×Rule 1:
Not much to do here. Find the secret room before ascending. Make sure the platform in the last room remains on the right so you can return for the other secret later. And do get the attack gem. In fact, make it a general rule to get every attack gem you can as soon as you can.

Rule 2:
Get the shield as quickly as possible. Only use one yellow key in 2N2W, and don't use one at all in 2N1W or 2N3W. Don't fight the mud baby. You should finish the Rule with 26 ATK and over 500 HP.

Rule 3:
Go straight for the shield, and then go round all the loops to get all the ATK gems. Finish with 64 ATK and over 2000 HP.

Rule 4:
It shouldn't be any surprise that I advocate getting Goblin-Biter immediately. It's fine to use your green keys to get there without fighting the goblin -- you won't run short later -- but I don't know which is optimal in scoring terms. I missed the ATK gem in 1N5E, but you can finish with 92 ATK and over 3000 HP.

Rule 5:
Go straight for the shield, but make sure your ATK is at least 100 before fighting a Swordsman -- this is easy if you grab the freebie ATK gems in 2N3E, 2N4E and 2N5E en route. (Of course you don't need to kill the tar baby in 2N3E -- and you don't need to kill the one in the top-right of 2N8E either.) Leave the second Swordsman in 1N6E until you have 150 ATK, which means returning after you're a short way into Rule 6. You should finish this Rule with 141 ATK and over 5000 HP. I don't recommend opening the blue door near the exit stairs.

Rule 6:
Go straight for the invisibility potion so you can get those juicy ATK gems in the seep room. Immediately return to Rule 5 for more ATK. Now, you can go straight for the sword next, but I forgot about it and did the rest of the level first, and I was fine. (Doing it that way round meant the fegundos were only doing a laughable 300-odd damage, so I didn't need to care about the platform puzzle.) Target for finishing the Rule: 250 ATK, 1400 HP. And return to Rule 5 for the bomb at some point.

Rule 7:
If you've got all or nearly all the available ATK, the Aumtlich shouldn't do much damage now, so when you get one you can't stop with a mirror, always fight them rather than walking across their beams. Get the Knight Shield straight away and the rest of the level is pretty easy -- you shouldn't even need the Hook. Watch out for the brained fegundo, though; it's best to get your ATK to 290 so you can take it out in one shot.

For scoring purposes, it's better to sacrifice a green key to get that last yellow than it is to use up a skeleton.

However, if you want to access the secret Rule 8:


And finally, Rule 8 itself:


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50th Skywatcher

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[Last edited by Nuntar at 11-11-2008 02:03 AM]

×both opening the secret room and getting the attack gem right away are probably not optimal. I'm not sure how much damage the gem saves you before you get the shield. It might be better to come back later when wwings do less damage. I haven't attempted a perfect playthrough myself yet to verify this, however.

×If you don't have 23 ATK by the time you hit the Roach Queen in Rule 2, you'll take 32 more damage. Compare this to the 28 damage the ATK gem costs. But yes, the very first Wraithwing in Rule 1 should be ignored until late Rule 3.

×Rule 8 is easily completable with no keys at all, but brining in a single Green Key is useful. But you're forgetting the Force Arrow in Rule 4 with regards to your advice -- you *must* spend both Green Keys to get to the Goblin King.

×Always conserve keys in preference to HP; there are plenty of potions throughout the game, but wasting keys can block you out of some really good treasures later on. Never use a green key, still less a blue, unless you absolutely have to; after you've completed the hold you can go back and find places where using a green saves three or more yellows for high score purposes, if you really want to. My preference is to only ever buy ATK from the Machines, but concentrating on DEF is also a valid strategical decision. Only thing is that you will need two ATK purchases to get past the rock golems in Level 2.

×(1) Door-walking. Press 0 when standing on an open door to close it, and you can then move from it to any adjacent closed door. Requires a key of the correct colour (or greckles, in the case of a greckle door).
(2) Stepping past goblins. Goblins will not strike you if your sword is pointed at 45 degrees to them -- i.e. if you could hit them in one turn by pressing Q or W. To get past a goblin, choose the correct sword direction that works for both the squares you must stand on, e.g. NW if moving across the squares E and S of the goblin.
(3) Inventory. Use it to store items you will need again -- particularly the wooden sword and shield, as the metal upgrades will not work on oremites.
(4) Taking hits. You can walk across the sword of a Soulless or other sworded enemy, at the cost of taking one hit; likewise, sometimes taking a hit from a goblin is necessary if you can't kill him yet.

×Always kill brains before other monsters. Get the sword as quickly as possible, followed by the shield; in reaching them, as stated above, conserve yellow keys wherever possible. After the shield, look for attack gems; once your ATK is 23 you can take the warp tunnel, get the further ATK from 6N, and then reach 7N. Don't get the green key for 50 greckles until after you've reached the secret treasure room. Finally, sparingly use yellow keys to gain enough HP to defeat the bosses. Don't use the Machine on this level at all.

End of level targets: 10 yellow keys, 27 ATK, 27 DEF, 4 HP

×Remember how to door-walk in this level! Immediately purchase two ATK upgrades from the Machine. The level can be completed with no further Machine use; however, on the other hand, you can use the Machine up to six times on this level and still be fine to complete the game. Use door-walking to reach the short sword as painlessly as possible. Then head back north for the bronze shield, after taking as much HP as you need from 5S1E. Then make your way to the checkpoint -- if you're going for minimum Machine use then you'll probably need to use a green key to turn the force arrow. Get the ATK and other goodies from the rooms north and south of the goblin king so you can beat the rock golems and claim the Goblin Biter. Then go back for the blue key guarded by goblins, and use it to finish the level.

