From s337186@student.uq.edu.au (Bradley Jayakody) Organization University of Queensland Date 28 Jun 1996 04:13:28 GMT Newsgroups rec.games.video.arcade Message-ID <4qvm58$n4s@hobyah.cc.uq.oz.au>
Again I make no claims as to knowing everything. If you think something is wrong or have information to add let me know.
Unoffical Dungeons And Dragons 2: Shadow Over Mystara FAQ V1.2
Written by: Bradley Jayakody(s337186@student.uq.edu.au)
Trademarks
Dungeons And Dragons and the game itself Shadow Over Mystara are trademarks, and so is acknowledged. Any other trademarks not mentioned here are still acknowledged.
Copyright and Disclaimer Notice This FAQ was a labour of love, over one of the best arcade games in existence, that gives the regular fighting games a run in popularity, if not money. This article is Copyright 1996 by Bradley Jayakody. All rights reserved. You are granted the following rights:
I. The author is not responsible for the accuracy of the information contained. An effort has been made to confirm most of the information within this article, but different versions of the game, may occur different results. Do not blame me for loss of credits ;).
II. Copies can be made of this work in original form so long as (a) the copies are exact and complete; (b) the copies include this copyright notice in its entirety; (c) the copies include credit to the author, Bradley Jayakody; (d) the copies include the credits given to contributors; (e) the copies are in electronic form.
III. To distribute this work, or copies made under provisions above, so long as (a) this is the original work and not a derivative form; (b) you do not charge a fee for copying or distrubtion, this includes, but is not limited to charging a fee for disks; (c) you ensure that the distributed form includes the copyright notice in its entirety. (d) the distributed form is not in an electronic magazine or withing computer software (prior explict information may be obtained from Bradley Jayakody); (e) the distributed form is the NEWEST version of the article to the best of the knowledge of the distributor; (f) the distribution of the work is in electronic form.
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Table Of Contents
1.0 Introduction 1.1 Foreward 1.2 Getting the unnoffical DD2 faq 1.3 Adding to the FAQ 1.4 Credits 1.5 Accurate Information 1.6 The Difficulty Level of your Machine
-Section 1- The Characters 2.0 Why these guys? 2.1 General moves 2.2 The advantages of spells 2.3 Specific characters 2.3.1 Cleric 2.3.2 Dwarf 2.3.3 Elf 2.3.4 Fighter 2.3.5 Mage 2.3.6 Thief 2.4 Names and what they mean. 2.5 Highlander Mode
-Section 2- Spells 3.0 Introduction to magic 3.1 Mage and Elf Spell List 3.2 Cleric Spell List 3.3 When do I get my spells back? 3.4 When should I use them? 3.5 Final Strike
-Section 3- Items 4.0 Item List 4.1 Shops 4.2 Common traps 4.3 Tricks to opening trapped locked chests. 4.4 Who gets what?
-Section 5- Level Descriptions 6.0 General notes 6.1 Opening - Descent from the Broken Land 6.2 Village of Trinta (War Machine) 6.3-a To Ride a Juggernaut (Dark Warrior I) 6.3-b Battle on the River (Man Scorpian(s)) 6.4 Skies over Aengmore (Harpy, Tel'Arin) 6.5-a City of Aensun (Ogre Master Bros) 6.5-b Forest of Despair (Beholder) 6.5-c The Bridge (Green Dragon) 6.6 Battle of Strong Oak (Manticore, Lich) 6.7 Grove of Destruction (Displacer Beast) 6.8-a Labyrinth Maze (Black Dragon) 6.8-b Rescue at the Gnome Village (Chimera) 6.9.0 Floating down (Red Dragon) 6.9-a Land of Fire (Flame Salamander) 6.9-b Land of Ice (Ice Salamander) 6.9.c Underground Caverns (Tel'Arin and Good Elf at once) 6.10.1 Gateway 6.10.2 Overtures (Tel'Arin) 6.10.3 Arena (Ezerhorden) 6.10.4 Battle Royal 6.10.5 Arena Revisited (Dark Warrior II) 6.10.6 Inner Heart, Dark Heart {Nagpa, Synn}
-Section 6- 7.1 Hints and Tips 7.2 Famous sayings around the D&D2 machine 7.3 Conclusion 7.4 Revision History
Introduction ------------ 1.1 Foreward Shadow Over Mystara is the long awaited sequal to the original, Tower of Doom. It's a scrolling game, like the classic Double Dragon 2. Unlike other games of this nature, you need to work as a team to get anywhere. It's no good the Fighter dying when the cleric has 5 cure serious spells left, or the mage light hitting a held troglodyte. Also certain stages require you to decide as a group as to what to do. (e.g. piloting the boat, falling into the cavern) One of the new improvements on D&D1 is the voting system to decide on where to go. When you finish a level you are sometimes offered a choice as to which way to go (which stage to select). Every person gets a vote, but the vote is not decided by majority, it is based on probability. This means that if 1 person out of 4 selects A, and everyone else selects B, there is a 25% chance of A and a 75% chance of B. The main emphasis on this game is teamwork, you won't get no-where without working together, sharing treasure, ideas and money(virtual silver coins I mean, not real cash ;) ).
1.2 Getting the unoffical DD2 FAQ At the moment the FAQ is only available on World Wide Web, though it will be placed on ftp when available. Requests for the FAQ by e-mail will be denied.
1.3 Adding to the FAQ Any information is appreciated, preferably by e-mail. Do not send me the faq as a whole, I know what it looks like ;). Though small excerpts will be accepted to clarify certain points. Credit cannot be guaranteed, but any excerpt over a line will generally be allocated credit.
1.4 Credits Roger Wong (roger@powhq.nildram.co.uk), creator of the unoffical C&C faq, whos FAQ led me in the right direction in creating this one.
Ruiner (ruiner@ucla.edu) who's information on the newsgroup rec.games.video.arcade, proved most valuable.
