RULES OVERVIEW

Although in reality 2nd Edition AD&D had been released previous to the development of this game, for the most part the Gold Box series uses 1st Edition rules (with a few exceptions) that adapt slightly from game to game. In general, the actual AD&D rules are not the friendliest video game rules, so these are things to keep in mind.

THAC0 and Weapon Accuracy

Rather than using the to-hit tables of 1st Edition, the game does borrow 2nd Edition's 'THAC0', 'To-Hit Armor Class Zero', which at least allows you to calculate your chance to hit. The game simulates the rolling of dice for its random numbers, just as you would in D&D, and to determine weapon accuracy, this number is used. It is the number, or higher, that must be rolled to hit a character with an Armor Class of 0, after factoring character level, to hit bonuses from attributes or weapon effects. To calculate the chance to hit a different AC, you subtract that AC from the THAC0, so as numbers go negative, you will instead add the absolute value of the AC to the THACO instead. Sounds confusing/not a mathlete? It's not too complicated. If your THACO is, say, 17, as a 1st Level Fighter with an 18/00 Strength would have, to hit a 5 AC creature you have to roll a 12 or higher (17-5=12). To hit a -1 AC, like that of your 1st-Level Characters, you would need to roll an 18 (17 - -1=18 or 17+1=18).. So, lower AC is better (as is, obviously, lower THAC0), and in general, compared to many RPGs, the odds of hitting with every attack are relatively low. There are several other factors that can adjust this, such as attacking from behind, but we won't go into those. Just keep in mind that each point of THAC0, and therefore each point of bonus from Strength/Dexterity or + from a weapon or level, is a +5% chance to hit.

Spells and Memorization

Rather than MP, D&D (in pretty much all editions) gives a certain amount of spells that a caster can learn, divided into tiers or 'levels' of spells, and can access higher and higher level spells as they gain character levels (yes, having different types of 'levels' is slightly confusing. In general, pertinent to Pool of Radiance, Magic-Users and Clerics both start with 1st-Level spells at Level 1, gain 2nd-Level spells at Level 3, and get access to 3rd-Level spells at Level 5. You have to Encamp, enter the Magic sub-menu, choose the spells to Memorize and then Rest for a certain amount of time to prepare your spells. Every time you cast them, you must redo these steps in order to rememorize them. In 1st Edition, Clerics gain bonus spells they can memorize from the first few levels if they have high Wisdom, but Magic-Users get no bonus spells and start at first level with only a single spell memorized. Clerics always have the full list of spells available but Magic-Users only start with a small list, choose one additional spell to add their list at each level-up, and have to add further spells to their list by Scribing from scrolls during camp, if you find them. For the most part, however, only a few spells are useful (as will be noted in the following speedrun notes) and can be chosen when necessary, so scribing spells is generally not a worthy investment of time or resources in the speedrun.

Death and Defeated Characters

In early editions of AD&D, being reduced to 0 HP meant Death, but SSI made the Gold Box games slightly more lenient. At 0 HP a character goes unconscious and cannot rejoin the battle, but they are in no permanent danger; after regular healing they will be as good as new. If they are reduced below 0 HP they will be Dying, and must be administered to, or, similar to games like Final Fantasy Tactics, they will actually die. All that is needed is a Done-Bandage command from a friendly character, who does not need to be anywhere near the stricken companion. This changes the status from Dying to Unconscious, so they are in no further danger. At -10 HP or more, they will actually be killed. Dead characters must be Raised (at an exorbitant price) in a Temple and permanently lose a point of Constitution and, therefore, HP, so any actual character death outside of, say, the final two battles will pretty much require a reload, as the time and resource investment is prohibitive in a speedrun.

Weapon & Armor Proficiencies

Normal specific weapon proficiencies and specializations do not exist in 1st Edition. Fighters can use all weapons and armor. Clerics can wear all armor but can only wield certain (specifically blunt) weapons, including no ranged weapons. Thieves can only wear Padded, Leather, and Studded Leather Armor and wield a small selection of largely one-handed weapons (but they can wield Longswords, the most important weapon), and can only use Slings as ranged weapons. Magic-Users cannot wear any armor and can only use Quarterstaves, Darts and Daggers for weapons.

