Mr. Do's Castle(Arcade) FAQ
version 1.0.0
by Andrew Schultz schultza@earthlink.net

Please do not reprint this for profit. I wrote this document largely to 
help preserve good old memories and interest in classic(and especially 
'retro') games--both for myself and for others. If you really would like 
to post this on your website, please send me a polite e-mail addressing 
me by name and referring to this game specifically. If I don't know you 
I generally give away one FAQ at a time at first.

** AD SPACE **
My web page: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/2762 

================================

        OUTLINE

  1. INTRODUCTION

  2. CONTROLS/STRATEGY

  3. POINTS ETC.

  4. LEVELS (4-1 to 4-8)

  5. SECOND GO ROUND (5-1 to 5-8)

  6. VERSIONS

  7. CREDITS

================================

  1. INTRODUCTION

  Mr. Do's Castle is an extremely hard game, even if you set the dip 
switches to Easy(play)/Easy(extra man.) Like the other Mr. Do games, 
though, it has a certain addictive quality once you get reasonably good 
at it. There are many techniques to master, and to top it off the 
monsters are rather smart and good at playing chicken, and many random 
events make it hard for a consistent coherent strategy. You have eight 
platformed levels to cycle through, and then things get almost 
unreasonably hard. Mr. Do is armed with only a xylophone mallet, which 
doesn't even kill the Unicorns that chase him after a few levels, and in 
fact it can bash tiles on the platform to make your escape from bad guys 
much harder. You will probably need to hit parts of the platform above 
with a mallet to nail the unicorns beneath, and that involves getting 
the unicorns to sneak under. Still there is a merry chase to be had.

  There are also three key tiles you can swat. Getting them all reveals 
a shield at the top. Get the shield and the unicorns change to yellow 
blobs with letters that you can smash. Nail the letters E, X, T, R and A 
and get a free Mr. Do--and get kicked to the next level! There are also 
skull squares you can bash--the whole platform crashes down and leaves 
an indestructible bridge. Bad guys on top of(or in) holes and below the 
whole framework are crushed, but you'll have one place where you can no 
longer dig holes.

  Given how the unicorns are so good at using their numbers and how they 
waver randomly at times, the game does, thus, trap you and it can get 
frustrating after a while. It's probably only for those who want a REAL 
old school challenge.

  Oh did I mention the game's default seems to start you with two lives?

  2. CONTROLS/STRATEGY

  Whatever you want Mr. Do to do, he probably won't. Okay, he can't 
alwaysget away with going down when you push left, but you'll find no 
end of annoyance trying to get him to turn on a dime. Well, that's not 
strictly true. He actually does turn on a dime when you are going up a 
green ladder. Try pushing left or right before he gets to the top, and 
he will turn around. Also if Mr. Do swings a mallet to one side of a 
green ladder you may fall through the hole you made if you push up. He 
generally gets outpaced by unicorns, too, although they will stop to 
catch their breath on earlier levels.

  Mr. Do can push a green ladder to the other side just by walking onto 
it. He can fall off a ledge to get away from unicorns(they can't fall) 
but of course if they are below he will have a nasty surprise.

  If Mr. Do knocks out both sides of a skull bridge, all the squares 
drop--even the ones he got rid of between the skulls. Monsters on the 
bridge will also be crushed unless they are between cherry slots.

  Mr. Do also can swing a mallet to put some space between himself and 
unicorns. This can be a problem when two unicorns are right on top of 
each other--one will duck back, but the other will keep going. RIP Mr. 
Do. They can play some dirty tricks this way. Often it'll be a 
percentage move to do something, but if they shift around, oh well. 
Unicorns can also run back and forth without warning and then suddenly 
charge at you. They seem to keep track of your vertical AND horizontal 
position, and if you stay still for too long there is usually a unicorn 
who will just stay above/below you waiting too. So if you are waiting 
for unicorns you may want to walk back and forth aimlessly for a bit to 
throw them off. You also can't bull your way past the unicorns as any 
hole you make for them to fall in applies to you, too. So you always 
need to envision a circular way around(usually above your intended path, 
with a fall later--Mr. Do can fall as far as you want without getting 
harmed.)

