Bard's Tale(NES) FAQ/Walkthrough version 1.1.1 by schultw.andrez@sbcglobal.net(anti spam spoonerism) Please do not reproduce this FAQ for profit without my prior consent. If you write a polite e-mail to me referring to me(and this FAQ) by name, then I will probably say OK. But if I ignore you that means no--and I am bad about answering e-mail. Sorry. This guide is intended to work with my maps at GameFAQs. I've proofread them, and they seem solid. ================================ OUTLINE 1. INTRODUCTION 2. CONTROLS 3. CHARTS AND METRICS 3-1. LEVELS AND EXPERIENCE 3-2. MONSTERS 4. WALKTHROUGH 4-1. STARTING OUT 4-2. TO LEVEL 4 4-3. SCARLET BARD(LEVEL 8) 4-4. CATACOMBS(LEVEL 14) 4-4. THE CASTLE 4-5. KYLEARAN'S 4-6. MANGAR'S 5. CHEATS 6. VERSIONS/CREDITS ================================ 1. INTRODUCTION The Bard's Tale was a popular series for various home computers, and so it was only natural to try to port the game to the NES. It's much the same game, with all the same locations and most of the same character classes(fewer wizards,) but with smaller maps and with some spells cut out. You control a party of 6 characters as they walk around Skara Brae and gain experience and solve puzzles in dungeons. Those who played the PC version will recognize the location names. The most memorable difference is that beer is root beer, and wine is grape juice, so you need to go into a cellar for grape juice. Bard's Tale on the NES is a very reasonable and balanced game that allows a lot of opportunities to level up without taking too long, but it has enough of a challenge to be worth a look. While it avoids the riddles of the PC version, it manages to lose some of the costlier and more annoying battles and leveling-up. 2. CONTROLS L/R arrows turn your party, and down flips them 180. Up moves you forward, as does A. B leads to a context menu which allows you to inspect characters and your party. >use item (does what you'd expect) >cast (noncombat spells) >sing (for bard only, Seeker's Ballad, Wayland's Watch or Traveller's Tune) >new order (can reorder party or open up 3 to 5 slots for hand combat) >p-combat (to get rid of a doppelganger, not very useful) >status (leads to inventory) >other members = new guy >equip -- there's no # to say an item doesn't work, which is annoying, but you don't have to unequip one helm to equip another. >trade -- if a character's inventory is full, you can't trade to them, and the game kicks you back here if you fill up another character's inventory(8 items) >drop -- self explanatory. For this and trade, items cannot be equipped. >pool gold: you get all the gold. There's no way to share gold except to go back to the adventurers' guild, which can be a nuisance. One thing you do want to watch out for is if your characters are possessed, you need to dispossess them, or they may wind up attacking other part members and you don't know it. If you "heal all" then the "NUTS" goes away, but your characters are still affected, and the enemies will be doing mysterious damage. 3. CHARTS AND METRICS 3-1. LEVELS AND EXPERIENCE As far as I can see, there's no set formula for the experience differential per level. It just generally increases. I've written in hex values if you want to get to level X. LVL| EXP | -LAST| HEX ---+--------+------+----- 2| 20| 20| 14 3| 210| 190| d2 4| 570| 360| 23a 5| 1470| 900| 5be 6| 3300| 1830| ce4 7| 6900| 3600| 1af4 8| 11100| 4200| 2b5c 9| 17100| 6000| 42cc 10| 23100| 6000| 5a3c 11| 30600| 7500| 7788 12| 39000| 8400| 9858 13| 48000| 9000| bb80 14| 57600| 9600| e100 15| 67200| 9600|10680 16| 77700| 10500|12f84 17| 88200| 10500|15888 18| 100800| 12600|189c0 19| 113700| 12900|1bc24 20| 127200| 13500|1f0e0 21| 142200| 15000|22b78 22| 157800| 15600|26868 23| 178800| 21000|2ba70 24| 200400| 21600|30ed0 25| 224400| 24000|36c90 26| 249000| 24600|3cca8 27| 274500| 25500|43044 28| 300600| 26100|49638 29| 327600| 27000|4ffb0 30| 356100| 28500|56f04 31| 386100| 30000|5e434 32| 422100| 36000|670d4 33| 467100| 45000|7209c 34| 521100| 54000|7f38c 35| 587100| 66000|8f55c 36| 677100| 90000|a54ec (highest) 3-2. MONSTERS This is not a complete list, but I think it does pretty well. The data wasn't straightforwardly readable for a few entries of enemies I didn't run across anyway. Monster | HP |SPD| EXP |SPL|$$$ ---------------+----+---+-----+---+--- Kobold | 8| 06| 3|000| 2 Goblin | 12| 07| 5|000| 2 Hobgoblin | 20| 09| 10|000| 5 Orc | 10| 07| 4|000| 3 Orc Leader | 18| 08| 8|000| 3 Troll | Spider | 18| 16| 12|000| 3 Black Widow | 200| 18| 500|000| 16 Tarantula | 60| 16| 90|000| 16 Thief | 10| 09| 5|000| 10 DarkFighter | 80| 13| 120|000| 27 Dark Hunter | 64| 17| 150|000| 27 Berserker | 84| 13| 204|000| 30 LivingArmor | 120| 12| 140|000| 34 MangarGuard | 300| 14| 160|000| 45 Dark Knight | 400| 16| 1460|ccc|100 Ninja | 180| 18| 4860|000| 15 Conjurer | 8| 09| 7|211| 4 Sorcerer | 14| 10| 12|31e| 6 Wizard | 44| 12| 80|477| 15 H Sorcerer | 110| 14| 150|5ad| 36 High Wizard | 200| 15| 1260|68a| 30 Arcmage | 510| 17| 5860|9bd| 60 Dark Sword | 30| 18| 0|000| 0 Wind Wolf | 20| 16| 0|000| 0 Warrior | 30| 16| 0|000| 0 Wind Ogre | 80| 16| 0|000| 0 Wind Giant | 200| 16| 0|000| 0 Dragon | 500| 17| 0|000| 0 Skeleton | 30| 06| 20|000| 5 Zombie | 53| 09| 22|000| 10 Ghoul | 56| 09| 100|000| 15 Vampire | 360| 14| 1520|000| 75 VampireLord | 420| 16| 2560|000|250 Lich | Mad Dog | 6| 11| 4|000| 1 Giant Rat | 16| 12| 7|000| 1 Wolf | 40| 14| 30|000| 5 Werewolf | 60| 14| 300|000| 25 Jackalwere | 160| 15| 240|000| 25 Hound | 136| 16| 460|000| 35 Ogre | 100| 10| 133|000| 32 Stone Giant | 320| 06| 200|000| 35 Ogre Mage | 80| 12| 520|8dd| 37 Ice Giant | 400| 13| 1650|000|150 Ogre Lord | 160| 14| 985|000| 45 War Giant | 380| 16| 2130|000|300 Golem | 160| 08| 880|000| 75 Cloud Giant | 520| 16| 2630|000|300 Fire Giant | 160| 10| 1100|000| 50 Doppler | 30| 17| 100|000| 25 Mimic | 160| 18| 850|000|115 BrassDragon | 160| 16| 150|eee| 30 Grey Dragon | 350| 16| 2850|000| 75 WhiteDragon | 600| 18| 8460|bbb|250 Red Dragon | 520| 17| 5230|000|100 BlackDragon |1000| 18| 8030|000|900 Seeker | 100| 10| 200|fff| 25 Eye Spy | 120| 11| 160|555| 41 Evil Eye | 230| 12| 320|555| 45 Spirit Sucker | 350| 13| 608|444| 50 Beholder | 600| 16| 5120|9bb| 50 Xorn | LesserDemon | 80| 13| 150|eee| 35 Demon | 100| 12| 800|ccc| 40 Great Demon | 650| 14| 6100|999| 50 Demon Lord | 850| 18|21680|9cd| 0 Wight | 120| 12| 90|000| 12 Phantom | 20| 10| 20|000| 7 Ghost | 60| 12| 100|000| 15 Slime | Old Man | 500| 10| 980|000| 0 Mongo | 600| 16| 1980|000|400 Aildrek | 500| 16| 5000|000|105 Mad Spirit | 800| 17|18360|8cd| 5 Crystal Golem | 400| 10| 800|000| 5 Mangar |3154| 24| 0|dbb|20609 1=arcfire 2=instant wolf 3=wind warrior 4=instant ogre 5=wind giant 6=wind giant 7=starflare 8=arc blizzart 9=dragon breath a=flesh anew b=restoration c=arcyne's magestar d=image of hate e=armor collapse f=wind warrior 4. WALKTHROUGH In general character improvement can be worked out as follows: each new dungeon means you need a new spell level. Experience for each level gets a lot higher, but your abilities increase accordingly. You should split forays into either level building or game solving: when solving games, use bard song Wayland's Watch to avoid fights. Before a big fight or while looking for encounters(fixed or random,) use the Seeker's Ballad. It's better to use too many spells and cut an experience looting session short than to not do so and have it cut short for you. You have a nice safety precaution here--if you can run from a fight, you can have your bard sing Traveller's[sic] Tune to send you to the guild. But what if he's lost his voice? Well, you can buy a Drop for 14 gold from Garth's to make sure that doesn't happen. 4-1. STARTING OUT Party: Add Member There are 2 ways to play the game. 1. hyper magic: sorceror, 2 wizards, warrior, hunter and bard Set the # of attackable slots at 3(use party order option). For places where spells are best, this is handy, as you don't have to cast as many spells before retreating. It may help you get through the game a bit quicker. But if one guy gets killed, you're in a lot more trouble. Sorcerors are on balance less handy in battle than Wizards. You can afford to attack aggressively to get levels in this game because even if you are almost dead, you may be able to go back to the adventurer's guild(Travellers' Tune) and advance a level. This heals all your maladies. 