Dragon's Lair Walkthrough Version 1.5 Copyright 2009 by ktwo E-mail: ktwo[at]graffiti.net Last updated : September 2:nd 2009 *********** * Content * *********** 1. Introduction 2. Version History 3. Story (from the NES manual) 4. Basic Gameplay 5. Controls 6. Items 7. Enemies 8. Cheats 9. Walkthrough 10. Ending 11. High scoring strategy 12. Acknowledgements 13. Copyright Info 14. Feedback ******************* * 1. Introduction * ******************* Welcome to the first walkthrough for the American version of Dragon's Lair for NES. Although it has come to my attention that the American version differs in some regards from the PAL-version, I hope that this guide can satisfy frustrated players with only the PAL-version as well. The game is probably most famous for the dragon under the bridge in the beginning. People thought this was hard and put away the game even before entering the castle. I guess many of you did the right thing, because that was only the beginning. Inside the castle dwells pure evil... Before you check this game out, you should be aware of that Dragon's Lair has a reputation of being one of the tougher Nintendo games released. To complete this game, you need lots of dedication to learn where all the traps and enemies appear, but also a huge portion of luck. Even though there exist different opinions, most Nintendo players agree on that this game is one of the worst NES-games ever made and I am probably prepared to understand them to some extent. Your hero, Dirk, is extremely awkward and weak and there are so many cheap hits that you don't know if to laugh or to cry after a while. So why have I chosen this game to write about then ? Well, I'm particularly interested in challenging Nintendo games and how to complete the them. Since Dragon's Lair fits well in on this description and the fact that very little information can be found about it on the Internet convinced me to make this effort. Also, even though some parts are very hard to get through, there are sometimes tricks to make it easier. Therefor I think this walkthrough can still be of some use. I'm not sure if my walkthrough ever will be read, but to all of you obsessed souls out there who dare to confront this reincarnation of the old man, I demand you to equip yourself with a will of iron, nerves of steel and lightning reflexes. If you accept this extreme challenge, I hail you by the metal of death ! ********************** * 2. Version History * ********************** 1.5 (09-02-2009) : Added a nice strategy for the second bosses (the mine trolls). The new method is both easier to perform and faster. Courtesy to Xandier for sharing this finding with me and the public. 1.41 (11-01-2006) : I changed email adress (I curse home.se) and I also changed some parts in the introduction. I have come to painful insight of the the relentless difficulty that offers Snake Rattle 'n Roll. It would not be right to speak of Dragon's Lair's difficulty without mentionning Snake Rattle 'n Roll. 1.4 (03-17-2006) : Added a hint sent in by Luke J Martinez on how to get the highest score. 1.3 (11-14-2004) : Well, I guess I learned my lesson - you should never call something the final version. Thanks to Egil Kollind (I'm terribly sorry, but I've lost your mail, so the spelling might be different), I have included a new feature for the candles. Although it doesn't make the game much easier, it is definitely a must to include in a walkthrough. Very cool indeed that the game has something that looks like secrets. 1.2 (07-21-2002) : Thanks to the very kind contribution of LaVey, the story as well as the correct names of the items, levels and some enemies have been added. I am also very greatful to Maxx, who enlightened me on how the 30-lives cheat code works. I have also fixed a few things myself here and there. Although spelling and grammar faults are probably numerous, I feel confident enough about the content to call this the final version. 1.1 (05-20-2002) : Mainly some spelling and grammatical changes as well as some redrafts. If I don't get any mails with new information, this will be the final version. 1.0 (05-06-2002) : The original version ********************************** * 3. Story (from the NES manual) * ********************************** From deep within Mordroc's Castle, a foul stench rose up to mix with the cold, damp midnight air; the telltale sign of the evil wizard's pet fire-breathing dragon, Singe; the reeking breath of the beast that guarded the Princess Daphne in the dark and deadly caves far below the surface. Dirk the Daring walked steadily toward the castle gate. He felt no fear. Fear was for cowards, not the most courageous knight in the land. No other would dare enter this perilous castle where Mordroc had imprisoned the helpless princess. But then, no other could match Dirk's unrelenting love for the