Super Black Onyx(NES) FAQ/Walkthrough version 1.3.0 by schultw.andrez@sbcglobal.net Please do not reproduce for profit without my consent. You won't be getting much profit anyway, but that's not the point. This took time and effort, and I just wanted to save a memory of an old game and the odd solutions any way I could. Please send me an email referring to me and this guide by name if you'd like to post it on your site. This guide has a corresponding maps on GameFAQs. You can refer to them to decide where to go. I have a big-picture map and also a color-coded map of each of the eight individual levels, which are threaded together to create a 62-level game. Important references in Japanese that helped me figure out the rules of the game: http://www20.cds.ne.jp/~yugen/sbo/index.htm http://www.e-tokyo.prug.or.jp/~peki/gmemo/blackonyx/nesonyx.html ================================ OUTLINE 1. INTRODUCTION 2. CONTROLS 2-1. GETTING AROUND 2-2. PARTY FUNCTIONS 2-3. COMBAT 3. STATISTICS AND STRATEGIES 3-1. COMPANIONS AND THEIR STATS 3-2. ITEMS 3-2-1. IKONS 3-2-2. GEMS 3-2-3. WEAPONS 3-2-4. ARMOR 3-2-5. HELMS/SHIELDS 3-3. MONSTERS 3-4. SPECIFIC STRATEGIES 3-4-1. GAINING EXPERIENCE 3-4-2. CROSS-CLASS 3-4-3. COMMON COMBAT MOVES 4. MAZE(TEXT REPRESENTATION) 4-1. BIG PICTURE 4-2. BY-LEVEL 4-3. UNACCOUNTED AREAS 5. WALKTHROUGH 5-1. FLOOR 1 5-2. THE DUNGEON 5-3. GOING UP! 5-3-1. TOWN AREA 5-3-2. FOREST AREA 5-4. ORANGE 5-5. THE SKELETON AREA 5-6. THE ICE 5-7. MORE GOING UP 5-8. RUNNING THROUGH THE FIRE 5-9. CITY OF GOLD, FIRST BIT 5-10. THE TEMPLE 5-11. WATER 5-12. CITY OF GOLD PART 2 5-13. OPTIONS POST-CITY 5-14. USING THE CORE TO MOVE AROUND 5-15. EARTH, OUTSIDE AND BLACK ONYX 5-16. BY-LEVEL WALKTHROUGH 6. CHEATS 6-2. IMPORTANT APPLICATIONS 6-2-1. COMBAT 6-2-2. GETTING THROUGH THE GAME 6-3. HTML MAP FROM GAMEFAQS MAPS 7. VERSIONS/CREDITS ================================ 1. INTRODUCTION Super Black Onyx is a nice big map to sink your skills into. It's got great, expressive graphics and even good sound. While sometimes it's confusing what to do, or even if you're doing anything, it's one of the most worthwhile games I've played, and it even has some English bits in it to make things clearer, too. Part of that was probably out of necessity, Japanese hiragana and katakana not being terribly widespread back then. I can't hope to give the whole story. But I hope to give the whole map and at least the important parts of the story in this guide. At heart, SBO is just a dungeon crawler where you don't even have annoying people to save. Pretty much everything goes into the gameplay. You get to choose your party from a selection of player characters randomly hanging around, and then you go right into the dungeon. Players get killed and maybe regenerate--as their original weak selves. Scenery changes as you move up or down. There's even a core stairwell in the center. It connects many of the levels. Oh, and there is Black Onyx, to save where you are in the maze. You'll need it, because it's a big maze, and you'll be healing in town a lot. Combat is action- and turn-based, where you can choose an enemy before you start to thrash them. Combats general end with one party fleeing, unless your leader gets killed, in which case your game is over. You need to be careful about enemies in a new area, and you also need to make sure you don't get lost mapping. The whole game is 8x32x32, which is not impossible, but the constant stairs up/down can make things very confusing indeed. There's not that much branching of stairwells, but Without much text the game has to establish atmosphere other ways and it does, with a periodic vista into the cosmos, out a castle tower, or into the sky. You start looking out on a river, and the views, such as they are, change with the walls. Eventually you work your way up to find a sword, a gem and an ikon not available in stores. They are all in what seem to be dead ends. You visit the city of gold and then go to the top level where the Black Onyx is waiting for you. I enjoyed SBO before I really knew what I was doing, and afterwards, it was even better. While mapping without armor, I enjoyed the enemies that whipped me, then I enjoyed figuring out how to whip them back. Much of the information from this FAQ is taken from the now defunct website at http://www20.cds.ne.jp/~yugen/sbo/index.htm. It had a lot of maps and information, and it is gone now, but hopefully this FAQ makes everything permanent and accessible to everyone who wants to play the game in English. http://www.e-tokyo.prug.or.jp/~peki/gmemo/blackonyx/nesonyx.html had maps and controls too. Most of it was in Japanese. Google Translate helped a ton. 1-2. THE NOTATION NSEW = north, south, east, west. There's no compass in the game but I assume you start facing north, and I assume you are using my maps. 3E, etc = 3 squares east UD = up/down * = all the way in 1 direction. - = just before the first door = = just past the first door == = just past the second door Note that there is some awkwardness in discussing how to see a fountain--the game kicks you back a square. So 3S after this really means move 2 squares that way. 2. CONTROLS 2-1. GETTING AROUND left/right arrows move left/right up/down move forward/back (A) kicks you up a level (B) takes you to the party screen On the party screen each character has 3 sets of bars, maybe 4. The top is life(12 per bar in all cases.) Then dexterity, then strength. When full they are yellow. When partially drained they are red. Combat drains them. The fourth potential bar is experience, which is much thinner than the others. Bars don't tend to grow until you pass a multiple of four. STRENGTH affects damage done. DEXTERITY affects how often you attack. There's no penalty for waiting around, but you also don't regenerate(1 dex/str every 4 moves, not counting portals.) Combat is based on some random seed that depends on the moves you make and the area/level you're on. This has emulation cheat implications discussed later. up/down selects between items in a shop, then when you click A on an item, it selects between party players and leaving(which doesn't charge you.) If you don't have the money for an item, you can't select it. 2-2. PARTY FUNCTIONS Party functions are like combat functions below only there is no flee/stand/attack option and you can't shield either. Go left once to get to the position exchange icon. To use it, push up/down to the person to exchange with and push B. Go left twice to get to the potion icon, if you have one. If not, the game skips to monk ikons and mage gems. Again you can push up/down to see whom to use the potion on. Go to the left to see your ikons, gems and weapons. You can't ready anything in noncombat mode. 2-3. COMBAT There are no fixed combats in Super Black Onyx. However, there are zones that are more combat-prone than others. I am unable to find which squares give the most combats. However, it stands to reason that those who want to improve their party should find these squares, and those who want to rest up should avoid them. At the start you have a choice of fleeing(run away icon,) standing your ground(sword down,) or attacking(sword up.) You can scroll through them with left/right. If you push B or A, that activity is chosen to start battle. However, whenever you next push B, you can edit it. FLEEING is best if the monsters are more powerful than you. You can be killed while fleeing, but if you got yourself stuck and have no other options, this is okay. The disadvantage to fleeing is that you go one square in a random direction, and you need to get your bearings afterwards. Use the maps to see which walls are where and deduce which of the four squares you WERE next to that you are currently on. Take your time. You can't be attacked while standing still, but you can get lost making a mistake and then hastily trying to rectify it. And anyway, practice helps it get a lot easier. STANDING YOUR GROUND works well for friendly PC's (mage, monk or hero) and also for monsters you know you can whip. The monsters flee, leaving treasure. And you don't have the hassle of combat! ATTACKING gets you into combat proper. You can push B at any time during the activities to get back to this menu, and the next player that attacks will get this icon. It doesn't matter who gets it, as you can always flip around orders for your next player at any time. Changing stuff in the heat of battle will cost a move. The B button works as a de facto pause. You can also push B to change things for each of your players. Depending on the monster type, some items are more effective than others. Scrolling right lets your player use his shield. You can scroll left through Monk ikons, then Mage gems, then Hero weapons, then back to shield. However, make sure you have the right icon chosen to negotiate with the monsters beforehand, because you have to change that before you start tinkering with your party. Yes, you can change it with your next character that moves, but why give the monsters anything? When you attack, a weapon/spell will fly at the enemy and hover there. A attacks when the weapon is hovering by the enemy. B lets you change and choose what items your characters use as in the start of combat. Offensive spells work the same way. Defensive spells hover in the center of the combat screen, and if you don't push A, you don't cast them. As your players get better, they will get more than one attack. Then you can hit A a few times and sometimes kill an opponent with a few blows at once. The downside of this is that you lose that much more strength and dexterity from your maximum. That means the next hit won't be nearly as powerful. This works for offensive spells as well. By default, player #1 attacks monster #1, #2 gets #2, #3 gets #3, etc. If there are fewer monsters, your man will attack the monster closest to him, going down instead of up. If there are only four monsters in the playing field, #5 attacks #4 by default. If there are only three, #5 and #4 attack #3. Players may switch the order they take turns as one player's dexterity drops below another's. Here is how to operate attacks on multiple enemies: push A, push down twice quickly, push A. Your level and dexterity, along with how good the weapon is(the better, the fewer attacks--unless your level is high enough) affects how many times you can hit the enemy. This also works to change the initial enemy to attack, and you can move up/down before your battle icon gets there, though this is not as discrete as after