  Unicorns also have the nasty ability to walk past other potted 
unicorns. You can get trapped by them. It seems unfair but it's a 
definite nasty point. Unicorns also keep moving faster; landing them in 
a hole where you don't kill them can accelerate this. It can even turn 
reds to the faster green unicorns to the amoebically splitting blue 
armored ones, which are oblivious to mallets(although they can be 
crushed) and each accelerates differently as well.

  Also at the beginning of the level, unicorns only randomly leave the 
side ladder after being kicked down from the top. Don't expect them to, 
but do be prepared to knock out cherries on both sides if they try to 
surround you, and take out bottom squares first.

  Here's general bad guy killing strategy:

--The best generic way to kill a bad guy is to stay by a ladder, bash a 
cherry one way, climb up(tap towards the ladder so you don't fall in the 
hole) and knock out the cherry square above.
--It's possible to kill a bad guy with precise timing once he pops out 
from a hole, but it's very risky. The blues, which are the toughest 
monsters in general, seem to be easiest to kill this way and they are 
quite nasty otherwise.
--You will kill a bad guy if you fall on him while he's trapped; 
however, you also will die unless he's the last one on the board. 
Falling on bad guys in general is lethal.
--For general level progress, you want to take out a bunch of bottom 
squares, get unicorns stuck, and run around and over them and start 
bashing.
--The bridges are useful for getting rid of several bad guys right away, 
but you have to be sure to do the job. For them you'll need time to 
1)take out all the cherries between the skulls, 2) position yourself so 
that the unicorns must cross the bridge to get to you, and 3) time 
knocking the bridge over so that any unicorns that left the holes will 
be over them when you hit the second skull. You'll also need a clear 
escape outlet as the bridge will be unbreakable afterwards.
--If a bad guy below starts playing 'prevent defense' you might want to 
run around a bit and see if he follows--it's possible to drop a cherry 
on him and get him out of the way in case you need to fall somewhere 
once the other bad guys come.
--Staying above bad guys creates advantage. If they have to go up a 
ladder to get to you, try to wait to bash cherries on each side.
--Often you can pot a unicorn in a hole and wait for another one to come 
by. Of course you'll want to bash a bit before it does. This also adds 
on the points with multipliers and so forth.
--You can buy time by knocking out several holes behind you if just one 
or two bad guys is chasing you. In fact as the level goes on, they get 
faster, and this may be necessary to knock out the final bad guy.
--Remember to go for the quickest way because once blue monsters start 
multiplying, you're toast. More than three and you're in trouble.
--If there's a green ladder on either side of a bridge, push it away as 
you wait. That forces the unicorns to come in at you.

  Here is general strategy to avoid bad guys:

--if they're going up the swivelly ladder, note that you can push it to 
the other side and jump below it. Pushing the swivelly ladder with a bad 
guy on it ot only gets them off track but turns them away from you.
--the swivelly ladders are really the key to successful fleeing. Pushing 
them to the right side so that your hiding place is hard to access is 
key to getting around.
--You also want to leave yourself an escape route. Don't go knocking out 
cherries unless you know bad guys will fall into them, or they make 
great ways to duck out. Because bad guys can just scrape you as you fall 
through holes, and it's RIP.
--Often you can dig a hole, climb up a ladder next to it, and fall over 
the hole to get around a unicorn or two. You might even want to wait for 
others to come around.
--In general, you want to create an end of a ledge for yourself to stay 
on. This allows you an easy out and also means that the unicorns will be 
bottled up for a bit. Just be sure to have a quick way back up once you 
fall.

