<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(kmonster @ May 26 2007, 04:27 PM) [snapback]291492[/snapback]</div>
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6 hours is really impressing considering how huge those games are. Did you play adventurer or warrior mode ?[/b]
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Warrior. I fleshed out the guideline I wrote for myself a little more, because it sounds hard to believe the game is this quick until you've played it this fast. This was my second try at beating the game quickly- the first time took me longer partly because my memory for the game was worse and partly because I didn't have as good of an order to do things in.
Key tips:
Leaving effects and music off made the game run much faster in DosBox. It's possible that I set things up wrong to start with and that's why it was slow in the first place, but when you're going for speed you can't be too concerned about sound effects.
Fountains are crucial: Nightshadow, Rivercity, Vertigo, +2500 HP in Darkside A1, +1000 SP in Darkside E1, +15 levels at Darkside C2, Sandcaster- stand in exact middle of town at exactly noon (you get there when you cast Time Distortion), face South and press Spacebar—bonus 1800 spell points to each character
If you never look at (or near) an enemy, the game doesn’t activate that enemy. So you can back up into a crowd of ranged-attackers and fight them one group at a time.
If you reload while facing away from a monster, the game forgets that it ever saw you. This is even more of a cheat than the previous strategy. This feels somewhat justified by the following point, though:
Bows are terrible past low levels. Although you get multiple attacks per round, this doesn’t apply to bows. Additionally it’s very hard to find powerful magical bows (Clouds near Lord Xeen’s castle are best place to find powerful bows). If you want to fight at a range, your choices are either casting one spell with one party member or having every character with a bow shoot one arrow. Then all of your enemies get to attack you. It’s pretty pitiful.
The most important combat spells in the game are Day of Protection and then Day of Sorcery. Go to a level-boosting fountain at 5 am every day and then cast these spells. Early in the game you’ll want to go to Nightshadow, then Asp (maybe Vertigo first) for HP, then Rivercity for SP. Since Day of Protection is the most important spell, give all bonus experience points to your Paladin.
Visiting shops takes a day (more for training, guilds, or temples). However, your Days spells and temporary fountains don't fall off except when you Train.
Obsidian Weapons are much, much better than Diamond Weapons. A level-boosted Barbarian with an Obsidian weapon and a level-boosted Day of Protection spell cast will kill most enemies in one hit. For this reason, you should give a lot of Speed bonuses to 2 of your Barbarians (there probably aren’t enough speed bonuses easily available to give you 3 Barbarians who are faster than almost all of your enemies). Also, give most Might bonuses to the two characters at front of party for bashing/opening purposes.
Party: 2 Half Orc Barbarians, 1 Dwarf Ninja, 1 Human Paladin, 2 Human Archers (I initially made a speed run with 3 Half Orc Barbarians and 1 Human Archer, but this configuration seems faster)
Start outside Vertigo—head immediately to Castleview
Make new party (transfer items from old party)(make sure Archer has 17+ Int)
Drawcab monks (reverse order), Secret chest at (21,30)
Get Cartographer skill- Cartographer’s challenge (Sandcaster)
Buy Lloyd’s Beacon at Guild for one archer
Free Jethro from Jail- Buy swimming skill for non-humans.
Two puzzles with the Chests (first puzzle 1,2…9; second, spell Pitchfork)
Go outside, head East along river to sunken ship, answer Palindrome riddle at tent, buy pass to Castleview right next to city, go back in.
Collect prize for freeing Jethro- go to Vertigo
Count Du Money- Beacon to Vertigo- Shangri-La (Days spells, Etherealize, Teleport, Town Portal, Cure Poison/Disease, Jump, Awaken, Lloyd’s Beacon, Time Distortion), try to get bows at Shangri-la armory, back to Vertigo (make sure you save 20000 gold for training—if you have two archers one only really needs Teleport/Beacon right now)
Clean out Vertigo (NW corner)
Train characters- back to Castleview if you want level>10 (Archer will only be able to train to level 10- Barbarians and Ninjas might be level 11 so this probably won’t matter)
Loot treasure at final area in dragon caves (Count Du Money—go to North East Corner of room, teleport 9E, 3E) (Save until you get an obsidian weapon from each item stash)
Go to Dwarf mines 1-4 for stat bonuses—give +6 Int to one Archer
Rest. Cast Day of Sorcery (Archer should have 40-45 sp).
Go to Rivercity—buy Armsmaster, Bodybuilder (SE corner)
Get Barok’s pendant from Sorceresses, drink from Rivercity well, cast Day of Protection (set Beacon at Rivercity well). Beat Nightshadow as soon as it hits nighttime.
