Secret of the Silver Blades(PC) FAQ/Walkthrough version 1.0.0 by Andrew Schultz schultz.andrew@sbcglobal.net This FAQ will refer to the maps I sent to GameFAQs. The maps are complete for every area except the ice caverns at the end, which are pretty much one-way, and if you have a ranger, he will tell the right way to go. I'm almost avoiding a detailed walkthrough there on principle, just because it is such a bad part of the game. ================================ OUTLINE 1. INTRODUCTION 2. CONTROLS 2-1. MOVING 2-2. COMBAT WITH STRATEGIES 3. STARTING OUT 4. WALKTHROUGH 4-1. OVERVIEW 4-2. DETAILS 4-3. OUTLINE 5. CHEATING 5-1. VAULT TRICKS 5-2. HEX EDITING 5-3. JOURNAL ENTRIES 5-4. RULE BOOK HEADINGS 6. VERSIONS 7. CREDITS ================================ 1. INTRODUCTION Secret of the Silver Blades is another game in the AD&D line. It is strictly first person and has some improvements and some annoyances and some lag near the end, but it cuts out the annoying long combat bits of fighting 50 enemies at a time. You start in New Verdigris trying to find the reason for disturbances in the mines below. Many maps here are 16x16 but there are a few big ones such as the ruins and the mines. The ruins connect the town (eventually) with the Well of Knowledge you can teleport to right away(eventually you can teleport to/from it from other checkpoints,) and the mines, though branching, are not bad to map. You also don't have many map tricks such as teleports, but the depth of the mines and the length of the trek to the frost giants' village and beyond makes things tedious and repetitive to win from scratch--many of the winding passageways are duplicated as well. Fortunately you can get by without much leveling up, and you get experience for quests. The game is also fairly linear and you can decrease the difficulty if you want. With maps it goes by pretty quickly. Money is no problem, too--the town is so grateful to have you they'll heal you for free! Oh yeah, you can duplicate items, too. For plot details visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_of_the_Silver_Blades 2. CONTROLS 2-1. MOVING 2-2. COMBAT WITH STRATEGIES Whenever possible, backstab. You need to be able to cycle around properly and I've said it before and will again(oh no, I sound parental) but mobility is a key for your fighters. I didn't deviate much from the following spells: Cleric: Bless, Hold Person, Prayer, Flame Strike, Harm Mage: Magic Missile, Stinking Cloud, Fireball, Ice Storm, and kill-spells Hold Person has about a 5 square range, so move your Cleric in and then cast at mages. Magic Missile has a long range, which is good, since it can take out bad guys in back. A ranger can use it in a pinch, too. Your 2nd ranger in slot 4 should also have a long bow with magic arrows to take out enemies in back as well. Stinking cloud has a 31' range in other words (3,1) (3,0) or (2,2) away. It is double-edged, though. If you use it in tight quarters your characters may have trouble walking around it. And if you place it in the corner you may only be able to hack at the enemy with one fighter. Still it is great to pick off enemies just behind the front line. Fireball can backfire on your players. But if only one is touched, that is okay. It can take out a lot of monsters and disrupt their spells. Ice Storm is similar but may do less damage. For 2-wide enemies you may want to fan out in a horizontal line, by a door if possible. For 2-high, make a vertical line. Often you can just camp your guys out by a door and guard against enemies, and you will mow them down. With a variety of enemies, don't form a straight line. Rather, zigzag so the most of your guys can kill them off. Also use delays as necessary and don't send your mage or cleric to the front line just to get a hit if it blocks the other guys. Never disengage from an attacker unless there is a spellcaster to disrupt, and that guy may cast a wide angle or kill spell. If an enemy has lots of hit points and there is no inherent danger of spellcasting, you may wish to delay your fighter thief if he can get behind the enemy. The fighter thief does the most damage from behind. If there is one dragon, surround it and thump the snot out of it. Take time to walk around it. It will go down quickly. If in melee, kill the weak links then surround the big guys. One other thing to remember once you win is that you can only see two pages of items at a time, so pick up and drop a bunch of items you know you won't want. The magic stuff is at the very end. If you want to load up on cash, bracers are your best bet after defeating mages. They sell for a minimum of 6K. 3. STARTING OUT I recommend the following party: Human P Dwarf F/T Human R Human R Human M Human C This is the best order, too. #5 frequently gets trapped between 4 and 6, and the mage is ideal for that. He'll have the worst armor class and can't fight. I didn't have/want to change character class, but with hex cheats it is no problem. I'd modify my characters for 18 strength, 18 con and 18 dexterity. The rest can be rock bottom unless someone needs charisma or intelligence. I think if you set everything at 18 you get