Gods (Sega Genesis) FAQ/Walkthrough w/ support for SNES and PC versions Version: 1.2 Author: The Spelunker Email: lance3335@gmail.com Copyright 2006 - 2008. All rights reserved. (This guide may not be used for any purpose other than personal use without the written consent of the author; the only e-mail address that may give this consent is lance3335@gmail.com. Those who violate this should know that they are breaking copyright law. If you see this guide being hosted on a site besides http://www.gamefaqs.com/ it is being done so against my wishes. Please contact me if this is the case.) version history: [1.2] 4/22/08 - updated e-mail address -rewrote parts of introduction and walkthrough [1.1] 12/04/06 - corrected version information - added info on other platforms of the game (SNES and PC) [1.0] 11/16/06 - walkthrough complete - all items listed except for one of the point items (the amulet) - graphical format finalized - introduction, etc. added [0.8] 11/14/06 -graphical format is not yet finished; textual is (what's the difference?) - walkthrough finished to 3-3 - some items are missing - no introduction yet - missing some detail at the beginning of the walkthrough - complete walkthrough coming very soon |@=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=@| Table of Contents |@=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=@| I. Introduction Ia. PC version differences Ib. SNES version differences II. Basics IIa. Controls IIb. General Tips IIc. Items IId. Shops IIe. Points IIf. Bonus Items III. Walkthrough iiia. Level One iiib. Level Two iiic. Level Three iiid. Level Four IV. Appendices iva. Passwords (cheaters only! or people that forgot theirs.) ivb. In-game Hints ivc. Bugs I. Introduction (@)====================(@) Gods is a platforming/action game in which you move about and kill enemies in a level-based format. Other than the Genesis it was released on the SNES and the PC. It is different from the majority of action games because of discovering secrets, finding keys, opening doors, and even a system of shops and currency. These alone do not isolate its style,; a review that I read called it a part-'shooter'as well as platformer, because of the need of quick reflexes, mainly in handing the fights presented to you. Unlike many action games, the appearance of enemies in Gods is triggered when you do certain things, and the enemies will appear beside, above, or unfortunately on top of you, creating the need for fast reflexes. This eclectic mixture could be called an 'action-puzzle-shooter;' it is very unusual. Gods finds a challenging though slightly redundant middle-of-the-road and sticks there. Solving it will take a chunk of time, but except for a few bosses seeing all of the variety may not take more than an hour. ia. PC Version differences ---------------- In the PC version, unlike the console versions, you may customize your key (control) configuration. You may find support and patches on www.bitmap- brothers.co.uk if you are having problems. * The PC version does not have the intro, outro, and Game Over animations of the SNES and Genesis versions. It also has a different color scheme. ib. SNES Version differences ------------------ The SNES version has the same color scheme as the Genesis version. It is also lower resolution, and things may seem cramped. * The SNES version has different passwords for level 2, 3, and 4, respectively: "SD1","BMH", and "MGB". * The SNES version has the same controls as the Genesis version, except button A and B's function is swapped ("A" jumps; "B" throws weapons, toggles items, and activates levers.) II. Basics (@)====================(@) iia. Controls -------- Up - Faces a wall to activate a lever or button; ascends ladder Down - Ducks; can pick up items or toggle items while ducking; descends ladder Left - moves left Right - moves right Start - Pause (press A while paused to enable/disable hints) A - throws weapons; toggles items while ducking; activates levers B - jump C- toggles items while ducking iib. General Tips ------------ * Avoid falling--you take damage * Enemies often appear when you pick up a static item * Move forward slowly in unknown areas and pound your attack button * The background sometimes has hidden buttons * Moving nearby levers in different combinations can trigger secrets * Approach ladders slowly while pressing up or down often to use them or you may fall down the ladder. * In general, try to play the game intensely. Despite initial impressions to the contrary its atmosphere isn't relaxed. * Your life bar can drop very quickly. Spikes can kill you instantly. * You can gain bonus items for certain things, such as a speed bonus in World One for reaching a section quickly. * Mashing the attack button as quickly as possible actually will have an effect--ideal against tough monsters that may collide with you. * Buy weapons in shops. You may also want to buy a weapon arc because they are cheap. Food is also an option, but obviously only if you need it. * Certain flying creatures will keep their distance if you are rapid-firing; they will sneak around and hit you from above or below. Simply stop firing and they will move into your line of fire again. iic. Items --------- ? Mark- Hint Flat Line (Weapon Arc, Intense) - Lessens the spread of your weapon fire. Arrow (Weapon Arc, Standard) - Normalizes the spread of your weapon fire. Perpendicular Lines (Weapon Arc, Wide) - Increases the spread of your weapon fire. Knife - A weak weapon (power 1); each additional knife power-up tosses another knife at the same time as your original knife. Throwing Star - An average weapon (power 2); each additional throwing star power-up tosses another throwing star at the same time as your original throwing star. Magic Axe - An above-average weapon (power 3); each additional magic axe power -up tosses another magic axe at the same time as your original magic axe. Mace - An above-average weapon (power 3); each additional mace power-up tosses another mace at the same time as your original mace. Four-Pointed Star (Fireball) - A good weapon (power 5); each additional fireball power-up tosses another fireball at the same time as your original fireball. Axe - A strong weapon (power 12); each additional axe power-up tosses another axe at the same time as your original axe. Square Purple Gem - +9 score; +75 currency Triangular Purple Gem- +63 score; +500 currency Spinning Square Purple Gem - Shortcut; teleports you farther in the level. Square Orange Gem - +188 score; +2500 currency Triangular Orange Gem- +19 score; + 150 currency Money Bag - +50 score; +400 currency Token - +50 score; +400 currency Mask - +100 score; +800 currency Food - Restores health. Small Heart (Health) - Restores health. Big Heart (Health) - Restores health. Orange Potion (Power Potion) - Increases weapon power. Orange Jar - Increases jumping height. Skull (Starburst) - Kills all of the enemies on the screen. Cross (Shield) - Gives an invulnerability shield. Big Cross (Shield) - Reduces damage Face - Extra life Oscillating Hexagon - Takes you to a shop. Familiar - A companion will fly over you and shoot when you do. Magic Wings - 'Effects the familiar.' Green Potion - Attracts monsters to you. iid. Shops ----- **NOTE: Shop locations: 1-3, 1-3, 2-3, 2-3, 3-2, 3-3, 4-2 - Items are only listed in a shop if you can afford them. - The Magic Axe and Fireball do not appear till the second shop in 1-3. - The Spear does not appear till the first shop in 2-3. - Magic Axes and Power Potions become more expensive in the first shop in 2-3. - The axe and hunter do not appear till 3-3. ** ----------------------------------- | Food | 650 | ----------------------------------- | Food | 1000 | ----------------------------------- | Weapon Arc, Wide | 1000 | ----------------------------------- | Weapon Arc, Intense | 1000 | ----------------------------------- | Weapon Arc, Standard | 1000 | ----------------------------------- | Food | 1300 | ----------------------------------- | Knife | 2500 | ----------------------------------- | Magic Potion | 4000 | ----------------------------------- | Health | 4000 | ----------------------------------- | Throwing Star | 5000 | ----------------------------------- | Shield | 5000 | ----------------------------------- | Magic Wings | 5000 | ----------------------------------- | Power Potion | 6000 | ----------------------------------- | Mace | 7500 | ----------------------------------- | Health | 8000 | ----------------------------------- | Starburst | 10000 | ----------------------------------- | Magic Axe | 10000 | ----------------------------------- | Fireball | 12500 | ----------------------------------- | Hunter | 15000 | ----------------------------------- | Spear | 17500 | ----------------------------------- | Axe | 17500 | ----------------------------------- | Power Potion | 20000 | ----------------------------------- | Magic Axe | 20000 | ----------------------------------- | Shield | 20000 | ----------------------------------- | Extra Life | 20000 | ----------------------------------- | Familiar | 30000 | ----------------------------------- | Power Potion | 32500 | ----------------------------------- iie. Points ------ - Extra life for 50,000 points - Bonus Gem for 100,000 points - Extra Life for 160,000 points - Bonus Gem for 250,00 points - Extra Life for 300,000 points - Bonus Gem for 400,000 points. - Extra Life for 500,000 points etc. (+100,000) iif. Bonus Items ----------- **NOTE: You get bonus items by reaching set points of a level in noteworthy time or with significant health, etc. However, a clarification: a 'Speed Bonus', for example, does not increase your speed; it gives you something like a money bag (currency and points) for reaching an area WITH exceptional speed. The bonuses below are those that I have encountered thus far; I had thought of including them in the walkthrough, but they are so many and so varied that tinkering with times and health levels to determine under what conditions each bonus is awarded didn't seem worth it. However, each world seems to have at least one of every bonus type available somewhere.