try to volcano
several areas of Evil settlements and uproot most if not all of Evil's
settlements. You will find that they will have difficulty getting them down and
that they will lose quite a bit of population and manna because they will
perform fewer powers and their knight creation scheme will be put on hold.
Remember though that Evil finds it easier to remove volcanoes because of their
unique ability to turn rocks into good rocks. Because of this ability, they
will rarely get the terrain back down to one level above sea level and will
instead keep the terrain flat but at a higher altitude. This might cause you
problems if you ever want to drown a leader there or something but apart from
that it doesn't matter too much.
When Evil do a volcano on you they will sometimes accompany it with three
earthquakes or a similar number either on the volcano or elsewhere. If they do
this on the volcano it actually makes it easy to get down because the terrain
is lower. It was because of this that I discovered how one's own earthquakes
can be used to one's advantage in this way. If you can perform earthquakes,
simply earthquake the volcano down as many times as your manna will permit and
try also to sink the rocks this way too. Once you run out of manna, just remove
the remaining rocks and flatten the terrain out. If you can't perform
earthquakes, swiftly lower the volcano manually. Remove most if not all of the
rocks and get on with what you were doing. If you have it on Go To Papal Magnet
and Evil do a volcano, immediately switch to Settle otherwise all the walkers
from the uprooted settlements will vacate the terrain and your settlements will
be much more difficult to get back.
One of the most difficult scenarios in the game is when Evil are only permitted
either to do volcanoes or volcanoes and knights. Evil will not of course
earthquake them down for you and as Evil won't concentrate their efforts on
much else, volcanoes will be very frequent and can be quite devastating as you
can't get them down in time before another one is done. As with knights, the
best solution is to strip them of the ability to create population and thus
acquire manna. Details on doing this can be found below.
*******************************************************************************
*** Floods ***
Floods are rare occurrences; this is because they require a lot of manna to
perform and because they are so destructive that they need a lot of preparation
to perform properly. Floods raise the water level by one level and so terrain
that was originally two levels above water will become one level above water
level after a flood. Before you do the flood, unless you want to go around the
world saving your walkers from drowning and losing a lot of population in the
process, it's a good idea to start making your terrain two levels above water
level and encouraging your walkers to build on again at this level. While you
do this, try and prevent Evil from building on the higher terrain as you want
all their settlements to be submerged. Once you have enough manna and most of
if not all of your settlements and walkers are safely on higher terrain, press
the flood button and a "whoosh" sound effect will occur and the terrain across
the whole world will lower one level. Your terrain will now be only one level
above water level and all of Evil's terrain will now be submerged if they were
only on one level before. Evil will start raising his walkers immediately and
depending on Evil's rating, will either leave them walking around on small bits
of terrain or will start creating enough terrain for the walkers to build
settlements on. Try not to volcano Evil's settlements if you're planning a
flood because Evil will start creating terrain many levels above water level if
you do. The only times I perform floods are when I'm finding it very difficult
to reduce Evil's population because Evil is creating many knights and
earthquaking me a lot. The trick is to learn how to put the extra level of
terrain on in readiness.
Evil seem to perform floods very seldom. On the early worlds, floods are all
they can do and will always do one unless you finish the world very quickly.
Because Evil's rating in the earlier worlds is so low, Evil will perform floods
even to their own detriment i.e. they will kill all of their walkers and you
will win instantly. In these early worlds I would recommend creating terrain
two levels above water level from the start otherwise you'll have to change it
all later which takes longer in the long run. In the later worlds, Evil perform
floods much less frequently and will go through a world without doing one -
even when that's the only power they can perform. If you want to risk not
creating terrain two levels above water level, it's up to you but those who
wish to play safely may want to create two level terrain all the time just for
peace of mind.
If the worst case scenario occurs and Evil does a flood, water is harmful and
you didn't prepare for it there are ways to lessen the damage. The best way is
to pause the game and use the Knight Helmet In Brackets Button to scroll
randomly through your walkers, most of whom will be drowning. Just find one,
raise him up and go back to searching. Remember that it scrolls through the
walkers randomly and so you will likely encounter walkers you've already saved
before you save them all. If you have a knight, you will not be able to do this
as the button will scroll through the knights only and ignore the walkers.
*******************************************************************************
*** Armageddon ***
Armageddon will end the world immediately. It places both Papal Magnets in the
centre of the world (their starting position) and places the behavioural
modification button on Go To Papal Magnet for both Good and Evil. This means
that all walkers will gather with their leaders and go to the centre of the
world to meet one another for one final fight. If your leader wins the fight,
you win the world (since all the Evil population will be gone); if Evil's
leader wins the fight, you lose the world (since all your population have been
wiped out and some Evil population are remaining).