Adrian, the master D&D2 player at UQ, who hogs the machine ;). Due to him taking on average 1.5 hours a credit no matter who he played with, they doubled the price of a game, but who's complaing?
Merlin, who loans me money to play 90% of the time.
TSR and Capcom, one for creating the original D&D concept, the other for the most value for money arcade game in the world.
All the others who submitted various information either through the newsgroup rec.games.video.arcade, or to me personally.
1.5 Accurate Information I have tried to verify everything that I have included in this document, but not everything has been. Those that I am doubtful of, I have said so. Also if you feel that you do not want your information to be included in this FAQ or that credit for an article has not been given to you, let me know, and I'll fix it up for you.
1.6 The Difficulty Level of your Machine The setting of the difficulty on the machine you play on has a huge impact on the game. If the machine is on an easy setting, the rules are more like proper D&D rules (goblins have 8 hp instead of 80). Certain events also require different methods to accomplish. Final Strike on a hard difficulty setting requires full heath, on a low setting not much. What I'm really saying is most of the events talked about here have been tested on easy machines and hard machines, but again you may require something special in order to get it to work.
-Section 1- The Characters
2.0 Why these guys? A cleric is almost a certantity in any party. These guy heals you up and can get rid of those pesky undead. Mage has great boss killing potential. Fighter is the guy who can use any sword is the level clearing guy. Dwarf is like the fighter, only slower but more powerful. Thief can also use any weapon, but doesn't have as much health, and can't block. Although thief can open any chest. Elf is a Fighter/Mage. She can use any sword, and cast spells. Disadvantage, swing is slower and has a lot less health. Assuming your machine is four players a suggested party is :- Cleric - the healer, also has some good spells for some tricky situations. Has the ability to turn undead - destroy/banish skeletons and ghouls. Fighter/Dwarf - Fighter if your new to the game. He's faster and has a longer reach at the beginning. Dwarf is slower but does a lot more damage and can take more hits. Elf/Mage - Boss Clearing and getting out of tricky situations. Mage gets a lots more spells, but is almost useless in hand to hand combat. Elf can use any weapon and has some spells to assist. Last char - anyone. Normally another cleric or elf, but basically this is to complement the existing party. Two clerics are handy, as are two fighters, or a thief for added chests.
2.1 General Moves
There are four buttons. The normal situation is A=Attack, B=Jump, C=Select, D=Use Item. These do vary from machine to machine, so check before you use them.
Selecting alternative character- There are two possible pictures for each character. To select the alternative one, hit start.
Attack Attack a monster by just hitting attack. You will cycle through a series of attacks, each doing more damage if you are pushing the joystick in a direction and hitting attack. If a fighter is dual wielding the fighter will hit more in a series of attacks. Picking up items takes preference over attacking, so beware of lots of items. You can quickly clear these items by sliding over them, instead of picking them up one by one.
Jump While in the air you can do a few things. Hitting attack will do a swing attack. Pushing down and hitting attack will do a thump attack, useful for hitting monsters that have been knocked to the ground. You can change direction in the air once, by moving the joystick in another direction.
Select Hitting Select will bring up the items you can use. Cycle through them by hitting select repeatedly. Hit use item once to close the window. The item you will next use will appear directly above you, and in the window near your health bar. Spell casters have three windows. Access these windows by after hitting select, hitting jump. Hit jump again to go to the next window. This takes practice to do affectively, especially in the heat of battle.
Use Item Hit this once to close the window. Again to use the item or cast the spell.
See Equipment Hit start to see what you have and wear you have it on your person.
Heavy attack Forward, attack. This will do a huge swing that sometimes makes a monster dizzy, allowing you to set up for another attack.
Slide A quarter circle(down, down-forward, forward) jump will make your character slide. You will quickly pick up all the items in your slide. Useful for clearing areas of lots of items so you can fight, or grabbing all the money fast after killing a boss.
Sliding attack Same as Slide, except you hit attack. Useful for quickly getting from one side of the screen to the other in order to help a trapped party member.
Step back Double tap jump. Varies from class to class so see specific class descriptions.
Run Double-tap forward. Runs quickly.
Special Attack Double tap attack. Varies from class to class so see specific class descriptions. Or you can select no item(not no spell), and just hit use item.
Aerial Attack Down, up, attack. Varies from class to class so see specific class descriptions. Mage doesn't get one.
Shield Block Either select Shield in your items, or backwards, attack.
Sudden Death A+B together. All but mage and cleric gets this. This is only to be used when you are surrounded on all sides. It basically clears an area around you, but you lose health by doing it.
Stomp Attack Stand just above a fallen monster and hit attack, you will hit them on the ground.
2.3 Specific Characters Each class has his/her own specific skills. All used to form a powerful party when combined with other characters. Each class has two variant characters. Only the mage and cleric receive different skills for being the variant characters. You select the variant characters by hitting start instead of A when selecting a character.
2.3.1 Cleric The Healer. Perhaps the only essential party member. You can buy heals at shops and pick up the occasional one in a chest or two, but the cleric is there to cast the heal on you that allows you to survive till the next chest or shop. A+B allows the cleric to turn undead(instantly killing skeletons and ghouls). Aerial attack is adequete. The cleric is useful in a fight, and his special attack is a kick. Down point is can only use bludgeoning weapons (mace, staff, morningstar)
2.3.2 Dwarf Powerful fighter. Slow, but his aerial attack is very powerful. Receives the most health. Special attack is headbutt. Can use any weapon. Also after a chest is opened by dwarf, sometimes he can pick it up and throw it to receive a few more items.
2.3.3 Elf Fighter/Mage. Has spells and can use any sword. Special attack is a spin backwards kick. Spells are mainly same as mage, except for haste. Can use any sword. Sword and sorcery make for a powerful mix. Also has the added benefit of unlimted arrows! If you select arrows, then use it straight after you will fire 5 fast arrows, if you just hit use after already selecting it, you will fire 2 slow, then 3 fast.