** Speed Bonus- Reaching certain points of a world quickly. Health Bonus- Reaching certain points of a world with high health. Lives Bonus - Reaching certain points of a world with at least two extra lives. Help Bonus- Appears when you are low on health, although I don't know all of the conditions. Score Bonus - Probably reaching a certain point of a world with a higher than average score. Special Bonus - These are specific to certain worlds, such as world two of level one where you need to put two pots in a storage area. III. Walkthrough (@)====================(@) _________ _______|=======|_______ |=======~~~~~~~=======| iiia. First Level: The City 1-1 |===| The first world is relatively easy. A few deaths will likely come, but you won't beat yourself up as in the second world. To pick up your weapon walk to the right. In this short stretch monsters appear behind you, but they don't have projectiles yet. Toss your knifes at them when you have your weapon. You have to climb the ladder now. Two more monsters are on this platform. You should kill them with your knifes before leaving the ladder. Later on you will have to do this against monsters with projectiles, making exactly how far you rise on the ladder important. If you go too high the projectiles will hit you, but if you stay low you can shoot the monsters' legs without beind nicked. A lever, a patrolling monster, and some spikes are below the previous platform. Plop down when the monster isn't nearby so that you can kill him; face towards the wall (with the up arrow) and hit your attack button to activate the lever, lowering the spikes. Afterwards snatch the money bag and climb the ladder. The monster above is the first monster with projectiles. As I said, only climb the ladder high enough to take shots at his feet; otherwise he will hit you with his projectiles. You will find monsters on the next platform that appear from flashes of light for a bit. You can only wait till they have all appeared before you proceed--not that you can't kill them in the process. However, if you approach the area where they appear before they are done appearing you will be hit. Flying monsters swoop in from the right when you finally mount the platform. Now this is a situation where (as I hinted at in the 'general tips' section) playing the game in an intense mindset can help, because you must immediately turn and fire when the monsters appear or have to hassle with them later. As you progress in the game your reactions will need to be similarly fast if you want to avoid taking damage. Further to the left, flying monsters descend in front of you. On the same platform more ground monsters appear behind you. Now you have to consider the ground monster on the platform to the left of you. Although it seems silly you can only grab the gem that he drops if you kill him at the edge of his platform--players going for a maximum score will want to do this--Otherwise he drops the gem in an unreachable niche. A spiked area is two platforms above you on the left. A monster guards a key here. We will disable the spikes soon, but first kill the monster mong the spikes. You will realize why when you step on the platform to the right, where a monster, which could have caused a nasty pincer, appears in front of you. The lever will disable the spikes, but first you may want to kill the enemies that trigger as you walk further right on this platform: a flying and a grounded monster. Use the lever and grab the loot on the upper-left platform. You must duck and use the action button twice if you want the key. Oddly, pressing it only once drops the key after you stand. Now, you can take the shortcut if you want, which I highly suggest. You get a lot more currency and score compared to going the long way, and it is much easier at that. For the shortcut you have to move the upper and bottom levers to their original positions. You can do this easily enough, but one stipulation: even if you use the upper before the bottom lever, you must again stand under the upper lever before the shortcut will activate (see the 'Bugs' section for thoughts on this). It isn't intuitive, but then again, the long way would have another lever puzzle waiting for you even if you decided that you wanted to rebel against that sort of thing (for that one, you have to manipulate all three levers till some spikes disappear). The activation of the shortcut slides away a block to the left and below where the upper lever is. Descend into the new opening that appears, kill the monster there, and make off with the assortment of gems, which altogether is a really nice boost. The final gem teleports you to the top of World One where you can see the long way that you didn't take (as well as some nasty spikes that can insta-kill you) to your right. Climb the ladder and knock off the baddy. You have to get into the treasure room now, which is why you brought the key from below. Amusingly, the method of using keys in Gods is just as quirky as the method of picking them up--you have to swing a lever outside of a door, which eats your key. I'm not trying to second guess the gods or anything,but a lever just seems like more macromanagement when all that they're going to do at any rate is poof the key and zap the door open. Once you have the golden key you are ready to exit World One. You have to climb the next ladder to do this, kill the two monsters and pull the final lever. This opens up the door that you enter World Two through. 1-2 |===| The secret of World Two is that you will earn some great bonus items if you find and push all of its hidden buttons. The tricky part is that you don't initially see the results of pushing the buttons, which makes you indifferent to them. However, at the end you will find a very decent treasure trove that loads you up with loot, which puts all suspicions to rest-- but only if you punched down all of the buttons. Start by going left. You have to find a key as well as the buttons. The first button is on the raised platform immediately to the left. Like all of the buttons, this one is slightly hidden in the background. Operate it as you would a lever. Be careful, though: at the left side of the raised platform a monster appears behind you. Look at the key to the bottom-left. You have to get this, but unfortunately you will be ambushed when you touch the middle of the bottom platform; monsters will come from both sides. You have to be quick here. Kill the monsters and grab the key. Scoot to the right, making sure that you pushed the button and got the key. The next part is tough, but using a trick as usual can circumvent the difficulty. Take the bottom route first. You get to kill a bunch of land monsters, which is good, because one of the monsters drops a cross power-up, which gives you a shield of temporary invulnerability (the other, disconcertingly, drops an insta-kill spike trap. This is perhaps the oddest and nastiest 'power-up' that I have seen in a platformer). With your newfound invulnerability you are ready to brave the top level, which is not only necessary (a button is up there) but fun (hey, you can't take damage right? It even has a skull power-up, which kills all of the annoying fliers that spawn) and lucrative in the realm of points and currency. On the lower level, the lever opens the trapdoor when you have the key, and you should drop into the opening once you have everything, making sure that you have pressed both buttons on this level; once you fall you can't backtrack. The game begins to get a bit nasty at this part. Run right over the ladder (you won't fall if you don't stop) to the platform on the other side. This is a sort of gauntlet of enemies and items. Try not to be greedy, because you most importantly need to kill all of the enemies that will appear around you. The items can wait, especially the vase/pot, which summons some fliers when you reach it. Notice and push the button on this platform also. This makes for three buttons pushed thus far. Next, try to descend the ladder to the left, which isn't always easy (as I say in the 'General Tips' section, try to inch towards it, stop, and press up to mount it. Repeat till you have a hold of it.) You will take both falling damage and likely land on an enemy, taking impact damage, if you miss the ladder-- conceivably an instant game over, which stinks.) Hang on to the ladder above the monster. Drop off of the ladder immediately when the monster walks by to the right. Surprisingly, you must hurry to the right and drop down again after you kill the monster, because the monsters that walk on this lower platform can hassle you with infinite 'homing' projectiles, setting up an evil trap. Bump these guys off quickly, but do not push that lever yet. Pushing it opens a preemptive spike trap that we want to avoid. Instead, if you walk right past the lever, you can jump to the other side and push another lever. Walk back, push the lever that you ignored, and the level's 'shortcut' gem drops from above. This isn't the best of shortcuts, but it does give you a pot, which is nice for a bonus at the end of the level (yes, anticipate a lot of bonuses if you have pushed the buttons as well). Another crystal appears when you have the second pot, teleporting you back. Walk right and descend the ladder. Before you climb down monsters may appear to your left if you get too close to the right platform. Otherwise you are on a level with a key. **NOTE: there is another way to get all of the bonus items even if you didn't push the buttons, but it is very tricky, mainly because of the monsters that guard the key for it. Basically, jump off of the top of the ladder near the shortcut gem, to the right, where you mount another platform. Two very tough monsters appear in front of a key--you will lose health. However, if you missed the buttons losing the health is worth it; one of the bonus items is an extra life. If you pushed all of the buttons, do not bother with this. You will also have to press a lower lever, which triggers a message of 'a trapdoor closes below you' and drop off to the right but only after you have the key** Don't mess with the lever to the right; that is for a segment that you don't need if you pushed all of the buttons (refer to the earlier text for world two if you don't know what I mean). It also spawns monsters. If you only get the key to the left and proceed that way, you will not encounter monsters. You have to descend a ladder, and masks shoot darts at intervals. You can kill these masks for ~600 points each, but avoiding them may be easier if you can't time your shots. Walk in between the masks' shots when it is safe to avoid being hit. The platform below the ladder has some monsters and a door. You can see the row of items, which are your bonus items for pushing the buttons, above you. You need to push the final button here to make them fall. However, you messed up somewhere if the chest doesn't start on the ground; you probably forgot a button somewhere. You should grab the key that falls if the chest is there, open it, and receive the loot. You will need to enter the door if you have the pots in your inventory (if you don't, you are in trouble and need to either get them or reset the game.) You may get a bonus and a gold key once inside. Leave the room, go right, and the gold key will open the door to world three. 