As I state before, walkers represent amounts of population and since during
Armageddon, all your walkers (including settlements which are removed) gather
into your leader, your leader represents your entire population and likewise
Evil's leader will represent the entire Evil population. Because of this, it's
important to check the population meters before you press the Armageddon button
because once it's pressed, there is no going back. Because you need a lot of
manna to do Armageddon (it takes a very long time for the arrow to reach the
point at the end), you will most likely have more population than Evil but on
some occasions, when Evil is being quiet and not trying to invade or perform
powers, Evil might just be ahead on population. Usually this is difficult to
tell since Evil can be ahead on population when the meters have reached the
maximum they can show. What I'm trying to say is that although it's very
uncommon, it is not impossible for Evil to win and you to lose on Armageddon so
be careful about the population. If you're unsure about population, don't do
it.
As soon as you press Armageddon, all the settlements will be uprooted and their
walkers as well as regular walkers will start walking towards the leader in
order to gather with him. As with regular Go To Papal Magnet, the walkers will
gather among themselves if they meet too. Knights will instantly transform back
into normal walkers and will gather with the leader too. After you press the
button, you will be instantly powerless; all you'll be able to do is search for
things using the bracket buttons and place the Info-Shield on walkers. You are
still able to change the behavioural modification buttons but they won't have
any effect. If any swamps remain, you cannot remove them since you're powerless
so it's a good idea to remove them before you press Armageddon especially if
they're near the centre of the world. You do not want your leader to fall in if
he represents most or all your population or you will lose the world! Although
you are powerless to raise and lower terrain, bridges will be made
automatically by the computer if any walkers are cut off by water and any
drowning walkers will be raised so don't worry that you'll have to wait for the
walker to drown before the world is finished because that won't happen.
It is important to note that you can perform this power in every world and that
Evil can never perform this power so don't worry if Evil have more population
and that they'll do Armageddon because they won't.
Armageddon is a quick way to end a world and is quite useful for this purpose.
If you're finding it tough to eradicate Evil completely and they keep coming
back, Armageddon can be an easy way out. Armageddon can also be the solution to
a particularly tough world on which you're just ahead on population but Evil
keep making knights for example. Armageddon can end the world quickly - just
make sure you're ahead on population. Despite its uses, Armageddon can be
seen as a cheap way out of a world and therefore a form of "cheating" and less
fun. The hardcore players out there might want to avoid using Armageddon and
see if they can win the difficult worlds without using this power but it's up
to you.
*******************************************************************************
*** Reducing Evil's Population ***
As I stated before, the best way to stop Evil performing various powers on your
settlements and ultimately to win the game is to reduce Evil's population.
Logically, the best way to do this is not to kill their population with swamps
but to stop Evil from producing population in the first place. The way Evil
make population is obviously with their settlements; the more settlements Evil
have, the more population will be produced and the more manna Evil will have to
perform annoying earthquakes, swamps, knights and volcanoes.
Earthquakes are good to some degree but you'll quickly find that Evil flatten
the terrain again too quickly. Multiple earthquakes might slow Evil down a bit
but still it's too easy to repair them. Swamps don't uproot settlements and
Evil remove them too quickly as well. Knights can remove settlements but if
Evil have a lot of population, you'll find that even knights struggle to lower
Evil's population since Evil have a habit of producing walkers from their
settlements just before knights fight it when their rating is high. This takes
up more time which means it will take longer for the knight to destroy all the
settlements; couple this with the fact that Evil can remove the ruined cropland
with tremendous speed on difficult worlds and Evil walkers just build
settlements around them anyway. The best way of removing settlements is with
volcanoes. Multiple volcanoes can strip Evil of a lot of settlements at once
and it can take Evil a while to flatten the terrain again - even on the more
difficult worlds. You will soon notice a drastic reduction in the number of
powers Evil perform.
There is one snag in the volcano solution though and that's if you can't do
volcanoes. It's important to remember that all volcanoes are are raised terrain
with rocks scattered on top. You can't create rocks on their own but you can
create the mountainous terrain simply by raising the terrain in terrain with
lots of Evil settlements. To do this you'll either need just a walker if the
world type is Build Near Towns Or People or you will need a settlement if the
world type is Build Near Towns Only. Either way, the best way to get one of
your walkers or settlements in Evil territory is to put the behavioural
modification button on Fight Then Settle. Eventually, a walker or two will
stray far enough into their territory for you to do damage with these
"makeshift volcanoes" or your walkers will win a settlement (all you need is
simply one small settlement No. 1, a tent) and you can start making makeshift
volcanoes and uprooting a lot of their settlements. Get as many up as you can
and keep the terrain up so that they can't build again. Keep your tent their
for as long as possible before Evil walkers start to attack it. If they do,
just uproot that as well and go and find another small settlement around which
you can create makeshift volcanoes.
Combine these makeshift volcanoes with your normal volcanoes when your manna
runs low or with your knights, after all, the ruined settlements are almost
like rocks and on mountainous terrain it doesn't matter. Make your makeshift
volcanoes with makeshift rocks! It doesn't matter, as long as Evil can't settle
and make population because population is the key to the game. Evil of course
will never do this trick.
Sometimes, in rare cases, a flood will be the best method of reducing their
population. You will have tried everything beforehand and are still struggling
to reduce Evil's population because floods should really be a last resort
because they're such a pain to carry out. After you do the flood, keep building
terrain and settlements and try to win as quickly as possible.