harder fights. I generally settled for 18 dexterity and 15+ constitution and 18+ strength, except for the mage and cleric who didn't need it. If you're playing straight up a fighter type can have bad strength, too, since you get Ogre Strength gauntlets. If you're duplicating items, then you don't need to be concerned with strength. Dexterity is the most important attribute, since a big part of combat strategy is to disrupt mages before they can cast anything. If a fighter with an ice storm or fireball wand nukes opposing mages, a big fight can become easy quickly. Though you don't really need to go that far. 4. WALKTHROUGH 4-1. OVERVIEW The best way to get good early is either to cheat or to find magic items or know where they are in advance. Finding the next best armor and sword can make fights very easy indeed. Many of the tricky fights involve dragons, and you can visit the old man in west New Verdigris for that. The cool thing is that regardless of what level you play at, you get the same treasure. You may not get as much experience, as you won't fight as many enemies, but oh well. You should also get familiar with selling stuff and with quick healing. You'll wind up with a ton of money and it's worthwhile to spend it on Necklaces of Missiles to take out the backbenchers. Ask to sell items ASAP and note their cost. If they cost a lot, they are magic and you should ID them. If not, sell them. If one unknown item costs as much as a known magic one, you know roughly what it does. You might as well ID it to avoid confusion later since you should be rolling in cash by game's end. Remember to go back frequently to sell your stuff. This opens up inventory spaces and keeps your encumbrance low. The first helps you get more cool items and the second allows you to backstab more conveniently or attack enemies at range. Also if you see a weird item at the end of an inventory, take it, and after a special fight, loot everything too. Healing at the temple of gond is free, and to heal everyone, you just need to move 4 down, hold H til the player needs more healing, then move to the next. When in doubt or overloaded with money, buy a necklace of missiles from the Magic Shop so you can disrupt opposing spellcasters before they cast anything. It is worth it in big fights. 4-2. DETAILS 4-2-1. TOWN AND RUINS(FIRST) First, you should outfit your guys with the armor left behind. Give your paladin the best stuff and propagate the other weapons down the line. You'll be selling them soon enough. Visit the old man in the west several times--if you leave and return, he has a new story and eventually he gives a scroll of Prot Dragon Breath and a Cloak of Displacement(AC -2 for anyone). You can go through the portal in the north of the house to win a fight. 3E and duck and loot. You will get +2 banded mail, a +2 mace and a +2 shield. I also got +2 plate and a +2 long sword. At any rate, take all the items to get everything magic--you should find some +1 shields. Go to the store and here is how to save money ID'ing stuff--if it sells cheap, it's not magic. You may wish to keep track of who has what on a sheet of paper--that way you know when you can sell +1 shields and such for cash. Now that everyone is decently equipped, you can get healed back in town(it's free) and go into the maze. Follow the path north, turning down when you can. Past the old mine, N and W at the 2x2 room. Then fight the dragon and giants- -well, ignore the giants. Use magic missiles to bring the dragon down and get the loot. Walk around the well and fight some more. Win the first two going into the center--heal after each one--and get the hang of beating Banites or Black Circle. Always focus on the spellcaster. Hold Person from the Cleric works well. Once you've tackled these guys and have +1 stuff at least for everyone, heal and go to the magic shop. Stay and take out the enemies that come by--line your four fighters in front, move your mage in just behind for Stinking Cloud and your Cleric can Hold Person. The BC Lords will fall. You get better items(+2 long swords) and for the fight behind and above, get mirrors. Replace shields with them til the medusas die(and don't attack the medusas-- they'll kill themselves) and the rest is easy. East and south of the shop you have Fire Knives. They are tricky. One hit from them and you can die. Hold Person and Stinking Cloud, again. You may have to re-load a few times. Cast Prayer before this fight. You may want to go SE in the ruins to get to the other dragon. Or you can clear the well first. It doesn't matter. At the start you need to locate and plunder treasure. If you have extra money, and you probably will, a Wand of Missiles is handy to get past annoying fights where you have one spellcaster off to the side. Your cleric can use it. You can just un-ready and re-ready your weapon between uses. But save it for the tough fights. And use it to save the necklaces of missiles for the VERY tough fights later. The Necklace casts fireball. With range spells in general, you will want to wipe out as many enemies as you can, even if you damage a front line character in the process. P57 randomly