1-3 |===| The first item that you see takes you to a shop, where you have a lot of stuff to choose from. You probably haven't seen most of these items before. I generally cross most out when shopping--some things are not cost efficient (ex: a starburst for 10k) Your best bet is to buy enough food to restore your health (or till you buy all of the food in the shop) and spend the rest on throwing stars. You ought to have enough cash for three throwing stars at this point unless you splurged on food, and nothing will help you in world three more than powerful weapons. An intense weapon arc will also be a great aid. The enemies in world three do not die easily, but three throwing stars and an intense weapon arc can bring you to one-shot most of them, which is always a good feeling. Outside, the next two items are hints that combine to tell you something, but don't worry about the message. You will get lightning bolts in time, and yes, they do help to kill the boss, as well as just about anything else. Throw in the 100,000 point bonus weapon, and you will be a killing machine--but that is a bit of a ways off. Concern yourself with the new enemies that will drop down and walk towards you from above. These are the first of the baddies, but others, including these, not content to walk back and forth on a platform (and who WOULD be?) will begin jumping later on in the world. Your immediate goal is to switch the two levers, which are on the first and second platforms to the left of the ladder, down. You will have to climb to reach them. Stationary and jumping enemies will appear all over, and you should be careful. You often can duck the knife-like projectiles of some enemies, which will save you precious health ticks (this world is tough, but you get a password at the end, which means repeating it or the previous three worlds is unnecessary from then on.) The masks on the wall will be the toughest enemies, because they shoot so rapidly. You must stay on the ladder to kill them; essentially, wait for them to shoot, move up quickly, shoot once, and move down, repeating this till you kill both masks. Then you can lower the top lever. An important item, a yellow jar, is uncovered once you lower both levers. Go to the first platform to the right of the ladder (not the one with spikes) and snag it from the bottom nook. As this jar increases your jumping ability you can bounce up to the high right platform, the left one from there, and up the two successive platforms to reach a new area. However, watch for the monsters on the way and definitely grab the gems. The next area has gems, ground monsters, and pretty much everything else. You know how to deal with it. The mask is the particularly annoying bit of it all, and it's at the top guarding a gem and a key. Kill it as usual from the safety of a ladder. **NOTE: Now, at this point you should begin to develop a 'ducking reflex'; areas from now on all have, with rare variability, monsters that manage to toss a projectile before they die. You cannot destroy these projectiles; you must duck under them. The greatest temptation is of course to stand still and fire full-speed at the monster, but taking the time to duck will save you from taking any damage; and you may find that monsters don't fire projectiles as quick as you had thought, at least in my experience. This includes ground monsters, masks, etc.; you can avoid any linear-moving projectile and occasionally even 'homing' projectiles by ducking, and you will need to.** Move to the right platform where many monsters will appear. Be prepared to duck, because some of them will shoot regardless of how quickly you do. Immediately past the next lever (which opens the trapdoor below) is a mask hidden in a niche to the right. You will also need to duck this mask's projectiles while you kill it. Use the lever to descend further. Two monsters appear behind you as you walk right, one of which has a four- pointed star (lightning bolt) power-up. Pound the attack button as quickly as possible so that these monsters can't collide with you. Grab the power-up and keep going right. Kill the monster on the raised platform quickly, as he shoots 'homing' projectiles. The nearby lever will open the trapdoors below, which creates an interesting predicament. On one hand, you can access a treasure room down there, where you find lots of points, currency, and even a small health heart at the end, which restores some health. On the other hand, you must be capable of surviving impact with at least one or two enemies and damage from perhaps another; you will get your health back at the end, but if you have to lose a life in the process you will want to give this area a pass. You can continue right if you want to pass it up. You come to an ascending ladder next. At the top you have to travel right, where you meet more monsters. Warning: don't walk forward too quickly here, as some of the monsters appear adjacent to you, making for a cheap impact hit, which will cost you. One of the monsters gives you your second lightning bolt power-up. Afterwards monsters are on platforms and everywhere as this big area opens up. Your path thankfully isn't that confusing. You can't walk forward much farther as there are spikes, so that you have to climb the first ascending ladder that you see. You are dropped off on a platform that some monsters will spawn on as you walk across. Although you want to go up and right, you have to grab a key from the left first, among all of the monsters on platforms. In general, you should start clearing monsters from the bottom and work your way up so that you aren't stuck in a situation where you can't hit a monster on a lower level. Your purpose is to clear all or most of the monsters on the platforms to the left, so that you can grab the key on the far upper-left platform. Also take care not to carelessly dive off of edges; this room is a pain for falling damage; many falls will outright kill you. At any rate go right when you have the key. Your eventual goal is where you see gargoyles surrounding a lever, a big heart power-up, and a golden key. The gargoyles here, not surprisingly, will come to life. The annoyance is the random time at which they stir, and you can be hit before you can react. Jumping up and down underneath a gargoyle is always good way to rouse one, but you won't always emerge safe if you do so. Better yet, just wait till one moves from semi-afar and nail him. It may take a bit, but you're only missing Speed Bonus items if so, and who knows where those are? Take the golden key and big heart before messing with the lever. Then, use the lever and instantly drop down, chasing the cross power-up, which will give you an invulnerability shield, protecting you from fall damage and even the fliers in the next area. A golden key sits to the right of you. If you act quickly you can grab it and jump off of the right edge (not recommended if you think your invulnerability may run out during a fall) to bypass some annoying monsters. A key drops at the bottom, and all told your inventory may be overloaded with keys by this point. That's O.K.; drop one, pick up this one, and use the lever to open the final trap door. The boss is right after this next room, which you can also open with a key. |@=~=~=~=@| Guardian #1 If you have 3x throwing stars and 2x fireballs (lightning-bolts), as this guide has suggested that you have, you can roast the first guardian quickly. As a boss, he reminds a lot of the original Bowser in Super Mario Bros; he spits fireballs, and bounces about--a single fireball can also easily kill you, and they are thrown at you even when you are off-screen. The trick to beating this boss is that his fireballs always bounce in the same pattern. If you stand at a like distance from him for the duration of the fight, he can't hit you. You need to move with him, but doing so is not difficult. The best that I can describe the perfect distance is almost half a screen away from him --close, but not close enough that you would ever worry of being trampled by his moving. The fireball will bounce over your head every time, and you only need to unload into him whenever you have the chance. Obviously, the more firepower that you have, the easier that he dies. |@=~=~=~=@| You may get some bonuses, including a chest, after beating the boss, which is pleasant. You will find a shop at the top of a ladder where you can buy two new weapons, the magic axe and the fireball. I suggest that you buy a fireball (or two if you can afford that many, but probably not) and save the rest of your cash. Leaving the shop and entering the door drops you in level two. __________ ________|========|________ |========~~~~~~~~========| iiib. Second Level: The Temple 2-1 |===| World 2-1 has the some of the most novel secrets and treasure seen thus far in the game. As a preview, you can raid two treasure rooms, open three chests, find a treasure cache, and leave it all behind with an extra life or two. The problem is that this is difficult to do, as you must jump over insta-death spikes, manipulate thieves, have