*******************************************************************************
*** Go To Papal Magnet ***
You should know by now what Go To Papal Magnet does and how to use it. There
are a few extra things that need to be said about the function though. Go To
Papal Magnet can be used to invade Evil settlements, and basically to bring a
lot of population to a certain area.
Evil will also use Go To Papal Magnet to your disadvantage. For example, Evil
will do an earthquake or a volcano when you have it on which uproots
settlements and causes the walkers not to resettle. One way in which Evil will
use it to your disadvantage is that when Evil have a leader whom they deem to
have greater strength than your leader (usually they will have more population
than you too) they will place their Papal Magnet on top of yours in a very
aggressive move which, if left, will cause your and their leader to fight with
his leader winning. This can be very frustrating since you cannot move your
Papal Magnet anywhere without Evil's too and thus can't create a strong leader
from scratch without being threatened with this action. There are several ways
to turn this move by Evil to your advantage.
If you have slightly more population or a lot more population, create a strong
leader very quickly and defeat Evil's leader which will give a boost to your
manna and will lower Evil's population a bit. This outcome is quite unlikely
though since Evil probably have more population if they're doing this.
You can keep moving your (and therefore their) Papal Magnet to different
locations to try and avoid their leader but they'll catch up eventually so I
recommend placing the Papal Magnets all the way to a distant corner of the
world preferably with water and then take it off Go To Papal Magnet. Evil's
leader will always go all the way there and even build bridges to accomplish
this task which will buy you a bit of time to alter the game in your favour.
It's quite funny to watch their leader go all the way there too! It should be
noted that as soon as you take it off Go To Papal Magnet, you won't be able to
move the Evil Papal Magnet as well so move it quickly while it's still on then
immediately change to Settle or something.
You can also drown Evil's leader while they're doing this trick or swamp them
and as soon as their leader is dead or too weak, the Papal Magnet won't be
moved with yours anymore.
If you can't do swamps and Evil can, a good way to lure their leader into one
of their own swamps is to move their Papal Magnet into the path of a swamp
while he's doing this annoying trick. It can be quite tricky but if you line up
the Papal Magnets perfectly and as long as your leader is ahead of the swamp,
Evil's leader should fall in and you can start attacking Evil properly. This
could be construed as a form of cheating but I consider it a valid trick and
have recovered from tricky situations many times with this method.
When Evil are invading your settlements using their leader and Papal Magnet, be
sure to uproot every settlement that their leader wins to prevent them from
gaining a foothold near your settlements and also to stop them getting more
settlements. You should be trying to drown him or swamp him all the time too.
If you can't swamp and Evil are preventing you from drowning the Evil leader
(Evil do this usually when their rating is high), just try to wear him down.
Do not put it on Fight Then Settle as all your walkers will flock to him and
will die. Leave it on Settle and let them build; just keep uprooting the
settlements Evil wins and do not let Evil get a foothold. Eventually, the
leader will either die or will be weak enough so that Evil recall him to get
a strength boost in his own territory.
Remember that drowned leaders will be saved by Evil from time to time so keep
an eye on them with the help of the Info-Shield. Ignore them at your peril!
*******************************************************************************
*** Fight Then Settle ***
Evil will sometimes set their behaviour on Fight Then Settle. You'll know this
because Evil walkers will come flocking to your settlements. If too many
flock to the same settlement and you think it will lose, uproot it. If you can
swamp the walkers, do so; if you can drown the walkers, do so just don't let
Evil take the settlement or you might set yourself up for a punishment
earthquake, swamp or volcano and a manna drop penalty.
Evil will put Fight Then Settle on when provoked. Do not go fighting Evil
settlements when there are lots of Evil Settlements and too few of your walkers
to fight them. If you do win one and Evil come flocking towards it, do a
makeshift volcano on their territory, ignore your remaining good walker and get
on with something else.
A good strategy to stop your walkers and Evil's walkers from meeting too early
is to "cut off." Usually, you will start a world with Evil on the botton of it
and you on the top separated by a bit or a lot of water but sometimes you'll
start on the same bit of terrain and it is a good idea to separate your and
Evil's settlements with a stretch of water. Try and make it as wide as possible
and keep monitoring it because Evil will try and join back on when they get
powerful enough.
For the more daring players, worlds in which Evil and Good start on the same
bit of terrain might be a blessing. This is because it might be possible to win
the world very quickly by invading Evil's settlements early on and drowning the
remaining walkers. Just make sure Evil aren't too far away and that you have
more population than Evil do at the time. If pulled off, it might save a lot of
difficulty later on. I've won worlds that get very hard later on by killing off
Evil early on. Experiment; every world is different and different strategies
can win different worlds.
*******************************************************************************
*** Gather Then Settle ***
It is a good idea to put this on when the world has a harsh landscape such as
Snow And Ice. The stronger walkers created by gathering will take longer to
perish and are thus more likely to find somewhere to settle before they die.
This behaviour can be annoying when many walkers are present as they will often
deviate away from flat terrain in order to gather with each other. Put it back
to Settle if this becomes a nuisance.