you've hit an enemy. You can also scroll off the top and bottom of the screen to reach another enemy. So no enemy is further than two up/down ticks away. Sound is important to tell you if 1) you damaged your opponent and 2) you killed your opponent, and you don't have time to react to what's visually on the screen, so you really need to play the game with the sound on. By the way, watch out fleeing into the onyx! If you flee on an onyx square, it may act as though you ran into an onyx panel while fleeing. This shouldn't mess you up too badly, as you can just go back, but it may flip you over the first time you see it. Combat enemies fill slot, don't move up. This is critical to strategy to remove an annoying guy focusing on your mage. 3. STATISTICS AND STRATEGIES 3-1. COMPANIONS AND THEIR STATS K |PO| STR | DEX | LVL |LI|AR|TI| NAME |CLAS| | | |FE|MA|ON| WEAPONS | IKONS | GEMS | --------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---------+----- ----+---------+ 01234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234 567890123456789 K |PO|ASH| STR | DEX | LVL |LI|AR|TI|RHE| NAME |CLAS| | | |FE|MA|ON|MIL|WEAPONS | IKONS | GEMS --------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+--------+-- ------+-------- NOLAN HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 01 710 kcm R g IGOR HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 03 010 kcm R g ZULAR MAGE 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 01 100 k Ra g JAMES HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 02 110 kcm R g OLAF MONK 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 01 100 k R gt AMOS HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 410 k m R g JAMIHR MAGE 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 000 k RaH g JOVAN HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 310 kcm R g RODNEY HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 510 k m R g DOMINIC MONK 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 200 k R gt OLRIC MAGE 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 100 k R H g ROGAR MONK 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 01 000 k R gtz LEONARDO HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 020 k m R g PYOTR MONK 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 100 k R g z REGINALD MAGE 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 200 k Ra g RANDALL HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 01 210 kcm R g DANIEL HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 03 010 kcm R g TATYANA MAGE 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 01 100 k Ra g WILLIAM HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 02 110 kcm R g MARCUS MONK 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 01 100 k R gt ERIC HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 410 k m R g ANDREAS MAGE 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 000 kcm RaH g KILIAN HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 310 kcm R g EWALD HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 510 k m R g TARAMIS MONK 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 200 k R gt DEMOS MAGE 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 100 k R H g ALI MONK 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 01 000 k R gtz JACQUES HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 020 k m R g ESTEBAN MONK 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 100 k R g z TAFFEY MAGE 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 200 k Ra g ARTHUR HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 01 210 kcm R g SVENSON HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 310 kcm R g FABIANO MAGE 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 01 100 k Ra g FREDRIC HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 02 110 kcm R g OLSSON MONK 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 01 100 k R gt KELLY HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 410 k m R g HEDROS MAGE 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 000 k RaH g KIRK HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 310 kcm R g TANYA HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 510 k m R g SPENCER MONK 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 200 k R gt JASON MAGE 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 100 k R H g HILRIC MONK 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 01 000 k R gtz ROBERT HERO 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 020 k m R g GIORGIO MONK 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 100 k R g z NORMAN MAGE 12 12 12 10 10 10 01 01 01 10 48 00 200 k Ra g ====end town recruits JOAN HERO 18 12 12 18 10 10 02 01 01 18 48 00 310 k s R g JACKIE HERO 18 12 12 17 10 10 02 01 01 18 48 00 410 kc s R g KYLE HERO 20 12 12 16 10 10 02 01 01 18 48 00 520 k ms R g BRANDON HERO 20 12 12 19 10 10 02 01 01 18 48 00 620 kcm R g BORIS HERO 24 12 12 18 10 10 02 01 01 18 48 00 720 kcm R g HOMAN HERO 18 12 12 21 10 10 02 01 01 18 48 00 320 kcm R g PIERRE HERO 20 12 12 20 10 10 02 01 01 19 48 00 420 kcm R g KEVIN HERO 22 12 12 19 10 10 02 01 01 18 48 00 510 kcms R g DIEGO HERO 24 12 12 18 10 10 02 01 01 17 48 00 520 kcms R g REGINALD HERO 28 12 12 26 10 10 03 01 01 26 48 00 620 kcms R g GRIMSON MAGE 12 18 12 10 17 10 01 02 01 19 48 00 200 k RaH g HERCOMIS MAGE 12 24 12 10 18 10 01 02 01 18 48 00 300 k Ra D g MESOS MAGE 12 22 12 10 19 10 01 02 01 17 48 00 000 k R HD g IGMAR MAGE 12 20 12 10 21 10 01 02 01 18 48 00 200 k R HD g KATRINA MAGE 12 18 12 10 22 10 01 02 01 18 48 00 300 k Ra D g PHRSAO MONK 12 12 16 10 10 17 01 01 02 17 48 00 000 k R gtz PRAHIN MONK 12 12 22 10 10 18 01 01 02 17 48 00 100 k R gtz ELIAS MONK 12 12 20 10 10 19 01 01 02 17 48 00 200 k R g zs METHOR MONK 12 12 18 10 10 20 01 01 02 18 48 00 200 k R gt s TIMOTHY MONK 12 12 24 10 10 19 01 01 02 19 48 00 300 k R gtzs ====end dungeon recruits TERRY HERO 30 12 12 27 10 10 03 01 01 25 48 00 420 kcms R g REKOS HERO 28 12 12 28 10 10 03 01 01 26 48 00 520 kcms R g WANDA HERO 26 12 12 26 10 10 03 01 01 27 48 00 620 kcms R g DAMIAN HERO 28 12 12 25 10 10 03 01 01 29 48 00 720 k ms R g HURCS HERO 32 12 12 27 10 10 03 01 01 23 48 00 720 kc s R g ORAC MAGE 12 30 12 10 26 10 01 03 01 26 48 00 100 k RaHD g TRACY MAGE 12 28 12 10 27 10 01 03 01 26 48 00 100 k RaHD g WENDELL MAGE 12 26 12 10 29 10 01 03 01 26 48 00 200 k RaHD g ROBERTO MAGE 12 28 12 10 28 10 01 03 01 26 48 00 200 k RaHD g PETROS MAGE 12 30 12 10 26 10 01 03 01 26 48 00 300 k RaHD g JUGAR MONK 12 12 30 10 10 28 01 01 03 26 48 00 200 k R gtzs JHAVIS MONK 12 12 28 10 10 27 01 01 03 26 48 00 200 k R gtzs SUKHAMAR MONK 12 12 32 10 10 26 01 01 03 26 48 00 200 k R gtzs MHEHIN MONK 12 12 34 10 10 24 01 01 03 26 48 00 300 k R gtzs SHORAC MONK 12 12 36 10 10 25 01 01 03 26 48 00 300 k R gtzs ====end forest recruits ALEXEI HERO 40 12 12 32 10 10 04 01 01 35 48 00 620 kcms R g SILVO HERO 38 12 12 33 10 10 04 01 01 34 48 00 720 kcmsh R g LORENZO HERO 36 12 12 34 10 10 04 01 01 33 48 00 820 kcmsh R g ZEMECKIS HERO 34 12 12 35 10 10 04 01 01 36 48 00 930 k m h R g JULIAN HERO 32 12 12 36 10 10 04 01 01 36 48 00 930 kcmsh R g GREGORY MAGE 12 40 12 10 33 10 01 04 01 34 48 00 200 k RaHD g GILBERT MAGE 12 38 12 10 34 10 01 04 01 34 48 00 200 k RaH A g ODIN MAGE 12 36 12 10 36 10 01 04 01 34 48 00 200 k RaHDA g ARAMIN MAGE 12 34 12 10 37 10 01 04 01 34 48 00 300 k RaH A g LEANDROS MAGE 12 32 12 10 35 10 01 04 01 34 48 00 300 k RaHDA g RHAMIS MONK 12 12 40 10 10 33 01 01 04 34 48 00 200 k R gtzs NEHIR MONK 12 12 38 10 10 34 01 01 04 34 48 00 200 k R gtzsS ISZAL MONK 12 12 36 10 10 35 01 01 04 35 48 00 300 k R gtzsS HELOSIS MONK 12 12 34 10 10 36 01 01 04 34 48 00 300 k R gtzsS AH LUNG MONK 12 12 32 10 10 37 01 01 04 34 48 00 400 k R gt sS ====end woodlands recruits WARREN HERO 44 12 12 41 10 10 05 01 01 43 48 00 820 kcmsh R g LESTER HERO 42 12 12 42 10 10 05 01 01 42 48 00 930 kcmsh R g SEAN HERO 46 12 12 43 10 10 05 01 01 41 48 00 a30 kcmsh R g MONICA HERO 48 12 12 40 10 10 05 01 01 44 48 00 b30 kcmsh R g HECTOR HERO 46 12 12 44 10 10 05 01 01 44 48 00 b40 kcmsh R g SALEM MAGE 12 46 12 10 41 10 01 05 01 42 48 00 200 k RaHDA g SCOTT MAGE 12 44 12 10 42 10 01 05 01 42 48 00 200 k RaHDA g CORTEZ MAGE 12 42 12 10 43 10 01 05 01 42 48 00 200 k RaHDA g HELVOS MAGE 12 40 12 10 44 10 01 05 01 42 48 00 300 k RaHDA g MIRIAM MAGE 12 48 12 10 43 10 01 05 01 42 48 00 300 k RaHDA g JAMAL HERO 44 12 12 42 10 10 05 01 01 43 48 00 930 kcmsha R g COVAK MONK 12 12 46 10 10 41 01 01 05 42 48 00 200 k R gtzsS HANNIBAL MONK 12 12 44 10 10 42 01 01 05 42 48 00 200 k R gtzsS ULYSSES MONK 12 12 42 10 10 43 01 01 05 42 48 00 300 k R gtzsS IRSUS MONK 12 12 48 10 10 40 01 01 05 42 48 00 300 k R gtzsS ====end skeleton recruits DENNIS HERO 54 12 12 49 10 10 06 01 01 50 48 00 920 kcmsh R g TYRONE HERO 52 12 12 50 10 10 06 01 01 50 48 00 a30 kcmsha R g VITTORIO HERO 50 12 12 51 10 10 06 01 01 50 48 00 b30 kcmsha R g VLADIMIR HERO 48 12 12 52 10 10 06 01 01 50 48 00 c30 k sha R g GORDON HERO 56 12 12 50 10 10 06 01 01 50 48 00 930 kcms a R g ABRAHAM MAGE 12 54 12 10 49 10 01 06 01 50 48 00 400 k RaHDA g MARCO MAGE 12 50 12 10 50 10 01 06 01 50 48 00 400 k RaHDAJ g HILDA MAGE 12 52 12 10 50 10 01 06 01 50 48 00 400 k RaHDAJ g LEE MONK 12 12 54 10 10 49 01 01 06 50 48 00 400 k R gtzsS SALOMON MONK 12 12 50 10 10 50 01 01 06 50 48 00 400 k R gtzs A ====end ice recruits CHARLES HERO 62 12 12 58 10 10 07 01 01 58 48 00 c30 kcmsha R g LEON HERO 60 12 12 58 10 10 07 01 01 58 48 00 c30 kcmsha R g NICHOLAS HERO 58 12 12 57 10 10 07 01 01 58 48 00 c30 kcmsha R g PATRICK HERO 64 12 12 56 10 10 07 01 01 58 48 00 c30 kcmsha R g CAMERON HERO 62 12 12 59 10 10 07 01 01 58 48 00 c30 kcms a R g ATHOS MAGE 12 62 12 10 57 10 01 07 01 58 48 00 400 k RaHDAJ g DIMITRI MAGE 12 60 12 10 56 10 01 07 01 58 48 00 400 k RaHDAJ g HELGA MAGE 12 58 12 10 58 10 01 07 01 58 48 00 400 k RaH AJ g MIKOS MAGE 12 64 12 10 59 10 01 07 01 58 48 00 500 k RaHDAJ g ORSON MAGE 12 62 12 10 60 10 01 07 01 58 48 00 500 k RaHDAJ g VINCENT HERO 60 12 12 58 10 10 07 01 01 58 48 00 c30 kcmsha R g KORAX MONK 12 12 62 10 10 57 01 01 07 58 48 00 400 k R gtzsSA ARTISUS MONK 12 12 60 10 10 58 01 01 07 58 48 00 400 k R gtzsSA WALTER MONK 12 12 58 10 10 59 01 01 07 58 48 00 500 k R gtzsSA LIONEL MONK 12 12 56 10 10 60 01 01 07 58 48 00 500 k R gtzsSA ====end grey area recruits WAYNE HERO 70 12 12 72 10 10 08 01 01 67 48 00 c30 kcmsha R g TREVOR HERO 78 12 12 73 10 10 08 01 01 67 48 00 d40 kcmsha R g JOEL HERO 76 12 12 67 10 10 08 