good timing, and in some cases fight extra enemies without taking much damage. The route to maximum treasure also has several points of no return, and in one case making your path harder than it needs to be while receiving no gain for your efforts is possible. This walkthrough covers the most lucrative route possible (if you don't care, you only need to find three gems, so that you can get the golden key and exit through the first door that you see at the bottom of the level.) First, you have to push the hidden button to the right of where you entered 2-1. The Weapon Arc power-up nearby will be of great help; it allows you to hit the enemies that appear at odd angles in this level. Speaking of that, you encounter your first one dropping stuff out of its mouth on the ground. These monsters die quickly. After that one, you approach a makeshift staircase. A platform on the left has two monsters on it, one of which drops a golden key. This isn't the exit key, but it does combine with another key later to open a box. However, you have to jump from the second step up (the one almost level with the platform that the key is on) to reach it. If you jump from the bottom step, you will fall. After getting the golden key, you want to jump or run left quickly off of the bottom "step" (or small platform), or you will fall through a trapdoor below and take nasty falling damage. Two enemies are immediately to the right assuming that you didn't fall through the trapdoor. Kill them and drop through the trapdoor, where after a bit you find a hint, which tells you that thieves can be useful. This is a good piece of advice, because thieves can be useful. In fact, here you must manipulate two thieves if you want to get maximum treasure although the process can be tricky. First, don't walk past the hint yet. The next area is like so: a thief will emerge from a space on the bottom. Above the thief is an invulnerability shield, but it is problematically trapped between two insta-death spikes. The thief, as the hint said, will be useful if you leave him alone, as he will pick up the invulnerability shield from between the spikes. The only problem is that the thief will run to the right after he grabs the invulnerability shield, but you want him to run to the left. The only way to ensure that he does this is by limiting the vision of your screen, because the thief will only move as far right as your screen goes. You need to move far enough left that only the platform with the spikes on it is visible on the right side of your screen. The thief will then be limited to movement only on this platform. However, if your screen shows the neighboring platform to the right of this one, the thief will jump up there, and you will lose your chance of ever getting that invulnerability shield. It can be tricky, but not too tricky if you followed me thus far. The next problem is making sure that you kill the thief only when he is on the leftmost edge of the platform with spikes. If he dies on the right part of the platform, what was the point? You are back where you started, except that another thief won't be spawning. Simply attack him when he is on the left edge--time your attacks. If the power- up drops on the left spike, you are safe to climb the ladder, grab it, and run to the right. But wait! don't pull that lever just yet. Only -stand- under it. You have to let your invulnerability shield run out, so that you can manipulate another thief once you pull the lever. When your shield is gone, pull the lever, hug the right wall, and wait for the thief to jump up, grab the key stuck in the upper-right niche and come back near you. Hurry to kill him when he is beside you; if he makes it to the spikes you won't get the key, which means that you miss the best treasure room in the level. Finally, with the key in hand, enter the door, grab the treasure on the ledge (including the invulnerability shield, which you will need for the upcoming fall) and jump off. At this point you have returned to the main path of the level, but with your invulnerability shield you are hardly progressing as normal. You can mow through some monsters before it wears off. As for stuff nearby, the chest, which drops from the mounted mask and which you can open with a key, is especially useful. Lastly, prepare to climb the ladder hanging in mid-air above the chest. Some annoying masks interrupt your climb only briefly. The top has a snake in a vase (don't mistake this for treasure. Trust me, it hurts!), which you should kill from the safety of the ladder, including the baby snakes that appear afterwards. This enemy is one of the lingering nuisances of 2-1. Notice that you can pick up one of the gems behind the snake. If you don't mess up in an upcoming bonus room, this gem may be the only one that you need to get the final golden key--otherwise you need two more. Go ahead, grab this gem, ignore the key on the left (you already found a replacement), and descend the ladder (enemies will be waiting for you at the bottom). More ground monsters will bug you as you trek further left, appearing in front of and behind you. Killing them should be routine by now, especially if you are a decked out with a full arsenal as you may be. A masked monster mounted on the wall marks the ladder where you descend farther. Obviously, kill it. Now descend the ladder. You can drop off at the bottom of this laddder. Monsters galore linger below. First, a snake in a vase sits in the cubby-hole to the left. Secondly, a mounted mask is to the right of you. Thirdly, a few ground monsters will soon spawn. You have to jump to kill the snake to the left of you, but the mask and ground monsters are easy enough. Snag the gem that the snake drops, but watch as a ground monster appears to the right when you do. You have to walk to the right now, where two snakes in vases have set up shop. These things are ideally ran from when they die. If you are on a lower level than the baby snakes that appear, you can kill them with no trouble. Otherwise the snakes will kamikaze at your feet and cause unwanted damage. Take out both vases in this manner, proceeding to the right where you can enter the 'Gem Room'. The key in here is the final golden key, and a shortcut gem is also up top--but don't neglect the snake in a vase. In fact, here you have to fight the baby snakes that it spawns while you are on level ground, which can potentially become ugly. Killing the vase is the easy part, but the baby snakes are tougher. I like to jump over them, as they will not follow. Then you can hit them from a distance with your Wide or Standard Arc, which is better than trying to hit them up close--they will 'explode' if you try this, and the accumulation of damage will wound if not kill you. You only need to make sure that the gem locks in while in this room. Sometimes it locks in automatically, but other times you need to kneel down, drop the gem, pick it up, etc. till it registers. The gem locks into the slot to the far left. The platform with the key slightly lowers once the gem is locked in. Afterwards, you are ready for the bonus room, where if you are skilful you may skip the bother of finding the other two gems and get the final key right away. The shortcut gem is suspended by a trap door as you can see. To make it fall, switch the lever a few times. Walk over the gem to teleport to the bonus area. Kill the snakes to the right from as far back as possible, so that a baby snake does not emerge from the closest vase on your level. Mount the platform and take the two gems, avoiding the last, which teleports you out (read: you're screwed and have to find the other two gems to get the golden key). Turn left, kill the snake on that platform, and jump up there from the very edge of the right platform (this is the maximum distance that you can jump in the game). A monster will appear behind you that seems unkillable. You can either take the impact damage or if you have done this before, rush through the spike jumps-- best to take the impact damage (unfair of the game, I know), because the spikes kill you instantly. If you aren't rushing through, kill this fourth snake in a vase. Don't pick up the teleport crystal beside him either (this also teleports you out preemptively.) Jump on the top ledge. Walk as far left as you can on it, and turn right to jump over the spikes when they are low. If you do not jump from the far left of this platform (with your left foot all of the way off of it) you will hit the second set of spikes and die. Continue the jumps, starting from as far left as possible without touching the spikes. Besides an extra life, you get a heart and an orange jar, which increases your jumping power, at the end. Now you can jump and get the golden key when you leave the bonus area, assuming that you lowered the platform by one notch. With the key in hand, leave the Gem Room and retrace your steps to the left. Navigate downwards via the ladders, killing what you see. Ignore the first door that you encounter, passing it up for the second door farther to the right, which is the grand treasure room of the level. It is also a much more satisfying 'bonus' than the 'bonus room', which though lucrative in its way was just outright lethal. Grab everything on the upper level, jumping right among the platforms, shooting at the fliers. Then return to the far left platform. Drop off of the edge, grabbing everything on the bottom level, including popping the chest with your combined key from earlier. Leave when you have everything, especially the key that opens the door outside of the treasure room. Finally, as a wonderful coup de grace, walk left with your new hoard of treasure, open the door, and walk through. The level is complete. 