*******************************************************************************
*** Settle ***
This should be the most common behaviour you use as settling becomes your
walkers' priority and the more settlements you have, the more population you
will get. In harsher landscapes, Gather Then Settle might be a better idea at
first when most of your walkers are weak. Once you get established, put it back
to settle because you will have an abundance of walkers.
*******************************************************************************
*** Invading ***
Invading is an excellent way of attacking Evil especially if you can't create
knights. Simply create a strong leader and place the Papal Magnet in Evil an
Evil settlement and your leader will win it. Once enough settlements have been
acquired, place the behaviour on Fight Then Settle. Be careful as your leader
might get weakened by a repeated onslaught of Evil walkers. If Evil put their
behaviour on Fight Then Settle, remove their settlements and watch them all
swarm to your leader who will then kill them all and you will have removed a
lot of Evil's capability for creating population. Eventually, you should wear
them down enough so that you are well in the lead on population.
Never be merciful towards Evil and allow them to keep a few settlements or
walkers if you intend to win the game. Go in for the kill and wipe them all out
as soon as possible. The object of the game is to win by wiping all of Evil
out.
*******************************************************************************
*** Continental Shelf ***
As I stated before, settlement No. 9s take a long time to produce a walker but
they do produce population at a faster rate. If all your settlements are of
this type, you could not be producing many walkers and not building settlements
at a fast enough rate. A good way of making sure you have lots of smaller
settlements which produce more walkers is to build what I call a "continental
shelf." It's not really a continental shelf in the strictest sense but rather a
border around the world of two tier terrain which is narrow enough to ensure
that settlement No. 9s cannot be built. This will produce an abundance of
walkers who will wander around. Of course, you'll have fewer settlement No. 9s
as a result but the smaller number won't affect things too much.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
****** FAQs ******
This is a section of common problems and how to overcome them quickly. All the
information in this section is in the main guide but for those who want quick
answers, here's an FAQ.
- Evil have done an earthquake. What do I do?
Flatten the terrain again as quickly as they do. It can be quite annoying
when they do lots of them when it is the only thing they can do but you'll
just have to keep at it.
- Evil have swamped me.
Pause the game and use the Swords In Brackets button to view all your
settlements one by one until you find the swamps.
- Evil have made a knight.
Don't panic. Pause the game and search for Evil's Papal Magnet. The knight
should be nearby. Swamp him or drown him and put the Info-Shield on him to
keep an eye on him.
- Evil keep placing their Papal Magnet on mine.
Quickly place your Papal Magnet in a distant corner of the world and their
Papal Magnet will be placed with yours. Immediately put the behaviour
modification on Settle afterwards to stop your leader following. Their leader
will walk all the way to their Papal Magnet. Use this time to reduce their
population.
- Evil have volcanoed me.
Earthquake it down if you can then remove the remaining rocks and flatten the
terrain. If they keep doing them, find a way to reduce their population.
- Evil have done a flood.
Use the Helmet In Brackets button to cycle through all your walkers and raise
them up one by one. Don't stop till you've found them all. Once you have,
rebuild the terrain very quickly and keep the behaviour on Settle.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
****** Bugs/Glitches ******
Here I will describe various bugs and glitches in Populous, how they can be
obtained and how they can be used to your advantage.
*** Landscape Out ***
This is the glitch landscape used on worlds 5995-5999, 6995-6999, 7995-7999
etc. This is explained in better detail in the Worlds section of this guide
found below.
*** Leader Knights ***
Normally, when a leader turns into a knight, the leader no longer exists and
the Papal Magnet is placed where the knight was created to show where the
leader ceased to exist. Sometimes though, a knight will be created who is also
a leader. No Papal Magnet will be left behind and the knight will be carrying
the smaller Papal Magnet symbol with him (either a miniature ankh or skull).
To create a leader knight, place the Papal Magnet inside a settlement No. 9
(large castle) and when the leader is standing inside the castle, knight him.
Do not allow the leader to go inside the castle and disappear, simply allow him
to stand there by making him too strong to go in the castle. Hopefully, if you
did it right, the knight will be carrying the symbol with him and he'll be a
leader knight.
The leader knight will not behave like a leader at all and will not gravitate
towards the Papal Magnet as a regular leader will. Walkers will be attracted to
him however and as soon as one gathers with the leader knight, the leader
knight will become a regular knight and the Papal Magnet will be placed to show
that the leader has ceased to exist.
The only use for them is that they might cause a few walkers to follow the
knight into battle and fight a few settlements themselves or they might cause
extra walkers to gather with the knight and make him stronger.
They are very rare but I have spotted Evil leader knights. They disappear very
quickly though because an Evil walker will usually gather with the knight soon
after they're created.
*** Unoccupied Settlements ***
Normally, when you uproot a settlement, the settlement disappears and a walker
replaces it. There is a way for a settlement to become "permanent" i.e. if you
try to uproot it, it remains in place and no walker replaces it. This can only
happen when settlement No. 9s (large castles) become unoccupied.
To make a large castle unoccupied you have to drown the walkers in them while
they're fighting. You will notice that when a settlement is fighting, a walker
will appear on top of it to fight the invader. While the fight is occurring,
the settlement is momentarily permanent i.e. you can raise/lower the terrain
surrounding it and the settlement will not be altered while the fight happens.