Leveling Up

Characters do not level up automatically when they gain enough experience. To level up, you must visit the Training Hall in town. You must pay 1000 gold pieces (or 200 Platinum Pieces) in order to advance to the next level--this is effectively the only thing your money will be spent on after your initial equipment purchases, since there are no real better equipment shops in the game. However, if you have enough experience to advance TWO levels (or more!), you will lose excess exp and go down to the maximum amount for the level you advanced to. E.g., a Fighter can advance from level 1 to level 2 when they have accumulated 2,001 experience points, and from level 2 to level 3 when they have 4,001 experience points. If you adventure until your new 1st Level fighter has 4,500 exp and then go train, you will pay 1000 gp, advance to level to, and revert to 4,000 exp. You must go gain at least 1 more experience point before you can advance to level 3, so frequent return trips to town to level are required.

Healing

Your characters only recover 1 HP every 24 hours of rest. Otherwise you must use Cure Light Wounds spells or scrolls, Potions of Healing, or pay for healing at a temple. For the speedrun, it is fastest to use all the Cure Light Wounds spells once and then rememorize them, and add a number of days equal to the highest missing HP on any character. Just sleep for weeks to recover in monster-infested territory! Believe it or not, it works!

Final Note on Sound

Pool of Radiance is unique in that the sounds, as primitive and few as they are, greatly lag the game, adding 10 to 15 minutes or more to a normal run. They can be disabled in the Pool.sys config file or by selecting no sound when the game is first loaded. There is no background music in the game, so while the silence is slightly eerie or strange, it is little different than running with sound but much, much faster, so while I normally wouldn't go for it, I do run without game sounds.

SPEEDRUN WALKTHROUGH

Introduction - Character Creation

There are only 4 character classes available in Pool of Radiance--Fighters, Thieves, Clerics, and Magic-Users. Humans can only be one of these classes for the entirety of the game; non-Human races can choose to Multiclass, and certain combinations are available to each race.

I sometimes joke that 1st Edition AD&D was 'sexist and racist'. As females are, physically, scientifically, generally of smaller frames and strength compared to males in our human world, 1st Edition AD&D used this to justify a higher upper strength limit for male characters as compared to female characters. Human males cap at 18(00) exceptional Strength, while females cap at 18(50). The difference between these two values is extreme--+1 to hit and +3 damage with melee weapons for 18(50) versus +3 to hit and +6 damage for 18(00). That means female Fighters will hit 10% less often and do 3 less damage with every attack compared to males, and makes them a detriment to a speedrun. By the same token, non-Human races have different upper limits in a few stats and none of them can match the Human male's 18(00) Strength, so as single-class characters non-Human races are inferior and should not be used. However, they can be very powerful in Pool of Radiance because they can Multiclass and be two (or even three) classes at once, gaining all the advantages and no disadvantages of both classes. Fighter/Magic-Users, for instance, can have exceptional (18(##) Strength) and use all weapons and wear all armor, while still being able to cast Magic-User spells. The experience they earn is halved (or divided by 3), effectively splitting exp equally between each class, and the hit points they gain are divided the same way, balanced slightly over the fact that they have more levels than a single-class character. Another disadvantage is that non-Human races have an upper level limit in all classes except Thief, but for the most part they are the same or higher than the maximum levels of Pool of Radiance in general, so this feature is largely meaningless in this speedrun.

Many different party compositions can work to complete the game, but for maximum speed, I have found that a party of 3 Male Human Fighters, 1 Male Half-Elf Cleric/Fighter, and 2 Male Half-Elf Fighter/Magic-Users are ideal. The game requires you to roll attributes randomly when you create characters, but also allows you to modify these 'stats' as you like before you begin your adventure (ostensibly to allow you to mimic your actual pen-and-paper AD&D characters) up to their racial/gender maximums, so for the purposes of the speedrun it makes no sense not to maximize all characters' attributes. Your MHF should have all 18s, including 18(00) Strength, and 14 HP. The Half-Elves will have all 18s, 18(90) Strengths, and 11 HP on the Cleric/Fighter and 9 on the Fighter/Magic-Users. This gives you 3 Fighters, who are the most reliable damage-dealers and best tanks throughout the game; a Fighter/Cleric instead of straight Cleric will still gain more than enough Cleric exp and levels and will be much more efficient in combat, as a non-Fighter Cleric can only reach a maximum of 18 Strength (+1 to hit/+2 damage versus the +2/+4 of an 18(90) exceptional Strength available to Half-Elf Fighters). The Cleric spells are not strictly necessary, but help out in emergencies and before battles. The Fighter/Magic-Users will not be useless after using their few spells, as single-class Magic-Users would be, being able to contribute in combat with bows and in melee as well. They will not gain spells as quickly, but the first few levels are when spells are most useful anyways, and the necessary high-level spells can be used from found scrolls.