  Here is strategy for killing the unicorns once they turn into the 
little walking yellow boxes:

--at the top, wait for a monster to come running by before you pick up 
the shield. That one should be a freebie. Once you've knocked out all 
three keys in the level, the shield is up at the top until the level 
ends, you get it, or you get killed.
--you can often wait for monsters to split into two blues before getting 
the shield. This is good especially if there's one letter to go--two 
chances to pick up that elusive final one. But it can backfire if you're 
not expedient.
--try to have a way to fall down quickly as, although you are faster 
than the boxes, it's even faster to fall down than to walk down.
--if a monster is on a green swivelly ladder and you are above it, wait 
for it to climb back up--you can run down and nail it. You can also push 
the ladder to the other side and fall onto the monster.
--note that each time you knock out a tile, the letters shift, from
E X T R A
| | | | |
V V V V V
X T R A E
--bad guys tend to run away from you but they don't adjust their paths 
until they reach a new level(if going vertically) or if you appear on 
the same level(going horizontally.)
--unicorns may run uselessly back and forth when trapped on ledges so 
you may want to grab a shield when one walks into a dead end and go 
immediately for that one.

  It's a bit tricky here to remember when to do what, but note that if 
you bash a yellow thing with a mallet, the letter won't change. If you 
bash a cherry and it drops on a yellow thing, the letter will change 
just beforehand. You can also calculate how many cherries you need to 
bash so a monster near changes to the right letter, and while this is 
not trivial you need to get a feel for it as the last one is often the 
most elusive.

  3. POINTS ETC.

--20 points for each key, cherry or skull tile knocked down
--500-1000-1500 for bashing an enemy down 1, 2 or 3 flights. How high 
the brick you drop on them is, is not relevant.
--x2 bonus multiplier for green, x3 for blue
--I'm unclear on combo points, but 
--Points for shield: 1000 + 500 * (level number)
--8000 + a free game + free pass to the next level for a diamond(i.e. if 
you see it run for it as that is more points than you get for going 
through the rest of the level--unless you can get the shield VERY 
easily)

  Monster assortment per level
1 5
2 5
3 5
4 4/1
5 4/1
6 5/1
7 4/2
8 3/3
9 3/2/1

  4. LEVELS (4-1 to 4-8)

  There's no hard and fast solution per se to any of these levels, but a 
good start can make it so you have to deal with fewer enemies. Although 
that means fewer candidates for the E-X-T-R-A, you won't be able to 
round up everyone anyway even on the first level. The shield always 
appears on the top row, and you have no excuse to be up there unless 
you're going for it.

  LEDGER

H = ladder
= = breaks
- = ordinary cherry
X = skull
/\= swivelling ladder
+ = key

    4-1. LEVEL 1

H=====================H
H                     H
H                     H
H                     H
H=X=-=-=X=\   /=-=-=-=H
H            /        H
H            /        H
H           /         H
H=-=-=\   /===-=-=+=-=H
H      \              H
H      \              H
H       \             H
H=-=+=-===H=X=-=-=-=X=H
H         H           H
H         H           H
H         H           H
H=-=+=-=-===\   /=-=-=H
H            \        H
H            \        H
H             \       H
H=-=-=-=\   /===-=-=-=H
H          /          H
H          /          H
H         /           H
H=====================H

  This is a good level to get part of the E-X-T-R-A so you may not want 
to bust everyone immediately. You can climb up the center for two levels 
and then start bashing to the left. Bad guys may run after you, and then 
you can climb up the center solid stair and knock out the tiles above to 
get them. You'll also get two parts of the key that way. Then you can 
push the ladder above left and get the third key out of the way.

    4-2. LEVEL 2

H=====================H
H                     H
H                     H
H                     H
H=-=\   /=X=-=-=-=-=X=H
H      /              H
H      /              H
H     /               H
H=+=-===-=-=-=\   /=-=H
H              \      H
H              \      H
H               \     H
H=X=-=-=X=H=-=-===-=+=H
          H           H
          H           H
          H           H
H=-=\   /===+=-=-=-=-=H
H      /              H
H      /              H
H     /               H
H=-=-===-=H=-=\   /=-=H
H         H    \      H
H         H    \      H
H         H     \     H
H=====================H

  The center ladders should serve you well again. Just go over to the 
right, though, as the unicorns don't tend to chase you from that side. 
You can knock out a key, and if unicorns come from the left you should 
have the time to knock out a hole and climb up the stairs. You can take 
out the squares above and then sit on the bridge to kill a few more bad 
guys, although this is also a good level for picking off letters.