2-2 |===| 2-2 starts on a small ledge. You have to climb down the ladder, but you should be careful to avoid the weapon arc power-up at the bottom and to the left. As this level has the snakes-in-vases monsters, you don't want anything but a spread weapon arc for general use. In fact, the power-up at the bottom of the ladder is a trap, as there is a snake in a vase beside it. You will take some serious damage if you change your arc at this point. That said, you can't kill these baby snakes at any rate. You have to jump to the edge of this platform the instant that you kill the vase, so that you take only minimal damage. Then immediately climb the ladder. Mid-way up the ladder, kill the guy on the left ledge. A hint is there, and the guy will also drop an item. If you are like me and have trouble making ladder jumps in Gods, however, give both of these a pass. Instead, a more important item is on the right ledge. You must jump from one ladder to the next to get there, which can be tricky. Try to jump from moderately below the top of the left ladder, where you have the best chance of reacing the right ladder (or even the right platform, as that is possible with a jump). Prepare for some annoying enemy ambushes next. They will happen when you reach the right ledge and as you reach chalice--the important item on it. Beat the opposition and snatch the chalice. Next, you have to pull a nearby switch, which clears away some spikes below you. Then descending the ladder will be safe. On the lower level is a hint,but don't jump straight for it. Walk close to the gap where the descending ladder is and some enemies will spawn near the hint. Kill them before going over and taking the hint, which tells you something relatively obvious if you are gathering chalices at any rate. Where the hint was, a monster will appear, but even impact with him should be O.K.; he drops a big-heart power-up that fully heals you. Go down the ladder and stop off to the left. Use the switch here to lower the spikes, kill the enemies (more will appear, including a flier behind you as you leave), and take the key. Ascend the ladder that you came from. Once at the top, walk off of the right ledge. You will take a bit of falling damage from doing so, but it is your only choice. After falling, start shooting immediately to take out the junk that comes at you. Use the far right switch followed by the switch to the left of it. This lowers the right trapdoor, which you should fall through to another chalice, some gems, and a switch that lowers the spike in this room. Make your way left and up the big ladder again, expecting monsters to appear as you do so. You should have two chalices now. You once again need to drop off of the right side of this ledge, but don't fall through the trapdoor again. Climb the ladder instead. Fliers will attack you from behind when you dismount at the top of this ladder. You can jump the gap to the right to reach a big heart power-up, which will fully restore your health. However, do not go farther than this power-up. Backpedal so that you can use the switch and walk onto the (trapdoor) platform that forms below and to the left. The pit down here is a series of these trapdoor platforms, and you must successively push the switches, drop down, duck immediately because a mask will shoot at you, and kill the mask between its shots. After killing each mask, and pushing the switch, run off of the side of the (trapdoor) platform. The platforms run like: left wall, right wall, left wall, right wall, etc., so that if you merely walk and not run off of the sides, you will wind up in the center of this downward corridor and plummet a ways. You should use your key at the bottom of this downward corridor, which frees up an inventory slot for the third chalice. Then go right into the next room, where you see two snakes-in-vases, which is one reason that you didn't get the Weapon Arc at the beginning of 2-2, right? Keep your distance and bump them off with ease. You have to climb afterwards, but you can escape harm if you slay the ground monsters on the ledges (they have 'homing' projectiles) quickly. This vertical corridor, rather than having trapdoor-platforms, has lots of ladders, which makes things perhaps more irritating, although at least it is two-way. Your goal is to climb to the top- left ladder (you have to use a switch to solidify a trapdoor-platform) where you can scoop up a golden key. Look right now. Hopefully you see and can kill a snake-in-a-vase on the far right platform; otherwise you must kill it the hard way later. At any rate, do a complete circle, descending the trapdoor-platforms that you went down earlier, till you reach the bottom. Go right, but use your golden key on the door here. This teleports you to where the snake-in-the-vase was/is. If he is still there (and you won't have much time to confirm your findings), you must use the ladder to the left as a defense from the baby snakes that he summons when he dies. Take the chalice that is in front of the door, open the door, and enter. Because you have all three chalices you get a bonus of two keys for entering the Ship Room. This is good, because you can drop all of the chalices that encumbered you before. Now leave the ship room with both keys in your inventory. The only two things that are left to do are 1) raid the treasure vault and 2) exit the level. We can reach the treasure vault by the shortcut crystal, which a monster (see the one on the ledge below the door to the Ship Room?) drops. Entering that niche is the problem. It shouldn't be tricky, but it is. You have to align yourself perfectly with the niche (your head and feet should not be alongside anything but the niche). Touch the crystal, and you are teleported back to an earlier part of the level. Use the far left switch to open the treasure door. You should get quite a haul out of this, and when you are done, leave, climb the right ladder, descend down the vertical corridor of trapdoor-platforms, and finally open the left door with your golden key. After a hallway of nasty snakes-in-vases you enter world 2-3. 2-3 |===| Personally, at the shop just to your left, I suggest buying all spears. I'm a big proponent of weapons-only at these shops, simply because everything else is tremendously situational. Perhaps I can also see the justification, however, for going solely extra lives. However, anything else, other than perhaps crosses for chain-invulnerability-shield madness, does seem like a waste of 'cash', as the instruction manual calls it (what intriguing slang given the setting!). 2-3 is a neat world in which you have to help to rebuild a mosaic that has fallen apart in the main area. When you enter the top door, step away from the big mask that is drooling damage on you and slay it. You find a piece of the mosaic nearby, which will automatically place itself when you walk by the mosaic. Another mask that you have to kill appears afterwards. Now look on the left wall where a switch is. Use the switch, which creates enemies to your right. Kill them and take the key that drops. Use the switch again, which consumes your key and raises a platform. Finally, you can take the key that is on the raised ledge in this room. Now, return to the right side of the room. You will see two switches here (well, you already saw them before, but take another good look just in case!). Pull the right switch more importantly, then the left, then the right again. This opens a passage to the right, which leads to a hallway with four rooms in it: a wizard's study, an apothecary, an armory, and a crypt. You have to find items in these rooms and put them in the other rooms to gather pieces for the mosaic, so that you can rebuild it. The rooms are straightforward enough; I will give an optimal order rather than a walkthrough of them: 1) Armory (second room) where you get a skull 2) Crypt (fourth room) where you use the skull, get the mosaic piece #1, and get herbs. 3) Apothecary (third room) where you use the herbs, get mosaic piece #2 and get an orb. 4) Wizard's Study (first room) where you use the orb and get mosaic piece #3. You need to get all three mosaic pieces. Then you can reenter the main room and finish the puzzle. A 'shortcut' crystal will drop from the sky when you complete the mosaic. It will teleport you farther in the level, where new puzzles will have to be solved. Go left in this area till you kill something that drops a key. You will kill lots of things on the way, but backpedal when you get the key and press the switch to the right, which was the first that you saw. Using your key causes a platform to rise, allowing access to the formerly rogue ladder. Up here you can cheap-shot stuff with the right weapons (hint: spears, which don't clip). You shouldn't even need to leave the ladder, except when everything is dead and you take the key. Descend and walk left when you have the key. The next switch is conveniently the correct one for your key, and you can climb down the ladder when the obstruction is removed. Kill the two snakes here quickly. You will want to do so from the rear of this small chamber, though admittedly you are in trouble if you lack spears and a proper weapon arc. With full spears on the other hand you are pretty much invincible. A few ground monsters appear behind you as you progress to the spike (you want to jump this by the way), and eventually the switch, which you must hit and afterwards scale the ladder again. The trapdoor-platforms to left are available now. This segment is similar to some others; you must successively jump on a platform and hit a switch, which assembles the next platform. Your goal is the key in the upper left, but you definitely need to clear some trash away before you go for it. Ground monsters near the key will appear behind you, and fliers will come out to play--not to say a big mask is drooling among the trapdoor-platforms. A moving platform appears about the time that you have the key, and it takes you to a ledge that was inaccessible earlier. Take the important candle here, but don't jump down just yet. You can trigger a secret if you have the candle. It gives you another key, and that one will open a the treasure room to the right of the trapdoor-platform room and up a ladder. To get the secret key, you must approach the platform under where you got the last key (remember, you got it on a trapdoor-platform). This platform really does have a trapdoor on it. If you intentionally fall through you will get a key, showing the genuine consideration of the game--even LOSERS are rewarded in Gods. You get quite a bit, too. Plug the key in outside of