2.3.4 Fighter Fast attacker. Needed to exploit some AI bugs. Can use any weapon. Not as much health as Dwarf, but with his speed he doesn't need as much. Special attack is kick. Fighter can dual wield if he picks up a short sword. This way he will be unable to block though.
2.3.5 Mage The Boss Killer. That's all a mage is good for. But this makes it worth your while to have one. His step back makes him invulnerable for a brief second, which is needed as he doesn't have a shield so can't block! You can crouch under arrows, but not stones. All characters can crouch under arrows, not just mage, but other characters find it easier to just shield block. His special attack is a shoulder charge, which is useful to knock creatures down for the fighterto handle. Bad news is, almost no health, 3-4 hits and he's knocking on death's door. The mage's backstep teleport move is rather useful, he can run in, hit an enemy twice, teleport back, shoulder charge, teleport back, run in and repeat. Mage has slightly longer reach on cleric, but does a lot less damage. A good mage will not seek to kill off all the little guys, but to keep the little guys from surrounding the other players, sort of a floating reserve defender, to fill in any week points. When fighting bosses, the mage should try and look after the little guys(compare to the bosses, that is). He/she just needs to keep the little guys occupied(not kill them as they just reappear :( ), and if he/she gets into trouble cast a room affect spell. Also mage gets a critical hit once in 20 shots. This is accomplished by doing in a heavy attack. You'll see the mage attack with a dagger. If it's a critical hit, the screen will briefly flash red. Does a lot of damage on bosses.
2.3.6 Thief Useful character. No shield again. Her special attack is the backflip back, which makes her invulnerable for a brief second. Her aerial attack is the best in the game. It send a sheet of fire racing along the ground, toasting enemies in her path. Has unlimited sling. Can use any sword. Also can detect traps(marked by a skull and crossbones symbol). She can double jump and jump from the sides of the screen. Her most useful skill is the ability to open chests without a key. Also if she runs into creatures they drop items. List as follows
Ruiner (ruiner@ucla.edu)
Goblin/Kobold: Small gems Gnoll: Burning Oils HellHound: Flame Shield, Large Burning Oils. Dark Elf: Bastard Sword Normal Ogre: Tiara Green Ogre: Battle Helmet Shadow Elves: Circlet or Mage hat
*end quote*
Thief can also backstab monsters. No-one seems to be able to backstab bosses at the moment. You can not backstab held monsters(monsters with a hold person spell on them). To backstab monster must not be facing you and close to you. You then do down, down-forward, forward, forward-up, attack. Quarter-circle with and added twist to it. You leap on their back and slaughter them ;). Also can double-jump and leap off the side of the screen. After the first brief part of the stage, you get to type in your name. Depending on what name you type in, you receive an item. The bad news is that on most occasions, after you get hit a few times, you loose the item(normally before you get up to the 3rd level :( ). Items that can be lost are listed in the Item section. After you choose your name, a letter will appear above it showing what item you picked up.
Type Item A Medal B Boots of Speed C Hat suited to your class. D Ring of Protection E Ring of Fire Resistance. F Ring of Spell Turning. G Gauntlets of Ogre Power. H Rod of Fire(Mage), Earrings(Elf), Anklet(Fighter, Dwarf), Brooch (Cleric, Thief) I Bracelet, Rod of Cold(Magic User) J Orb, Necklace(Elf), Rod of Lightning(Mage)
To work out user type, use this equation:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 (values) a b c d e 0 1 2 3 4 f g h i j 5 6 7 8 9 k l m n o 1 2 3 4 5 <--- these numbers are Roman Numerals. p q r s t . & - ! u v q x y M F ? <--- Male and Female z
The values of each symbol is added together, and if there are two digits these numbers are added together. i.e. 54 = 9. 5+5 is treated as zero.
0 gives you type A, 1 B, 2 C and so on.
e.g. C A P 2+0+0 = 2 give you cap.
2.5 Highlander mode Highlander mode is the call name for a system where the mage and thief can't die unless they get bitten, or hit by a special attack. Basically the mage and thief need to swap hats. Both need to start off with a hat (i.e. starting name cap). Then later on in the game they need to find another hat. The earliest a thief can get one is on the Harpy stage, by dashing in to a little dark elf. Beholder stage, just before first red dragon and gateway level are places to get hats out of chests. You will loose health if hit, but you get down to one pixel of health and not go any further.
-Section 2- Spells
3.0 Introduction to Magic When a level has more than one spell, that means you can cast either of these spells. i.e. select your spell circle and you see you have 3 fireballs.(level 3) That means you can cast 3 fireballs OR 2 fireballs and one lightning, or any combination of these 3rd lev spells. It does not mean you can cast 3 fireballs and 3 lightnings, as it may look like to you. Also heal spells and striking can be cast on other people, you need to be standing close to them, facing them, and then cast. Also cleric should get level 2, 4 and 5 spells (4 and 5 healing, mage can't use lev 2) elf and mage everything else.