2. balanced: (probably better) sorceror, wizard, warrior, hunter, bard and warrior Set the # of attackable slots at 4. While proper item allotment isn't strictly necessary to get the game going right, it can help a lot. Now obviously you can bleed a few characters you never use for 300 gold each, and you can start with a much better-equipped party than otherwise. But fact is, items aren't as important as levels, and levels are easy enough to come by. Make sure everyone has the best vitality they can(including mages--they get hit by breathing late in the game, and low hit points mean trouble especially since levels are capped at 36,) and make sure mages have the best IQ(17). Hit points and spell points are at a premium for later fights, and (HP/SP gain) = (Vitality/Intelligence) Now, assuming you get 1800 gold to start(everyone gets 300 but you may top- load with characters you intend to loot and delete,) buy: --4 leather gloves --4 robes --4 round shields --2 helms --1 flute(for your bard) leaving you with 20 gold extra. This is most cost effective and should reduce armor classes to: 6,6,7,7,10,10 (4,4,5,5,8,8 with bard song) You should also buy a drop for emergency purposes--if not now, soon. You don't need weapons right out of the gate as one hit should kill any enemy. 4-2. TO LEVEL 4 Have the bard song playing for your first few fights. It's worth recharging him with a drink, even just for one song, to make sure you win easily. You won't need many to get to level 2(20 experience) and all fights are very winnable. Use Arc Fire whenever you can. You probably won't need Battle Skill, but it is a fun spell to try. When you advance your first level, you can go to the advancement center for free healing. Healing in this game means recovering spell points. Once you do that, pay 100 gold to advance each spellcaster to level 2. The sorcerer gets mind darts, which makes a lot of fights with many enemies a lot quicker. The wizard can and should cast ArcFire whenever he pleases, though once you get to level 3, it's probably quicker just to fight a set enemy group and guard the rest of the way. There's no advantage going too far afield, unless you want to get comfortable mapping the game, so you can just wander around NW of the entry. Of course with Traveller's Tune you can't really get lost easily. Other stuff to save for as you improve: --helms for bard and hunter --Chain mail for your 2 warriors (hand down the robes to your mages) (leather is not worth it. 1 AC point costs 400...) (3 AC for chain costs 640.) --Plate mail for your 2 warriors after that (hand down the chain to the bard and the hunter) --weapons aren't necessary. Hands are good enough. You can be wasteful with spells as 1 spell point costs only 1 gold to heal. Take your time as you also get the money for 1 mithril axe. This is the big one. Give it to warrior #1 and now if you want you can move ahead to the Scarlet Bard part of the walkthrough. If you have a choice between the mithril axe and level 3 spells, buy the level 3 spells. It will improve your spellcasters more quickly. Starflare is a great spell because it can wipe out a group of enemies, which helps win some fights a lot quicker. Again, with most fights there's no question you'll win. The question is, will it drag on? When you've either got the mithril axe or level 4, you can visit the wizard statues in southeast Skara Brae. If you follow the path north from the adventurers' guild, go west and follow the path south, you hit the first wizard statue. Beat him up. Here is how. Cast Corrosion, then Battle Strength on your guy with the Mithril Axe and heal him if he gets to ~30 hit points. Also, group heal if you get hit with a Starflare spell. Cst disbelieve if the wizard summons a wind ogre. Arc Fire is a good spell to hit him with too. Heal at the end of each battle when you can, but Word of Healing works in a pinch. With levels a bit tougher to come by, but on the other hand you can fight this tough monster repeatedly. First, there is another wizard 2 south of the first, and second, you can recharge these guys pretty easily. Just take the street to the east and go south. Enter the Scarlet Bard and ask for grape juice(root beer too if your bard needs it--keep the armor class down) and enter and exit and return. The statues will have reappeared. Each fight gives 80 experience to everyone and 90 gold all around, and they are quick and fixed. You can also use the bard song Traveller's Tune to go back to the