(Only one area of the game really requires a Thief, who are largely useless, being very fragile, incapable of good ranged attacks, and only gifted in combat with Backstabs that, while powerful, are far too difficult to set up based on how useless they are otherwise, so for the speedrun they are more detriment than help).

Money is also rolled randomly and cannot be edited, so stats should be rerolled until the characters have a satisfactory amount of gold. The Fighters should have 160+ gp, the Fighter/Cleric 150+, and the Fighter/Magic-Users about 100+, so the total party assets should be about 830 gp or more. This should allow you to purchase all the necessary starting equipment (see below).

The game is recommended to be played from Gog.com's downloads, as it gives all the necessary resources for the game including the Cluebook strategy guide, and disables most of the copyright protection in the game (including from starting up the game, you can answer anything to the loading CP screen including nothing just Return through it, important when you need to quit and reload so often). As I track the guide, I will be referring to #s in the noted map in the Cluebook to help with Navigation, as I'm not good at giving step-by-step walking descriptions (I'm long-winded enough in describing all of this, I don't need to spell out every square as well). The game is keyboard operated, with most menu options being activated by the first letter of the action word; I will describing these as Beginning the adventure, capitalizing the letter you press to activate the option. 7 and 1 on the Keypad will scroll the selected character in the party menu up and down, respectively. The arrow keys are used to go forward, turn left or right, or (from the down button) turn around 180 degrees.

Part 1 - Starting Out and Exploring the Slums

The timing begins upon Beginning the adventure from the party creation screen.

The party begins in the city of Phlan and is given a tour by Rolf. After it's over, you will be at 0,4 by the west exit from Phlan's 'Civilized Sector'. Immediately Encamp and Alter the Speed Faster to 0, to minimize text delay time (the difference between 1 and 0 is actually pretty large all on its own). After this, head south and east into location 21 to enter the weapon/armor shop (there are several, but this is the easiest and quickest to access. Once in the shop, Pool your money in order to make it easier to purchase items (you should do this every time you are in a shop before you make any purchases or identifications, as it allows you to money change. Money has weight in the game, and the merchants will automatically change the character's (or party's, if it is pooled!) money into the largest possible and therefore fewest possible coins when you spend money in their shop). Purchase Longsword, Shield, and Banded Mail for all six characters, and Shortbow and 120 Arrows (10 Arrows 12 times) for the Half-Elves. Longswords are by far the best one-handed weapon in the game, all bows do the same damage and funds are limited, so 3 back-row archers are useful while not overexpensive for a beginning party thus equipped (Composite and Long Bows have longer max range, but that is their only real benefit in the game; in addition, magical Shortbows will be in large supply in the ruins anyway, so get used to them). Platemail is the best armor in the game but is prohibitively expensive; Banded Mail and Splint Mail are both tied for the next-best, being one AC worse, but while more expensive by 10 gp, Banded Mail allows your characters to move 9" (or 9 squares) per turn instead of 6" (as Platemail and Splint Mail do). You can actually afford a 4th Shortbow and set of 120 Arrows for another of your fighters if you like, if you have 830 or more combined gp. Remember to Share your money before leaving, and Pool/Share before leaving later after you sell any items in order to distribute the character money equally, and View your characters' Items in order to Ready their equipment. You cannot Ready the Longsword/Shield and the Shortbow at the same time, but you can Join and Ready the arrows, and if you ready arrows and have a bow your characters will tend to prioritize using ranged combat when able when they are in Quick combat. If you forget to Ready your equipment, you will die quickly.

Leave and go into the Slums through that west door at 0,4. You may notice you have not memorized any spells, but you must go into the inn in order to do so and pay 1 platinum piece (5 gp won't work, you MUST have 1 pp in order to rest at the inn) and it's relatively slow, plus we probably won't need spells early, based on the time loss from having to enter the inn, pay, and then memorize. Just head straight to the Slums.

In the Slums, head down the roundabout path up to location 1. Your duty in the Slums is to conquer all the potential combat encounters and fight 15 random encounters, so we will start with the easiest encounter. You may have random encounters on the way; hopefully you won't as you have no spells to make them easier, but they are not too much of a threat. At encounter 1, simply Quick combat your characters and allow them to butcher the 4 Orcs. Loot the magic scroll, which will be used merely to sell, and then Encamp. You can rest safely at any location in the Slums that has a set encounter after you clear it, so Magic-Memorize a Bless and 2 Cure Light Wounds on your Cleric and a Sleep spell on each of the Magic-Users. Rest in order to memorize those spells, and then Save your game before Exiting camp (get used to Saving before breaking camp each time for safety's sake, RNG can strike at any time).