3.1 Mage and Elf Spells
ruiner@ucla.edu (Ruiner)
Mage Spells
Level 1: Magic Missile Level 2: NONE Level 3: Fireball, Lightning Bolt Level 4: Ice Storm, Wall of Fire Level 5: Conjure Elemental/Cloudkill Level 6: Flesh to Stone, P-image Level 7: Reverse Gravity Level 8: Meteor Swarm/Power word kill
(Green mage gets Cloudkill and power word, black mage meteor and conjure)
Magic missile - sends between 1-5 bolts of energy to closet targets. Useful for distracting monsters or knocking them down. Fireball - send a blazing ball of fire in the direction your facing and slightly downwards. Lightning - sends a bolt of electricity across the screen directly in front of you, you can control the bolt slightly, by moving the joystick up and down to take out other targets. Haste - You move and attack faster. Affects all players on the screen. Ice Storm - Hits everything on the screen. Knocks monsters out of the sky. Wall of fire - like lightning, except if you rotate your joystick in a circle just as you cast it, it will waste everything around you, then take out everything in front of you. Polymorph others - Changes low level monsters(i.e. everything but bosses, into something harmless). You need to be standing right next to the monster. Conjure elemental - like ice storm, except more powerful. Face left for fire elemental, right for ice (if mage). Face left for air, right for stone (if elf). Cloudkill - slightly more powerful than conjure, but will not affect some bosses or undead. Instantly kills lower level non-unded monsters. Flesh to stone - like lightning bolt, but you can't control the direction. Turns low level monsters into stone and damages bosses. P-Image - makes the mage invulnerable for a while. Reverse Gravity - lifts all the close by monsters into the air and then slams them down. Doesn't work on flying monsters. Meteor swarm - powerful rocks fall from the sky, destroying almost any low level monsters and doing massive damage to bosses. Power Word Kill - A tricky spell to use. It seems to only do damage if a boss/monster has less than a certain amount of health(a little under one bar is my best guess) otherwise it does zip. If it is cast with a boss under that one bar, it will kill them instantly.
3.2 Cleric Spell List
ruiner@ucla.edu (Ruiner) Level 1: NONE Level 2: Bless, Hold Person Level 3: Striking, Continual Light Level 4: Cure serious wounds, Sticks to Snakes Level 5: Cure critical wounds, insect plague Level 6: NONE Level 7: Earthquake/Holy Word
The Bald cleric gets earthquake and insect plague. The good looking cleric(blue one) gets Holy Word and Sticks to Snakes.
*End Quote*
Bless - improves damage given and reduces damage taken very slightly. When cast affects everyone on the screen. Hold Person - freezes 3 humanoid creatures for a couple of seconds. Striking - improves damage done by weapon of one person. Continual Light - Blinds a monster(makes them dizzy). You must be facing that person and they must be looking at you. Cure serious wounds - heals your health bar a little bit. Sticks to Snakes - creates some snakes to attack monsters. When you can cast cures instead of this, not many people use it ;). Cure critical wounds - more powerful version of sticks to snakes. Insect Plague - sends insects flying at monsters on screen. Earthquake - damages all non-flying monsters. Holy Word - hits all monsters, but kills low level monsters first then goes on to higher level ones.
3.3 When do I get my spells back
ruiner@ucla.edu (Ruiner)
Cleric gets them back after these Bosses...
War Machine Man Scorpions Dark Elf Manticore Displacer Beast Red Dragon(if you fight it) Ezerhoden Dark Warrior 2 Negpa
Mage and Elf get them back after these Bosses...
Man Scorpions Ogre Brothers/Beholder Lich Read Dragon(if you fight it) Ezerhoden Negpa
*End Quote*
3.4 When Should I use them On the level before you get them back, use them all ;). Basically unless life is looking bad, or your on the Beholder level (AI bug means you do not need to use spells to defeat Beholder) you don't use them except on bosses. An occasional cloud kill on conjure perhaps, if a whole bunch of gnols attack you. Holder Person Gnol Archers though. Hold Person doesn't work on any boss except the Dark Elf, so use them on stages leading up to them. Continual light is good against most bosses. Cures are perhaps the spell most used before fights. When a character is almost dead, you would do well to heal him, as a dead character is no good to anyone. Haste is useful on certain levels in order to quickly run past dangerous situations.
3.5 Final Strike (first confirmed posting by Ruiner)
For this you need a magic-user. You also need the Staff of Wizardry found on the Gateway level. Everyone needs to be on full strength to do this. All players then have to hit all their buttons at once, except for the use button. Does about a bar and a half of damage to Synn, and all characters go down to one hit point :(. Combine this with meteor swarm, and Synn is dead when you see two bars on the screen :).
-Section 3- Items
4.0 Item List This list is incomplete and a more complete description on where to find some of the items would be appreciated. Levels indicate section to look at.
Weapons Long Sword - Long reach, fighter gets a more powerful one every time he levels. Short Sword - Shorter reach (duh!), elf gets a more powerful one every time she levels. Hand axe - Dwarf starts out with this. Gets a more powerful one every time he levels. Battle axe - found on level 6.10.1. Two handed, powerful. Cursed Sword 2 - Become Holy Avenger if cleric attemps to pick it up 8 times. Found on level 6.5-b. Kills undead in one hit. Rocks the lich and ghost. Cursed Sword 1 - Becomes Sword of Legends. The most powerful weapon in the game. Every time you swing it you take damage. You need to swing it about 30 times to remove the curse. Have lots of heals ready ;). You can stop the damage been taken by casting a person affect spell on the person swinging, just as the person starts to look shocked. Same way as the Owl bear trick described later. (ZBerkovitz@aol.com) Also if you jump and swing just before you hit the ground you won't take damage, this takes a lot of practice though. Mace - Cleric starts off with it. Everytime you level you get a more powerful one. War Hammer - Bought in Halfling village (After 6.7). More powerful version of mace. Morning star - the best(on level with serpent staff) weapon for cleric. Aerial attack makes him swing it round and round. Heavy attack makes it shoot out and hit monsters on the other side of the screen. Also due to a bug, if you do the Stomping attack, you sometimes lock it up and he just keeps hammering away, killing the monster instantly. Bastard Sword - Bought in halfling village, found on 6.9, or stolen from dark elf 6.4 Sword of Flame - Leaves a trail of flames where ever it passes. Found on 6.5-b. Stormblade - like flame sword but leaves a lightning trail. Found on 6.5-b. Ice Sword - Freezes opponent when it hits. Found on level 6.9-a. Dragon Slayer - get fighter/elf/dwarf to pick up Dragon Horn when you fight first red dragon on 6.9.0. Click on the next shopkeeper, he will change the Horn into Dragon Slayer. Dragon Slayer wastes Synn.
