How to beat Ray Sato's 'Escape from the Dungeon of the Gods' By Garry Francis Escape from the Dungeon of the Gods has a fantasy role playing element that is out of place in an adventure. Personally, I hate the random element in role playing games. However, the random element in Escape from the Dungeon of the Gods can be beaten. Here's how. Understanding the fantasy role playing status: ---------------------------------------------- The fantasy role playing element relies on three factors - hit points, strength level and experience points. Type STATUS to see these values. When you start a new game, a random number between 15 and 30 is generated for your "permanent" hit points. This is copied to your "current" hit points. Whenever you get hit by a monster, your current hit points are reduced (as described in the combat system below). If your current hit points fall below your permanent hit points, they are then incremented every 5 moves. This gives you a chance to heal from your wounds over a period of time. However, if your current hit points fall below 0 due to multiple hits from a monster, you die. So, don't let the monsters hit you (as best as possible) and you will minimise the loss of hit points. When you start a new game, a random number between 5 and 25 is generated for your strength level. This affects the probability of hitting a monster when you attack it. The higher the strength level, the higher the probability that you will hit the monster. Therefore, you want your strength to be as high as possible. If you drink potion1, your strength is reduced by a random number between 3 and 7, so don't drink that. If you drink potion2, your strength is increased by a random number between 6 and 10, so you can drink that. The potions are the only things that affect your strength. When you start a new game, the experience points are set to 0. This is, effectively, your score. You score 15 points for killing each of the monsters, except for the black dragon, which earns 50 points, for a total of 110 points. The remainder of the experience points are not awarded until you escape the dungeon. You should aim to have the full 110 points when you escape, then the remainder are awarded as follows: - 30 for escaping - 30 if carrying the diamonds - 30 if carrying the platinum - 100 if carrying the chest That's a total of 300 points. You also lose 30 points if you QUIT. Understanding the combat system: -------------------------------- If you enter a room with a monster, you cannot leave the room until the monster has been dispatched, so make sure you are armed with the appopriate weapons or other objects beforehand. Of course, you will not know which rooms the monsters are in until you encounter them, so you may have to die and restart the game a few times as you go through the learning process. Once you are in a room with a monster, the combat system comes into play. This works as follows: If you are carrying the ring, nothing happens. Therefore, you should find the ring as soon as possible and carry it with you wherever you go, as it is your only sure-fire defence against the monsters. If you are not carrying the ring, there's a 20% chance that the monster will attack you. If it does attack you, there's a 70% chance that it will hit you. If it hits you, you lose 5 hit points if carrying the shield or 10 hit points otherwise. Therefore, it's worth carrying the shield if you find it before finding the ring, but once you know where everything is, you can ignore it. If you are not carrying the ring, the monster continues to attack in this manner until you are dead, so don't waste any moves. The only way to stop the monster's attacks is to get rid of it. You can fight a monster by typing ATTACK , e.g. ATTACK SNAKE. There is one exception. You cannot attack the black cube in the dark. In this case, you need to be carrying the lit brass lamp. When you attack a monster, you are asked "With which weapon?" There are only two weapons - the lance and the flaming sword. Both weapons have the same impact, so you only need to carry one. Pick up the first one you find so that you have something to defend yourself with. However, the flaming sword can immediately dispatch one of the monsters, so use this (once you know where to find it) and ignore the lance. Once you know the layout of the game, you can get either of the weapons without encountering any monsters. When you attack a monster with one of the weapons, there's a (40-strength)% chance that you'll miss it, otherwise you'll hit it. If you hit it, it loses 5 hit points. When its hit points reach 0, it is killed. There are 5 monsters. Each monster starts with a different number of hit points, as follows: - chromatic snake (15) - black cube (20) - red dragon (25) - slime creature (20) - giant black dragon (35) Therefore, if attacking a monster with a weapon, you need to hit the chromatic snake 3 times, the black cube 4 times, the red dragon 5 times, the slime creature 4 times and the giant black dragon a whopping 7 times. So, if relying on the combat system alone, this could mean a very long and boring game. However, there are better ways to vanquish the monsters. Better ways to defeat monsters: ------------------------------- Waving wand1 releases a lightning bolt. If you do this in a room with a monster, the lightning bolt hits the monster and decreases its hit points by 15. The advantage of this is that it is not random and it has a bigger impact on the monster than attacking it with a weapon. A single lightning bolt is sufficient to kill the chromatic snake, but you will have to wave it a second time to kill the black cube, red dragon and slime creature. The lightning bolt only works three times, so you could use it to kill the chromatic snake and one other monster, but there are better ways. You cannot use the lightning bolt against the giant black dragon. The explosive ball is a versatile tool. When thrown, it can expose the entrance to the treasure vault in the throne room (but it's better to push the statue), it can open the steel door in the room with same (but it's better to wave wand2) and it can destroy the north door in the entrance hall (but it's better to pour the acid). Most importantly, if a monster is in the room, it works like the lightning bolt and subtracts 15 from the monster's hit points. This is sufficient to kill the chromatic snake and seriously injure the others, INCLUDING the giant black dragon! This is significant. The flaming sword kills the slime monster straight away, so use this instead of all the other methods. Playing the flute charms the chromatic snake, so use this instead of all the other methods. Reading the scroll destroys the red dragon, so use this instead of all the other methods. Throwing the magic dust at the black cube destroys it, so use this instead of all the other methods. This leaves only the black dragon and this is the only monster that needs to be killed using the combat system. Firstly, throw the explosive ball at it to reduce its hit points to 20, then attack it repeatedly using the sword or lance until you have hit it 4 times. Summary: -------- Use the flaming sword to kill the slime monster. In the worst-case scenario, you may get hit by the slime monster when you first enter the room, but this is not enough to kill you. You can then get the ring to protect you from the remaining monsters. The remaining monsters can be killed in any order, but I believe this is the shortest sequence. Use the explosive ball and the flaming sword to kill the black dragon. Use the magic dust to kill the black cube. Use the scroll to kill the red dragon. Use the flute to kill the snake. (Strictly speaking, you can save a couple of moves by killing the snake before the slime monster, but that's a bit more risky. If you want to do that, make sure you have more than 10 hit points before you try it.) If you follow this sequence, you can collect the treasures along the way without ever needing to drop used items. (The inventory is limited to a very generous 9 items.) I'll leave it to you to work out the other puzzles, such as opening the various doors. Have fun.