End of level targets: 7 yellow keys, 72 ATK, 58 DEF, 7 HP

×Use the wooden sword and wooden shield for all battles on oremites. Head east first of all for that +600 potion, and the defence gem if you like; it's not necessary to spend keys to get them either. Put your sword in your inventory to get the elusive potion. Then head west -- don't use the Machine -- get the good stuff from 1N1W and head south. Get all the health upgrades, including the one from the secret room, so you can kill the goblin guarding the defence gem in 1S. If necessary, return to the Goblin Tribe for any potions you missed so as to have enough HP to start the next level.

End of level targets: 4 yellow keys, 74 ATK, 69 DEF, around 500 HP

×Kill the first pirate. Enter 2S1W, hit the orb with the mimic, and sneak past the Soulless for the +800 HP so you can reach the Machine, taking hits from the goblins in 2S2W. (But make sure you have a green key and at least a couple of yellows before going past the goblins. I also recommend taking the DEF gem in Goblin Tribe: 1S4E before going past them.) If you've made it this far, you can always just go wild on the Machine and the rest will be easy, or you could continue to follow this walkthrough, which I'll hopefully continue writing tomorrow.

×Spend a green key to get the gems in 4S1W. (If you need keys, walk over the enemies' swords in 3S3W to get them; get the potion from this room anyway.) Walk over the Soulless's sword to reach the Machine, and buy three ATK upgrades (more if you want, but only three are needed to complete the level). Return to No-man's Land for the ATK gem in 2S1W, and get the keys and potions in this and the adjacent rooms (since these now give more HP than you spend to reach them). Getting past the rock golem in 1N is likewise profitable, as is the potion and key in the Goblin Biter room. Return to the Pirate Lair, head west from the Longsword room, and kill enemies to reach potions until you have enough HP to beat the enemies guarding the Longsword (with at least 27 HP left). If you're doing a minimum-Machine-use run, keep Goblin Biter in your inventory; for a while it will still be your best choice when fighting goblins.

×Return to the Goblin Tribe, kill the tar baby to reach the health-boost NPC, get keys from 1S4E and 2S4E, and buy a blue key. Backtrack to the Homeland and kill the tar mother. Accept the 3% boost if you need it to reach the critical value of 150 ATK for zero damage against Swordsmen; otherwise save it for later. In the Pirate Lair, walk over the Red Guards' swords to reach the +800 potions and avoid wasting a green key in 6S5W. Take the shield, go through the blue door, get keys and power-ups, solve the three o'clock riddle to get the briar cutter, and use it to reach the secret room and escape via 6S5W. Cut the secret wall to get past the adder, get keys from the nearby rooms (including the ones guarded by the tar mother) and get the blue key. Return to 7S2W and defeat the pirates. DO NOT get the last potion before going down the stairs!

End of level targets: 10 yellow keys, 166 ATK, 142 DEF, HP as low as possible

×Go straight through the aumtlich beam and laugh at his pitiful damage. Hit the orb, return for the potion in Pirate Lair, go to 1S1E, kill the waterskippers and get all the keys. Then get the large potions, head for the Machine and use a green key to unlock it. If you've been minimising Machine use up to now you can get a delicious sixty ATK points all at once! Then get the Knight Shield, head up to No-man's Land for the Lucky Blade, kill *everything* in Goblin Tribe for greckles (and Homeland if you want, but it's not necessary). Return to Preservation of Tueno, make your way to the Flippers (via 4S1E -- don't waste a green key in 4S2E) to give you access to that juicy cache in Pirate Lair (and a hidden room in Homeland). Use door-walking to get the Flippers at a discount! Then get the Hook, get the power-ups, use the Flippers to beat the aumtlich without taking a beam hit, kill the rock giant and get the Wyrm Smiter.

End of level targets: 9 yellow and 4 green keys, 309 ATK, 229 DEF, HP as low as possible

×Grab the power-ups, use the Machine twice more, go beat the fegundo out of the adder, get the Really Big Sword, kill the Wubba in No-man's Land, take a hit from the Slayer so you can stand next to him and bomb him. Watch the lesser ending. Restore, get the Oremite Shield (with or without using a blue key) and another Machine use, scour Preservation of Tueno for power-ups, return to No-man's Land and beat the fegundo out of the Slayer to access the real ending.

Targets for Slayer fight: anywhere from 458 ATT, 344 DEF upwards.

×Can anyone tell me why I only can find 137 ATK if I leave the second Swordsman alone? I've picked up all the attack gems I could find, and I finished rule 4 with 92 attack, so I find it difficult to believe I missed any secret rooms from earlier. As far as I know, Rule 5 has two secret rooms: the room with the 80 defense shield in it and 8E, but unless the guide is misleading me I've missed two gems somewhere.

×There are four secret rooms in Rule 5, although one of them can only be reached after playing Rule 6.

×I've seen this mentioned a couple of times, and I know it's in a secret room, but I can't find that room. I've found the others on the level, but not that one. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

×northeast.

×
First Delver! (I was the first non-tester/dev
to conquer TCB.)
d/dy