Shields Flame Shield - protect from fire Ice Shield - protect from ice Dragon Shield - made from scale of black dragon 8-a. Limited protection from dragon breath. Shield of Protection from Evil - found on Beholder stage if Cleric opens the chest with Lightning Sword. Stops spells being drained from ghost, and, this is unconfirmed, stops you getting eaten by ghost. Also after Battle Royale you come to a door hidden behind some cold flame jets. In front of it are 4 gargoyles. You can go in the door my moving up behind the jets and walking in. Inside there is a chest surrounded by jets. The thief can backflip in and get the chest out. If the mage opens the chest, you get a level 9 scroll (only sometimes though). Anyone else gets a Shield of Protect From Evil. Only way for mage to get it when there is no thief is to use a p-image. There is not enough room to teleport in.
Rings Ring of Fire Protection - Protection from fire Ring Of Spell Turning - Once you reach a high enough level, monsters spells will not affect you as much. Ring of Protection from Evil - Less damage taken from evil monsters(all of them but good elf ;) ) Spell rings (one use rings that have the folling spells) - Fire ball Lightning Polymorph others Magic Missile Invisibility (love this on thief to let him sneak up on ppl for backstab ;) ) Cure Serious Wounds Continual Light Summon Djinn (more powerful version of conjure elemental)
Rods (These rods improve the various spells, they do more damage) Lightning Fire Cold
Wands (Wands can only be used by the mage and have a limited number of uses) Stun - stuns enemies Ice - shoots ice along the ground freezing enemies Fire - shoots a fireball Lightning Bolts - shoots a vertical beam of lightning. Probably the best wand. Also there is a trick to pump the charges on this wand over a hundred. Buy the wand in the gnome village, make sure it is the first thing you buy. Go to the first red dragon part. Answer his questions to fight him. Run to the side. Let everyone get all the gear. Now pull out the wand, it should be flashing. Do not hit attack. Walk in to the next room. Hit the dragon with first shot. Wand now has over 100 charges. Just hammer the dragon with it, he can't move away when you do. Also useful in freezeing the ghost.
Staff of Wizardry - Used in Final Strike. Staff of Serpents - Cleric weapon. When it hits someone, they are hit by some snakes. Do not use this when fighting ghost as the snakes will attack you instead of ghost.
Various Equipment Orb - Improves saving versus petrification and gas. Necklace - Decreases damage done by magic. Earrings - increases damage done by mage and elf spells. Bracelet - Increases attack power. Anklet - Increases power of kicks. Displacer Hood - limited invulnerability from ranged attacks (bow and stones) Gauntlets of Power - More damage to your physical attacks. Boots of Speed - you move faster. Boots of Levitation - Press jump twice, slowly and you float. You can not cast spells or access select screen while floating. Egg of Wonder - Changes into owl bear who fights for you.
Shop items Arrows - point and shoot, silver and burning do more damage. Dagger - point and shoot, faster than arrows. Less damage. Silver again does more damage than normal daggers. Hammer - flies through the air. If it hits its target, target may become stunned. Burning oil - sets monsters on fire. This time though you can not set your team mates on fire. Large Burning Oil - BUY BUY BUY BUY! This is the most powerful item in the game. Used correctly you will kill most bosses if everyone in the party has full burning oil and uses it correctly. When thrown it explodes and sends a wall of flame across the screen, like the thief's aerial attack.
Potions Healing - Shops and chests. Comes in two varieties, normal and super. Haste - Little yellow potion. Exactly the same as haste spell, but only affects the person who quaffed it.
Scrolls Some chests and monsters have scrolls. These can be used by any spell caster in addition to current spells.
Misc Items Egg of Owl Bear - When used transforms into a white owl bear that fights for you.
When the character uses the Egg of Wonder, get another character to cast an person affect spell on him as he is throwing it. (e.g. invis, healing, striking) The egg will reappear in the characters inventory to be thrown again. Rather useful to get rid of all those useless invisibilty spells.
*End Quote*
4.1 Shops
Money can be transferred between characters in shops by placing the hands of those characters who want to trade money over one another. Then the player who wants to give money away needs to hit select or use. Select gives silver pieces away slowly, use very quickly.
4.2 Common traps Some chests are trapped. These are the common traps.
Gas - Sleeping gas shoots out and knocks out anyone close to the chest. Undead usually arise. Fire - Fire burns anyone nearby. Arrows - Arrows shoot out, diagonally. Deadfall - Rocks start falling down. Petrification - A beam shoots out, turning anyone in a horizontal path to stone. If your fast enough, a cleric can cast bless which will stop the beam shooting out.
4.3 Tricks to opening locked trapped chests Well it's really only one trick. Just try to pick up the chest(stand behind it and hit attack). The trap will spring, and the chest will open. You sometimes need to jump in behind chests to be able to pick them up.
4.4 Who gets what? Whoever has less health, and least cures/cure rings get heals. Non-magic users get spells. Otherwise it's a free for all in the money and exp stakes. :).
-Section 4- Common Monsters
5.1 Dark Elf Unlike their big cousin, these guys are easy to kill. They do have a ability to teleport away, then reappear behind you.
5.2 Ghoul Try not to turn them unless your party is in trouble. These guys carry scrolls and items. Also if you use Holy Avenger to kill them, you tend to get the items, but not the scrolls.
5.3 Gnoll Axeman Hold Person if too many. Just waste 'em. Easy.
5.4 Gnoll Bowman The scourge of many a mage. Primary targets. You can duck under the arrows. Hold Person and take them out.
5.5 Goblin Little guys who can throw stones and oil if ignored for too long. Too short for arrows to affect them.
5.6 Hell-Hound Normally when they first come on the screen, they run across knocking you down unless you block or get out of the way. Also unaffected by fire and have a nasty tendency to breath fire on you.
5.7 Insect Fly around at head height. You can crouch under them. They sometimes go away if you wait long enough.
5.8 Kobolds Nasty little creatures who throw oils and daggers if you don't pay them any attention.
5.9 Owlbear Head of an owl, rear of a bear. Tend to jump at you if left alone.
5.10 Skeleton Turn the suckers. They carry almost nothing, have a tendency to leap at you and the green guys block your attacks with their shield.