If you're quick enough, you can try to drown the two fighting walkers before
the fight ends and the settlement will become permanent forever. When this
first happened, I thought I could make a walker "reoccupy" it and tried placing
the Papal Magnet in there to get the leader to reoccupy it but it didn't work.
The unoccupied large castle behaves in the same way as a ruined settlement and
the cropland behaves like ruined cropland. Raise and lower the cropland and it
is removed; sink the parts of the settlement and they will disappear too.
Settlements can be built next to this unoccupied settlement and it looks very
strange.
This glitch can only occur with settlement No. 9s because of their size. Other
settlements only occupy one tile of terrain and so when you drown the walkers
inside, you also drown the settlement so only the unoccupied cropland remains.
The unoccupied cropland is interesting but not as much as the settlement.
*** Demoted Knights ***
This is the most useful of the glitches. This will demote a knight back into a
regular walker and so make them less dangerous. In fact it's an excellent way
of dealing with knights since if Evil raise them up again, there won't be a
dangerous knight rampaging around and I recommend this glitch as an effective
counter-measure for knights. I didn't mention it in the strategies section
since it is technically a glitch and could be construed as cheating but as it
works you should use it if you're in trouble.
To change knights back into regular walkers, the water must be harmful and not
fatal. If the water is fatal, you shouldn't need to use this glitch. When the
knight is fighting a walker or a settlement, try to drown him and his opponent.
If you manage to get them both in the water before the fight ends the knight
will be demoted back to a regular walker. Leave him drowning for as long as
possible though since he is probably very strong. Evil will sometimes raise him
up and he'll join back with their leader to make a strong leader whom they'll
turn into a knight whom you'll then demote and... this can go on for a long
time. Just keep demoting him as knights are too dangerous to be left alone.
This can be tricky to pull off sometimes when Evil's rating is high because
they will try to prevent you from drowning the knight. Just keep at it and
you'll soon prevail.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
****** Worlds ******
The game starts at world number 0 GENESIS. Depending upon how well you do at
the world and if you win, you will jump a number of worlds. The maximum number
of worlds you can jump is 9 so if you do GENESIS really well you will go on to
World number 9 BURWILCON. If you win the world badly, you will only jump one
world so if you do GENESIS badly for example, you will only go on to 1
HURTOUTORD. The only thing I can't figure out are parameters and rules for
jumping worlds. For example, I discovered HURTOUTORD because I purposely did
GENESIS very badly. I let Evil invade me, take a lot of my settlements etc.
and then fought back only to allow Evil to get me again and again. I think this
process took at least two hours to accomplish but I was pleased with the
result. The most common worlds to get after GENESIS are 3 TIMUSLUG and 5
SCOQUEMET.
*** The Score Screen ***
After a world is either won or lost, you will get a red score screen which
tells you how you did. The score will be at the bottom and also will be listed
the number of towns (settlement Nos. 1-8), castles (settlement No. 9), the
number of knights and the number of fights won for both Good and Evil.
Obviously the loser of the world will have everything at 0 except for the
fights. I've never been sure but this list might have something to do with the
score for the world. Time is certainly irrelevant because I've won some worlds
within a few minutes and I've only jumped a few worlds. You can play the game
without worrying too much about the Score Screen and just treat the number of
worlds you jump as random if you want because you'll keep going to new worlds
after you win the previous one. The Score Screen itself might have something to
to with the number of worlds jumped after winning a world. If you have any
further information about this please e-mail me and tell me about it.
Update: I think having a leader at the time of winning a world affects the
score a lot. Most of the time when I had a leader and won the game my score was
above 100000 and most of the time when I had no leader my score was around
50000. A couple of times this was not the case but most of the time it was.
*** The Blue-Hooded Figure ***
After the red score screen, a blue-hooded figure will tell you which world you
must do next. In the early worlds, he will say "Well Done Mortal", after 50
worlds he will say "Well Done Immortal" after 100 worlds he will say "Well Done
Eternal", after 150 worlds he will say "well Done Deva", after 200 worlds he
will say "Well Done Greater Being", after 250 worlds he will say "Well Done
Deity", after 300 worlds he will say "Well Done Greater Deity", after 350
worlds he will say "Well Done Mortal God", after 400 worlds he will say "Well
Done Greater God" and finally after 450 worlds he will say "Well Done Eternal
God." You stay as Eternal God for the rest of the game. After this screen,
you're taken to the next world's World Information Screen.
*** World Types ***
It is important to understand that World Types will repeat themselves in sets
of five worlds. For example, consider the World Type GENESIS; GENESIS has
bottomless swamps, fatal water, Grassy Plains landscape, Evil is very slow,
Evil rating is very low, both Good and Evil start with three walkers each,
Good can perform all the powers and Evil can perform none. This world type will
repeat itself for the next four worlds which, including GENESIS, makes five
worlds; GENESIS, HURTOUTORD, World No. 2, TIMUSLUG and CALDIEHILL will all have
the above attributes. The only thing that's different about them is the layout
of the terrain at the start of the world and the number of trees, rocks and
good rocks. This is usually enough to make the character and difficulty of the
world different enough so you won't mind repeating a world type.