Head for location 2. Cast Bless before entering the room; cast it before entering any of the set battles in the Slums, since we will be resting and re-memorizing it after each battle. It lasts only 6 rounds but gives a +1 to hit to the whole party, making the fights slightly faster. Bash your way through any locked doors--your FIghters' exceptional Strength makes them largely automatically successful and is part of what makes Thieves useless. Against the Goblins, press Space to cancel Auto combat (Alt+Q will set all characters to Quick combat; Quick combat is very fast and useful but you can't target specific enemies of course or use spells, so you'll likely maximize your speed by alternating between Quick combat and canceling it to target spells over the course of the speedrun). Have your two Magic-Users target Sleep spells at as large a group as you can hit based on how they move before you get a turn (it hits the target square and each square bordering it, including corners; do not place it next to your party because it will target them as well). Sleep is outrageously overpowered at low-level, putting each sleeping creature into a Helpless state, affecting that large AoE and allowing no Saving Throw. It may not affect every creature in the area if they are, say, Hobgoblins or creatures with more HP than that, but for the first few areas it will make battles trivial as long as you can cast it. Helpless creatures will be automatically be hit and defeated (reduced to Dying status) from the next attack, no roll for to hit or damage required. One-shotting enemies guaranteed is HUGE when accuracy is so much an issue in the early game.

The leather armor at the top of the list is magical +1 leather, worth taking to sell since money is tight and imperative early game.

After resting and re-memorizing, use Search to prepare to farm encounters. This makes each step take 10 minutes instead of 1 (this is also useful for advancing time quickly if for instance you return home at night, when most buildings are actually closed). It also makes you much more likely to find secrets, and much more likely to get encounters. The experience is minimal here and we will never want to fight random encounters again, but these are necessary to clear out the Slums. Take a step south out of the room, then turn around and reenter the room you came from, and repeat this until you get an encounter. You want to farm in this position because of Goblins. You have 3 possible encounters--Orcs (the least desirable, slightly tougher enemies with no good rewards), Kobolds (easiest, at least), and Goblins (most desirable, as they have Longbows and 80 arrows you can give to your other fighters). Goblin encounters here come with 4 leaders who can use bows if there is not a character in melee range of them. By facing south or north, your frontline will be adjacent to the 4 Goblin Leaders, preventing them from using their bows. Facing East or West when the battle starts, one Goblin Leader will be out of melee range of your party and will begin to fire his bow, making him more dangerous and wasting his arrows. If you haven't already gotten encounters, farming them all here in this position eliminates this possibility.

Each combat, use your Sleep spells to put as many as possible to Sleep to eliminate them from combat, then let Quick combat do its work. After the combat, Share the money, loot any arrows (and bows for those who don't yet have them), and then head back north into the cleared room and Rest, rememorize any used spells (Sleep and Cure Light Wounds used to heal) and rest until you are full HP, rinse, and repeat. After 15 random encounters have been defeated, you will not have any more encounters walking through the Slums.

Head west to room 9. You can ignore the gypsy in 8--she is not part of the Slums quest and only wastes time. There are lots of Orcs in 9--the Orc Leaders have bows but are in melee so they won't use them. Done-Delay with your mages and allow the Orcs to gather into huge clumps before using your Sleep spells, then once again Quick Combat. The Broadswords are all +1 weapons and can be looted and used by your frontline fighters, and the Flail +1 can go to any of the remaining characters. The bottom Chain Mail is Chain Mail+1, having AC as good as Banded Mail but being lighter and allowing the character wearing it to move 12", so it is good for one of the frontline fighters as well (drop the Banded Mail and any Longswords on the characters who got magical weapons). Encamp Memorize and Rest after the batte, as usual.

Head up into 4, either step inside the room with Search on or use the Look command to find the treasure. Share the money and give the Shortbow (a Shortbow+1) to one of the Half-Elves and the 20 Arrows (Arrows+1) as well. Normal magical arms and armor do not need to be identified to be used and benefit you, and if you don't have a Detect Magic memorized to see what is magical, you can figure it out by comparing THAC0 and damage of your character after changing items. Magical bows are only supposed to add accuracy, not damage, but in the Gold Box games they are somewhat bugged and add to damage as well. If/When you use magical arrows, their enchantment stacks with bows.

Head to 5 next, again using Bless before entering and putting the biggest groups to Sleep. Bracers are the only magical item here, and they are extremely valuable to sell (not as valuable as an item, unless you have a non-Fighter mage).