5.11 Gargoyles Can only be hit by magical weapons, or weapons with bless spell. Almost always have scrolls of level 4 and above.
5.12 Large Scorpians Annoying little fellows who tend to drop in from above. Hit them hard and fast. One hit normally kills them.
5.12 Troglodytes Hold person these guys. Often carry spells. Can turn invisible, stun you with gas, jump on top of you and throw oil at you. Pains.
-Section 5- Level Descriptions
6.0 General Notes Due to the immense size and complexity of the game adequete notes on each level are extremely hard to accomplish(if you have send it to me ;). Mainly a short description of what to expect and how to kill the boss. The amount of energy a boss has is based on number of players. There is a fixed amount plus (X amount) * number of players. When you get a section followed by an letter, this means a choice. Some choices are only available if certain conditions are met. Suggested path for best results 6.1 - 6.2 - 6.3.b - 6.4 - 6.5-b - 6.6 - 6.7 - 6.8-b - 6.9.0 - 6.9-a - 6.10.1 - 6.10.2 - 6.10.3 - 6.10.4 - 6.10.5 - 6.10.6
6.1 Opening - Descent from Boss the Broken Land
Short level, designed to get a feel for the game. Destroy the two carts and the game continues to where you can type in your name. Second chest contains small healing potion, in case someone has already got hit.
6.2 Village of Trinta (War Machine)
There is 500 sp straight down from where you enter. One secret room(near the top of screen just after you enter). In this room there is an axe in bottom chest if Fighter opens it. Long sword if Elf opens it. Top chest contains heal if mage opens it. Lots of skeletons in there, so if you don't have a cleric grab the gear and leave. The far right chest contains boots and gauntlets of ogre. The closer chest is trapped and has 1 sp. Both chests are locked. Goblins, Gnol axeman start you off. After you kill one owlbear archers appear. Two sets of 3. First set comes from left, second from right. If your going through the game really fast, another set might come. Also fighter try and get short sword for dual wield. If you stand in front of war machine and block it will slow down. Elf can waste it with arrows. Knock the little guys off the back and it doesn't move till replacements arrive. Keep killing the replacements. The war machine travels horizontally from one side to the other. Try to use only magic missile spells on this level. Make sure cleric gets off all heals as he gets them all back. Oil does a lot of damage and slows down the war machine.
6.3-a To Ride A Juggernaut (Dark Warrior 1) Goblins, archers, axeman and hellhounds. Couple of kobolds. Dark Warrior has skeletons helping him. Let off all your spells as you get them all back. Continual light works well for set up for dual aerial attacks on either side.
6.3-b Battle on the River (Man Scorpions) Decide before hand who will steer the boat. Head up for the first level. You will get in one fight with trogs. As soon as you kill them, head up. Everyone move to front of the boat. You will avoid Dragon. Can get information from avatar, makes no difference. Next part of stage, go in middle, till pass first trogs, then head down. Repeat. You will get a lot of money from heading up and down. After you leave the raft, first chest has heal. Mage opens top chest he will get cure serious ring. Do not stand in one place too long or arrows or rocks will fall. Lots of Large scorpions, kill them. Cleric select bless. Move to the right. Rocks and scorpions will start to fall, as they are falling, cast bless, this will make the rocks miss you. Easy stage. If mage and elf playing, just a matter of letting off all your spells. Try to work as a group. If a Man scorpion jumps up, cast ice storm/conjure/cloud to bring him down. Fighters attack. Repeat. Line up a couple of lighntings and flesh to stones. If you can get the scorpians in a corner, let the fighters do the work and cleric face the other way casting cont. lights and hold person's to stop trogs from interfering. And if all trogs gone, turn undead and repeat.
6.4 Skies over Aengmore (Harpy, Tel'Arin) There is another program bug here. If you don't kill one of the little dark elves just before the harpy, and wait for 4 minutes 30 seconds, he will disappear and you can fight the harpy without those pesky little dark elves getting in the way. Stock up on daggers/hammers before this level. Select one magic caster to be responsible for job of magic missiles. Elf is much better for this job as her magic missiles do less damage. Once in a while a dark elf will fly by on a wyvern and shoot fireballs as you, just as the fireball is coming down, fire magic missile to knock him off his perch. Repeat if he returns. If you are in the air (jumping) when the fireball lands, you take no damage. Two waves of Dark Elves. Kill them and Harpy appears. When Harpy bar shows up, everyone select hammers. Move as a group to far left. Harpy will land in the middle. Throw hammers . You will get harpy down to one bar(a little over half way). Oil harpy, and keep hitting. If harpy tries to fly, large room spell(ice storm, conjure, cloud) to knock her down. Far chest contains heal. Next is Dark Elf. Turn Undead the skeletons. They do not come back for a bit. Split party into two groups. One either side of elf. Hit him from either side. Any daggers/hammers left, use them. Try not to use mage/elf spells. When a spell is cast, the counter still runs, you need to kill Dark Elf fast in order to be allowed to do Ogre Brothers level. When he goes down, hold person. Do not wait for him to get up, he does a large slashing attack, that catches ppl by surprise. After a bit he casts a haste spell. Time for magic spells. Hit him hard and fast. You will heal up a lot after this level. (normally everyone but one person :) ). You can also oil him if you have any oils left after harpy. Continual Light also works. A short note, player one always gets the least amount of healing, so put your best player there. Got the choice of 3 levels from here depending on part configuration.