Also complete: Asp/Yang Knights, Buy Mountaineer (2)/ Navigator (Rivercity)
Beat robbers- Head to Castle Burlock- deliver tiara and get merchant skill just outside
Back to Castleview—defeat Gettlewait, head into sewers (get Onyx Necklace)
Return Onyx necklace for key to E’s tower, steal Valio’s treasure, Buy Pathfinder (2) (Castleview)
Go to Ellinger’s Tower (don’t get resistance bonuses yet) (Get gold chest in Castleview)
Power up at Clouds town fountains- Town Portal to Sandcaster—solve Paladin riddle
(from Sandcaster, Teleport: 9W, 9W, 8W, 9N, 5N, answer riddle, 5S, 5S,5E,5E,5N,5N,5W). (Obsidian longsword among treasure). Teleport around to get genies in desert (give to Paladin for exp). Beacon to Rivercity if you need more SP.
Head to Ector in E2 then go to E1 to the +1000 SP fountain and to get his ring (Obsidian Battleaxe reward)
Back to Sandcaster- get nearby Emerald Handle, Trade Handle for pass to Sandcaster (B4)
Train again somewhere in here.
Visit +1000 sp fountain (E1), followed by (carefully) Town Portal- Necropolis- Teleport North- then West to get to +2500 hp fountain in A1- be careful to avoid facing south while you’re at or approaching that fountain, so the Gamma Gazers south of there don’t get activated. If you run into Gamma Gazers, you can face North and cast Time Distortion- this will teleport you near the 2500 hp fountain. Set Lloyd’s Beacon here so you don’t have to run this gauntlet again.
Enter Sandcaster: Solve 2 Merchants puzzles (Answers: 3 and 100), clear out rooms just south of there- get speed, int bonus, go into sewers to gym (SE) for bonuses. Buy pass to Lakeside (middle/South Sandcaster).
Clear Lakeside- get statue from sewers- get pass to Necropolis.
Back to Shangri-la (Mass Distortion, Holy Word, Cure Paralysis, Power Cure, maybe a few others)
(At some point):
Get key to East tower in SE corner of Sandcaster
West Tower (before Bark, drink from resist + fountains)
East Tower (before Bark) (drink from Fountain of Minimal Abilities, return Jewel of Ages to F4)
Temple of Bark (kill Barkman)(Save until you get 2 Obsidian weapons from chest Barkman is guarding. Make sure your Ninja can use one of the Obsidian weapons you have found so far! Everyone should have an Obsidian Weapon at this point.)
Sandcaster main city quest—this is optional, but the Speed bonuses are very helpful and you may need to get an item that boosts Int so that everyone can get to 100 Int to read all of the Necropolis books of the dead- the treasure here is a good bet for that (worst case scenario: just give the permanent Int bonuses by Xenoc to your Paladin- he’s the one whose levels gained helps your party the most).
Necropolis—first, set Beacon at Fountain of Ages in F4, visit +50 Int fountain on Clouds side- Darkstone Tower- 6N, 4E, read books of Dead (shuffle around an Int-enhancing item to read the last one)—portal to Fountain of Ages every 75-100 years of aging)
Return Sandro’s heart from sewer (make sure you save before talking to him)
Northern Tower (if you’re already high level, consider getting Euphoria throne bonus levels)
Get energy disks from Giants and/or Ogres and/or Southern Tower
These are pretty much the only quests I do. There's no reason to clear areas of monsters since there's very little benefit to it. Exp rewards from genies, Books of the Dead, and quests are much larger than the rewards from killing monsters, and you don't need to be particularly high level to beat the game when you have level-boosted Day of Protection-boosted characters with Obsidian Weapons and you visit the +2500 HP fountain.
Free levels that are easy to get:
Return statuettes (A4), Super-explorer statue above Witch Tower, Fountain of Life (East Tower), Book of Great Power (East tower) (either go to Shangri-la or buy skills back individually), Shangri-la well.
I usually won't get any of these free levels (except maybe Fountain of Life) until I max out at level 50 before going to the Dungeon of Lost Souls- then I'll get the Fountain of Life and the Book of Great Power, visit Shangri-La to buy all skills back for 600K and drink from the well there, then complete the statuettes quest. This puts you at level 61-62, which when combined with the C1 Shrine makes the rest of Darkside very easy.
At level 50+:
Take 15+ energy disks to Ellinger (get resistance bonuses) to get Kalindra restored, talk to Megan at Kalindra, to get key to Dungeon of Lost Souls, go there, get Songbird (give exp to Paladin if you plan to train again), rescue Queen Kalindra from Castle Blackfang (have to do bridle quest for Dimitri first, talk to Kalindra twice and then set Beacon here before getting her crown), get key to Pyramid, beat Pyramid (set Beacon at top), Corak’s ship, back to Pyramid, to Olympus (get Soulbox), back to Corak, to Alamar
Now complete the Clouds main quest. At this point it’s ridiculously easy and should take you under half an hour. Cave of Illusion- Tower of High Magic- Darzog’s Tower (set Beacon at top). Buy Newcastle for 50K gold- go to Mirabeth for key to Temple of Yak, Temple of Yak, build next level of Newcastle, get key to Tomb of 1000 Terrors, go there, finish building Castle, get Xeen Slayer Sword, teleport back to Darzog’s Tower, go fight Lord Xeen.