adventurers' guild and restart. You can also make a fighter invincible if he is at great risk of dying, once your sorcerer is at level 4/spell level 3. $300 isn't a huge punishment for losing a fight. But you will want to avoid this as much as possible by keeping your characters healed. Sometimes the wizard gets to strike first, and he likes to cast spells. So after 14 fights you get the plate you need/want, after 16 fights you get a mithril axe, and after 12 more, a halberd. You should be able to negotiate the dungeon by the Scarlet Bard that is next. Be sure to have a drop on hand for safety's sake(1 last bard song.) 4-3. SCARLET BARD(LEVEL 8) For this, you just want to get through. You don't need to worry about style points or beating up too many monsters. If anyone in your party has <60 HP, avoid chests--unless you want to use a save state cheat. Trap Zap doesn't always work, and you may only get a lousy item for it. However, if you do get a gold ring(5 gold) be sure not to drop it--it's worth selling to free up an inventory spot. You should run after each round of a fight unless you know the monsters are easy. On level 1 they should be, but on level 2 tarantulas can be nasty. In general you want to save hit points and spell points for the big fight with the widow spider. You should use Mage Flame and the bard song to get through this dungeon. Go forward, then south at the first intersection. The automap should help you out a lot here. Go east to the corner, then north, then west into the shadowy bits. Crawl along the outside and take the second door. Follow it to level 2. Follow the path--there will be a T with an obvious dead end, then one that leads to a 3x3 room. Go west from there, turn 2N, 3W, and 2S into the dark. Cast mage flame if need be. Take the passage 2E N 3E 2S W 2S 3E 2N. Now heal everyone up for the big fight with the widow spider. If you can't heal up to 75%, then go back to the guild and build up to the next level and try again. I was able to get through this with level 6 characters. Have the sorcerer cast Corrosion, then Battle Strength on warrior #1. The wizard can cast Arc Fire, then he can heal whoever needs it. If someone other than your bard dies here, it's no big deal as long as the party wins. You will get what you want. It is behind the widow spider: 2E 2S W. Get the heretic proof and sing the Traveller's Tune. 4-4. CATACOMBS(LEVEL 14) Now you should get to level 8 before exploring the Catacombs seriously. There are 2 ways to do this--wizard statue fights are the best. They may get a bit tiresome. The alternative is to go into the catacombs and find the 27-zombie fights below and hit them with Starflare and Mind Darts one group at a time. A few of these fights and you will pile up a lot of gold, but your players will take a lot of hits and your spellcasters will be drained. But once you get level 8, you can get spell level 4. This is critical because your sorcerer can cast Magic Water. This turns one group of undead monsters, if they are not too powerful. 2E 2N W N W N and E into the unmappable part. 2E to the wall, 4N E N 2E 2S leads to a crypt. Now there are 5 squares in the 3x3 square that feature fights with 3 groups of 9 zombies. This looks tough, but only a few can attack at a time, and the battle plan is really pretty simple. round 1 fighters: attack group 1 wizard: starflare on group 1 sorcerer: magic water on group 2 round 2 fighters: attack group 1 sorcerer: magic water on group 2 You should have 120+ spell points for the sorcerer, which means you can go through this twice. Each fight gives each player 594 exp + 270 gp. So you can see gold will not be a problem in the future. Run from all other fights as they are not nearly as lucrative. If you must fight, only use hand to hand combat, or use a bard song such as Falkentyne's Fury if there are a lot of monsters. A combat song can be placed on top of a non-combat one. Note that each excursion can get you ~6000 experience, and you will want to get to 57600 for level 14. That means 8 such trips--assuming you're already level 8. It's a bit tedious but better than banging around a lot of places. Once you get to level 14, the next bit is a snap. You should have the gold to buy level 5 spells, and you can barrel through the catacombs. Flesh