A new World Type starts and finishes every five worlds so 0-4 will be the same
type, 5-9 will be the same type, 10-14 will be the same type, 15-19 will be the
same type and 20-24 will be the same type etc. ad nauseam.
*** World Name List ***
Here is a long list of world names for this version of Populous. I started a
complete list of worlds many years ago but never finished it because with world
jumping it's difficult to start on the precise number you need.
After the 2011 update of this FAQ I discovered that there is a world name
password generator located at
http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/Populous-SMS and
any world name password up to the last one, 32768 SHISODING, can be obtained
using this.
This latest update renders this list redundant now but I've kept it as a
reference. Please note that a few of these might be incorrect.
0 GENESIS 51 BUGWILLIN 106 MOREALL 579 TIMINORD
1 HURTOUTORD 52 SHADOGODON 111 ALPDIPERT 597 COREAEND
3 TIMUSLUG 53 COROPERT 112 BADKOPOUT 602 VERYDIICK
4 CALDIEHILL 54 BINMEOUT 115 BUGGBJOB 820 SHADIOUT
5 SCOQUEMET 55 SADMPT 117 CORSODDON 823 SADSODER
6 SWAUER 56 LOWHIPBAR 122 VERYQUEER 826 VERYUSMAR
8 EOAOZORD 57 QAZOUTER 362 MORADOR 833 HURTINGCON
9 BURWILCON 58 VERYELIN 390 SWAAING 840 EOAUSCON
10 MORINGILL 59 MINGBDON 396 BILOZED 848 BADIILL
11 NIMIHILL 60 HAMINMAR 398 MMPTTOUT 851 BUGSODME
16 BADACON 61 FUTLOPLUG 404 SHADEHAM 861 FUTINGDOR
18 HOBDIETORY 62 SUZTT 412 HAMOGOBOY 862 SUZIICK
19 BUGQUEEND 63 DOUPEBAR 421 SCOLOPPAL 863 DOUCEHOLE
21 CORBEHAM 64 SHIOZER 422 SWATHOLE 865 HURTHIPAL
22 BINOZOND 65 HURTIKEING 430 WEAVKOPOUT 871 KILLTLAS
23 SADWILLOW 66 JOSOGOORD 439 SADIKEBAR 877 RINGMEPERT
24 LOWINGICK 67 TIMOBAR 447 DOUGBER 880 BADOUTBAR
25 QAZITORY 68 CALMELUG 452 CALEAHILL 887 SADOZBAR
26 VERYMEEND 69 SCOMPHILL 456 EOADEORD 899 TIMTLUG
27 MINMPME 70 SWAHIPMET 457 BURDICON 907 NIMHIPTORY
28 HAMHIPOLD 71 KILLQAZET 459 NIMQAZTORY 3572 SHADWILCON
29 FUTOUTBOY 72 EOAEING 462 WEAVASHAM 3662 WEAVQAZAL
30 SUZALOW 73 BURGBORD 464 BADYCON 4999 KILLOGOAL
31 DOUUSICK 74 MORINCON 470 BINDFOND 5009 IMMTDOR
32 SHIDIEHOLD 75 NIMLOPILL 475 MINCEME 5050 VERYSODME
33 HURTLOPLAS 76 BILTHILL 477 FUTSODBOY 5056 SHIOEND
34 JOSTME 77 RINGOXMET 481 HURTDIELAS 5063 KILLASLAS
35 TIMPEOLD 78 WEAVEAED 484 CALDEBOY 5068 BILIKEDAL
36 CALOZBOY 79 ALPIKEHAM 485 SCODIDOR 5077 CORASOUT
37 SCOWILDOR 81 IMMOCON 487 KILLINGPERT 5085 FUTDET
38 SWAINGPAL 82 HOBMEILL 496 BADQUET 5088 SHIQAZING
39 KILLOHOLE 83 BUGMPTORY 500 SHADWILDON 5093 SCOYBAR
40 EOAMELAS 86 BINEHAM 511 DOUUBAR 5100 BILDIMET
41 BURMPAL 87 SADGBOND 518 SWAASMET 5108 SHADAED
42 MORHIPPIL 88 LOWINGLON 523 NIMDIEHILL 5116 HAMINGOLD
43 NIMMOUTJOB 93 FUTIKEOLD 532 SHADMPEND 5119 DOUASICK
44 BILADOR 94 SUZOGOBOY 535 SADAOND 5120 SHISODHOLE
45 RINGGBPAL 96 SHIMEICK 538 VERYLOPITOLE 5122 JOSAME
46 WEAVINPERT 97 HURTDIHOLE 541 FUTOZOLD 5125 SCOQUEDOR
47 ALPLOPOUT 98 JOSKOPLAS 587 NIMMECON 5129 BURWILAL
48 BADTAL 99 TIMQAZAL 554 MORPEAL 5130 MORINGPILL
49 IMMPEPIL 103 KILLSODDAL 564 SHADGBLIN 5136 BADAAL
50 HOBOZJOB 105 BUROXLAS 572 HAMODON 5145 QAZIJOB
I must say that it is not advisable to try and guess world names. The
chances of finding one this way are very low. I did however find one by
accident. I accidentally typed 500 SHADWILDON as SHADWILCON and it found a
completely different world: 3572 SHADWILCON.