6.5.a City of Aensun (Ogre Brothers)
This level is only selectable if you complete the previous level quickly. Town scene, with secret room in roughly the same place as in first stage. Firstly run quickly right so either mage or elf can get earrings to pump up offensive power then go to secret room. Lots of heals early on so unless a player is on death's door, don't waste cure spells/rings. In that secret room there is a secret room. Top of screen. Hell hounds are in abundance here, so watch out for their dashing attack. Just before ogre there is another secret room. You will know your there as some gnol axemen come out with hell hounds. Go into this room for two healing potions. You will come to an ogre. Easy you think? He's a lot faster than the ogre of D&D1. Easy strategy is do no use spells when he is by himself. Block and have elf pepper him with arrows. When he calls his green cousin, hold person and attack the first ogre. Concentrate on the first ogre. Allow mage to use all spells, as all spells recovered after this level. If you kill the first ogre fast enough, the other one won't come. Oil's do well, as there is no hurry to kill him.
6.5.b Forest of Despair (Beholder)
This contains the holy Avenger, fire sword, and lightning sword. There is a secret room to the bottom of the screen as soon as you come on the game. The swords are normally located in top of the screen, hidden among bushes. Holy Avenger is hidden behind a rock. There is a good AI bug to exploit at the Beholder stage. Let the fighter get the Flame sword. When you come up to just before the Beholder, cave entrance and super healing potion, while walking towards the right. Mage cast's p-image, runs at beholder and takes the flesh to stone initial attack. Fighter runs in and hits with Flame sword, then fighter stands there and hits with flame, beholder will not be able to escape. Make sure fighter is facing to right and beholder on right. If beholder escapes use Elemental bottle of Djinn ring. Lots of heals on this stage, and if you feel confident about beating beholder with just fighter, it's fun to lightning bolt kobolds. You can cast spells when beholder is on fire, or has eye closed, but doing it while he is on fire normally stuffs up the fighter combo.
6.6.c The Bridge (Green Dragon)
Only selectable with an elf in the party. One large healing on this level. Fight lots of little dark elves, and that pesky fireball throwing elf makes a come back. A few archer elves as well. Hammers on Dragon. Cast a spell when he breathes. Jump and attack.
6.6 Battle of Strong Oak (Manticore, lich)
For Manticore, get a character to block and elf to attack with arrows. Cast a spell if he tries to fly. When you knock the manticore down, you can repeatedly throw oil at him, once you have oiled him once. After you oil him once just keep throwing it after a short pause between each throw.
Lich. Another good AI bug, but you must work as a team. Everyone go to middle top of screen facing right. When lich appears, everyone attack, as soon as the lich floats away, everyone move down. Attack, move up. Lich will eventually cast earthquake. Ice storm, Turn Undead, regroup, repeat pattern. You should be able to defeat lich without getting hit. If someone gets out of sequence, ice storm to allow them to live. This is a hard level to break away from the group to cast heals. Also holy avenger takes chunks off his health. A chest on the left contains a haste, you have about 2 seconds to get it before he appears, you out of sync, goodbye group.
6.7 Grove of Destruction (Displacer Beast)
Same trick to get rid of goblins can be used here that was mentioned in harpy stage. Let one live and after 4.5 minutes he will run away and you will fight the displacer without the pesky little critters running around. Run quickly to right. Cleric opens first chest. Will get cure ring, large healing potion and level 4 scroll. Chest on fair right contains small heal. Lots of little goblins and couple of axe gnolls, watch out for stone throwing goblins appearing though. Displacer beast is a bit of a free for all. You can tell which one he is by where the shadow is, only the real displacer beast has a shadow. Haste does wonders. Oils. Allow mage or thief to take displacer skin. At next shop, person with skin click on shopkeeper and you will get cloak of displacement, that makes you slightly invulnerable to ranged weapons. Use your spells to get him. Hold person to freeze little goblins (get 'em out of your hair) and hammer displacer. Two swords is good for fighter, as blocking his long range attack doesn't always work.
6.8-a Labyrinth Maze (Black Dragon)
When you come to this level you will see some monsters and a sign. You need the displacer eye from other level. Run to sign read sign and go that way. No black dragon then. Otherwise go the other way and rock black dragon.
6.8-b Rescue at the Gnome Village (Chimera)
Large heal, 2 level 4 scrolls, and small heal at beginning of level. Three words ...... Large Burning Oil. Stock up on this at the previous shop. When you get up to chimera, knock him down with room spell, then everyone Large Burning Oil him, he will die like that. Large Burning Oil is slightly too powerful in my opinion, but if it's there use it ;). When you kill the Chimera you get to go the village - GO! You need to spend a little cash on a potion in order to visit the village, but it is worth it. At the village you can buy cure rings! Firstly walk to the house on the right side of the screen. This is an inn, but you can't visit the first shop till you have been here. Talk to the first person in the inn near the door (just walk up to them). You can talk to the rest of the people for more information if you want to. Then walk out and go to the first shop. Here you can buy all sorts of goodies. If you run out of items (i.e. buy too much gear) close the window and reopen it for more. After this shop you will be able to buy cure potions and Large Burning Oils so don't waste all your cash.
6.9.0 Floating down
You float down into a cavern. Second platform on the left is red dragon. First platform on left is sword of legends. Red dragon is pretty easy. You will get three chances to flee. Order to fight is no, no, yes. Quickly move to the right or you will die from dragon breath. Get the treasure in the room. Split into two groups. One on either side. When dragon head comes down, people on both sides start hitting, if dragon casts a spell, wait till just before it hits someone of your party and cast your own spell. If his head goes up, it will come back. To avoid dragon breath. The breath will come from the same direction you are being sucked. If you are being sucked in towards the middle, go to one of the sides. To the side go with it. If the head appears side on in the middle of the screen, stand in front of either one of the two rocks. One to the far left, one to the far right. Try to agree which way to go before hand. Rather annoying when half the people try to go right and half go left and all get toasted. :( Let fighter(or elf if fighter has Sword of Legends) get Dragon Horn. At next shop click on shopkeeper, he will give you Dragon Slayer which will do massive damage to Synn.