Anew is a good spell for your wizard. Arc Blizzard is also good, attacking one group. In addition to Emit Flare(1 enemy) these make your wizard a formidable foe. He also has armor collapse, so the combat spells are balanced heavily in his favor. The sorcerer can dispossess(NUTS) and rejuvenate(OLD) but he can't do much besides Magic Water or, before combat, Wind Giant--the wind giant is great for soaking up hits from melee enemies, and he does not get disbelieved. You may wish to play Wayland's Watch here to help avoid monsters attacking you--run if they do. Then, before the big fight, switch to the Seeker's Ballad to lower your AC. So now for the actual plan on level 1. 2E 2M W M W 2M W 2M E M E amd emter the door N. 2W 5N 2E N E* S E N(1 way door) 3E 2S 3E 3S. Level 2: S* W* N* 6W 6S and, at the center of the room, 2E 2N E N E S E 2S 2W S 2E 3S. Level 3: there are a lot of teleports here. Most lead to a room in the NW but one leads to the combat you need to tackle. 3S W* N* 2W N 4W 4N E N E S(through a door) 4E 2D E 3S 2E N W 2N E S 2E 5S W S E, bam! Teleport. 3E, Seeker's Ballad, heal up, and 2E. Okay, you are up against your big enemy now, Aildrek. The sorcerer should now continuously cast battle skill on player #1, while the wizard should cast Armor Collapse first. He may have to cast Flesh Anew instead of Emit Flare, but just hit him with everything. The bard can sing Falkentyne's Fury. Alidrek drops a crystal eye. There's an exit just behind him. Take it to arrive at the entrance to the Catacombs. You can sell your Hereticproof now, as there are better ways to gain experience, and items also are more important this late in the game. You probably got no new ones in the Catacombs. That will change in the castle. ==OUTSIDE== Thief 5 10 Ghoul 100 15 Skeleton ?? 5 Seeker 200 25 ==CASTLE== Ghost 100 15 Ogre 133 32 Dark Hunter 150/27 Dark Fighter 120/27 Berzerker 204/30 ==L2 Grey Dragon 2850/75 Eye Spy 160/41 Lesser Demon 150/35 Brass Dragon 150/30 ==L3 Living Armor 140/34 Tarjan 18360/5 ==KYLEARAN Mangar Guard 160/45 Hound 460/35 Doppler 420/45 ==L2 Red Dragon 5230/100 Golem 880/75 ==MANGAR ==L4 Archmage 5860/60 Beholder 5120/50 Demon Lord 21680/0 4-4. THE CASTLE This will be a tough place at first--use whatever spells necessary to win. You should probably have a Wind Giant in your party at all times--if you want to be very stingy with spell points, summon him before advancing a level or getting healed. But your sorcerer will have little else to do. The castle is in the northwest of town, and you need the Crystal Eye of Aildrek to go in. Start with Wayland's Watch. From the start, 2E 3N 2E 2N E 2S E 2N E, then play Seeker's Ballad. 1E for a big fight. You should heal up, play Falkentyne's Fury and cast Arc Blizzart on each group once unless you need to cast Flesh Anew again. You get a whitemantle, which allows you to the back part of level 1. You can muck around here a bit. You'll probably find a few ArcShields that the front line can use(AC -2 better than round shields) and get some nice experience. Mithril Plate(Warrior,) Adamant Chain(Bard and Hunter,) and Elf Cloaks(Warrior, Bard) help lower your armor class as well. You may get Bracers4 for your sorcerer and wizard, which are nice but hardly critical. Other items include Mithril Helm and Mithril Gloves, one for each of your frontline, potentially. But don't get too worried if you can't find anything. It's probably best to progress through this as quickly as possible. Go north in the throne room and sit on the throne. The whitemantle allows you to go north. 3N 2E 2N 3E 3S leads you to level 2. Again beef up the party--3S 4E 5N and, before the corner, heal up. Play Falkentyne's Fury and wipe out the grey dragon. 