4999 KILLOGOAL was mentioned for a long time in magazines and guides as the
"last world in the game" because of its number. It is not the last world and it
is certainly not the hardest either. You can do nothing while Evil can do
earthquakes, swamps and knights while the landscape is Grassy Plains. You also
both start with 15 population which makes the world not that difficult in my
opinion especially as volcanoes aren't a problem. I have gotten up to KILLOGOAL
legitimately and have played the game through the 1000s, 2000s, 3000s and
4000s to get to it. After KILLOGOAL and other '999 worlds, the game gets a bit
easier for a while before increasing in difficulty after another 100 worlds or
so.
*** The End? ***
The game states on the back of the box that there are 5000 worlds to complete.
This is not strictly true. The game I believe, goes on a lot longer than 5000
worlds. The trouble is, from World 5120 SHISODHOLE onwards, the game no longer
accepts the world names as passwords and so unless you play the game without
switching the game off after this world, you will not be able to use the
passwords you obtain. This means that world 5119 DOUASICK is the last password
from which you can continue your game and thus it is the final password that
works. Because of this, the game does only have approximately 5000 worlds as
stated on the back of the box. The trouble is the game has no proper ending.
There is no credits screen, no end to the story or anything like that, only
passwords that don't work after a certain world.
I once tried not switching it off and got to World 5300 and as it still didn't
end and as I'd been playing for several hours, I gave up. With modern
technology however, it is possible to continue the game beyond 5119 DOUASICK
and turn the game off and continue later. I am of course talking about
emulators, ROMs and save states. I used an emulator over several weeks to get
to World 5995 NIMINGTORY and what I saw shocked me: it was glitch-terrain. Some
screenshot links are below.
*** World 5995 NIMINGTORY ***
The World Information Screen looks normal enough except curiously it says the
landscape is "Out." This "Out" landscape type is glitch landscape and I don't
include it with the proper six landscape types. I also don't know whether the
word "Out" is intended or whether the name itself is also a glitch. I'm
guessing the name is intended because the rest of the World Information Screen
is normal (although none of it matters in the glitch landscape).
Press Button 1, and you'll enter a world with a World Map of flashing blue and
white and a Close Up Map of white flashing pixels. Walkers are visible and
settlements are only visible with the flags they have. Nine out of ten tries at
this world type and the game will crash so you'll have to reload the save state
and try again. Also, the first time I got up to this world, it corrupted the
save state so be warned. This "Out" landscape seems to have either no rules or
very strange rules. Your manna bar will increase quickly and you'll be able to
raise and lower the "terrain" anywhere. I don't know how I won, but simply
raising the terrain on Evil "settlements" seemed to erase their population and
I won the game. Other times I lost using this method so a lot of it is trial
and error I suppose.
Remember that nine out of ten tries, the game will crash and I had to try this
world about fifty times before I won and it got quite frustrating. Just keep at
it and you'll "win" the world eventually. Once you do, you'll be taken to world
6000 and above which are normal worlds again and you can go on to the next
glitch world which is world 6995!
As I discussed earlier, the World Types repeat themselves in groups of five.
This means that the "Out" glitch World Type is from worlds 5995-5999,
6995-6999, 7995-7999 etc. The furthest I ever got was to world 7997. I got up
to world 7995 and spent ages doing it. Once I did, I ended up on world 7997
which try as a I might, I could not do: it just kept crashing again and again
and since I was getting seriously bored with Populous anyway, I decided to call
it a day at that. I'd spent enough time on it already.
Try it yourself if you want and see if you can get further. Remember that the
rest of the worlds in the 6000s and 7000s are normal apart from the '995-'999s
so there are relatively very few glitch worlds. You can probably understand why
the designers of the game stopped the passwords working!
*** World 5995 NIMINGTORY Screenshot Links ***
The first screenshot is of the World Information Screen and the other two are
of the Close Up Map.
http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr295/edwithmj/5995NIMINGTORYinfoscreen.png
http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr295/edwithmj/5995NIMINGTORYmap.png
http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr295/edwithmj/5995NIMINGTORYmap2.png
As you can see, everything is normal in the World Information Screen except the
Landscape is "Out." The Close Up Map shows glitch terrain even when it's
supposed to be showing water. Walkers are visible and a couple of settlement
flags can just be seen too.
Here's a quote from Maxim, one of the admins of www.smspower.org about this:
"I guess it is a glitch in the game, using an invalid landscape type; it could
have been something they intended to use (a new landscape type at higher
levels) or it might just be a bug. It is possible they never tested those level
numbers, because of the cutoff, so it doesn't matter; or it's possible they
added the cutoff because of the bug."
So perhaps the "Out" landscape type was originally intended to be a difficult
landscape type for a later world, maybe to be used as a final world. That would
make sense seeing as they appear at every x995-x999 World Type from 5995-5999
onwards. If so, that might've led to a proper ending but we'll never know.