found durring travels 4-2-2. RUINS(SECOND) AND WELL You should be able to surround the dragon and hit him from behind a few times, though he does line up against a wall. If you like, knock the difficulty down just before the fight. He may hit you for 88 damage and a kill, so again save before attacking. I haven't found another place to use the scroll of prot. dragon breath from the old man, so this is good. If you win, the well opens for you and if you visit a portal later, you can come back. You already saw one potential portal NE of town. SE is another dragon who gives good treasure and an amulet(not in your inventory) when you win. Note the portal that opens up--it leads back to the well, a handy shortcut. This fight also gets you a +2 plate and a cloak of displacement. Treasure is N of the well(watch for the fight afterwards, but the +5 leather is nice) and you can go NW for a fight to loot. Most rank and file enemies don't have magical items but armor can make you pretty rich. Well P's: 25, 19, 1, 38, 71 4-2-3. ADMIN BUILDING SIDE QUEST This one is not necessary and may in fact be more nuisance than it is worth. However it has some cool items at the end of it. You may in fact wish to complete it in parts, or near the end of the game. SW of the mine, you can enter, and you fight some spellcasters and fighters. Bring a fireball and some hold-person spells. Now you can just go straight south to get on with the main part of the quest(a secret door is there) or you can search the side passages to the west and east, which have more tough fights like the one to start this area. They don't appear to give any good items, though, so you can pass. Follow the passage south and it is one way pretty much. (3,10) has an enemy who hits you for small damage and runs. The first encounter is at 1,12. You should be able to rest after it and you will probably need to, even if you set the difficulty to easy. The next fight after you go S* E* N* E is with the same sort of enemies. Again use a fireball to greet them and hold person too. There is treasure beyond the door in the next room--just a few scrolls. Then follow the passage to 11,15 and you can just wait and stand your ground to get rid of those enemies. (10,11) and (12,10) are standard fights, then 2N 2E S* leads to hatchlings. They should be no problem on easy mode but tougher on others if you don't use magic--with -1 AC you really need to hit them with a spell. You have two waves of these as they guard all squares before the room below, then there is the final fight which is very lucrative and offers you great magic items at the end. Just take and drop a few items in the treasure pool to see what is at the very end. I got a Girdle of Giant Strength. You can now activate the portal or leave to the east, unsealing a door that was sealed before. 5,8 gives paragraph 69 and when you catch nd soothe the clerk you get 55, 49 and 40. 4-2-4. TEMPLE The temple is pretty easy to clear out. Exit the NW of the well and you'll have one fight with banite priests. Loot them, ID items, and return. Walk along to the well. You'll have the Black Circle to fight. Go down to the temple level and go south through the gates. You'll have some minotaur fights but nothing serious. At the south of the chapel, 1W of center, bash through and you can go east for treasure and experience. The doors in the corner of the chapel lead to the next area. You have some treasure squares as well. But you need to trip (0,4) and/or (1,4) so you can see Delf in the NE. To get to him there is a secret door along the bottom. Delf in the NE gives you your next quest--go into the mines and get the pieces of staff. You will need to return to him once it is done. Not necessarily right away though. You should concentrate on clearing out the mines. Before going into the mines, be sure to activate the portal in the DL at (2,15). It allows you to return easily to the temple from the well. You will also find +3 chain and a +3 shield at (1,11) and (15,13)--secret door at (15,14). P65 at 0,4, paper at 1,4 4-2-5. THE MINES There are some side treasures I may mention later. If you are close to a new level you can dig for gems continually in some dead ends. However, On level 6, you find Vala, a great NPC, with the piece of the staff. Each level where you find a staff piece has treasure and experience and it's best to bull your way through. You may have to face Umber Hulks on the way and so save before and after finding each staff piece. The hulks are especially nasty if they possess your PCs to attack Vala, and I advise either being on a diagonal or having people stay back and guard so the hulks walk into a massacre. Treasures always appear behind doors, and you usually have a chance to flee any enemies hiding out. In general you can flee from fights, but enemies should not be too hard. Against cockatrices or margoyles, unready your shields and ready mirrors to avoid petrification. Level 1: Follow the path west, turn north in the 2x2 room, then west in the 3x2, and go north at the final branch. Treasure here is really good: Plate +3, Long Sword +3, Shield +3, Composite Long Bow +2. The last is useful