6.9-a Land of Fire (Flame Salamander)
Sword of ice on this level. Basically just use the sword of ice to get the salamander into a corner, and keep hitting attack. Other party members, keep the hell hounds away. Don't kill the hounds, just hit them softly to keep em off the fighters butt. Cast spell if fire escapes.
6.9-b Land of Ice (Ice Salamander)
Same as Fire except use Fire Sword.
6.9-c Underground Caverns (Tel'Arin and Good Elf at once)
Only available with dwarf in party. Run like hell to the right, rocks will start falling. Haste is good. Keep running to you come to a new stage. Now you will fight two elves. If you can kill the Bad elf (not the green one) without killing the good elf, the good elf will come back and help you kill negpa. If you kill the dark elf here, on 6.10.2 you fight a lot of monsters instead of the boss.
6.10.1 Gateway
Lots of secret rooms. Explore and enjoy. Move statues onto pressure pads to go into some rooms. Basically you need to have a weight on all the pads on front of a door to open it. Pads are a little diamond shaped square in front of the doors.
6.10.2 Overtures (Tel'Arin)
If you killed Tel'Arin before, you fight lots of low level monsters. Otherwise you fight Tel'Arin, same tactics as before. But mage save spells.
6.10.3 Arena (Ezerhoden)
Arguably the hardest fight if you don't have a mage. Do not hit ghost if he is swallowing someone, that person will take damage. If four people are playing, gargoyles will appear instead of undead. Use wands if you got them, they will freeze ghost in place for a second or so. Hit him with spells, you get them back.
6.10.4 Battle Royale
Lots of monsters keep attacking you. Level is finished when you travel a certain distance to the right.
6.10.5 Arena Revistied (Dark Warrior II)
Large Burning Oil. Continual light. Save some magic for next fight.
6.10.6 Inner Heart, Dark Heart (Negpa, Synn)
As soon as you come on the screen, cast a spell, otherwise Black Dragon breath will waste you :( You will fight a black dragon, chimera, and Negpa, only negpa needs to be killed. Use magic, you will get it back for Synn. Holy word will hit Negpa, rather than other monsters. Same tactics to kill Synn as used for first red. It just takes longer :). Reverse Gravity rocks him as well.
-Section 6-
7.1 Hints and Tips
Talk to one another. Yell for a heal. Follow the lead of the most senior player, they know what they are doing. Explain what to do next. Decide among yourselves on what level to do next instead of relying on the vote. Look for secrets. Look after your mage. Don't rely on the mage to clear out rooms...he's a boss killer. The newbie who you didn't heal at the war machine, would have been all you needed to kill synn. It's a game so don't take it too seriously.
7.2 Famous sayings around the D&D2 machine
"It took me $50, but I finished the sucker!"
"Heal! I need a Heal! Heal me you stupid cleric!"
"Quick game...got a test in an hour" {Lost track of time, arrived late for exam}
"It's easy to kill Hell Hounds, just use fireballs" {Hell hounds immune to fire spells}
"I've been waiting for an hour to play...the guys in front of me are still on their first credit"
"It just took you 2 hours to finish it...and you want to have another game!"
"Let's see...I've had at least 50 games of D&D2, each game on average an hour long...that's over 2 days real time!"
"I'm being swallowed by ghost! Fighter hit the ghost to free me!" {Fighter armed with Sword of Legends hits the ghost. Player dies}
"Where did my spells go?" {Elf got drained of spells from ghost}
"Turn undead!"
"That chest is never trapped" {Chest trapped, 2 characters turned to stone}
"Wonder what happens if you hit a monster with the cursed Sword of Legends?" {Fighter dead}
"Just hit the Beholder with spells when he closes his eye" {The group couldn't time it right}
"I got ring of Fire Protection, Dragon Breath can't hurt me"
"I've still got the Ring of Fire Protection." {Didn't have it, forgot to check, walked through fire, dead}
"I got the displacer cloak" {Forgot to click on shopkeeper after picking up skin, got hammered by arrows}
"Thief is baggage"
"They'll be dead soon, no cleric" {Party of thief and two mages finished the game}
"Don't worry, be our turn soon, he's playing solo as the mage"
"Only the fighter takes those blue potions, they don't do zip for anyone else" {Fighter says to newbie cleric, also said only cure rings worked on fighter}
"If you don't give me all your silver, I won't heal you." {Cleric to rest of group}
"I'll just lightning bolt the lich to death." {Lightning bolts don't affect lich}
"Run to the right!" {Player didn't know he's left from his right and run into Dragon Breath}
"I'll just turn the Lich"
"Is it closing time already?"
"I'll prove it to you, if you have Dragon Scale shield you can survive Dragon Breath." {Survived Dragon breath, Dragon ate him}
"How could I die on the War Machine?"
"If we all pooled the money we've spent on this game, we could buy a machine ourselves"
"If the fire elemental escapes, cast conjure" {Said to newbie mage who had no ice storms. Mage kept facing left}
"I can't be bothered casting hold person on trogs." {Cleric got stuck in a two trog combo, one on either side, that kept on hitting him till he died}
"This stool has molded itself to my butt!"
"Shit! I died."
7.3 Conclusion
I make no claims in knowing everything. I know enough to get you started. Hopefully those of you out there will help me build to this FAQ, so that there are no secrets left in this legendary game. Just a note....we've toasted Red Dragons this time....what's left? Avatar hunting in D&D3? It's a pity that while this game is so popular, it doesn't make even a tenth of as much as a Street Fighter Clone does...so it looks like this type of game is part of a dying breed. Enjoy it while you can. At least this game will still be making money 2 years from now....and then it will be on an easier difficulty setting. Chill.
7.4 Revision History
V1.0 First Draft Issue 18th April 1996.
V1.1 6th May 1996. Minor modifications to spelling. Some small errors with spells fixed. Bug bear trick and Final Strike information added. Boss beating ways modified.
V1.2 28th June 1996. Level descriptions improved. Item descriptions modified. More Famous sayings added.