01 01 67 48 00 d40 kcmsha R g SILVIA HERO 74 12 12 69 10 10 08 01 01 67 48 00 d40 kcmsha R g RAYMOND HERO 72 12 12 68 10 10 08 01 01 67 48 00 d40 kcmsha R g CHRIS MAGE 12 66 12 10 64 10 01 08 01 66 48 00 500 k RaHDAJ g VAMIHR MAGE 12 64 12 10 65 10 01 08 01 66 48 00 500 k RaHDAJ g SAMAHL MAGE 12 62 12 10 66 10 01 08 01 66 48 00 500 k RaHDAJ g ROGAR MAGE 12 60 12 10 67 10 01 08 01 66 48 00 600 k RaHDAJ g GLORIA MAGE 12 68 12 10 68 10 01 08 01 66 48 00 600 k RaHDAJ g RAFAEL HERO 68 12 12 66 10 10 08 01 01 66 48 00 e30 kcmsha R g SATOR MONK 12 12 66 10 10 68 01 01 08 66 48 00 500 k R gtzsSA BASTIAN MONK 12 12 68 10 10 67 01 01 08 66 48 00 500 k R gtzsSA WILTON MONK 12 12 70 10 10 66 01 01 08 66 48 00 500 k R gtzsSA RAOUL MONK 12 12 72 10 10 65 01 01 08 66 48 00 600 k R gtzsSA ====end temple recruits NATASHA HERO 76 12 12 74 10 10 09 01 01 74 48 00 e40 kcmsha R g ISAAK HERO 76 12 12 74 10 10 09 01 01 74 48 00 d40 kcmsha R g WILLARD MAGE 12 76 12 10 74 10 01 09 01 74 48 00 600 k RaHDAJ g BENRAD MAGE 12 76 12 10 74 10 01 09 01 74 48 00 600 k RaHDAJ g ULMAR MONK 12 12 76 10 10 74 01 01 09 74 48 00 600 k R gtzsSA ====end fire recruits RODRIGO HERO 84 12 12 82 10 10 10 01 01 82 48 00 e50 kcmsha R g NIKOLAI HERO 84 12 12 82 10 10 10 01 01 82 48 00 e50 kcmsha R g ESTHER MAGE 12 84 12 10 82 10 01 10 01 82 48 00 600 k RaHDAJ g AXEL MAGE 12 84 12 10 82 10 01 10 01 82 48 00 600 k RaHDAJ g MORGAN MONK 12 12 84 10 10 82 01 01 10 82 48 00 600 k R gtzsSA ====end outside recruits, I think ROBIN HERO 86 20 12 82 16 10 10 02 01 86 48 00 e50 kcmsha RaH g LEROY HERO 88 18 12 83 20 10 10 02 01 79 48 00 f50 kcmsha RaH g BRADLEY HERO 90 20 12 84 17 10 10 02 01 85 48 00 f50 kcmsha RaH g JEAN LUC HERO 84 22 12 80 18 10 10 02 01 84 48 00 f50 kcmsha RaH g GRADY HERO 84 18 12 81 19 10 10 02 01 82 48 00 f50 kcmshaS RaH g GRAHAM HERO 86 24 12 80 18 10 10 02 01 82 48 00 f50 kcmsha RaH g RUSSELL HERO 88 22 12 86 18 10 10 02 01 82 48 00 g50 kcmsha RaH g SHERWOOD HERO 90 20 12 85 18 10 10 02 01 82 48 00 g50 kcmsha RaH g HELMUT HERO 92 18 12 84 18 10 10 02 01 82 48 00 g50 kcmsha RaH g CYNTHIA HERO 84 18 12 83 18 10 10 02 01 82 48 00 h50 kcmshaS RaH g SIMON HERO 90 12 20 79 10 16 10 01 02 87 48 00 f50 kcmsha R gtz DOUGLAS HERO 92 12 20 82 10 18 10 01 02 84 48 00 f50 kcmsha R gtz RICARDO HERO 86 12 18 85 10 17 10 01 02 81 48 00 f50 kcmsha R gtz PERCIVAL HERO 80 12 22 81 10 18 10 01 02 88 48 00 f50 kcmsha R gtz DARCY HERO 78 12 20 80 10 19 10 01 02 80 48 00 g50 kcmshaS R gtz LAWRENCE MAGE 18 94 12 16 86 10 02 10 01 88 48 00 500 kcm RaHDAJ g VANNA MAGE 20 92 12 16 85 10 02 10 01 79 48 00 500 kcm RaHDAJ g TUGAR MAGE 20 90 12 18 84 10 02 10 01 80 48 00 500 kcm RaHDAJ g BATOS MAGE 22 88 12 18 83 10 02 10 01 81 48 00 500 kcm RaHDAJ g DALAC MAGE 16 66 12 18 82 10 02 10 01 82 48 00 500 kcm RaHDAJC g DUNCAN MAGE 12 94 20 10 81 18 01 10 02 81 48 00 500 k RaHDAJ gtz LUCAS MAGE 12 92 22 10 82 19 01 10 02 80 48 00 500 k RaHDAJ gtz DANTOS MAGE 12 84 20 10 82 17 01 10 02 79 48 00 500 k RaHDAJ gtz AXTON MAGE 12 88 18 10 83 18 01 10 02 79 48 00 500 k RaHDAJ gtz HAROLD MAGE 12 90 22 10 80 16 01 10 02 88 48 00 500 k RaHDAJC gtz THAINE MONK 20 12 86 18 10 85 02 01 10 85 48 00 600 kcm R gtzsSA GABRIEL MONK 22 12 88 18 10 83 02 01 10 85 48 00 600 kcm R gtzsSA SAXON MONK 18 12 90 18 10 81 02 01 10 85 48 00 600 kcm R gtzsSA SANTOS MONK 12 20 92 10 18 79 01 02 10 85 48 00 600 k RaH gtzsSA EGON MONK 12 20 94 10 18 87 01 02 10 85 48 00 600 k RaH gtzsSAR ====end city of gold recruits DEREK HERO 92 28 12 85 28 10 10 03 01 85 48 00 g50 kcmsha RaHD g SHELDON HERO 94 12 28 85 10 27 10 01 03 88 48 00 h50 kcmsha R gtzs ELMER MAGE 28 90 12 27 85 10 03 10 01 80 48 00 500 kcms RaHDAJ g PLATEK MAGE 12 88 28 10 85 25 01 10 03 81 48 00 500 k RaHDAJ gtzs JEREMY MONK 28 12 72 26 10 85 03 01 10 83 48 00 600 kcms RaHD gtzsSAR ====end deep water recruits ETHAN HERO 94 28 28 82 27 26 10 03 03 84 48 00 g50 kcmshaS RaHD g IVAN HERO 88 28 28 80 27 26 10 03 03 84 48 00 h50 kcmshaS RaHD g TOBIAS HERO 92 28 26 88 27 26 10 03 03 84 48 00 h50 kcmshaS RaHD g MURRAY HERO 96 28 28 86 26 27 10 03 03 84 48 00 i50 kcmshaS R gtzs RANDY HERO 90 28 28 84 26 27 10 03 03 84 48 00 i50 kcmshaS R gtzs DANA MAGE 28 84 28 27 83 27 03 10 03 83 48 00 500 kcmsh RaHDAJC g SELWYN MAGE 28 86 28 27 81 27 03 10 03 83 48 00 500 kcmsh RaHDAJC g LEOPOLD MAGE 28 88 28 27 79 27 03 10 03 83 48 00 500 kcmsh RaHDAJC g JOSHUA MAGE 28 90 28 28 87 27 03 10 03 83 48 00 500 k RaHDAJC gtzsS VICTOR MAGE 28 92 28 26 85 27 03 10 03 83 48 00 500 k RaHDAJC gtzsS IBRIM MONK 28 28 78 30 27 81 03 03 10 84 48 00 600 kcmsh R gtzsSAR ROCCO MONK 28 28 82 30 27 79 03 03 10 84 48 00 600 kcmsh R gtzsSAR GIRAUD MONK 28 28 86 30 27 87 03 03 10 84 48 00 600 kcmsh R gtzsSAR SHOR MONK 28 28 90 27 27 85 03 03 10 84 48 00 600 k RaHDA gtzsSAR ZED MONK 28 28 94 27 26 83 03 03 10 84 48 00 600 k RaHDA gtzsSAR ====end earth recruits ARMANDO HERO 90 36 28 83 34 25 10 04 03 86 48 00 i50 kcmshaS RaHDA g MAURICE HERO 94 36 28 81 34 26 10 04 03 78 48 00 i50 kcmshaS RaHDA g ROSSITTO HERO 78 36 28 79 34 27 10 04 03 80 48 00 i50 kcmshaS RaHDA g DWIGHT HERO 82 28 36 87 26 34 10 03 04 82 48 00 j50 kcmshaS R gtzsS GERARDO HERO 84 30 36 85 27 34 10 03 04 84 48 00 j50 kcmshaS R gtzsS BENEDICT MAGE 34 86 28 32 81 26 04 10 03 83 48 00 600 kcmsh RaHDAJC g GEOFFREY MAGE 36 90 30 34 80 27 04 10 03 85 48 00 600 kcmsh RaHDAJC g TRESA MAGE 38 94 32 36 84 28 04 10 03 87 48 00 600 kcmsh RaHDAJC g JULIUS MAGE 28 78 36 26 85 34 03 10 04 79 48 00 600 k RaHDAJC gtzsS HAROLD MAGE 28 82 34 27 83 34 03 10 04 81 48 00 600 k RaHDAJC gtzsS BRUNO MONK 32 40 90 34 34 81 04 04 10 83 48 00 700 kcmsh R gtzsSAR LAO TSE MONK 36 36 92 34 34 80 04 04 10 83 48 00 700 kcmsh R gtzsSAR MAHATMA MONK 40 32 86 34 34 82 04 04 10 83 48 00 700 kcmsh R gtzsSAR ELIJAH MONK 32 32 78 25 34 79 03 04 10 83 48 00 700 k RaHDA gtzsSAR ZHORA MONK 24 38 80 28 34 84 03 04 10 83 48 00 700 k RaHDA gtzsSAR ====end onyx recruits k=knife c=club m=mace s=sword h=hammer a=axe S=sword A=war axe(none) R=rheden a=avalon H=havoc D=dylan A=athena J=jumala C=Caribe L=Luxor(none) g=garnet t=topaz z=zircon s=sphene S=spinel A=sapphire R=ruby D=Diamond(none) Friends always have their highest possible item for their main class readied before they join you. Also, the last in any set may appear in the next dungen, for some odd reason. 3-2. ITEMS 3-2-1. IKONS ??see about spell points Rhedea cost: everyone has it at the start in combat: small heal noncombat: save the game Avalon cost: 10 in combat: turn undead noncombat: small heal Havoc cost: 30 in combat: raises everyone's defense noncombat: detect enemies that may attack in a few turns Dylan cost: 100 in combat: drains an enemy's DEX noncombat: increase everyone's defensive level(?v?) Athena cost: 300 in combat: offensive spell noncombat: lets you read ancient inscriptions(cast??) Jumala cost: 1000 in combat: flee combat immediately noncombat: raises everyone's DEX temporarily Caribe cost: 3000 in combat: party enhancement/enemy attribute decrease?? noncombat: allows you past level 7(cast??) Luxor cost: 9000 in combat: big damage noncombat: (none) Cudgle [sic] cost: found in Deep Water, L-17 in combat: big damage noncombat: (none) 3-2-2. GEMS Garnet cost: everyone has it at the start in combat: ?? noncombat: tells current level Topaz cost: 10 in combat: STR attack non combat: run into an onyx wall with one and get transported to the last onyx wall --cast a spell, and it sends you to the previous onyx wall Zircon cost: 30 in combat: LIFE attack noncombat: (avoid the enemy??) Sphene cost: 100 in combat: enchants weapons to attack enemies noncombat: weakens number of enemies that appear(??) Spinel cost: 300 in combat: kills fire-type enemy(nice against dragons) noncombat: looks behind door Sapphire cost: 1000 in combat: lower enemy DEX noncombat: find what a spell does(??) Ruby cost: 3000 in combat: lets you flee noncombat: can breathe underwater if karma is good Diamond cost: 9000 in combat: big damage to enemy noncombat: none Star Stone cost: found L35 greywall, mages only in combat: big damage to enemy noncombat: no effect?? 3-2-3. WEAPONS How many times you can attack depends on strength. Remember a bar of strength is about 12 units. ??weapons vs levels ??l5 can get 2 shots in with hammer L4 can't ??l5 hammer can't get 3 shots in ??L4 axe can't get 2 shots in Knife Cost: everyone has it at the start DEX/STR for 2 hits: DEX/STR for 3 hits: Club Cost: 10 DEX/STR for 2 hits: DEX/STR for 3 hits: Mace Cost: 30 DEX/STR for 2 hits: DEX/STR for 3 hits: Sabre Cost: 50 DEX/STR for 2 hits: DEX/STR for 3 hits: Hammer Cost: 120 DEX/STR for 2 hits: DEX/STR for 3 hits: Axe Cost: 300 DEX/STR for 2 hits: DEX/STR for 3 hits: Sword Cost: 800 DEX/STR for 2 hits: DEX/STR for 3 hits: War Axe Cost: 2000 DEX/STR for 2 hits: DEX/STR for 3 hits: Calibur Cost: found in skeleton, level 12 DEX/STR for 2 hits: DEX/STR for 3 hits: 3-2-4. ARMOR Buying armor can change your class. Also, if you are a mage or monk, buying armor will get rid of your helm and/or shield. ??does this mean they're worthless for mage/monk 0 = 20 gold 1 = 40 gold 2 = 75 gold 3 = 150 gold 4 = 400 gold 5 = 1200 gold ----------cassocks 0 = 30 gold 1 = 50 gold 2 = 100 gold 3 = 180 gold 4 = 320 gold 5 = 600 gold 6 = 1200 gold 3-2-5. HELMS/SHIELDS ??try damage taken with no shield vs very good shield, no armor vs very good armor, helm etc, shield up vs shield down 3-3. MONSTERS ??monster AI can be smart or stupid BAT KOBOLD WOLF GOBLIN ZOMBIE SKELETON VAMRAT COBRA WOLK SPIDER DWARF WEREFLY LION OGRE GORILLA RATMAN SCORPION DEADMAN SPIRIT SLIME ORC GHOUL GHOST GRUELL SKORSE SPECTER MEDUSA GARAGUL DRAAK TAKOID ICEMAN VAMPIRE TAURUS LIZMAN TROLL EYEGER MUMMY LOOKER GARGOYLE NAZGUL HOUND GOMMY DRAKE DEMON DEVIL GHOBLIN GRIFFON DRAGON KIST PEGASUS KINKER SEADEAD KRAKEN SEAHULK FRYSKER GRELL TAGOR ZORK HUFTER GRAUL LEEUW ARCHON GIANT NIDHOGGR MAGUS NOBODY 3-4. SPECIFIC STRATEGIES 3-4-1. GAINING EXPERIENCE You get a new level at 96 experience, no matter what your starting class. However, it gets harder to gain experience the tougher monsters get. The more damage you do to a monster, the more experience you will get. You get 50 experience points in each class for discovering the following: --a deep-space view in the levels up to --the deep-water fishies, evenif you don't have caribe --Calibur, the sword, if you have a hero who is a sage --the Star Stone, if you have a mage who is a sage --Cudgle, if you have a monk who is a sage --any one of the fire area tower squares --an outside view, when you get near the top The experience will not put you over the top of the next level, so try to clear what half-levels you can Experience is at a premium in the game, so the more you're able to use it later, the better. You can attack potential PC's, but they don't give gold, only experience. Gold can be converted to better weapons, which give you more experience when they strike, though. If you want to spread experience throughout your parties, put different heroes in the first slot. Healing spells that overflow go to them and restore their STR/DEX, making them do the most damage. 