3E of it you have a crystal figurine. Get that too. You can pump the grey dragon for experience and items, by going down the stairs and back up. It is a pretty easy maze--south, east and north from the stairs to the dragon. Occasionally the dragon will drop a treasure chest. You shouldn't need cash above what you get from fights. The gold should be rolling in. But if you want it, you can load up on crystal figurines, which sell for 15000 each. The treasure appears whether or not you already have, or got, a figurine. You will need 51200 gold to cover level 6 spells, which should be coming soon. Then you will need 204800 later, so if you still need just gold, you can come back here. Now, looking ahead to level 3, you can beat Tarjan with a level 18 party(I have) but the main problem is avoiding monsters long enough as you get there. It's useful to have the sound on for this to make sure Wayland's Watch is as effective as possible. Mind storm and Greater Revelation are the spells you get at spell level 6, and they are not terribly useful. It's more about the hit points. As with previous dungeons, keep trying to move forward til you can get to Tarjan with ~100 spell points for each party member and your party healed. But unlike previous dungeons, bring along a gold ring if you have one. Give it to your sorcerer. Gold rings double experience you win for a fight. Since Tarjan gives 18360 experience, it's worth using a gold ring during his fight. You'll use the warrior the least. Level 2 is a weird grid with a lot of teleports to a prison, but if you know how to avoid them, it is easy to get through. Here's what to do: 3S 4E S* E S W 2S(past a magic mouth) 3E. Level 3 is a big walk around, and I encourage you to use Falkentyne's Fury if a combat looks tough. But be sure to leave 2-3 songs for the final combat. Your bard should have a lot of songs by now. If fighting just a few monsters, take damage and cast Flesh Anew later. E* S* W* 8N 3E and you should have gone through a door here. Go south and follow that passage S* W* 3S E* N(to before the door) 3W 2S 2E 4S 4W N 2W N W 2N E S and now switch to Seeker's Ballad and rush at Tarjan. You can use the same formula to off him as you do for other fights. First round: Armor Collapse, Falkentyne's Fury, and use the gold ring Next rounds: Flesh Anew if necessary, Battle Skill on #1. Re-summon a Wind Giant if necessary. For winning this fight, you get a Crystal Key which allows you in Kylearan's. The fight alone should get you a level. 4-5. KYLEARAN'S Again a quick run through is best to get the item you need. You can, if you want, come back to beat monsters up to get to level 26 later. There are some nice items here. But you are better off beating the grey dragon for extra experence. You will want the level 7 spells for Mangar's. As before, run through all fights and, in fact, run in the middle of one. Sing Wayland's Watch. If you must fight, Mind Storm is a very nasty spell. N* E* 3N 2E 1N E* S 2E N W N E N E N* W N W N W* S 2W N W S W 2S E and you fight a crystal golem. Use the crystal figurine during the fight so he does not regenerate. It is an easy fight, so don't even bother to use spells. 2S 2W 3S leads to the stairs. On level 2 circle around the outside til you reach the end of the passage. 1E through the door, then 3N E 2N 3E 2N E S 2E 4S W 2S 2W S 2W N W 2N E 2N 2E S W 2S leads to Kylearan. There is no fight. I was able to get a couple levels running through pretty aggressively. You probably can too. Just use mind storm on everything except Giants, Ogre Mages and Ogre Lords. I got some cool items too. AdmtSword and DmndHelm are very nice for your warrior(s). Dopplers are easy enemies to fight if you have a full party. Keep a wind giant handy, too. 4-6. MANGAR'S To get to Mangar's you must journey through the wine cellar, 2nd level, and go west at the center room as before, then directly south. You then arise in the SW of town. E S to the tower. The same caveats apply as before. You just want to get through this thing, but the problem is, in order to get through it, it's probably best to have characters maxed out at level 36. For this, Kylearan's is the best place, at least til level 32. Some fights give 5000+ experience there, especially on level 2, and they are a lot less risky. You will also fill out most of the items you need. You may get a few spare items winning some fights in Mangar's Tower, but don't make that a priority. You can use a few dry runs before the big one. I didn't get anything better than an adamant sword in Kylearan's. And I think you need all the boosts you can get, because Mangar at the end will be tough. Plus, even as you make your way to him, some enemies can kill L25 characters with one hit. Hope you maxed out your vitality. There are a lot of mapping puzzles here that go more quickly once you know how to get through them--or if you have this guide. I still recommend running from all fights. There are only two you have to win, both on level 5. Level 1 is a sequence of teleports, and if you know which one to activate, it goes pretty quickly. Have Wayland's Watch running throughout the tower. 