the treasure room to the right and extra lives, food, points, currency, etc. are yours. Only problem is that you get saddled with a lousy weapon arc, which can hurt against snakes -in-vases later. Before you progress, switch the three switches among the trapdoor-platforms back to the top. This makes an upcoming secret more accessible (one spike to jump over rather than three). Go straight left now (below where you fell through the trap door), hit the switch, and descend the ladder. Kill the snake -in-a-vase on the ledge (jump over the baby snakes if you got the lousy weapon arc). To see why you replaced those three switches hop over the spike to the left--well, to PARTIALLY see why you replaced them: this cross becomes a gem, which becomes a useful utility against the guardian of this level, but that will wait for a bit later. You have a nasty gauntlet to navigate beforehand. Climb the ladder and get ready. As you walk left, enemies appear. I prefer to run straight left after hopping onto higher ground. The enemies will follow, but you will minimize the number of 'homing' projectiles that hit you. You can also drill everything that comes at you easily with spears. Beware when you jump on the third highest tier in this first room, which is a small box-like platform against the left wall. You may consider jumping straight to the right platform, but kill the enemies that appear on it first or you will suffer. You can gradually reach the top via moving platforms that appear. Watch for fliers and ground monsters. Then you must go left and descend the ladder, which takes you to the latter parts of this world. You have to bother with a few creatures, but eventually you pass some locked doors (you can't open them yet), and reach a long stretch with a ladder down. For now, ignore the ladder, which leads to the boss. Go as far right as it takes for some enemies to appear behind you. Kill them before proceeding, as snakes-in-vases are forthcoming. Clear the hallway of snakes-in-vases. Enter the study to the right, where your candle is consumed and two keys appear. Now backtrack, still ignoring the boss ladder, and pull the switch near it. This dings open the door above, which goes to the chapel. You need to ditch your cross on the altar inside, to get a really big gem for one, but you must take both candles from the altar if you want the treasure key. Drop the key that you are holding. Walk left a bit till you get the treasure key. Drop the candles, take your second key, and bail out of the room. Look at the door above. Ascend the ladder to and open it with your treasure key, looting everything inside. Now you have cleared the level--it's time for the boss, and you have a rather oversized gem that will help with him. If you don't, it's still O.K. I may be the exception (but I doubt it), but I beat the boss on my first try without using the gem. Parade into his room, which involves descending the current ladder and then the 'boss ladder', a bit to the right of the base of the other ladder. A few monsters bug you beforehand, but a trick can deal with them. When you reach the bottom of the boss ladder, immediately climb up. You see enemies that appear on the upper right ledge, but they won't jump down if you are climbing up; and you prevent a potential pincer between the snake-in-a-vase and them. The rest of the stuff should be cake till the boss, for whom you should open the door, drop the gem, and prepare to fight with. |@=~=~=~=@| Guardian #2 [With Gem]: The boss will not move much if you dropped the gem. He focuses his fire breath on it, although he also fires an excessive amount of projectiles with his tail (he doesn't do this if you don't drop the gem). Basically, duck his shots, stand when you can, and get one or two (but not three) of your own shots off before ducking again. The boss eventually loses his tail, which puts a crimp in that strategy of his. Afterwards he is putty in your hands. [Without Gem]: The boss moves to three different places during the course of a battle if you don't drop/have the gem (if you do drop the gem, he seldom moves). You simply have to move with him, standing about under his chin. He starts out close to the left side, moves to the middle, and finally to the right side, lowering his altitude each time. When he reaches the right side, you want to move away because 1) he will rush the left side and 2) his fire breath will actually hit you if you stand close to him in this phase. By standing under his chin (roughly--just don't touch him) you are otherwise safe from his fire breath. He may shoot some stuff with his tail, but the sheer number of shots that you can get off in a position beside him outweighs whatever damage he will do to you. A perfect run? Haha! that's what you get the gem for. |@=~=~=~=@| If you have full spears (three) I don't know that you want to shop for anything but an extra life and perhaps food. You may want to max your secondary weapon, fireballs or magic axes, if it isn't already. __________ _________|========|_________ iiic. |=========~~~~~~~~=========| Third Level: The Labyrinth 3-1 |===| As a counterpoint to the previous worlds' walkthroughs I am going to give you the quick n' dirty walkthrough for 3-1. I do this only partly to switch things up; mainly 3-1 just provides a good framework for a quick walkthrough, and you don't even miss much (in fact, I can't recall what you do miss by taking the shortcut). Begin the world by killing everything on the same platform as you (this is always a good start, eh?) Descend the ladder, killing the bats on the way, pull the switch, and run for the skull power-up, which will save you the trouble of killing everything on-screen again. Now, in a purely unconventional turn, return to the entrance of the world. You will notice that if you walk far enough to the left a key will drop from the ceiling. I have no idea why this is, but the key is actually crucial to completing this level quickly. Now climb down once again. At the right of the ledge you see a ladder. Although you can make this jump, you should fall off of the edge and walk to the ladder instead; it is safer. Climb the ladder, walk forward for a bit, and soon you should see 'shortcut' appear on the bottom of your screen. If your eyes are quick, you see a stone block moving in the upper-middle section of the screen. Fight your way up the ladder and to this place (a narrow hallway). Continue along the linear path, going down two ladders till you can enter a door. You get bonus items inside of this room, including a key. When you exit the door, a ladder sits conveniently beside you, leading to the final room of the level, which is actually tough--a change compared to everything thus far. Enter and you have to kill everything in the room, especially the green guys that seem as if they will never stop on the right side. With everything dead focus on hitting the blocks at the top of the screen. You can destroy them with your maces, even the ones on the sides, allowing for plenty of bonus loot and particularly the key that opens the right door. This exits the level. 3-2 |===| You probably won't have money for this shop, but do buy at least heart power- ups if your health is low. Regarding weapon arcs, don't worry as a standard arc (the best for this level) is just inside of 3-2. The objective of the level is to find three gems, so that you can install them in, and exit through, the level door. When you enter the level proper, start to skip up the platforms, killing the satyrs and green guys that steal items (amusingly these monsters usually have something inconsequential in their hands like a point gem.) You get an opportunity to circumvent some annoying stuff on the platform above the heart power-up, but you must be ultra quick to succeed. Essentially, a thief grabs an important gem when you reach the top of the ladder. He then runs for a 'trapdoor'-type structure, trying to slip under it. The trapdoor will only close when you come near, so that if the thief gets under it before you arrive, there is nothing that you can do, at least till later. However, if you are hot on the heels of the thief, the trapdoor will close when you get near, blocking the thief from escaping and allowing you to kill him. In this way you nag one of the three gems quicker than normal, and you even earn a special bonus on the side. By the way, flies come when you are near this trapdoor or 'security platform'. A fly is also beside the ladder to the right. The hint here says that you get a key for reaching the top of this area with full energy (health?), although I am very skeptical of this. Getting to the top of the upcoming segment with full health seems impossible (nearly invincible satyrs shoot 'homing' projectiles and jump platforms to chase you), and I never got anything at full health after I died. Actually, all that I ever got was a game over while fooling with this thing. You can tug this switch, but not doing so may be safer. If you pull it, you get a free big heart power-up and handy platforms that will save you if you fall during a jump; the caveat: the satyrs that spawn are tough, will jump up the platforms provided for them, and can kill you from full-health if both impact against you. Without platforms provided for them to climb (not pressing the switch), they won't pursue. You won't get a heart, and you have to make a somewhat annoying jump at the top, but if you are confident with ladder-jumping you may want to try it. To be successful you must leap from slightly below the top of the ladder to ledge. Now pull the switch and walk through. Some general annoyances in here--kill them, and in the room beyond you see a door with three slots above it. Assuming that you didn't get the red gem (you could have got it from the thief earlier) you still have three gems to find. A big heart, by the way, is nearby if you need it. The ladder to the left leads to the thief with the red gem, although if you already have the red gem I suggest that you don't bother--you miss some points and currency but assuredly save your health bar (the place has three beehives). If you do need the red gem, just kill the three beehives through the door down