beautiful Princess Daphne. There was no other possible course of action. Now was the time for heroes. Now was the time to enter the Dragon's Lair. ********************* * 4. Basic Gameplay * ********************* I would class this game as a mix of an ordinary 2d-platformer and a memorygame. You have very small chances of getting past most of the obstacles, if you haven't memorized their exact position and the right strategy to get past them. Your goal is to, as the knight Dirk, get through an introlevel and four standard levels, composed of different enemies, bottomless pits and quite a few traps. Each level ends with a bosslike sequence. After each level you will find yourself going down a shaft on an elevator. On one of the four stops on your way down, you'll find the entrance to the next level. To accomplish your mission, you have 6 lives at your disposal, but no continues, passwords or saves. I suggest that you use your lives wisely, because I have only found three extra lives and Dirk is very fragile... Dirk is equipped with an energy meter that is lowered by some enemies, but also by throwing the weapon he's equipped with. Most of the time you can however be prepared for instant death upon impact with an enemy or trap. The main thing to do is basically to try and stay alive and complete the game (definitely easier said than done). For those who are easily amused, I mention also that there is a High-score list. During normal gameplay, you won't even be close to the highest score, so I suggest you don't bother too much about it. Believe me, the game is challenging enough as it is. If you still want to have a go for the high score, you can check out section 11, which is about a high score strategy. Once you beat the game, you can also try to find all the secret items that are revealed by using the candle. *************** * 5. Controls * *************** Left: walk/crawl left Right: walk/crawl right Down: get down on hands and knees Up: rise A Button: jump, two different heights possible B Button: shoot weapon Shift: pause game Start: use candle ************ * 6. Items * ************ I don't know who, but someone left some items in the dungeon. Perhaps the not so lucky predecessors of Dirk ? The items are found in blocks with letters on. All the blocks will be back if (rather when...) Dirk dies. The content depends of course on the letter and is as follows (numbers in parenthesis represent number of times found in each level, including level 0) : A - Axes : two times stronger than the dagger, try to keep these, same trajectory as the daggers. The best weapon (0, 2, 1, 3, 1) C - Candle : used to light up a dark part of level two, but also use it during level 1, 2 and 3 to make hidden items appear (0, 0, 3, 0, 0) D - Daggers : your first weapon, fly in a nice parabol towards the ground, but too weak. The worst weapon (0, 1, 0, 2, 1) E - Energy : can almost refill half of your lifebar (0, 1, 1, 3, 0) F - Fireballs : strong like the axes, but much slower to throw. The second best weapon (0, 2, 0, 2, 0) G - Gold : adds one gold bag to your collection (1, 2, 12, 6, 2) L - Life : adds an extra life (0, 0, 1, 2, 0) P - Points : gives you 400 points. I suggest you walk past this one without wasting your time... (0, 1, 2, 5, 1) Every time you finish a level, you get 10 bonus points for each gold block you've found and been able to keep (you will lose them all if the Lizard King bumps into you). Note that a gold bag found in an earlier level will give bonus points even after completing a later level. But anyway, who cares about the points ? ************************************************* * 7. Enemies and traps (in order of appearance) * ************************************************* Note I : some of the enemies are not mentionned in the manual and their names are therefor my inventions. The invented names are marked with (*). Note II : all enemies who throw / spit / emit something do this to the left. Hurry to the right of them if it's possible ! Note III : all enemies you can kill / destroy, except for the Lizardking, give you 40 points (be it a bat or Singe) ! Collapsing Floor : bears a moving Dirk, but makes him fall through if he stops. Instant death. (level 1 and 3) Vampire Bats (black) : fly in a sinusoidal path towards our hero. One of few enemies that doesn't kill Dirk right away (but 11 of them will). Can be killed by one dagger. Regenerating. (level 1 and 2) The Drawbridge Dragon (*) : lives under the bridge in the introsequence. Shoots fireballs. Instant death. Can (and must) be killed by 10 daggers. (level 0) Prisoners (*) : throw stones (can be destroyed by your weapon) which mean instant death upon impact. Can not be killed. (level 1) Poisonous Snakes : spit poison at Dirk. Instant death. Can be killed by 3 daggers. The first boss is 8 serpents. (level 1) Rising