*** New Information ***
Go to
http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/Populous-SMS and you will find a complete
list of worlds. After testing this out, it appears that there are 32768 world
name passwords. The game designers did indeed stop the passwords from working
from 5119 SHISODHOLE onwards but the site provides a patch for the Populous
game ROM which I applied to the ROM using WindHex hex editor. After this is
successfully applied, any world name password will work when entered and I was
able to get up to world 32768 SHISODING. It's a good job I never tried to get
up to this world by playing the game normally as it would've taken me a while!
The first thing I noticed about this world was that the terrain on the World
Map looked exactly the same as GENESIS except it was Rock And Lava. The World
Information Screen was different too with different attributes. Good and Evil
started with one walker each and I completed the world as quickly as I could.
The game did not end after this and instead I was taken to world 32773
SCOQUEMET. Does that name ring a bell? Yep, it's world number 5! I entered this
into the password entry screen and it took me to SCOQUEMET again except this
time it was the normal SCOQUEMET with Battle Number 5. So I did SHISODING
again and luckily got back to the 32773 SCOQUEMET again and played it. Again,
it had different attributes and the landscape was Rock And Lava instead of
SCOQUEMET's normal landscape Desert but the terrain layout at the start was
identical to the original SCOQUEMET. I played this one to completion and did
the next one also until I got to BUGQUEEND which is Battle Number 19 normally
but this time it was 32787 and instead of being Rock And Lava it was Snow And
Ice. So the game repeats itself after 32768 worlds? Here's a quote from Maxim,
one of the admins of www.smspower.org about this:
"I think if you got up to level 65536 (16 bits) the game would display GENESIS
identically to how it normally looks, because this is the true upper limit for
the level number representation. It uses the level number to generate the level
itself, and as you can see there are similarities when you get up to these high
numbers which were never intended to be available.
When it generates the passwords, it is wrapping over at 15 bits, because it
uses three five-bit word part sets. In theory, if you were good enough at the
game, lucky enough and spent way too much time, you could play the original
game all the way up to level 65536 and wrap around, playing indefinitely."
So in theory the game will loop back to GENESIS with the normal GENESIS
attributes after 65536 worlds. I have no way of testing this because even the
ROM hack won't help me as the passwords for worlds above 32768 only take me to
the original 32768 worlds. So I'd have to complete 32768 worlds from SHISODING
onwards to test this theory. I think I'll take Maxim's word for it!
The website above renders my list of worlds redundant as any world name can be
obtained using the site's world name generator although the patch must be
applied for world name passwords of worlds 5120 and above to work. With the
generator I was finally able to see the elusive World No. 2 which I now know is
JOSAMAR. With this generator, the glitch worlds can be completely skipped
altogether as there's no need to do them to get to the later worlds. I've kept
my World Name List above as a reference.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
****** Hidden Messages ******
There are five extra passwords that can be entered to produce hidden messages
in the game. Once entered, the messages can be viewed but the game must be
reset in order to enter new passwords. I shall list the passwords and paste the
message obtained below them. Screenshots are available on
http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/Populous-SMS if you want to see them.
SANTIAGO
09 NOV 89
HELLO TIM AND ROZ
THANKYOU FOR YOUR LETTERS.
THEY PARODY MY DRAB
EXISTENCE WELL.
FINAL IN 3 DAYS SO ALL IS
DARK. MUST GO NOW AS I AM
RUNNING OUT OF SPACE.
BEST OF LUCK TO YOU BOTH.
SEE YOU IN RIO.
REGARDS PETER.
STOCKHOLM
DET VAR EN GONG EN SVENSKA
FLICKA SOM TOG LILLA SIMON
FUR ALLTID
PIXIE
HI NIKKI
MANY THANKS FOR ALL YOUR
HELP. THIS IS TO LET YOU
KNOW THAT YOUR EFFORTS
REALLY ARE APPRECIATED.
BYE
SI.
CODETOGO
IT WAS QUITE A CHALLENGE
EH DAN.
IT WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED
WITHOUT YOU.
THANXALOT CTG.
TIME FOR ME TO GET A LIFE.
CHEERS
PEZ FRIO.
STEVEANDJO
HEY BRUV AN SIS-IN-LAW
HAVING A WONDERFUL TIME
WISH YOU WERE HERE
MY ROOM MARKED WITH AN X.
SEE YOU SOON
BIGBOMBASHER.
I have no idea why these were included in the game. If anyone has any
information about them, please e-mail me at the address below.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
****** Final Notes ******
Thanks to Maxim and everyone else at www.smspower.org for the information in
the Hidden Messages section, the ROM patch, the additional information about
the passwords, and the World Name Password generator on their site.
This guide can be found on the following sites:
www.gamefaqs.com
www.gamewinners.com
If you wish to post this guide on your site, please send me an e-mail first to
the address below.
I hope you enjoyed reading this. I consider Populous to be the best game on the
Sega Master System because of its longevity and varied game play.
Having trouble? E-mail me at edwithmj (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk and I will
respond.
Thanks for reading.
Good Day.