there and the thief will eventually drop down. The other two gems are to the right. We can start with the white one, which is the closest. You must walk right through an outside area, marked by a green potion and kill two groups of fliers. Pop open the door to the right, and you are in a room with the white gem and a satyr. This is a guessing game of levers; the best solution is to press the three levers down from left to right, which allows you to first pass right and raid a treasure room. Then you can return to the issue of how to get the white gem--and not the satyr, who in case you wondered won't open any locked doors for you. Push the middle lever up and walk right till an invulnerability shield drops. Now push the middle lever back down and lift the left lever this time. Walk away from the trapdoor above, which will open, dropping the gem and eventually the satyr on you, who dies from the invulnerability shield. Take the gem and walk left till you see a ladder. We will now grab the third gem. Descend the ladder, walk right, and pull the first switch down. This creates a blockade between the two green guys and you. Don't futz with the second switch but turn and kill the guys through the block (note: this may not work with an intense weapon arc). Climb down the ladder, realizing that two satyrs will appear when you reach the bottom and walk left. Open the door and use the switch again, which removes the spike. Take the gems, etc. and return to the top, using the far left switch to drop the blockade. You should have all three gems now, allowing you to leave the world. 3-3 |===| You need to get two vases in 3-3 and bring them to the right for the exit key. The first vase is down the ladder in front of you. You can pull the first switch on the left twice to create a monster the first time and a square purple gem the second time, but you don't need to. Go down, the ladder, walk forward, slowly, and begin hammering the attack button when you see the satyr. You should kill him before he reaches you, and he drops a heart afterwards. Pick up the vase next. Climb the ladder and jump off to the right. If you pull this switch (keeping in mind all of the bats around), it lowers the block to the right. Then, as the hint says, you should quickly pull the lever to the right, which gives you an extra life as a reward. However, you should immediately backpedal after getting the extra life (hence the 'quickly') or axe-blades appear. A satyr will approach you regardless, which you should kill from the left edge of the current platform. Then climb the ladder. You find the vase on this top level, but you must jump axe-blades on the way. Grab the vase at the right edge and jump off to the right, where another satyr will come. As you walk further, more monsters come. Obviously, this level is quite hectic. The final switch on the right gives you a key when you have both of the vases. Use the key with the first switch on the left, which closes the trapdoor- platform, allowing climbing. You must jump from the exact edges of the above platforms as they are very narrow and jumbled together, but you get one and finally, two keys, for your efforts (and you must do this quickly, as a satyr drops on you after 15 seconds). Beware the second satyr, too, that invariably drops before the second key--that is what the invulnerability shield after the key is for--you can book it off the edge afterwards. Once you are down, don't open the far right door yet. Use your key on the door to the left of it, which is the treasure room. Only after you have the treasure from this room should you open the far right door and enter the guardian's lair. |@=~=~=~=@| Guardian #3 This guardian can take a beating and is the toughest yet. He has a pattern, and knowing it makes him much easier. First, he shoots three orbs, which incidentally have a long range, takes one step back, which incidentally is a big step considering that he is a minotaur, fires one more orb, and finally leaps forward. You should shoot at him whenever possible, but assuming that he is preparing to leap, and assuming that you are cornered on the left side and out of your comfort zone, you need to run under him to his right side. Now, the minotaur does not like your being on his right side. Indeed, he will jump to the right not once but interminably till you are either squished or back on his left side. However, this works to your advantage, because you can lure him to the absolute right of his lair while on his right side. Then you can run harmlessly under him to the left and continue firing. Effectively, you can shoot at him a lot (all the more if he is on the very right side) till you are cornered on the left and must run under him again. |@=~=~=~=@| Grab a Hunter at the shop. Don't get any weapon that is primary (axe, spear, etc.) because the game forces a mace on you at the start of 4-1, which will replace your primary weapon. __________ __________|========|__________ iiid. |==========~~~~~~~~==========| Fourth Level: The Underworld 4-1 |===| The fourth level is in general nasty. You seldom have more than one option concerning any encounter with an enemy, and you take ridiculous damage if you make the wrong move. The first room even is a good example of this, though if you know what to do you will at the end get a big heart power-up. First, make sure immediately to kill any enemy that you see; don't let enemies pile up, or you are toast. Second, go right, collecting the power-ups before the first switch, and hit this switch twice to close a trapdoor-platform. You can walk along this platform (though you don't necessarily need it) to reach the Hunter on the left ledge. Next, go to the top right, killing fliers on the way. Do not pick up the key yet. Press the switch by the door, which will cause the big heart power-up to fall (had you had the key, it wouldn't have fallen). Now destroy the crumbling platform that the key is on. Pick up the key and approach the door, which will open. The next blurb says "I wouldn't go down there", but we know from the last hint that we shouldn't believe everything that we read. That means that you can descend, and indeed a platform saves you, awarding you a special bonus. Grab the hunter and jump on to the ladder to the right. Descend it first, near the switch, but don't hit the switch yet. Blast the crumbling wall till it is all gone. Then press the switch, running for the skull power-up as the 'slinky' creatures appear to your right. The power-up kills all of them. Now climb the ladder and go right. You should have seen 'something moves above you', and the blockade before these keys was what moved. You can grab both keys now and descend the ladder again, walking left, and descending another ladder. I don't advise going for the orange gem, because monsters will appear and cause unnecessary damage. However, you can take the small one. Now, continue going down, open the first door that you see, and enter. You will make your life easier if you can save this key. Doing so means rushing left immediately and hitting the nearest switch, which will stop the key from falling. However, assuming you screw up, you can still get the key. You simply miss out on the square orange gem. Either way, hit the switches as you ascend the room. Hit the right switch (where the hint was) twice if you saved the key. Otherwise go to the top, mount the right platform, and make a jump to the left platform where the power-ups are. These time-bombs allow you to destroy the spikes blocking the key in the bottom-right corner--only thing is that you lose your hunters, but the key was necessary. Finally, ascend to the top of this room and leave through the door. In the next room you can grab a Hunter and big heart power-up if you know a trick. First, you have to walk along the ground floor to the left, ignoring the switch, and pass near the blockade that blocks the ladder on the ground. Fliers will come up, but don't kill them. Run right, jumping over the block, and going out of sight. Now the fliers will disappear. Return whither the fliers came from and climb on the first crumbling platform on the left wall (hopefully you didn't destroy these). Jump up the platforms, facing right and killing the flier that comes when you are mid-way up. A wall turret appears next; however, you problematically can't kill it directly, because it is on the left wall above a crumbling platform. The solution, then, is turning and facing right, so that your hunters can home in on it. Slowly but surely they will do the job. Finally scale to the top, face left, and destroy the two crumbling platforms under the power-ups--a big heart and a hunter--before leaping to them. At the bottom of this room you find a switch that gives access to a ladder. Descend the ladder, killing the stuff on the sides (careful, as they can impact with you on the ladder), and open the chest, ascending to the top when you are finished. Now, you should ascend the series of platforms to the right in this room, which lead to another big room and lastly the level exit. Before you exit consider getting the items on the left platforms. This room has two stacks of crumbling platforms. You must destroy all but the bottom platforms in both stacks, which allows you access to the power-ups. 4-2 |===| I buy three axes at the shop here. You may want to choose differently if you don't trust yourself to avoid weapons that you don't want (mace, spear). The game will certainly try to fob them off on you. If you want to enter a very decent bonus room (you probably do unless you're confident that you can beat the final boss), do not go right yet. That is a one way door. Instead, go into the above room and left. Walk across the top ledge and don't press the switch. Destroy the turrets on the other side and leap back onto the top ledge, grabbing the key and heart. Now fall again. From the ground floor jump right over the spikes and continue right, descending into the starting area of the level, and opening the LEFT door. This is the bonus room. Getting all of the useful items in here would only be a minor difficulty, except that fliers come, destroy columns of platforms, and mess things