3-4-2. CROSS-CLASS This generally isn't terribly useful except for monks. Everyone should have avalon, rheden and havoc. Avalon turns undead in combat and heals outside. Havoc is a useful protection spell. They're both quite cheap. Extra mage levels aren't too useful, but you can pick up a few switching classes after finding two of the locations above. Your best bet is to fight relatively easy monsters for classes you want to get at a lower level. Though for Monk, it is easy enough to turn undead. Remember to switch everyone over at the start of the fight to use their side class--or switch back to the regular one, depending on the monster. 3-4-3. COMMON COMBAT MOVES The first time you see undead monster type X, have everyone use Avalon on it. It's worth the time for a quick change as you get a nice experience boost and you get powerful enough for the next random undeads. Hitting a monster, tapping up twice, and killing him next is the easiest and most important. It can get 1 EXP where there was none. Later on, both easy and tough monsters alike will do this for you. Steer your fighter weapons into the same enemy, if you can't kill it with one blow. Similarly, judge how magic and weapons can beat up one. Plan to get rid of enemies across from your monk/mage if they fire at the person opposite them. Gorillas do this. It makes them easier to beat but likelie to kill one of your guys. You also may want your monk to start with havoc and mage with heal. Don't use the heal spell in combat unless you really need to restore someone's dexterity/strength. Don't be scared to try out a new spell on progresively stronger opponents. The effect is random and while numbers can be given to approximate it, you need a feel for what does what with how much energy for one player. Stand down for weak monsters to gain gold. If you're worried about serious damage, don't do so yet. You can also find if monsters flee by not throwing everything at them when you know you can beat them. Some tough ones like gargoyles run, too, after they are exhausted. These monsters are also good for a quick 1 EXP. Better for spellcasters to have low energy than fighters. Fighters do the main damage, but spellcasters support them. Put shields up when spellcasters tired, if they have shields. When in doubt, pick up a new level before next area chopping up weaklings. They always get 1 experience per fight. If you got a level in the natural order of things, don't worry, you're probably okay. 3-4-4. GOING EVIL(FOR NOW) You can kill potential party members, it being 5 on 1, for quick gold. But you get no experience, and karma is reset to zero. As you need 60+ karma for the special items, and gold comes along handily with being able to stand down, don't do this unless you're willing to build back up, or you really want to grind through the game and be able to win a lots of fights. It's fun, and it's relatively quick, but you don't seem to get items out of it at all. 4. MAZE(TEXT REPRESENTATION) The most important thing to realize about the maze is how the onyx panels work. They send you back to the last onyx panels you touched. So, for instance, if you wanted to visit continually deeper levels of a dungeon, you could. Go 2 levels down, touch a panel, heal up in town, touch the big onyx panel on that level, go to the dungeon, go down a level, etc. Later on you'll be able to navigate non-town bits easier, allowing you to go both up and down at the same time. If you use a topaz, you go back to the last onyx panel you touched, but you don't have the ability to warp from that panel any more. The first onyx panels to go back to are the ones in the southeast of the opening level area. 4-1. BIG PICTURE There appear to be two areas that are actually inaccessible without cheating(Hah! Serves me right for trying that!) but overall the map of actual stair branches is pretty straightforward. 4-2. BY-LEVEL D=dead end or Detour == = can move laterally O = black onyx squares WATER(7) 27,02 (treasure here) | WATER(8) 26,04==27,02 | WATER(1) 26,04==24,01 | WATER(2) 23,29==24,01 | WATER(3) 23,29==(zigzags) | WATER(4) 24,08==(zigzags) | WATER(5) 24,08==19,12 | WATER(6) 22,08==19,12 | WATER(7) 22,08==20,10 | WATER(8) 23,08==20,10 | WATER(1) 23,08==26,07 | (change background) DUNGEON(2) 08,17==26,07 | DUNGEON(3) 08,17==18,26 | DUNGEON(4) 01,11==18,26 | DUNGEON(5) 01,11==07,15 | DUNGEON(6) 07,15==03,14 | TOWN(7) (stores) 03,14==28,06==30,06==========22,10 (TEMPLE) | | D TOWN(8) 18,04 00,06==28,06==30,06 (stores) 22,10==24,10 D | | TOWN(1) 18,04==00,09==00,06 <== START HERE 23,21==24,10 | | TOWN(2) 02,02==00,09 23,21==23,19 | | TOWN(3) 02,02==11,06 27,23==23,19 | | TOWN(4) 14,06==11,06==21,07 27,23==28,05 | D | TOWN(5) 14,06==08,00 21,07(shops) 26,05==28,05 | ^ | FOREST(6) 17,10==08,00 <<<<<20,08 26,05 (Moondog 25,07) | | FOREST(7) 17,10==14,03 20,08==20,03 | | FOREST(8) 09,03==14,03 18,02==20,03 | | FOREST(1) 09,03==05,05 18,02==18,00 | | FOREST(2) 15,14==05,05 17,30==18,00 | | FOREST(3) 15,14==12,14 17,30==26,25 | v | v WOODSY(4) 04,21==12,14 25,13==26,25 | | WOODSY(5) 04,21==30,11 25,13==01,22 | | LEVEL 14 23,13==30,11 06,17==01,22 | | LEVEL 15 23,13==20,13 06,17==02,11 | | LEVEL 16 19,23==20,13 02,10==02,11 | | LEVEL 17 19,23=====10,23 02,10==12,06 | | LEVEL 18 17-18,23==10,23=======07,02==12,06==15,11 ^ 1 way | D LEVEL 19 17-18,23==28,25=30,15 07,02==03,05 15,11 | down/ | LEVEL 20 30,16=====28,25 dead 11,04==03,05 | end | LEVEL 21 30,16==27,18 11,04==12,08 | | LEVEL 22 00,22==27,18 12,14==12,08 v | LEVEL 23 00,22==28,18 12,14==14,14 | | LEVEL 24 29,17==28,18 15,09==14,14 | | LEVEL 25 29,17==28,13 15,09==22,12 | | ICE(2) 28,13======26,14======22,12 31,19 | D ICE(3) 31,13=============26,14==============29,05 00,14=31,19 | | | FIRE(4) 31,13=11,28========13,28=11,30=13,30 29,05=00,14=29,02 | D D D D? FIRE(5) 11,28=06,25 18,25 06,01 18,01 00,06=29,02 | | | | FIRE(6) 11,28=06,25 13,28 11,30 13,30 00,06=01,09 | | | | | FIRE(7) 11,28=10,27 14,27 END END 31,00=01,09 | | |bkgd FIRE(8) 05,30=10,27 17,30 31,00=28,27 | | | FIRE(1) 05,30=03,25 END 04,28=28,27 | | FIRE(2) 03,18========03,25 04,28=27,27 | | GOLD(3) 03,18=09,22 27,27 | (gem in NW) GOLD(4) 13,21=09,22 | GOLD(5) 13,21=EARTH=05,28=======16,00=31,04=26,21=21,27 D D D O E EARTH(6) 01,30=05,28=08,26 16,00 31,04 26,21=21,27=16,19 | | | EARTH(7) 01,30=18,28 08,26=10,19 16,18=16,19 | | | EARTH(8) 14,19=18,28 10,19=======16,01=16,18 D ONYX(1) 05,20=14,19 | ONYX(2) 05,20=23,14=13,31 | ONYX(3) 15,03=13,31 | ONYX(4) 15,03=find the black onyx 4-3. UNACCOUNTED AREAS There are two unaccounted areas in the game. They have one-way stairs at the end of each of them. If I could figure how to get to them, it could make part of the game easier. There's one on the forest(floors 6-11) and one in the woodlands(19-21, ice 22) and they take up map space that, as I see, could've been used to torture the player even more. 5. WALKTHROUGH This walkthrough will be presented with the help of the maze decoder above and the maps on GameFAQs. It will hopefully help improve your characters sufficiently as they get through the maze, and it should also point out shortcuts for experience, which gets at a premium later on. A rough by-level walkthrough is below. You don't have to stick to it, but I found that getting one level for each later area is a good pace, especially since there are places to get 50 of the 96 experience points you need. Near the end, you should be able to flee/retreat as necessary. Technically you can eke through with flees alone, but I don't recommend doing so. You also don't really need a powerful mage, but I had one in the party, just because it seemed the right way to do things. In fact, I wound up with a mage whose level was almost equal to his monk level for a while. I'll need to micromanage the walkthrough to save you time, so I'll describe how I went through it. Fortunately there are a lot of items you can skip buying, and your personal dexterity for multiple attacks is at least as important as the stat itself. 5-1. FLOOR 1 Use Nolan to start. He has some good weapons. You could also use a monk, as a priest gives your leader the Caribe Ikon later, but this worked for me. Enjoy the lake view, and note that the starting orientation for this game as according to the walkthrough will be north. Then hit any key and go through the door to get into the tower. Go right then forward at the passage. Through the door, go right to the wall, and right again and to the wall. Through the doors you have the main town section. Take the left ones. This level has nothing but recruits, so your first job is to fill out the party. Go forward and backwards through the long passage until you have four recruits. The straightaway is the best place to do this. So when you see one, put your character at attention. I think a good mix is to have HERO HERO HERO MONK MAGE You can switch the order of players here, though if you want to cheat, you may be better off just waiting for the right characters to come along, as shuffling the party leaves the character order in the RAM scrambled. If you attack by mistake, abort and run away. Only won fights drop your karma. Fighting recruits is a valid strategy later on, but right now we want to keep it simple. It doesn't matter which hero you pick up. Some have different items than the others, but nothing costs too much to pick up. There are some zones that have no fights/encounters and some that have a lot, and you will want to find the hot spots when you need a fight/encounter, and the cold ones when you don't, when you'd rather just heal up undistracted. Here, the double doors in the first big room lead to a hot spot(left door) and a cold one(right door.) The really important thing is to get your characters that first level-up, after which they can kill most of the monsters in the town area. Here is how to get to the fights: at the far end of the straightaway, turn right, go through two doors, 1W and 2N to a portal up. Now you can go two forward