    4-3. LEVEL 3

H=====================H
H                     H
H                     H
H                     H
H=X=-=-=-=-=-=X=\   /=H
H                \    H
H                \    H
H                 \   H
H=+=\   /=+=H=-=-===-=H
     \      H
     \      H
      \     H
-=-=-===H=-===\   /=-=H
        H      \      H
        H      \      H
H       H       \     H
H=\   /===-=-=-===-=+=H
H    /                H
H    /                H
H   /                 H
H=-===X=-=-=-=X=H=-=-=H
H               H     H
H               H     H
H               H     H
H=====================H

  This is a great level for planning on. Right, up the small stair, 
right, knock out the two cherries behind, up, knock out the two cherries 
to the left, and all the way up. Go left and knock out the cherry right 
just as a unicorn runs under you. You should knock out two of them--one 
stuck in the hole and the one that's running under--for 3500 points. 
Then you can fall left when the coast is clear, push the swivel ladder 
left as you run off the edge, and get to work on the bridge. You can 
sucker a few more bad guys in, kill the bridge, turn the swivel ladder 
back right, and climb back up. You cold even risk climbing up for the 
key, waiting, and dropping before going to the bridge area, although 
with just two monsters left the trip back up(get the right key, fall 
left and go up/left) should not be bad either.

    4-4. LEVEL 4

H=====================H
H                     H
H                     H
H                     H
H=-=\   /=-=H=\   /=-=H
H    \      H    /    H
H    \      H    /    H
H     \     H   /     H
H=-=-===-=-=H=-===-=-=H
H           H
H           H
H           H
H=\   /=-=-===+=-=-=-=H
H    /                H
H    /                H
H   /                 H
H=+===-=-=H=X=-=-=-=X=H
H         H           H
H         H           H
H         H           H
H=X=-=-=X===\   /=-=+=H
H            \        H
H            \        H
H             \       H
H=====================H

  This one is a bit trickier but you should be able to go up the center 
stair and take a few bad guys out on the right bridge(kick the swivel 
stair right)--first you may want to take out the left skull on the right 
bridge, though. This may even pull the unicorns to the center, where you 
can run down and left to take out the bridge from the left. Then in the 
bottom right(fall to get there once the swivel stair is pushed) you can 
bash a key and push the stair over again if you have to. There should 
just be two enemies left and those can go in the holes. You can now run 
free up to get the key and then the shield.

    4-5. LEVEL 5

H=====================H
H                     H
H                     H
H                     H
H=-=\   /=-=H=+=\   /=H
H    \      H      /  H
H    \      H      /  H
H     \     H     /   H
H=-=-===-=-===-=-===-=H
H                     H
H                     H
H                     H
H=+=\   /=-=-=H=X=-=X=H
     \        H
     \        H
      \       H
H=-=-===-=-=-===-=+=-=H
H                     H
H                     H
H                     H
H=X=-=-=-=X=\   /=-=-=H
H              /      H
H              /      H
H             /       H
H=====================H

  This situation is tailor made for a quick bridge-out. Go up the stairs 
and hack away at the bridge immediately to make three holes. Let 'er rip 
when three unicorns are in holes(or when they are above--the timing is 
always iffy) and when you jump right you should be able to outrun the 
unicorns. It's best if they're all at the bottom, so you may have more 
waiting to do after you've taken the bridge out. Then you can drop down 
and wait at the bottom, or push the swivel ladder left in the lower 
right and sucker a couple of unicorns over before breaking the other 
way.