up. Thankfully, you may kill them before they cause damage. Grab the gem to your left by destroying a single block. Walk right and hop up to the top platform. Prepare to quickly kill the fliers that come as you walk left for the items. You may want to ignore the mace to the left if you have a better weapon. Now, you want the stuff in the upper right corner, especially the key. Destroy all of the blocks to the left of these items and grab them. More fliers will come soon. You must kill them quickly to save the blocks from being destroyed. Destroy three more blocks that sit over some items below. Another group of fliers come, except that these don't destroy blocks. However, one will drop a chest that you may use your key on; thus try not to kill them in too awkward of a place. The lamp in the bottom right corner is very useful, so that you shouldn't forget it. Leave through the door as this room doesn't have much else, if anything, for you. Travel right and go through the door. You must fight some monsters before a downward slope where you can hit a switch (if you have the lamp) and get a 'familiar'--the thing that costs 30k gold in the shop. It really isn't worth it unless it's free. Jump on the crumbling blocks that span right and find the ladder up. Climb it and then jump to the next ladders. To get from the last ladder to the platform you should jump from a bit below the very top or else you will fall, which hurts at this height. Snag all of the items ahead, including the key, and enter the door, which takes you back to the crumbling block segment below. Walk right over this section of crumbling blocks to the far side where it ends. You descend on the right side where some monsters will come behind you, one of which has the first of the 'Alchemist's Tools', all three of which you must have before you can leave this world. Now, after another step down you should head right into a room, where you can gather the second alchemist's tool. Getting the tool requires hopping up to the top of this room (watch for the spikes--you must jump from the previous platform at a distance), circling around behind the spikes, and getting the green 'attract' potion that one of the monsters drops. Then you should cruise back to the entrance, walk left till you can see a thief in the bottom-left corner, and drop the potion. The thief will walk all the way around and approach you with the mortar and pestle, which in turn you can steal in your own way. Now leave the room. Pop open the door to the left and continue left. You come to a button in the wall, which you should push. This opens the left door, which leads to a treasure room. However don't push the switch on your way there, or you will plummet and have no chance of returning. The treasure room contains some minor things, including a key, that crumbling blocks safeguard. When you have all of these, backtrack to the switch. Hit it for a bit of free-falling. Continue down till your first chamber where a turret in the bottom right drops a hunter. Blast your way to this and then descend down the ladder, ignoring the door for now. Notice the crumbling blocks to your left. You must shoot through all of these and punish a turret behind them that drops a key. Now, you can return to the door just above you that you ignored earlier (don't worry about going right for now--and drop an alchemist's tool if you need the space.) The switch opens the elevated door, but only by jumping from the ladder can you reach it. This leads to another mini-treasure-room, where if you don't goof up and destroy a crumbling block you won't have to blast through all of the blocks to get the treasure. The chest and the incense burner (the final alchemical tool) are the most important here. The key that opens the chest is the one that you found in the earlier treasure room. Finally, you can leave this room whence you entered, descend the ladder, walk right, climb the ascending blocks--but only with all of the alchemist's tools in hand--to find a key that drops from mid-air. Drop a tool and pick up the key, hitting the switch to the right. Collect the tool again and climb up till you enter the alchemist's study. Here you are automatically given a key if you have all three of the alchemical tools, with which you can open the door to the right and exit the level. 4-3 |===| Go right, making sure to kill the turret on the wall. It drops a Spear, which you should grab (it doubles as a key). Now climb the ladder. A thief will smuggle the key below out of the spikes, but you must let him. Walk back as far as possible on the short platform that you are on and shoot the thief once when he reaches you to get the key. Hit the switch twice to open and give you access to the left door. Some very desirable Axes sit in the next room, but we must find a key first. To do this hop down and walk right, popping open both doors, neither of which requires a key. Enter the final door, saving yourself some time by repeatedly shooting when you do, as you appear on the other side amid a pincer. Go left till you reach three switches. Push the middle switch first. This sends down a key from above (and later a thief). Grab the key, revert the middle switch, and push the left switch, which opens a one-time trapdoor. Go ahead and dive into the trapdoor. You fall for a bit and see a door at the bottom. This one leads to a treasure room, where you get A LOT of stuff. Pay special attention to the key and chest. Leave through the door and enter the next door (you've already seen this one), which takes you to a new area. Grab the power potion and key and climb the ladder. After a bit, you realize that the two axes from earlier are above you. This is good, as we now have the key to reach them. Hop onto the upper platform by way of the ladder. Punch the hidden button, which raises the indestructable blocks, and destroy the destructable blocks. Once you have everything, reenter the right room again. You will want to go left and use the left of the three switches to close the trapdoor before proceeding. A hint says "behind this door lies immortality", signalling that this is the last area of the game. |@=~=~=~=@| Guardian #4 |@=~=~=~=@| This boss is an incredible challenge and thrill except for the amount of button-mashing involved. It actually is painful to fight him. Basically, unless you have fought him before and know his pattern, start the fight on the second platform. Throw your axes, etc. till a giant segmented worm emerges from his head (pretty imagery, huh?) and fire at the worm, which starts on your left side, swoops to your right side (you are still safe at this point) and then moves to your left side again, where he will move in for a kill. However, you should have killed the worm by this point. If not, it will destroy you the instant that it touches you. Now, you should go to the ground level when the worm is dead and walk forward, shooting non-stop till you are clear of the platform over your head (this puts you very close to the boss). Pay attention to the number of orbs that the boss fires from his mouth. Assuming that you kill the worm reasonably quick and jump down, you should look for when the boss has shot two orbs from his mouth. Then you should mount the second platform again, because a worm will come. To mount the second platform, although it can be tricky sometimes, you must jump onto the platform that you entered on and make a jump from the very edge of that to the second platform. You can then repeat the cycle that I have detailed from the start. One trick: while on the second platform, you can jump over the stars that the boss shoots at your feet. Compared to the damage that the worm will do if it touches you (insta-death), these stars cause minimal damage, but they do add up. IV. Appendices (@)====================(@) iva. Passwords --------- LEVEL 2: NASHWAN LEVEL 3: COYOTE LEVEL 4: FOXX ivb. Hints ----- World 1-1 Hint 1: Find the Gold Key to exit this world. Hint 2: Experiment with levers for bonus. World 1-2 Hint 1: Return a pot to the stores. Hint 2: Find another pot for a special bonus. World 1-3 Hint 1: The lightning bolt... Hint 2: Will help to defeat the Guardian. World 2-1 Hint 1: If left alone, thieves can help. World 2-2 Hint 1: Take the chalices to the ship room. Hint 2: The chalices reveal a key. World 2-3 Hint 1: Repair the mosaic to please the gods. Hint 2: Find the candle. Hint 3: Return the levers to get cross. World 3-1 Hint 1: The mace will help to find the gold key. Hint 2: Bombs destroy traps and hives. Hint 3: Watch the ceiling in the treasure room. World 3-2 Hint 1: Reach the top with max energy for a key. World 3-3 Hint 1: Pull lever on right quickly for bonus. Hint 2: Bring the vessels to get higher. World 4-1 Hint 1: Don't always believe what you read. Hint 2: The room of traps contains the key. World 4-2 Hint 1: Careful, pull hard left. Hint 2: Bring the alchemist his tools. Hint 3: Forever downwards. Hint 4: The alchemists room is close but hidden. World 4-3 Hint 1: No more puzzles, just find the key. Hint 2: Behind this door lies immortality. Bugs ---- * If you kill certain of the static (not triggered) enemies at the edge of your screen, they won't drop an item, and they will reappear when you move towards them. * The lever puzzle for the shortcut in World One has a bug (or at least sloppy programming); if you use the upper lever before the bottom lever, then use the bottom lever, you will have solved the puzzle, but the shortcut won't trigger till you stand under the upper lever. The designers I suppose expected players to do the opposite, but the present mechanism is dumber than having event points beneath both levers. This also applies to other lever puzzles in the game. * A thief that repeatedly runs into a wall at the start of 3-2 can cause massive slowdown in the game. * The Hunter weapon may become bugged, spinning in a circle at the top of the screen. When this happens you cannot fire anymore hunters till you leave the screen. |=|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|=| |~|=========================================================================|~| |=|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|=| END