And Falling Gateways : instant death. Can not be killed. (level 1) Moving Blocks : goes up and down like the rising and falling gateways. Instant death, but you can "overlap" with them quite a bit, meaning you can start crawling under them before they go up in the roof. Can not be killed. (level 2) Vampire Bats (red) : like the black bats, but need three knives to be killed. (level 2) The Mining Car Trolls (second boss) : two redskinned and bearded stone throwers, who hide in two mining cars. Instant death. The number of daggers needed to kill them seems to vary from time to time. Normally it is somewhere between 15 and 30 for each one. (level 2) Floating Skulls : two types exist. One of them acts exactly like the black bats. The other variety flies up and down while spitting stones and blocking the path for Dirk. Instant death. If hit by a weapon they stand still, but continue spitting stones. Be sure to hit them when they are high up so you can get past under them ! (level 3) Swinging Wall Pendulums : cool trap which rotate 360 degrees in the third dimension. Instant death. Can not be killed. (level 3) Ghosts (*) : fly up and down in a regular pattern (down, up, down, up, rest 3 seconds and repeat). Pass below when it settles for a moment on the top. Instant death. Can not be killed. (level 3) The Grim Reaper (third boss) : shoots fire with his finger and emits skulls of the first variety from his head. Can take six fireballs before going back to where he came from. (level 3) Flying Baby Dragons : hatch from eggs on the last level and fly against Dirk while spitting fire in front of them. They will home in on you and must therefor be killed by 4 daggers or 2 axes/torches. They increase the speed if you wait too long. (level 4) Swamp Bubbles (*) : drains energy. Can be destroyed by one dagger. (level 4) Singe (fourth / last boss) : blows smoke, either high or low, in the direction of Dirk, while regularly emitting baby dragons. Instant death (what did you expect ?). Can be killed by 20 axes (but seems to prefer living at Dirk's expense). (level 4) The Floating Lizard King (Mordroc) : comes sometimes flying on the levels to steal your gold (and energy), but can then be killed by 8 daggers. His appearance seems to be rather randomized, although I can't recall ever having met him on level 3 nor when I haven't had any goldbags left (that's a good reason for leaving them alone). You can also meet him in his treasury (read below for more info), although I strongly advice you not to go there, where he can't be killed and where you die instantly upon impact. (level 1, 2, 4 and the treasury) ************* * 8. Cheats * ************* By typing BATS on the High-score list you will start the next game with 30 lives. This cheat works unfortunately only on the PAL-version. I don't think there is a corresponding code for the American version. ****************** * 9. Walkthrough * ****************** Note : To lighten up the text, I have sometimes used shorter names for some of the enemies. These are as follows : Collapsing Floor - bad floor Vampire Bats (black) - (black) bats Drawbridge Dragon - dragon Poisonous Snakes - snakes / serpents Rising And Falling Gateways - gateways Vampire Bats (red) - (red) bats Mining Car Trolls - trolls Floating Skulls - skulls (I and II) Swinging Wall Pendulums - pendulums Grim Reaper - reaper Flying Baby Dragons - baby dragons Swamp Bubbles - bubbles Floating Lizard King (Mordroc) - Lizard Ling Level 0 - The Drawbridge ======================== Go right until you're two steps right of where the chain holds up the bridge. Kill the black bat that appears and jump right, upon which the drawbridge dragon will come out from below. Turn around, jump back, duck and crawl to the left of the screen. Turn around to the right, rise and throw a few daggers at the dragon. Quickly duck under the fire spit out by him. Repeat until the dragon is no more. Enter the castle while avoiding the regenerating bats. Level 1 - The Entrance Hall =========================== Hidden items (in order of appearance) ------------------------------------- to reveal the hidden items, just use the candle at the indicated place. A - right before the first two gateways P - right after the first two gateways F - after the third prisoner A - before the second set of two gateways F - after the last prisoner Walkthrough ----------- Walk immediately just to the right of the first prisoner and wait until the second one has thrown two stones in front of your feet. Hurry behind the second prisoner and be prepared to take out a serpent that will appear just after him. Crawl under the two gateways (watch out for the pattern of the second one) and rise up. Advance and anticipate a serpent that will soon appear. Go to the right of the stone throwing prisoner and wait for him to throw two stones before