Next is 6. You can just walk through the illusory wall, you don't have to Search to find the secret door. Another Shortbow+1 for one of your Half-Elves. Fight the Hobgoblins in 7--their small numbers makes this an easy fight, as two Sleep spells is guaranteed to make them all helpless. After combat, Search or Look to find another Shorbow+1 and a Ring of Protection+1 (this will reduce the AC by 1 of anyone who wears it, as long as they are not wearing magical armor, a weird quirk but currently useful).

Next down and around to 10. THis massive fight is rough, because there are so many enemies. You can put two moderately-sized groups to sleep but there are so many others, and Leaders in back firing bows of their own. Not much you can do after using your Sleep spells but fight back. You may wish to manually use your characters to target the sleepers until they are all gone, because if the AI of Quick combat chooses badly they may ignore the sleeping creatures until they actually wake up. Rest up immediately, because 11 is potentially bad. It is RNG heavy because the Gnolls and Ogre CAN be affected by sleep but have a good chance of not being affected (the game doesn't tell you this in game, but it rolls for the amount of HP affected by the spell, and thus far it will almost always do a full square). No loot in either of these places.

Finally, on to 12. The worst fight yet, a large clump of leaders at the top of the room all have bows and will rain arrows down on you if given the chance. Initiative RNG is especially bad here--if your mages go first, you can with careful aiming put all of them to Sleep and easily pick them off with arrows. If they fire at you first and do damage, you won't be able to cast spells until next turn. Hopefully everyone will survive, but if characters are KO'd it's not a huge deal. Share their arrows between all the characters, and you should have pretty much enough for the rest of the game. Move on to 13 and Search/Look again, take the Shield (+1) for one of the frontline fighters and the scroll for one of your mages. This has Magic Missile, but rather than scribing it, you will want to save it for a future battle.

You are done with the slums for now. Return to town, enter the temple, Pool your money, and Identify one of your magic items (this will change your money). Sell your Clerical Scroll, Leather Armor, and Bracers. Pool/Share again, then head to the Training Grounds. Your Humans should be just shy of 4,000 exp, allowing them to level to 2 and your Cleric to level to 2. As you enter the big room, say No to a duel but Yes to recruiting a comrade. Say No until a Hero is offered, and allow him to join the party. He will be very useful to you for the next area in many ways. If you don't get a Hero and they run out of possible NPCs to hire (they have a random assortment) leave and come back. The Hero is a level 4 Fighter with a +1 Two-Handed Sword and a +1 Platemail. You can't take that equipment...normally, but we have ways as you will see. Drop his bow and arrows and Encamp, Alter-Order and Select him then move him to the 4th character position.

After training your Fighters, it's time to go to Sokal Keep.

Part 2 - Sokal Keep and Finishing the Slums

In town, go to 1 via 2 and they will send you on a boat to Sokal Keep. A spirit is haunting the lighthouse and preventing any more ships from entering or leaving the city, so you need to deal with it before you can take a boat out of town (this is the only strictly required quest in the game, and only required to do any other areas/quests that require the boat).

You arrive in Sokal Keep and have only one real duty, talking to the spirit at 8. You can avoid combat with the Skeletons by using Parley (any tone) and inputting SHESTNI. After inputting it once, you can just say Yes to the question when you meet them. Go to the east side of the center building. Use Bless and prepare for the big battle in 6.

This is a huge, long, cumbersome battle and level 2 mages would be nice, but it's better to have level 3 fighters for the Trolls in the Slums. Let the Hero charge forward and take up as much attention as possible; hopefully he will act before any enemies reach him. The archers in back will be firing but you can't do anything about it. Move your characters into an L-shape around the doorway, the Humans in a vertical line in front and the Half-Elves behind the bottom Human, lining across the bottom doorway, and let them Quick combat so they will use bows when possible and melee any enemies that get close enough. When they start to group up close to you you can begin to use your Sleep spells, but you may want to keep one.

If the Hero is killed, that's perfectly fine, but he's likely to survive. After you've cleared enough enemies they will begin to surrender; at this point cast your second Sleep spell on the Hero if you still have it, then have a character attack and betray him. You will get exp for defeating him and can then loot his +1 sword and armor! Free Platemail is especially good, and the Two-Handed Sword is excellent for the next battle against the Trolls. If you don't have the second Sleep spell, surround the Hero (say Yes to continuing the battle if all the enemies have surrendered) with the Humans and then attack him when you're in position, you should be able to finish him off with your own characters.