and through the door and back until you get an encounter. There aren't really any bad encounters. Kobolds are very easy, and skeletons are undead. So are Zombies. Those guys give you quick level-ups. But watch your priest around the undead. Wolves are a bit tougher. It's probably best to run from them if there are a lot of them, as they take time. Be sure to have your monk and mage firing off spells. Even if they aren't terribly effective, they'll get experience for them. In fact, after a bit, you should buy up each of the first two spells for your mage and monk. The mage should use zircon as soon as possible, the monk Havok, a great protective spell. To get to the basement once you have about 50 gold, 2S E 3N W 2N from the portal up. Then: E 3S 2W N to get to the ikon shop for your monk. You may also wish to buy Havok and Avalon for everyone else, too. They are cheap, and in later phases of the game it's useful to have someone who can cast the jobsworth spells. From the ikon shop, 2W 3S 3W 4N to the weapon shop. You can buy each of your fighters a sabre or even a hammer. Anything more and they might not be able to attack twice. It's good to keep up to date on weapons, at least up until the Hammer, for the starting bit. The more damage you can do, the more experience you can get. Going in and out for fights is pretty efficient. You will want to attack early and often, with the best weapons you have. You can always go down the portal, muck around, and come back up. If anyone gets hit in combat, you can have your monk/mage use Rheden to heal people up. Simply mucking around above town should get your characters to level 3 pretty quickly. If one of your fighters is lagging, have the other two defend until his attacks catch up. You'll gain more experience overall that way. You may wish to stock up on potions for the next bit below, although that may be more for insurance than anything. Once you get your guys to level 3, it may be more efficient to go below. One of the toughest things in the game is knowing when to switch strategies and floors so that the gold keeps coming. Try playing around with multiple attacks for a while--this is critical to make tough fights easy. You can go to the level below. 2E 3N D from outside the weapons shop. If you have nine potions, you may be able to walk through the first part of the deep dungeon and get to the fountain. In level -1, the temple to the west is accessible if you have an Athena ikon, but the monsters there are way too difficult at the moment. Athena is a handy offensive spell, but right now your monk is sorely needed for defense. If you are impatient for new items, then you can fight around level -1 for a bit. so, from the stairs down from level 1, go E 3S 4W 3N E D. Then N 2E 4S 3E 2S. Look, onyx walls. 5-2. THE DUNGEON You will now want to touch the onyx walls for the first time. If you did so in the town, nothing would happen. Here, you get teleported back to town. Touch the walls in town and it's back to level -1! This provides an easy bailout if you are stuck in the dungeon. You can also have a mage use a topaz, but that takes you to the last place you went and kills any possible linku[ between two separate places. For starters, keep running along the main tunnel of level -2, with two doors to the side, until you feel confident you can whip the monsters. They should fall to multiple hits. If you get to level 4, monsters will run, but actually it may be best to try to shoot the gap and get to level -5 as quickly as possible. That is where the first fountain is. If you're lucky, along the way you'll get some random items, too. On the way, take on all comers. Your ultimate object here should be to get to the bottom of the dungeon. There are some fish past a black onyx hallway on level - 6. You want to touch that black onyx hallway. Here are directions: L-2: 2nd door on the right, or, S 2W 4N 4E S W 3S 3E D. Here is your first chance to hit the onyx, get healed and go back down. The town above should seem extra easy. L-3: 2N W* 2N D. Easy enough. L-4: There is nothing worthwhile to the south of the entrance. 2E N E N and touch the onyx. It's worth saving in every level, because you never know what might happen. S W S E* 2S E* 3N 2W 3N 3E S* E* S* 3E Detour here: N W E S detour should give 50 experience for finding your first room. The game will not roll a level over, so if someone is near a new level, wait til they get it. Then revisit that room. S D. L-5: Lots of dead end areas here, too. 2W 4S 3W N* 2E N* 2W 2N W*. Now you can go S N for the fountain. The fountain is great, because it heals your life, strength and dexterity AND it gives you five potions. That saves a lot of money in town and allows you to be more aggressive with fights. You can hang around the fountain a bit if you'd like, or if you're close to a level. 4N 3W 3S 2E 2S D. It will not be hard to backtrack to the fountain. L-6: W 5N 2W, touch the onyx twice and heal in the meantime, though you should not need to. W* 3N 2W N W N E and you get 50 experience for the fishies. Again, make sure your guys get their levels first, as experience will rapidly be at a premium. Incidentally, now you can switch classes and pile up experience on other classes. This is useful to have all your heroes and mages be good at turning undead with Avalon. Good job! You've made it to the first fountain and onyx walls. The deep water is below, so this seems like a dead end. But it isn't, really. Your plan as you go back up the stairs will be to use the onyx to flip back here, backtrack to the fountain on level -5, and return to where you are. This is a better plan than retreating to town, as the fountain gives everyone five free potions. These potions can be used when the party gets tired. You probably have a nice stash of cash right now, and here is a shopping list. 1. hammers and sabers for fighters ($510) so they can attack more than once. Buying all items is worthwhile, as the right item for your current level will optimize your attacks and damage...and experience 2. Athena for your Monk ($300) 3. best kaftan/cassock for monk/mage ($1200 each)--take care of the mage first, as he will have fewer hit points 4. RUBY($3000) lets you flee from anything, but you probably don't have the money. A speedy emulator will let you stand down against enemies. Helms/shields don't seem worthwhile to buy. You acquire them naturally and don't need them before if you take combat aggressively. Not sure if spellcasters can actually use them. But they can buy them. It's worthwhile to take a detour from the quest for any of this when you need to recharge. When you do that, work on multiple enemy bashing. You shouldn't need more than a hammer for a long while, as you can just use the big sword for enemies that take a lot of damage, and enemies that do a little damage will be done in by multiple attacks from a weak weapon. As time goes on, you'll find the level -6 to level -1 trek very easy as time goes on. The fights here will get downright silly once you've gotten the level after finding the fishies. So get used to the onyx corridor on level -6. You'll be seeing a lot of it. When you're done with all this, touch the onyx on level -6 to go back to the town. You're going back up, and you'll be exploring more than just the small level 2 area this time. 5-3. GOING UP! 5-3-1. TOWN AREA The green foresty area is the next to explore. Some of the monsters here can really get to you if you don't heal up and keep fresh. You'll be visiting the fountain in the dungeon a bit, as explained below. There'll be some passageways with black onyx as you make your ascent. You'll want to use them whenever you see them. But first, up through the town. It will be a doddle. L2: N* 2E U L3: S* E* N* U. You could touch the onyx here, but quite bluntly there's nothing to be scared of. And there's onyx just above. L4: 2S 2E, touch onyx twice. 2E S 2E 2N W 3N 3W 2S E U. You may not even need to touch the onyx here, but this is the last one before you reach the forest. There are actually two ways up here. The other leads to another pair of letter shops. L5: E N 2W 5N W* U. There are two shops off to the side, but they only have letters. Incidentally, there is another way up from level 4 that leads to another shop with two letters. There seems to be a 1-way stair that drops down to the east area here, but I can't figure out how to get to that area at all. So for practical purposes, you just need to visit the west side of level 5 in town. 5-3-2. FOREST AREA L6: Look, different background. S 6E 8S W 2S E and if you can make it to the black onyx, great. Don't be shy about using potions after each fight. Dwarves and Deadmen are beatable, but Ogres and Scorpions are brutal if your strength is low. If you get an encounter, proceed as before. Just heal afterwards if the fight takes more than a round. You can probably afford one potion per tough fight, and you can get away with not healing if a fight did you no damage or took just one round. Walking will regain your energy. Touch the onyx and touch the wall again and you are that much further into the maze. And the fountain on level -6 is relatively nearby now. Level 7 is a long walk, so build up. You can take advantage of "eeking" here by touching the near onyx, going to the fountain and coming back, then moving two right and touching it again. Eeking is more useful elsewhere, but the point here is that you can move a few squares down the whole onyx corridor without risk. 3E N U. L7: 4N E 2N W N W N W* S* E 2N E*. You may wish to flee if there are a lot of enemies around, because the next part is probably the trickiest. It's a winding path. L8: W* N 2W N* E* S* W S 2E N* (if you make it this far, you can go on without worrying about things.) W* S* 2E U. L9 has a fountain. 