trying to get the energy (if you need it). The step right next to the prisoner marks the FIRST CONTINUE POINT. Continue past the hole that spits out bats and be prepared for another snake just after the fourth prisoner and another one upon jumping down the ledge you're on. Light the candle to find some hidden axes and then crawl under the first of the two gateways in front of you (same pattern as the second gateway you passed a little earlier), rise, jump over the small pit and wait for the prisoner to throw two stones before you crawl under the second gateway. Continue crawling (to avoid the bats) until you reach another step. This step is the SECOND (and last) CONTINUE POINT. Wait for the last prisoner to throw his two stones and continue to the right. If you somehow missed the axes before, you can light your candle to find hidden fireballs just above. Crawl under another bathole and then rise and walk to reach the first boss. Boss 1 - The Eight Snakes ------------------------- Start throwing your weapons as soon as the boss music begins. When you kill the first serpent (it's the same kind of serpent you've already met - three daggers or two axes / fireballs will do the job) another one will appear to replace it. Stand still and kill it and two more snakes to the right in this way. The fourth will not be replaced and you can now begin your fight against the one to the left. Kill it and then hurry to the right. A new serpent will come out near the roof. Jump and throw daggers to kill it. Two more snakes will then appear to the left. Kill them too and exit to the right to enter the first elevator shaft. Elevator Shaft 1 ---------------- Note : the elevator shaft will be the same whether you redo a level or if it's the first time you get there. You will go down a shaft on an elevator that makes four stops along the way down. At each stop there is a possibility to jump off onto a ledge (if you go all the way down, the elevator will stop and you need to jump of in order to continue). The ledges at the odd stops (1 and 3) are always to the right and the ledges at the even stops (2 and 4) are always to the left. This is important to know, since the stops are very short and you need to be prepared when it's time to get off. In the following shaft-sections I will just refer to each stop as 1, 2, 3 and 4 and tell you were they lead. Let's begin with the first one ! 1 - Level 1 2 - Level 2 3 - Level 0 4 - The Treasury The Treasury ============ I start out by strongly recommending you not to enter this room ! The game is already hard enough without this painful place. Even though I consider this room to be completely useless I will describe what to do here anyway. So, upon entering the room, the Lizard King will fly against you, but this time instant death awaits you if he touches you. Your goal is to get under the King and get to the right side of the room, climb the throne and jump and catch the blinking gold block (be sure to jump when it's lit) to the right of the throne. Then you need to get back under the Lizard King and exit to the left (you can not exit crawling, the same goes for all other levels, you have to walk out). To keep the King from killing you, you need to constantly throw your weapon at him. He will then stop his attack and slowly move backwards. This is the time to move a _few_ steps forward. After a while he will try to attack you again, but just keep throwing your weapons at him to keep the distance. To get under the Lizard King is a very delicate task. There are two ways to do this. The first way is to stand on the bottom ledge and jump up and down while throwing daggers. He will then fly up a bit and, if you are very accurate and very lucky, you can crawl under him. The second way is to climb up and stand on the throne and repeat the same tactics, but this time walk, instead of crawl, under him when he is high up in the air. If you manage to get out alive (you need to get the gold block to be able to exit) you will be at the top of the same shaft you entered the treasury from. If you haven't lost any goldbags (you haven't bumped into the Lizard King during the game), you won't get any gold bags even if you collect the blinking gold block (but you will still need to get it in order to open the exit). A few final words of advice. If you for some reason missed the level entrance, I suggest you jump down the shaft rather than enter this place. You will then restart at the top of the shaft with one life less - a very wise decision considering the alternative. I can't stress enough that to get out alive of the treasury is extremely hard and the result is so incredibly lame that I feel like crying when thinking about it. Why would you even consider getting back the gold that Mordroc will take from you on the next level anyway ? Level 2 - The Gold Mines ======================== Hidden items (in order of appearance) ------------------------------------- C - in the opening in the roof between the first two moving blocks P - two blocks to the right of the hidden C P - after the first set of two moving blocks A - before the first pit L - after Singe's Dragon's Breath Walkthrough ----------- Get down on your knees and start crawling to the right towards a moving block going up and down. Get under it and light the candle in the cavity right after, if you need to refill the candle. Continue under a set of two moving blocks right next to eachother, while avoiding the bats as much as you can. Go down a few steps and continue crawling under another set of two moving blocks (FIRST CONTINUE POINT) and a lonely moving block. You will soon come to a set of two moving platforms. Before riding the first of them, light the candle to get axes if you need. In order to ride these, you need to _walk_ as it moves over the pit ! I repeat, you can not stand still and hope that the platform will transport you to the other side. Once you reached the second platform, you're at the SECOND CONTINUE POINT. A third pit with a set of upwinds (referred to as Singe's Dragon's Breath in the manual) coming up from it will now be in front of Dirk. Make a big jump when a new set of winds starts to blow and cross the pit by pressing right on the controller. This has to be done pretty quickly though. Then light the candle to reveal a hidden extra life ! Jump up two steps and continue crawling to the right. Suddenly it will become dark, but don't worry, just continue to the right until you stop. Rise and light the candle. In front of you is a bridge that is shooting out and going back over a gap. Cross it, but be careful not to go to fast - there is chance to fall into the pit if you don't slow down once in a while. Take the candles and the energy and continue down a few steps to another two moving platforms. Cross them and be careful not to go too fast here too. The platforms don't stop when they change direction, making it sometimes difficult to time the boarding on the other side. If you finish off by a small jump, you can avoid this problem. The light will come back once you are on the other side of the second pit and you have arrived at the second boss. Boss 2 - The Mining Car Trolls ------------------------------ The second boss are two trolls, each hiding in a mining car. They hide and reappear as follows: hide _about_ four seconds, throw one stone, hide _about_ one second, throw another stone, hide four seconds etc. They appear alternatively, with the rear one appearing first, then the front one, etc. When the fight starts, crawl so that your face covers the vertical bar of the mining car stopper. Wait until the rear troll has thrown his first two stones. Advance as far right as possible while crouching. Then rise and turn around. If you moved too far, you will "bounce" back. Then rise and move two steps to the right before turning around. If done correctly, you will now be in a safe position to the right of the rear troll. Just fire away with your weapon from that position. You will hit whichever troll that is up. Note : there does not seem to be a fix number of hits to take the trolls out with, but it varies between something like 15-30 daggers. It seems to me like you need less hits if you hit them every time they appear. Or maybe some hits cause more damage than others ? This is indeed a bit strange... Elevator Shaft 2 ---------------- 1 - Level 0 2 - Level 2 3 - Level 3 4 - The Treasury Level 3 - The Hall Of The Grim Reaper ===================================== Hidden items (in order of appearance) ------------------------------------- P - under the second arc from the start A - under the third arc from the start G - before jumping on the ledge of the first pendulum E - after the first set of two pendulums L - after the axes F - before the second ghost E - after a hard passage with two skulls II P - before the visible daggers A - over the first floor support after the visible daggers E - after the hidden axes P - under the second arc after the skull II garding a big pit P - under the same archway as the above P Walkthrough ----------- Light the candle under the third arc from start if you need axes. Then walk and take out the skulls as they appear, but be sure to stand on a place where the floor is supported from below, otherwise you will fall through the it. You will soon come to a skull II, which you should hit when high up in the air (jump and throw weapon). On the next ledge, which has a good floor, you will meet your first pendulum, this one is easy although you will die if it passes you even if you duck. Then make a small jump to the next ledge, without getting to far in on it. This ledge has a set of two pendulums mounted in height. Just duck and follow