Head to 7 first, actually heading to the southern wall, and meet the spirits. Tell them LUX and allow them to show you to their gems, take them for exp and money for training. Then head to 6 to meet the spirit. Parley Nice to him and use LUX again. Tell him the truth and he will leave off haunting the lighthouse, since Humans (and allied races) are returning to reclaim and rebuild the city. You can now go get the treasure at 10 (NW corner of room). From this point on you must say SAMOSUD to the skeletons instead to avoid combat. Give the Mace(+2!) to the lead Fighter and the rest of the equipment to those who need it (the +1 Longsword is better than all other +1 melee weapons). A fighter with a non-magical bow and a +2 weapon will choose melee over bows for Quick combat, it must be noted. Generally I just allow it.

Now you can return home and report to the Clerk of Phlan at 13 to get your reward. You can now level your Half-Elves to Level 2 Fighter and Level 2 Magic-User (learn Magic Missile), and your Humans to Level 3 Fighter. Hire another Hero (heh, heh, heh). You will need to Appraise some Gems or Jewelry in a temple or shop or sell off superfluous magic items to afford the level ups. If any character (except one with Mace+2) is running out of arrows, go buy a few more groups of 10 (that or Identifying should be done to change money, as usual).

Now go back into the Slums. Duck into 3 on the way to rest and memorize 2 Magic Missiles with one magic-user and 1 MM and 1 Sleep with the other, and another Cure Light Wounds with the Cleric. Then head for the Rope Guild (14). Go to 15 and Speak to the old man, using OHLO to get his potion (this quest is required to clear the Slums, and giving a potion is far preferable to fighting his horde of monsters). Now it's time for the worst fight in the game, the Trolls. Save and Bless before going in.

With our Equipment and Levels, this is a tough fight. Do not Quick Combat. Kill the foremost troll first, using the scroll of Magic Missile and all your spells of Magic Missile first. Your characters can kill the rightmost Ogre next, but leave the left Ogre on the side alive as much as possible as a buffer to keep the more dangerous trolls at bay. Let the Hero charge in and use up some attention. Always have a character stand in one of the squares where a Troll died. Kill the second Ogre once 3 Trolls are down. Have the Half-Elves rely on bows after their spells are gone and have the one with +1 arrows use them for this battle. You may end up being killed and needing to reload--the Trolls are THAT tough. Once they are all dead, continue battle, Sleep the Hero and slaughter him again (we are good to our NPCs). Random equipment is here--it may be useful, but unless it is a Necklace of Missiles or a Scroll with Fireball it won't be run-altering. On your way back to town, stop by 3 to Give Ohlo his potion (don't ask for more). Once you've done that, he's gone, and the Slums is now officially cleared.

Return to town and visit the Clerk to finish your second Quest and receive your reward. Now you can level your Humans to level 4 Fighters and your Half-Elves to level 3 Fighters and Cleric. You can now walk into the Slums and rest all you need there to memorize your spells and heal. Split your spells between Magic Missile and Sleep, and use your 2nd level cleric slots on Hold Person

Part 3 - Kuto's Well and Yarash's Pyramid

Next up is Kuto's Well, a quick and easy source of exp. It can be skipped, but clearing this area also makes it a little safer for random encounters (clearing it does not eliminate them, unlike the Slums, but it makes them far more likely to flee from you). Save early and often as you move through Kuto's Well, and if a fight starts, it's faster to quit and reload rather than fight out the battle. You can Flee from most enemies but will end up at a random location with Area Map and coordinates disabled, which makes it hard to navigate, so it's still best just to reload. Head for 4 first, kill the enemies--Quick Combat will do fine here--and then bust into 5 to free the witch, then Look or Search to find her treasure. If you need more money, the Bracers should have enough to level the rest of the characters for the rest of the game. The Banded Mail+1 is a new suit of armor for your third fighter (the other two should have Platemail+1 from the Heroes, RIP).

Then head north to the well at 3. You have to fight 2 waves of Kobolds in order to climb down, again skips spells, you will instead see the power of 'Sweep'. Fighters higher than level one who attack a small creature--Kobolds qualify--will attack a number of neighboring small enemies equal to their level, so you can eliminate several kobolds per character each round if you roll well. Then head down the well. You may be shot by arrows--I rarely take damage. Head south and through the east door then north to 8. Bless right before the fight against Norris the Grey. Naturally, do NOT surrender, just Fight. Use Sleep and Hold Person to disable as many enemies as possible, kill Norris, and loot his Longsword+1. Head to the upper right corner at 9 for some more money and exp, and you can now rest safely in the well (you only need to recover for now).