2W 2N E* N* W* N* E* gets you there. W* S* W. L10 has onyx. Touch it. 2S, get to the dungeon fountain, and come back. E* N E S* E 2S 3E U. L11 is easy and has more onyx. Touch it. 3W U. 5-4. ORANGE The orange bit is a pretty easy area to get through. I just needed the five potions from the fountain and got through it in one push, right after the forest. You have some enemies to watch out for, but if you are saving regularly, they should not be a problem. Lots of undeads, so if everyone has Avalon, you should mow the enemies down. There's only one fountain along the way here, and there aren't many twists and turns. This and the skeleton area are connected by a door and not stairs, which is unusual. Around here you should also start fleeing if there are 8+ enemies you cannot beat up easily. They may simply just tire you down. L12: 2E 2S W N W 2S 3W 2N E N W* 2S 2E S* L13: E 2N 2W N 2W N W 6N 2W L14: 3W 5N E N (fountain) S W S* W* N W- 3S 3E U. L15: 3W U. L16: W S* U. L17: N 3W 2N 3W 5S W= 2N U. L18: 3N 8E N. This transfers you to the skeleton area. You will of course want to hit the onyx right away so you can double back to the dungeon. Make sure you are fully healed before you go forward! Then, if you lose your potions, refresh them. The monsters are a bit tougher here, and you have a long way to go. But you should be okay. 5-5. THE SKELETON AREA You'll need to use potions aggressively here, and again Avalon is a boost. Unsurprisingly, there are lots of undead here. Against monsters like ghosts, everyone can ready Avalon and gun the ghosts down within one turn. This also confuses the ghosts, who generally attack your monk to avoid the turn undead spells. They don't know who to attack! You should get a monk level or two from all this. You also will want your heroes to have karma of 60+, so they are sages and can receive the sword Calibur, which is the object of the skeleton area. You can return to town any time while recharging. It's useful to have people at level 2-3 to take out ghouls and ghosts and spectres with Avalon. You can You may occasionally get to fight easier monsters like ghouls, but don't count on it. Spectres are vicious if they hit you as are Medusas, one of the few undeads. L18: E N* W* N W and touch the onyx twice and heal up. This is mostly precautionary, but the monsters can wipe you out quickly if you're not rested. L17: 4W S W 2S W 2S 4W N D. L16: 2N, touch onyx, visit fountain in lower area, then 2N 3E 3S W and touch the onyx again(eeking again, if you need to.) Then 3S E N for the fountain. You want to be extra careful, as I mentioned before. But if you do things right, there are big potential gains. S 3W N D. L15: Yuck, big chance for a bad fight here, so you may want to retreat and heal if you get caught out here. In fact, there is a big long stretch right here of three levels, so you may want to try things, see if they work, and if they don't, buy a few more potions after visiting a fountain. This strategy also applies to levels later in the game where you'll be without a fountain for a while. You can also branch and futz with emulator save states and so forth, but this is the first real dry spell in the game. W S* E 2S E 3S 2E 4N E. L14: E S* 2W 2S W*. L13: N 2E 3S W* N* W N* 4W N E to the fountain. W S 3E D. L12: This is a nasty level where you have a lot of back-and-forth throughout, and if you have to flee from a fight, it is very possible you'll get turned around. So here is a rule about fleeing: know where you are and which way you were facing. If you have a door 1 square ahead and on the right, then if you flee, you will flee to either in front of a door or with a door 1 square ahead. If the first, you have moved forward. If the second, you moved backwards. If you have a door just in front of you, then you will have moved forward if you still are by the door after fleeing. Otherwise, you moved backwards. For having a door in back of you, it is the reverse. S* 3W S 3E S 3W S 3E S 3W S 3E S 3W S 3E S E and there you have the sword. Now you need to get back. Now you have a bit more to go up, but I bet it's a lot easier now with those swords. They aren't always the best weapon, though. They only attack once. If you need to fight a bunch of enemies with few hit points and big damage, go with the best you've got where you can attack thrice. The road back is pretty brutal. You don't want to use a topaz here, and you may have to flee or use a few potions to get back to the fountain on level 13. But once you do, you may be able to go back to town and buy armor for your other spellcaster. The monsters on the ice will be a bit tougher and more likely to focus on your spellcasters, or be able to kill them with one hit. 5-6. THE ICE You may wish to buy up potions to 9 for parts of this run, too. L20: A quick fountain here is 6E N. Then S 2E N U. You may wish to get the hang of fights and monsters here by hanging out near the fountain. L21: S W* 2S, touch the onyx, and now here's where you may wish to stock up on the potions. You can probably jig the combats or eek save states/games to push up to level 25, but if you want to be honest, you may have to go with the extra potions. The encounters in the time it takes to get there and back should make up for what you need to pay for the potions, and you may be ready for a new axe or sword anyway. 2S E* N 3W U. L22: N W S= 2E S W U. L23: W S 4E N W U. L24: 2S 2E N* E N* W 2S W N U. L25: 2S 2E 3N 2E S to the fountain. N 2W 3S E S 4E U. L26: N E S 2E 2S E U. The stair to the east of this leads to a dead end, so don't worry about it. L27: 4E and now the game branches. E N leads to the fire area. You're not ready for that yet. You probably want to visit the grey-wall area, called the Face area by maps in websites about the game that are in Japanese. 2N and touch the onyx. I don't think you necessarily need 9 potions here. You just need to go 3N E* N* W* U. 5-7. MORE GOING UP This was the most annoying part for me, because my map kept going over the boundaries, and I couldn't read what was there. But it is not so bad. There are two paths up: one leads to the Fire area and eventually the City of Gold, and the other leads to what others call the Face area and I call "grey part 2." The Face area will be first, as it has an item you want for your mage. There's L28: 3N U. The southeast leads to stairs down to a dead end. You can follow it on my map if you want. L29: N 2E 6N E S, fountain, 3N 6W 2S E 3S W. L30: E 3S U. Although you can go 2E, touch the onyx, and come back, if you really need a break and a recharge at a fountain. L31: There's more onyx here just ahead, and there won't be a break for another couple of levels. You'll have some walking to do. Again, a good place to go back for nine potions if you want, but if you save regularly, you shouldn't need to. 6N W 2N 2W N E U. L32: 2S E 5N 3W 2S 2W 4N E U. L33: E 6S 3E 2N 2E 2N 2E N U. L34: 2N 4W 2N, fountain, 2S 3W N W 2S W U. L35: S W 2N 2W and get the star and get out as you came in. The Star does pretty good damage on enemies, as your mage is probably behind the curve. Just let him smack whomever you fight with it, especially when you know you can win, and he will catch up a few levels pretty quickly. Once you've got the star, your mage will probably still use monk spells a lot, but whenever possible, slip the star in. The way back down should not be too bad. I don't think you'll need to use the Topaz. You may need to save the game a few times. You will want to move back down to level 28. 5-8. RUNNING THROUGH THE FIRE Note an alternate strategy is to run to the city, get your mage killed, and get it replaced by a much better mage. I haven't tried this, but it seems an easy trade-up, and the City of Gold is lousy with non-lousy party character wannabes. You could replace almost your whole party like this, but you might lose your special items. So, for the purposes of this walkthrough, I will keep the old party. For this one you probably really will want nine potions, to make sure of things. The experience you get along the way for beating up random easy monsters cannot hurt. The fire area is pretty tough, and you'll want to run from kists, for instance, or lots of drakes. All other monsters are manageable. Fire is eight levels, and there are four towers. Three are dead ends. One leads to the City of Gold. You'll probably have a lot to buy after making it through here. If you are having trouble getting through, you can go back to the temple area and poke around. For the moment, you may wish to touch the onyx on level -2 so that you can go back and forth more easily between either the Ice and the Temple, or the City of Gold and the temple. You can probably hack one fight at a time in the temple, and if not, no big deal. You have the game saved. A few fights, and you will probably gain a few shields and helms that will serve you well. But it really depends on luck of the draw, which monsters you get. There's probably enough for a new level, and you can probably buy swords for your fighters by now. Here are directions from the onyx passage on level 27. L27: S* E N U L28: N E 3N E 5N E 2N 2E N* E- 2S 3E S for the fountain. N 3W 2N E and now you have a choice of four stairs up. The right one is N U. L29: 2W N 2W S W 3N U. L30: E 3S 4E S U. L31: N W U. L32: 5W 3S U. L33: 5N 2W U. L34: 2N 2W N and I'd use the onyx just in case here. L34: (part 2) 2N 2E 2N U. Hooray! You made it to the City of Gold! 5-9. CITY OF GOLD, FIRST BIT The City of Gold is safe. You will only meet other player characters here. They are very good, so do not fight them. Well, not yet, anyway. They're pretty much all over, which gets annoying if you are wandering around. If you can, buy a ruby for your mage(best) and JUMALA for your monk. These let you flee from battle. The ruby is slightly better, as it does not drain energy as quickly. If your monk can use a shield while your mage uses a sapphire, or the mage can use a shield while the monk casts JUMALA, so much the better. In that way, you can escape whenever too many enemies come at you. L35: E S 3W S W 2S 2E 2S 6E 3N E U. L36: 5E 2N W S U. There's nothing to do here, so don't bother. L37: 5E 2S 2W 2S 4W 3S and tap the black onyx if you want. The next part, with earth, is tough, so it's a good thing you have the temple and deep water below to take care of. Note you now have a safe place you can go back to if you touch the onyx in the temple. 5-10. THE TEMPLE Be sure you have a ruby for this, so you can flee easily. It's worth taking the damage to make sure you can flee. The advantage of fleeing with the ruby is that you do not move one square afterwards. Your party should be strong enough to withstand a few hits per round before fleeing. Obviously, you'll want to keep your mage healed here. Scramble back up to level -2 from the dungeon and now go all the way west from the corridor you're in. You will enter the Temple of Athena. Don't mess around here. You will want to go forward and climb up the portal. Tough monsters here include kists or, if there are a lot of them, drakes. Anything that breathes will be very nasty. L-1: not much to do but 2W U. L0: 2E U. Trying for random encounters here is not recommended, but you can touch the onyx just to the side of the stairs if you want. L1: W, S* to the small pagoda, U. Again, touch the onyx if you want/need. L2: 2N U. L3: S E 2N W N 2E 4S 2W 2S for the fountain. 