the lower one on your hands and knees. Light the candle now if you need energy and then stay down as the skulls will miss you. Be careful as you continue (that is : don't stop in the middle), since there is some bad floor (the last one for a while) right before the next ledge, where you'll meet your first ghost. Walk (not crawl) under it and duck as soon as you jumped down to the next ledge (to avoid the Skull I). Right after the axes, there is a hidden extra life if you light the candle. Then comes another set of two pendulums. You need to jump over the lower one in order to progress. Pass another ghost and be prepared for an annoying passage over a pit. Make a low jump to get on the moving platform (FIRST CONTINUE POINT), follow it and jump off with another low jump. You can't avoid the daggers on the other side, but it doesn't really matter. Pass another ghost and jump down to a new ledge with a set of two pendulums. Pass them by jumping over the lower, duck under the upper and quickly jump over the lower one again. Then stay as close to the pendulums as possible. You'll see another skull II, but he can't hit you if you placed yourself right. Hit him as high up as you can and move as far right as possible on the floor support. Ignore the fireballs, since it will expose you to some unnecesary danger. Be careful with the bad floor and continue to the next floor support, where you're out of reach for the second skull II. Throw a weapon to stop it and then walk under it. Just to the right is some hidden energy if you use the candle. Fall down the ledge and pass another pendulum and remember the extra life (easy to get). You will need it, because the next section is tricky if you don't know how to do it ! But first you crawl under another ghost and another high pendulum (SECOND CONTINUE POINT). Walk off the ledge and light the candle when standing on the first floor support after the daggers. This will reveal hidden axes. It is extremely important to get those ! You can also get some hidden energy right after. When you're done, continue walking past the bad floor and stop on the floor support right before the pit. Over the pit are two moving platforms, which will stop as soon you land on them. Time your jump so you first land on the upper platform. Move to the right to see a skull II, that you should stop as high as possible (as usual). Then fall down to the lower platform, from which you hopefully can reach the other side. If you first land on the lower platform, you'll make it utterly difficult for yourself. It is possible to make the jump to the other side, but you need to have an extreme precision to stop the upper platform as close as possible to the right side of the pit. That is because you must finish off by a low jump if you don't want to jump into the stones from the skull II. Watch out for bad floor as you move on. You will reach a ghost and a set of pendulums. Even though the ghost and the pendulums seem to be close together, you can stand between them. To get past the pendulums, you jump over the lower, duck under the upper and jump over the lower again (same pattern as a bit earlier). Then get past a skull II on the other side (CONTINUE POINT THREE). Jump on the moving platform behind the skull II and jump off it on the other side. Another skull II will then appear, but if you walk under it right away it will not kill you. Now prepare yourself for the Grim Reaper ! Boss 3 - The Grim Reaper ------------------------ The Reaper is blue and the only vulnerable part is its head. From its finger it shoots out sets of four fireballs (the first time only three), either high or low, while emitting skull I from its head. If you come all the way here, you should be able to bring this one down as well. Simply duck (in this way you can avoid both the low and the high fireballs) and wait just below his shooting finger. Once he's done with a series of fireballs, jump once and aim at his head. Then avoid the next set of fireballs and repeat. Six fireballs will be enough. Elevator Shaft 3 ---------------- 1 - Level 4 2 - Level 1 3 - The Treasury 4 - Level 3 Level 4 - Singe's Cavern ======================== Hidden items ------------ No hidden items on this level. :-( Walkthrough ----------- I'm not sure why this level is called a cavern, because it looks more like you're in a swamp than anything else, but nevermind ! If you have the axes or fireballs, this level should be doable, but with the daggers, you're definitely in for some trouble. Duck and shoot as soon as you enter to kill a newly hatched baby dragon. A little further awaits another one, which will hatch as you approach it (you can't kill it if it's not hatched). Go back and duck when you see it starts hatching to get more time to throw weapons at him. Jump over some water while trying to avoid the bubbles. If you