2N E N 4E 4S 2W N. This hits a teleport. S W 3S 2E(secret door) and S through 3 doors, then E 3N 4E 4N W S 3W 5N. That teleport takes you to level 2. Level 2 looks a lot like level 1 at first. So it probably confuses a lot of people. 5S 3E N E 3S 2E 3S 4W S W 3S 2W N 2W 5N 4W N 2W 3N E 3N W 2N 5E 3S 2E 3S. That gets you to level 3. Level 3 is a snap if you just want to get through it. You can walk around searching for clues, which can get your party killed quickly, or you can just go 2S W 2S W S 3E S. Then choose dragon, fire, crystal, sword and go 2N to the stairs. Actually, if you are patient you can just poke each of the 24 combos until one works. You don't lose hit points or get teleported anywhere. Finding a clue of course can make it even simpler--just 6 choice, either the "A after B" or "A/B first" kind. Level 4 seems intimidating, as doors and walls flip midway through, but it is not bad either. N E N E* 2S. Now 1W and the doors and walls flip. N 2W 5N 2E 3S 2E S 3W 3N gets you to level 5. Level 5 has one branch at the start. Take the north path. Then follow it all the way til another door. A fight with a Demon Lord is up ahead. After that, Mangar. Be healed and bring everything--Falkentyne's Fury, constant Battle Skills, Flesh Anews, etc. Spells like Invincible and Armor Collapse don't work here. Keep bringing the Wind Dragon back if Mangar can kill him. It's a bit unfair Mangar has a heal spell too, but then again, it IS the last fight in the game. You may need some luck to win it, but with characters maxed out, you should be able to. 5. CHEATS I recommend fceu's hex editor to manipulate these cheats. 007c = x coordinate from lower left 007d = y coordinate from lower left (note: a scry site tacks on 1 to each of these numbers) 6f69/6f6a=low/high byte of 1st enemy fighting you(very useful against Mangar!) Characters are contained in blocks of 43(=0x2b) bytes starting at 6a9b. There are other places parts of this data are copied, but this is the source. 6a9b through 6aa4 = name(not quite ASCII) 6aa5 = armor class (ff = -1, etc.) 6aa6/6aa7 = current HP(lo byte/hi byte) 6aa8/6aa9 = current MP(lo byte/hi byte) 6aaa = class 0=warrior, 1=rogue, 2=hunter, 3=bard, 4=sorcerer, 5=wizard 6aab and 6aac are for status. 00 = healthy ab & 01 = poisoned(lose 1 turn per move) ab & 02 = possessed ab & 04 = stone ab & 08 = dead ab & 10 = old ab & 20 = still possessed(?) ab & e0 = unknown ac & 01 = NUTS ac & 02 = paralyzed ac & 04/08 = invincible(either one) ac & f0 = unknown 6aad=str 6aae=int 6aaf=dex 6ab0=vit 6ab1=luc 6ab2/6ab3 = max HP(lo byte/hi byte) 6ab4/6ab5 = max MP(lo byte/hi byte) 6ab6/6ab7/6ab8 = experience(lo to hi byte) 6ab9 = level 6aba = # of bard songs left 6abb/6abc/6abd = gold(lo to hi byte) 6abe-6ac5 = items(hi byte = equipped) [see the items faq for which items do what] 6ac6 = player # 2 End of FAQ proper ================================ 6. VERSIONS/CREDITS 1.0.0: sent to GameFAQs 10/29/2008, walkthrough complete 1.1.0: sent to GameFAQs 10/30/2008, added monster info and details. Cheats still to go. 1.1.1: sent to GameFAQs 10/31/2008, added hex-cheat info Thanks to the usual GameFAQs gang, current and emeritus. They know who they are, and you should, too, because they get/got some SERIOUS writing done. Good people too--bloomer, falsehead, Sashanan, Masters, Retro, Snow Dragon/Brui5ed Ego, ZoopSoul, War Doc, Brian Sulpher, AdamL, odino, JDog, Lagoona, Da Hui and others I forgot. OK, even Hydrophant in his current not- yet-banned message board incarnation. I am not part of his gang, but I want him to be part of mine. Thanks to the NES completion project and the Bard's Tale fans who wrote me about my BT2 and BT3 guides. Thanks to all the Bard's Tale fans who put their love for the series on the internet. Thanks to Vic Stephenson, TheChameleon, and unity303 for their documents that came before me. I felt I could add some detail to their already substantial work, and plus I'd written for Bard's Tale II and III so why not I?