2N 2E 2S 2E U. L4: This place is so symmetrical that it is tough to figure out which way you are going. Go forward. 18N(9 blocks on the right) and then 1E you have a stairway up. If you need to flee from a fight, remember it won't be apparent if you went 1 square north or south. Saving an emulator state is good here. Also, before a fight, if you must flee without the ruby, remember which side the open space was on, so you can determine if you are on the west or east of the main corridor. Again you can figure out where you are even without location spells. It requires some heuristics. -| |- <-you are there -| Now, if you flee forward, the view will be different. A door will be on the left. If you flee backward, a door will still be on the right, as when you started. So you can tell which direction you went after fleeing, even though the area seems too symmetrical to sort out. Unfortunately, there are no location spells to help you with this. L5: 2W U. Well, you deserved a break. L6: 2S W through the only door in this level. Moondog gives your leader Caribe. No matter who you put in slot 1, your first player created gets it. I got to level 9 poking around at a few fights here. However, the shields/helms are just as important. You don't want to buy them, since you can find them poking around in the deep water. 5-11. WATER You can now get past the fish that are at the west end of this tunnel. It's worthwhile to go to level 6, touch the fountain, go to the City of Gold, buy potions, and keep on going. You will get the 200 gold back after a couple of tough fights. Run/use the ruby if you face 6+ monsters you've never seen before. They have the potential to wear you down. Accidents will happen, and you'll get caught occasionally, but the monsters are slow down here. Running is actually an option. Heal fully after every battle. Battles are worth fighting if there are not too many enemies, because you will get good items at random. And in fact once you get to the bottom, you can use the rest area in the City of Gold and the Onyx there above to fight enemies until you get the items and experience and gold you want. First, go back down to where the fishies were(W* 3N 2W N W N 2E) and CARIBE lets you through to the stairs down. W* 3N 2W N W N E and then east of that are stairs down to the deep water area. The best idea is just to run from all fights til you get the item in the treasure chest, although a very good option is to just get your feet wet fighting, get some experience and gold, and run all the way down. There are no fountains here and no onyx walls before the final bit. But on the bright side, the levels are not too big. L-7: 5S 2W N E 2N 2W N D L-8: S 3W S D L-9: S 2W S D L-10: S 4W 3S E D L-11: W 3S 4W S D L-12: W 2S 3W S D. As far as I know, none of the portals down makes a difference over any of the other. Maybe they are trying to create the atmosphere of sinkholes. L-13: W* S* E* 4S E D L-14: S E 3S D L-15: E 3S E D L-16: 2N 3W 5S 2E N D L-17: If you're low on gas, touch the onyx walls and heal up. If you think you can get in a fight or two before running out of potion, then run the gauntlet and go west to the onyx box after completing this. I would not risk it right now. I'd just heal up, buy potions and hack my way through. Whatever you do, though, don't touch both sets of onyx walls in the area, or you'll just bounce between them, and that would be awful. Unless, of course, you don't mind changing the X- and Y- locations in the RAM. Here is what to do: W* S= W* S W* N W* 5N 2E N and you will see a flash and hear a blip. Your priest now has Caribe! It's a good idea to have this equipped. Now retreat, using the same fleeing guidelines as before if you touched the onyx. You can, if you want, go S 4W 2S and touch the onyx on the west side, heal up, then go back 2S 4E S etc. I am inclined to believe that the deep water is a better place to build your party up than Once you are able to pass through the temple on level -1 of the town, you can climb up pretty easily. 5-12. CITY OF GOLD PART 2 Take the northwest tower and climb your way up. That gets you to the City of Gold. You can get new companions and items there, but your current guys should be better. Level 35 and 36 are a walk, but level 37 has the goods. Go south from there to get back in the maze. First, you need to get up to 90 charisma for your monk. Nobody else matters. It is not hard to do this. Just wander around in the city for a while. You may already be at 90, but the game doesn't flag this. You get +1 karma for each NPC you stand down to. So the question is, how to tell how much to get? If your monk has 60 karma, then he is a sage. He needs to get to 90 karma, which the game keeps track of internally without telling you. So you just need to contact 30 NPCs when your monk is a sage. No other classes need this. It shouldn't take too long, especially with an emulator. If you want to peek, 0x75d has player 1's karma number. But then, if you've peeked, you're probably going to wind up cheating. And I can't blame you. Incidentally, players start with 48 karma, so it is not hard to build up. And if you know you're not good enough, you can just go fight in the maze, recuperate in the City of Gold fountains, and talk to whoever passes by, and that'll probably get you where you need to be. However, here is a wrinkle. You can actually fight them to build up gold. They are pretty easy if your front player is armed sufficiently. He doesn't even need too-strong armor, though the $800 stuff will help ensure he's not killed by just one hit. Just have everyone hack at the enemy/rejected PC, and you'll win the fight and 100-200 gold. It takes one round and is relatively low- risk. Just hang around a fountain and go along the row/column by it, and you can pile up a lot of gold pretty quickly. This avoids nasty fights with monsters. You may actually be able to sneak past enemies above the City of Gold to get to the Black Onyx, especially with emulator save states, but I enjoyed building my characters up like this. There is onyx near the end if your characters are not good enough, so you can return here. I didn't find Luxor and the Diamond to be worth saving 9000 gold each for, but you can get there pretty quickly, since Karma can only sink to zero and builds up quickly once you're in the City wandering around. By the way, the 3 squares north of the onyx tunnel are NPC- encounter free and a great place to restore life, dexterity and strength when you don't want to build your karma. Then it's a short jump to outside. You can probably only take one earth fight at a time, for starters. 5-13. OPTIONS POST-CITY The City of Gold mope-quest aside, you're ready to tackle the next area. There are areas outside the tower where you can see what's going on. They look a lot like earth, which doesn't make sense given you're so high up in the tower, and Japanese websites about the game call them "Alien," but I have no documentation for that and besides it looks like earth to me. The outside area has a lot of cloud barriers and there's nothing behind them. The higher levels link the earth with the big Black Onyx maze which actually takes up a good relative chunk of the map. If the tower were represented physically by the relative sizes of the areas, it would make the Seattle Space Needle look pretty anemic. Fights here are pretty awful, but they give a lot of gold, which lets you fill in the super items you haven't found already. You won't really get any extra experience, either, so maybe it is best just to fight relatively low-level monsters. The temple is much gentler on you than the city of gold, as is the deep water. So you have a few solutions here, in order of how good I think they are. 1) re-establish the onyx link between City of Gold L37 and Dungeon L-6. Use the fountain on Dungeon -6 and see the deep water in -7 to pick up experience. Win fights along the way. Use your leader to kill multiple enemies, which should give you 1 exp per fight, which is enough. A lot of fights with 9+ monsters get experience all around. You can put shields up for players who don't need experience, but really, it's best to get your leader to level 11, as he gets the most DEX/STR points per level. Once he does, he should be able to wield the Calibur sword and kill a few tough enemies at a time. 2) fight in the temple. There are some nasty enemies here, but they give good items. If you're trapped low on potions, that is a problem. 3) fight enemies in earth one at a time. I would recommend resetting the lower onyx to the dungeon before moving along. You may get stuck in the Onyx as you move around. If you are satisfied you've made enough levels, you can use the topaz after touching the City of Gold onyx. You can actually undo this, so don't worry--but with just the one location in the City of Gold, you can go as follows to get to a fountain: Level 37 back to 35: 3N 4E 2N 2E 2N 5W D. Level 36 back to 35: N E 2S 5W D. Level 35: W 3S W N to the fountain, S E 3N E. Then back up to level 37. As mentioned above, you will want to get to level 11 for your front man before doing anything, but it is not too bad since each fight should give your front man 1 exp. There's also a short cut for 50 EXP. Read level 40 of the section 5-15. First, though, a detour on what to do if you feel stuck on the City of Gold and want to get back below to more livable fights. 