have the daggers, you need to do a small jump to the ground (not stay on the upper ledge). Otherwise you can be almost certain to be skelletized by the next baby dragon. If you have the axes / fireballs you can do as you please ! Kill the third baby dragon and continue. There are axes here, that are almost impossible to avoid as you will soon see (but since it's the best weapon, we don't mind, do we ?). Hatch the fourth baby dragon and hurry back over the water and wait for it there. Jump over to the island it hatched from, to find the fifth baby dragon. Hatch it, go back, wait for it, kill it, but you know that by now don't you ? The sixth awaits you on the next island as well as the seventh (FIRST, and only, CONTINUE POINT). The eigth is on the island after and the ninth another island away. After the ninth it is time for a critical moment in the game. On the next island you'll see a dagger block. If you pick that one up, you can just as well reset the game... To avoid taking it, do this : at the boundaries of the ledge you're standing on are some black, vertical lines. Stand so your toes are between the first and second lines and then jump. As you land on the next island, you'll hatch the tenth (and last) baby dragon, so you need to jump back in order to kill it, before doing this precise jump again. Continue to the right to face Singe. Boss 4 - Singe -------------- Prepare yourself for a _very_ hard and uneven fight against what most likely is the hardest enemy ever created for a Nintendo game. Hopefully you have the axes. If you don't have the axes, you still have a microscopic chance to beat him, but it's sort of like finding the famous needle in a haystack... I would just reset and retry to save time if I were you. Singe is a green, firebreating dragon with a brewer's drop, who fills the right hand of the screen from bottom to the top. Even Dirk looks small in comparison to Singe. Luckily for Dirk, Singe does not move around and spit fire, but sits calmly and puffs smoke in Dirk's direction while emitting baby dragons from his enormous belly. I will straight away tell you why Singe is so incredibly hard. The small smokepuffs mean of course instant death to Dirk and they come flying quite fast against you. For a normal hero, this would not be a problem, but for Dirk, who is so incredibly slow and badly controlled, they are extremely hard to avoid. The first couple of times you'll have about a 50-50 chance to survive each smokepuff (either you duck under or jump over, depending on if it has a high or a low trajectory). If you consider that you have to avoid something like maybe, let's think positively, 50 smokepuffs to beat him, you'll have about one chance in 10^15 (1 with 15 zeros after it, or one million billions if you prefer) to beat him. Add to this the baby dragons who kill you once every now and then. The baby dragons add much to the difficulty if you use daggers. What I can help you with is a general strategy against Singe, but even then it will be extremely hard even for the most skillful player to win (although a lot of training will definitely help you). When the screen starts to flash and Singe appears, turn around and hurry almost as far left as possible and then face him again. The first few smokepuffs are often the hardest to avoid, so stay concentrated. If it's a low one, jump over it and throw a few weapons against his head, the only vulnerable part of Singe. If you are too far to the left, you're weapons won't reach far enough and you'll have to approach Singe one step or two. If it's a high one, duck to avoid it. At the same time you can take out the baby dragons. In the beginning it seems to me that the smokepuffs are puffed out rather randomly, making them hard to foresee. If you manage to survive the first, let's say, ten puffs maybe, Singe will blow more and more high puffs and very rarely two low ones in a row. That is why the beginning is harder. Now, here is a piece of advice that I find useful. Always stay down after a high smokepuff, but as soon as Singe opens his mouth, you rise and if it's a low puff you jump over it, while you go back down if it's a high one. If it's a low one on the other hand, you won't have enough time to duck, rise and jump if it comes another low one. I normally cross my fingers and duck anyway, because I find it very hard to do the right thing if I'm standing when Singe puffs. The advantage is that you will stay focused during all the battle and you can continue shooting the baby dragons while rising. Also, this prevents you from pushing the wrong button by mistake. You can actually control Dirk pretty well while he's rising. I know that this strategy sounds a bit weird, but try it and I think you'll see what I mean. However, don't forget that this will be a very hard fight anyway and you'll have to be prepared to