Return to town, turn in this Quest, You can now level your Magic-Users to level 3 and learn Stinking Cloud. When you target Stinking Cloud--it's short range, only, so be careful--it creatues a 2x2 square with the top left location being your target. The AI will not enter Stinking Cloud so it serves as a wall to any enemies who aren't already in it after you cast it, but debuffs all enemies inside and gives them a chance to 'Choke and Gag', therefore becoming Helpless. Head back into the Slums to memorize those Stinking Clouds and other spells, Magic Missile for all 1st Levels this time. Head to the docks and pay 1 gp to take a boat to the West. Once you sail, save your game, because again you will save time quitting and reloading versus fighting the random encounters. Some you can safely Flee from, but you should still save often. Head north to the lake and go around behind it, traveling along the northern shore until you get the message for having found the Pyramid. Head in. Head straight south until you reach the first opening to the right, then head in. You'll be teleported into the Pyramid proper.

THe Pyramid is a teleporter maze and quite large, but luckily, if you know the correct path, it's easy to reach the end and, as long as you don't stray, there are no random encounters here. After teleporting, head straight then turn right and follow that path. Ignore the secret door your Half-Elves may spot on the left. Once you pass it, all you have to do is go straight. At the next teleporter and the two following ones, do the same two actions: Throw a rock, then Move on. Finally you will find yourself before a door with runes. The password is 'NOKNOK'. If you don't enter NOKNOK the game will auto-kill the party, so don't get it wrong. Head inside and find the wizard's machinery. You don't actually have to destroy it to complete the Yarash quest, so just Move away quickly. Head forward, cast bless, and enter the final room. Advance twice until the protrait of the mage appears; this way you will start in melee with him and he will be in range of your attacks and spells. Have the Cleric attempt to Hold Person on him (and a few Lizardmen) while the Mages should try to target a Stinking Cloud directly on him, and direct all possible attacks towards him. Above all else, you must prevent him from casting his spells. If you can damage and/or paralyze him early, the fight should be easy. Move to the northern-center square of the room to play with the controls, change it to Copper, turn on Search, and head east into the teleporter. Take a step and loot the room, then turn around and go back. Repeat with Silver and Gold, then change to Blue to leave. The magic items are random and usually inconsequential, but if you get a Necklace of Missiles (I got one in about 30 runs) or say a Scroll of Fireball you can skip the next section and go on to the Temple of Bane.

Once you change the teleporter to Blue and enter it, you will wind up back in the exit/entrance hallway. Head north to leave and watch the river become magically unpolluted, even though you didn't destroy the equipment. Again, save before moving and reload any time a battle starts. Once you reach the city you may have to move through its sections a few times before the option comes up to take the Boat back to the Civilized area. return to the Clerk to collect a whopping 5k exp, which will get your Fighters to level 5 (4 for the Half-Elves) and your Cleric to 4. When you go to Slums to rest, re-memorize Sleep in place of Magic Missile.

Part 4 - Collecting a Fireball

If you haven't found a random magic item that gives Fireballs yet--a scroll, a wand, or Necklace of Missiles--you need to get one before the Temple of Bane. The quickest, easiest place to get one is in the Cordona Textile House. Head to Kuto's Well and take the Eastern entrance on the South wall into Mendor's Library, travel around the outside of the Library to the West and head into the Cordona's Textile House from the south-most entrance. Saving is even more imperative here--there are giant scorpions that can instakill poison and wights that can drain levels, and either effect pretty much demands a reload, but otherwise the fights are actually moderately quick here, so you might choose to take them instead of reloading if you don't mind that risk. You are heading for 3 in the western side of the map, by the well. There is an unmarked set encounter at the corner of buildings just north of the door into the narrow one-square wide room, between 5 and 8. It is a force of Hobgoblins, but they are easy to dispatch; you could use a sleep or two if you like.

Grishnak is a cleric and very dangerous with Hold Person spells; use them or Sleep or Stinking Cloud on her first to shut her down, and this fight is easy, but Bless (and safety saves) are still recommended. Take the Magic-User scrolls; unlike most items, Scrolls must be identified before they can be used. Return home the way you came.

Identify the Scrolls and Ready them (they take both hands) so you can Use them to figure out which one has the Fireball. Once you've identified it, you can ditch the other. Now it's time to collect your final required game-ending item.

Part 5 - Storming the Temple

Visit the Bishop Baraccio in the Temple of Tyr (town location 4) and recruit Dirten to the party. Don't worry, we're nice to Dirten and have no reason to sacrifice him. Then take a boat to the South area of the city and enter the Wealthy District. Head into the left door right ahead (area 1). Fight some Orcs, use a Sleep to help kill them fast, because you want Dirten to keep his Prayer if possible. Killing this group plus the priest at the temple clears this area and makes it guaranteed safe, plus killing this group creates a chance of having no encounter at the temple doors.