5-14. USING THE CORE TO MOVE AROUND The way the onyx is set up for you right now, you can flip between the City of Gold and the deep water, temple, or dungeon. Or, if you used the topaz, you're stuck with the City of Gold. Unless you know about the core portal shaft. It allows you to hyperspace between levels. It allows you all the options above and more, and it works roughly as follows: Town L1 | Skeleton area L16 | Deep water L-17 | Onyx L38 | Ice L21 | Dungeon L-4 | Town L3 | Forest L10 | Town L1 So what does this mean? Basically, you can enter the core only at the onyx. But you can move up and down as you please. Some areas are better to move to than others. You've probably seen most of them before. They are the ones where you walk around a 2x2 square. Well, you can't get inside it til the onyx. Of these above, Deep Water is good for fights, the Skeleton Area is ok for fights and is near a fountain(and Calibur, if you missed it,) and Ice is good for fights and exiting near a fountain. You can bail out back to town L1 if you have to, but it doesn't have anything the City of Gold doesn't, other than proximity to the Temple. Dungeon L-4 is probably as close, though. You just need to be able to count floors, though if you mess up, you can of course use the topaz and try again. You may also wish to go down the shaft into Fire to get 50 experience. Down 5 levels, then W* 2N and you will be looking out a tower. Then use the topaz to get back up. So: from City of Gold, S W* N U S E= N* 2W N* 2W N 2E 5N 3W N 3W. It's a bit of a trek, so you may need to fight through. But of course you can use a topaz or a fleeing spell to buy time. 5-15. EARTH, OUTSIDE AND BLACK ONYX I think you can just plow through the upper levels of the Black Onyx without many fights, if you know where you are going. But getting there is tricky, and the monsters can be nearly impossible. The fountains are badly spaced from level 37 to 41, probably on purpose with this being the last bit and all. But you don't seem to have many monsters to fight once you get to the last level. You can probably flee from most of the ones you do fight. I was able to flee my way through at level 10. I think you need to be a pretty good level in order to have the dexterity to flee. In a way, it's disappointing there isn't more fighting. On the other hand, Magus and Nidhoggr are very hard, so you can't be honor bound near the end to fight everyone. It's justifiable to buy potions if you think you can make it through. After all, they are really quite cheap now, and with the five free from the fountain $200 a pop. You really only have body armor for your fighters left. Once heroes are at level 11, the Calibur sword can hit more than once, so you may want to re-train in the Deep Water for the big bad monsters. From this point on: Level 37: Touch the onyx in the City of Gold, then use a topaz, before moving on. This resets your new position to the onyx by the City of Gold. Everyone probably found a topaz randomly, so no matter how lost you are, someone can cast the spell to get back. The earth level is a bit trickier than the previous monsters. The way to level 38 isn't, though. 7W S. Level 38: S 7E(Touching the onyx doesn't seem like a great idea here. You're better off using the topaz if you have to flee. Besides, there's a fountain just beyond here, and if you can't make it there, you're not going to make it to level 44 yet.) E 5N 2W S 2W (2N 2S fountain) S. Level 39: E N E 6N to level 40. Level 40: N and west to the outside. If you can get to the outsiHook around the clouds, W* 2N E* N* E* N 2E 2N W and up, to level 41. Be sure to touch a cloud on the way. That gets you 50 experience free. Level 41: S* W N W 2S 2W 3S W 2S 2W N 2W 2S E 3S 8W S and now 9E. This is an annoying 1-way passage and you may have trouble judging things. When you just passed a door on the right, and there is a door on the left, turn right, go 2S and go west all the way. It doesn't seem like a passage with all the open spaces, but it really has a bunch of one-way doors north and south out of the passageway. So you need to be a little careful. You also cannot run from a fight, though using the ruby is okay. Level 42: I didn't run into a lot of fights here. So even if you get lost, it's not a huge deal. 2N W 3S 2W S 3E 3S E 6S 3W S 4E 4N E* S W 3S 2W N E U. Level 43: 2E 4S U. Level 44: 3E N and touch the onyx if you want and go S. You're very close now, and while there are no encounters, you may want to risk as little as possible. E* S* W S W S E 3S 3W 2S W S E 3S (W E fountain) S* 4E S 5W 3N W S. Boom! The black onyx. If your monk has 90 karma, you win! If you have more than one monk, only one of them needs the karma to win. 5-16. BY-LEVEL WALKTHROUGH --fighters are your main hombres. Mage and Monk do a lot of healing and protecting --player 1 gets most EXP, hit pts heal him first and recharge strength/dexterity, so switch player 1's to balance party --all level 3 except maybe mage to start out above town. This will be quick. --get to about level 6 in the dungeon, or 6-5-5 with using the experience boosts carefully --armor for mage and monk. Stand down to get the rest --8-6-6 or so while getting the sword, counting the 50 experience --run through ice and face as quickly as possible but pile up the money for Ruby. Get ATHENA along the way. It's a decent offensive spell. --touch the onyx in Gold and return quickly, then go down to Fire --you can beat up potential party members here if you want gold, but unfortunately it gives you no experience, and building the karma back up is tricky --level 9-7-7 on completing temple, then jump to 10-8-8 after completing fire(gold +50,) then 11-9-9 after completing water(fire +50 first) --plow through for the onyx, using the ruby with abandon 6. CHEATS 6-1. HEXADECIMAL VALUES 0x5d2 = x 0x5d3 = y 0x5d6 = floor, sort of. It's actually (level + 1) mod 8. So valid values are 0 through 7, 0 is the bottom of deep water, and 2 is the starting floor. 0x612 = player 1's equipped type 0 = weapon 1 = rune 2 = gem 0x63e/0x63f = low/high byte of party gold 0x655 = player 1 hero strength /2 (max) 0x65f = player 1 hero strength /2 (cur) 0x669 = player 1 mage strength /2 (max) 0x673 = player 1 mage strength /2 (cur) 0x67d = player 1 monk strength /2 (max) 0x687 = player 1 monk strength /2 (cur) 0x691 = player 1 hero dexterity (max) 0x69b = player 1 hero dexterity (cur) 0x6a5 = player 1 mage dexterity (max) 0x6af = player 1 mage dexterity (cur) 0x6ba = player 1 monk dexterity (max) 0x6c4 = player 1 monk dexterity (cur) 0x6cd = player 1 hero level 0x6d7 = player 1 mage level 0x6e1 = player 1 monk level 0x6eb = player 1's current class 0x6f5 = player 1 maximum life 0x6ff = player 1 current life 0x709 = player 1's armor 0x71d = player 1 copy? of weapon/gem/ikon type 0x727 = player 1 weapon/gem/ikon type 0x731 = player 1 name 0x739 = player 2 name 0x741 = player 3 name 0x749 = player 4 name 0x751 = player 5 name 0x759 = player 1's position in party(4 = top, 0 = bottom) 0x75d = player 1's karma (0-1f = evil, 20-3f = good, 40-5f=sage, 60+=i!wa e.g. nonsense) 0x763 = player 1's potions 0x768 = flags for which weapon you have 1 = knife 2 = club 4 = mace 8 = sabre 10 = hammer 20 = axe 40 = sword 80 = war axe 0x76d = flags for which gem you have 1 = garnet 2 = topaz 4 = zircon 8 = sphene 10 = spinel 20 = sapphir(e) 40 = ruby 80 = diamond 0x772 = flags for which ikon you have 1 = 2 = 4 = 8 = 10 = 20 = 40 = 80 = 0x781 = player 1's shield 0x786 = hero experience 0x78b = mage experience 0x790 = monk experience 0x795 = player 1's helm 0x79a = hair hi byte = color lo byte = style 0x709 values 0 = 10 gold 1 = 20 gold 2 = 35 gold 3 = 50 gold 4 = 70 gold 5 = 90 gold 6 = 120 gold 7 = 150 gold 8 = 180 gold 9 = 220 gold a = 270 gold b = 350 gold c = 500 gold d = 660 gold e = 850 gold f = 1100 gold 10 = 1400 gold 11 = 1800 gold 12 = 2300 gold 13 = 2900 gold 14 = 3600 gold 15 = 4400 gold ----------kaftans 0 = 20 gold 1 = 40 gold 2 = 75 gold 3 = 150 gold 4 = 400 gold 5 = 1200 gold ----------cassocks 0 = 30 gold 1 = 50 gold 2 = 100 gold 3 = 180 gold 4 = 320 gold 5 = 600 gold 6 = 1200 gold 0x70a = player 1's armor type 0 = armor 1 = kaftan(mage) 2 = cassock(priest) 0x71d = player 1's gem 0 = topaz (10 gold) 1 = zircon (30 gold) 2 = sphene (100 gold) 3 = spinel (300 gold) 4 = sapphir(e) (1000 gold) 5 = ruby (3000 gold) 6 = diamond (9000 gold) ---------- 0 = avalon (10 gold) 1 = havoc (30 gold) 2 = dylan (100 gold) 3 = athena (300 gold) 4 = jumala (1000 gold) 5 = caribe (3000 gold) 6 = luxor (9000 gold) ---------- 0 = nothing 1 = club 2 = mace 3 = saber 4 = hammer 5 = axe 6 = sword 7 = war ax 0x781 = player 1's shield 0 = 0 1 = 30 2 = 100 3 = 200 4 = 400 5 = 700 6 = 1100 0x625/0x795 = player 1's helm 0 = 0 1 = 125 2 = 500 3 = 1000 4 = 2000 0x786 = player 1's hero experience 0x78b = player 1's mage experience 0x790 = player 1's monk experience 6-2. IMPORTANT APPLICATIONS 6-2-1. COMBAT While WHEN combat appears is based on a random seed you can't change, whether you flee or not is based on a time-seed. What this means for emulation is, if you saved and got in a battle a few moves later, you can't escape the battle. But if you tinker with the timing, you'll eventually be able to flee before anyone does you damage, unless you got in WAY over your head. If you switch floors, that seems to muck up whom you face, too. Also, if you have an emulator and a fast computer, you can breeze through the quick fights and through scrolling in a hallway to regenerate STR and DEX. This piles up gold at an alarming rate and may allow you to get the very best armor you can. 6-2-2. GETTING THROUGH THE GAME Create a party with at least one monk. byte 5d2 = 13 byte 5d3 = 1a byte 5d6 = 05 bytes 75b-75f = 5a (only your monk needs this, actually) Face the door and enter it. Well, you can actually win the game with just a monk, but that feels a bit too artificial. for ($i = 0; $i <= 7; $i++) { $i1 = $i + 1; open(FI, ">super_black_onyx_$i1.htm"); $j = ($i+1) % 8; $j++; $k = ($i+7) % 8; $k++; print FI "
Level $i1
\n"; print FI "
\n"; print FI "Prev\n"; print FI "Next\n"; close(FI); } 6-3. HTML MAP FROM GAMEFAQS MAPS End of FAQ Proper ================================ 7. VERSIONS/CREDITS 1.3.0: sent to GameFAQs 5/20/2009, even more done, more stuff spelled out, including icons and gems 1.2.0: sent to GameFAQs 5/19/2009, walkthrough spelled out with details on when to use which onyx 1.1.1: sent to GameFAQs 5/18/2009, more combat details. 1.1.0: sent to GameFAQs 5/15/2009, adding all NPCs and with maps fixed a lot 1.0.0: sent to GameFAQs 5/14/2009, walkthrough sufficient but terribly proofread. Thanks to: http://www20.cds.ne.jp/~yugen/sbo/index.htm http://www.e-tokyo.prug.or.jp/~peki/gmemo/blackonyx/nesonyx.html Thanks to the usual GameFAQs/honestgamers gang, current and emeritus. They know who they are, and you should, too, because they get/got some SERIOUS writing done. Good people too--bloomer, falsehead, Sashanan, Masters, Retro, Snow Dragon/Brui5ed Ego, ZoopSoul, War Doc, Brian Sulpher, AdamL, odino, JDog and others I forgot. OK, even Hydrophant in his current not-yet-banned message board incarnation. I am not part of his gang, but I want him to be part of mine. Thanks to the NES Completion Project for keeping it going. Thanks to odino for pointing this game out to me. All you people at honestgamers, YELL AT ME if I forgot you and you deserve to be in there. I mean, it's partially because of HGWars I wrote this FAQ, and I want to add to this in the future.