    4-6. LEVEL 6

H=====================H
H                     H
H                     H
H                     H
H=-=-=\   /=-=X=-=-=X=H
H                     H
H                     H
H                     H
H=-=-=-===\   /=-=-=-=H
H            /
H            /
H           /
==-=-=H=-=+===\   /=+=H
               \      H
               \      H
                \     H
H=-=+===-=-=-=-===-=-=H
H                     H
H                     H
H                     H
H=-=-=-=\   /=X=-=-=X=H
H          /          H
H          /          H
H         /           H
H=====================H

  For starters here you will probably want to go up and right. Your 
first objective should be to take out the square below the key on the 
right, climb over the key, and bash it from the left--once a bad guy is 
stuck in the pit below and another is walking over. From there you can 
drop down and bash a cherry to get to the bridge and set up that trap. 
You'll want to wait as long as possible before dropping down as you'll 
need to buy all the time you can, although if you don't think you'll 
have enough time you can flee to the left, down, right and up the stairs 
which you can kick left.

    4-7. LEVEL 7

H=====================H
H                     H
H                     H
H                     H
H=-=-=\   /=H=X=-=-=X=H
H      \    H         H
H      \    H         H
H       \   H         H
H=-=-=-===-=H=\   /=-=H
H           H  \      H
H           H  \      H
H           H   \     H
H=-=-=\   /===+===-=-=H
H      \
H      \
H       \
H=-=-=-===+=-=-=-=-=+=H
H                     H
H                     H
H                     H
H=-=-=X=-=-=X=\   /=-==
H                /
H                /
H               /
=======================

  Here I have my best luck going left, up and right where the keys are. 
I'll bash to the left for one key and then keep doing so until I'm at 
the right. Fall through for the key, push the ladder left, climb, go 
left and dig all the cherries you can(if you can get to the far left 
that is a bit more time you can buy--and you may get an extra monster on 
the bridge trap that way.)

  The main annoyance here is that when you fall right and try to go back 
up the stairs, you may be blocked from doing so. Before taking care of 
business you will want to make sure that your path back up via the lower 
right is unrestricted. That isn't to say you can't bash the cherry below 
the key; just make sure all the unicorns are coming your way(or they'll 
be in the bridge area,) push the ladder left and wait for a unicorn to 
fall in that hole before continuing.

    4-8. LEVEL 8

H=====================H
H                     H
H                     H
H                     H
H=-=-=-=\   /=X=-=-=X=H
H          /          H
H          /          H
H         /           H
==-=-=H=+===\   /=-=-==
      H      \
      H      \
      H       \
H=+=-===\   /===-=-=+=H
H          /          H
H          /          H
H         /           H
H=-=-=-=-===X=-=-=X=-=H
H                     H
H                     H
H                     H
H=-=-=-=\   /=-=-=H=-==
H        \        H
H        \        H
H         \       H
=======================

  This is really a very nasty scene as you don't have a quick way up. 
The best bet seems to be left, up two, and right and then going left and 
digging right. You can then go up the stairs and nail the key and 
'retreat' as you wind your way up. Hopefully all the unicorns will loop 
after you and you can fall right to get the two keys and then set up a 
bridge trap. The top left is quite good here for starters although you 
do have to push the swivel ladder below to the right so they can 
actually see you. Once they're all herded in, though, you might be able 
to jump down and push the ladder back left. This would leave the 
monsters trapped until you're ready to pick them off, but if there isn't 
time, just push the third highest swivel ladder left and set up another 
bridge trap. There's no way to get at you from the left.

  5. SECOND GO ROUND

  With blue monsters appearing quickly those are the ones you want to 
focus on first. The same starting techniques should be valid but here 
you'll want to change the monsters to letters with the shield and zap 
the yellow boxes that *were* blues.

End of FAQ proper

================================

  6. VERSIONS

1.0.0 sent first version to GameFAQs 09/14/2003. Should be mostly 
complete although this game is baffling and I'm sure I missed some 
strategies.

  7. CREDITS

The usual GameFAQs gang. They know who they are, and you should, too, 
because they get some SERIOUS writing done. Good people too--bloomer, 
daremo, falsehead, RetroFreak, Snow Dragon, and others I forgot.

War Doc for setting an arcade guide pace I can barely stay within 
shouting distance of.

CJayC for creating GameFAQs.com so that I could post cute little time 
wasting guides like this.

The mame.net crew for putting in all those doo dads that allow me to 
analyze such a tough game.