die and die and die and ... just to get to that one lucky time when everything works. Good luck ! ************** * 10. Ending * ************** To give or not to give ? That is the question. Since a complete walkthrough needs to contain all interesting info about the game without leaving anything out, I say give. The very cheap ending (I guess noone was supposed to get this far) simply consists of a small picture with Dirk holding Daphne in his arms and the text (in the same italic as on the High-score list) "Congratulations ! Our hero has triumphed ! Daphne is saved from Singe´s evil clutches. May you both live happily ever after ?...". Yep, that's it ! No credits, nothing more. Then you get to enter your name on the High-score list (if you have enough points, that is) and you're back at the title screen again. *************************** * 11. High Score strategy * *************************** In this section I present a fool proof strategy on getting the highest score. I publish it with courtesy of Luke J Martinez. Thanks for your empathy Luke ! "It is possible to achieve a score higher than Singe's 89,999 points. Many people may be amazed this is even possible, and furthermore, the way to attain this fate is so obvious, it can easily be overlooked, which is another reason I enjoy Dragon's Lair. One can start at the beginning of the game by not moving Dirk at all, but by throwing a knife at the bat that appears and keeps reappearing over the moat. Everytime the bat is hit 40 pts will be added to one's score. Keep hitting the reappearing bat with a knife over and over, all while not disturbing the serpent under the moat. Getting the best high score is tedious and takes several hours & lives, but I eventually reached my goal. I believe a better location is in the snake's lair (second level), at the first hole in the wall spewing bats, also known as the "first checkpoint". Three come out at the same time here compared to the one bat at the moat. There is also an Energy nearby. Just be sure to die before the checkpoint so to start at the beginning of the level again. It is also important to leave enough points to earn for the rest of the game, otherwise achieving a score of over 99,999 pts will result in the resetting of one's score, meaning the score will roll back to zero! A good time to stop hitting the bats over and over is when a score of 90,000 pts is achieve; the typical score one acheves when playing unconsciously is 5,000 pts, or less, therefore, hardly ever over 5,000 pts. Leaving room will allow one to accumulate other points throughout the rest of the game, because sometimes earning points is unavoidable, like when defeating Death and Singe. Without this knowledge beating Singe's score can be tricky! Here is the rundown: 562 bats will be hit every life that is spent. Three lives will be needed to reach 90,000 pts, therefore 2,250 bats will need to be hit. Throwing knives is an expenditure of energy, so don't hold the button down to recklessly throw them; limit one knife to one bat." ************************ * 12. Acknowledgements * ************************ This is the first walkthrough I've ever written and I'm sure it's the last one as well. This walkthrough is written entirely by me, but I have tree contributors and a few more acknowledgements to do. First of all I would like to thank LaVey Charkus Veros and Maxx a million times for the very much needed help with some info found in the manual and for clearifying how the 30-lives cheat code works, respectively. Also, good work Egil for finding out the secret use of the candle and Xandier for coming with an improved way to beat the mine trolls. Thanks also to CjayC for posting this walkthrough on gamefaqs. ********************** * 13. Copyright Info * ********************** Please do not post this walkthrough on your web site without my permission. This is supposed to be a free guide, so don't sell it. I don't mind if you copy and paste this information for personal use, but if you want to use it for any other purpose, you need to contact me first. You are under no circumstances aloud to change any if its content. Thanks! Encryption seal : [228 -313 416 -518 617 -717 824 -941 1053 -1150 1226 -1289 1342] This seal contains a secret message that proves I'm the rightful owner of this document, so please don't try and break any of the rules above ! Without the right matrix, one that I have randomly chosen, you won't be able to decipher the message. **************** * 14. Feedback * **************** Do you have any feedback on this walkthrough ? Is there something I missed ? Since I'm writing this walkthrough in a foreign language, I would also very much appreciate all grammatical or spelling errors you can find (I'm sure there are tons of them). You can contact me at ktwo[at]graffiti.net with feedback and questions.