Leave and head straight west into the temple. This is a pretty easy area as you can simply Flee from any encounters and you will simply take a step back and skip the encounter. There is a chance that you picked up a Leather Holy Symbol in the fight at 1, and if so the blind Orc guard here will automatically feel it and just let you through. If not, you'll have to fight a group here too (if the message comes up and gives you an option to fight or let him search you, you didn't get it, so just fight). Enter the Temple, save, cast Bless and (if Dirten didn't cast it in battle) Prayer, then leave the Temple and start the fight against Mace the cleric and his army. This is a huge group--use your FIreball source to wipe out as many of the Orcs as possible (the radius is three squares out from the target point, treating diagonals as 1.5 squares; if you Center on a target space, it will hit everything in that screen except the four corners and the two squares directly bordering each corner. Have everyone else--your Cleric and other mage with spells, your fighters with attacks if they can reach--try to damage or eliminate Mace so he doesn't start using Hold Person to paralyze your group and kill your characters, or you'll likely have to reload. Once the numbers have been thinned and Mace has been dealt with, it's another easy fight.

Go back in and loot the temple (after Dirten leaves to begin rebuilding it). The spot in the NW corner has another Scroll with Fireball and Stinking Cloud, which is valuable, but the real treasure is the southmost spot, which hides Dust. This is Dust of Disappearance, the most game-breaking item in any RPG ever and your ticket to winning the game. There are some useful potions here, too.

Return home and turn in, and this will be your last level-ups of the game, getting your Magic-Users to 4. You should have 2 potions of Speed--give 1 each to the first two fighters, and a Potion of Giant Strength, which you should give to your primary fighter. You need no more arrows. TIme to go!

Part 6 - Ending Tyranthraxus

Time for a series of disguises. Head through the slums and take the northern West door into Kuto's Well. Save as you go through Kuto's Well, because while most encounters will flee from you you may be forced into combat with bloodthirsty monsters and that's far too time-consuming. Enter Podal Plaza and disguise the party as monsters, which should (with your high Charisma) allow you to get through the plaza without encounters. Take the eastern (nearer) northern door into Stojanow Gate.

Make sure it's daytime, or you can't use disguise #2. On the way towards the gate you'll encounter a wagon of supplies, Parley with the group and buy their wagon, then head to the gate. Make sure you don't step next to the walls. When the bugbears approach, agree to Bribe them and they will take you past the gate inside. There should be no encounters on this side. Head slightly east and north to take the eastern door north into Valjevo castle. Your party will be in the Southwest sector of the four-piece outer map. Head into building one and Parley with the laundry ladies, agree to let them disguise you and leave them in peace, and this simple action (and third disguise) will guarantee no encounters up to the endgame. Head out and east into the South-Eastern corner. Head around the wall to the gate into the inner castle (at 3), and Give the password RHODIA to enter the castle in peace. The entrance you want is on the Western Wall of the keep--you'll have to navigate the hedge maze from this South Eastern quarter around the edge to the North Western quarter. That's all I can offer.

Once you enter, immediately turn right and walk into the wall to pass through it, then turn and head up the stairs. Say yes to the first, but No to the second or you will travel down and meet the Medusa, which is dangerous. Turn left and go through the secret door and say Yes to going up these stairs. Now you're on the last level. Turn left and head over to the stairs that go into 5, the Final Battle.

Cast Prayer, use your Potions of Speed and Potion of Giant Strength, and use the Dust of Disappearance. The Dust makes you ridiculously overpowered, immune to spells and very hard to hit. Your first battle is against 12 lvl 8 Fighters (!) but they won't even move to attack you, and cannot attack unless they are adjacent to your characters. Use Stinking Cloud and Hold Person to paralyze as many as possible to bypass their armor and hit points. After you've killed all 12, loot their +2 Platemail for all your characters and equip their +2 Two-Handed Swords. Refuse with all 6 characters and start the fight against Tyranthraxus in his Bronze Dragon body. He can't hit you with his breath weapon because Dust of Disappearance is simply too OP. He can still do some damage with claw attacks and might kill a character, but just ignore any defeats and hack away until he's dead. After the battle you'll be teleported back to town.

Walk into the Council building and report to the Clerk, and you'll collect 45k exp (!!) and you've won. Congratulations! You saved the city of Phlan!