down the road for tricky fights with mages in the background. Level 2: West, west at the T, north at the 3x2, and after you fight some Umber Hulks, the passage end holds a chest with items. The chest may blow up in your face. The treasure is not so hot(potions) but the damage is worse and the 3000 EXP is nice. Even if the chest blows up you get a staff piece. Level 3: Head north, then east at the 2x2, then east at the intersection. Wyverns attack. Use a fireball here if they wind up poisoning/killing your guys. Treasure here is good: +2 ring of protection, +4 mace, +3 trident. Well, only the +4 mace is useful since everyone probably has +2 stuff now, so the ring of protection does nothing. Level 4: South, south over the rubble, west, then east at the 2x2 room. Loot the dead body. Treasure: +3 ring of protection, nice for your mage Level 5: North, west at the T, north at the 2x2. Treasure: stone and scrolls Level 6: There are many lizard man patrols here and you should be able to wipe them out. It's tempting to use a fireball as a time saver, but try to parlay around the enemy. The fights are not hard but they can be long. West, one south after the barricade then west and the winding path leads to the big fight. Note that after winning the fight you will take 10-15 damage so if anyone goes unconscious they may die. Check before saving, and heal/cast prayer before the fight! Treasure: necklace of missiles and eyes of charming Level 7: South all the way, east, south at the 2x2, west at the T. You can go back east for some nice treasure, too. ?? Treasure: some cool trinkets Level 8: Piece 8 is south, west at the T, south all the way and east. Great treasure with the staff piece, too. +5 banded mail, longsword vs giants(+3 otherwise,) and a cloak of displaement. That is your third. Your front line now each has one. Some nice treasure is north, west at the 3x2, 3 north and east. More to the east, then go east at the T. There is a teleport to 58,30 on level 9. You need to use it to destroy whatever is blocking your passage to level 10. However, it will damage you a lot(20-30 points.) So return to town, sell your goods, and heal up before the next bit. Stop by Delf on the way back. Level 9: There is treasure here but it is behind nasty traps, so I suggest you just go down to level 10 once you break through the barriers. The lift offers you nowhere new but if you took the teleport from L8 and beat the umber hulks, you just need to follow the passage and go south in the big room. This requires fights with enemies who can stone you, so get your mirrors up! Vala does not need one, fortunately. Now you can go to level B/10! Level 10: Again the side passages are treacherous so just plow through. Treasure is behind some gross damage, so if you need the experience, go for it. Otherwise, ready mirrors in place of shields and go east. Fireball/ice storm the phase spiders if you want. They can poison and kill you with a lucky hit. Go south at the branch and after some more fights(save after each one) you can reach a big hallway that leads to the castle dungeons. 4-2-6. THE DUNGEON Because there are so many magic casting enemies, you need to have enough speed to get to them. Therefore, if your guys are having trouble moving, sell everything off before continuing. In fact, now is a good time to go back and visit Delf, too. You'll get some experience for it. You'll get some experience for the puzzles, too. LEVEL 1: This first level is a sequence of 4 4x16 strips. Avoid doors as you walk north. The first one only has one necessary fight, with driders. It is at 0,5 and should not be hard with an Ice Storm or Fireball. The driders don't have much in the way of HP. But you need to get to them in a hurry. After that, you face a puzzle at the stairs which gives you experience if you solve it. Save before the puzzle if you want. Then you can visit the well, get the answer, and return(or better yet, restart and return.) You get 20K experience for the right answer. This builds up quickly. Then you have stairs N E S to the next sub-level. You should be able to run through the next part with no problems. There is one fight along the way but it is not critically difficult. E S* W 2S E N 2E 4S 2W (S N) N W 4S 2E 2N E 2S. Treasure at 5,14 is trapped but your dwarf FT can undo it. It's a bit of extra experience. At 7,15 you have another puzzle. YOUR WORD. E N and the west is a detour portal to the well. Go N instead and at the top W and 3S is a trap you can undo--1S has a secret door to the west. W 2N 2E N* to another puzzle: YOUR BREATH. Now W goes to the next area, but E goes to the compound side quest. If you return to the well, at the well gives p71. Answers: YOUR HEART YOUR WORD YOUR BREATH RIVER 4-2-7. COMPOUND SIDE QUEST Some good experience here but no great treasure--there may be gold but don't take it as the final fights require mobility. Let Sir Deric join but be sure to heal him. Give him some cheap armor and weapons you find, too. N then E-- not much other choice. You can rest to the S and E but you don't really need to. There are fights north of this intersection en masse. 3 E* N accesses paragraphs 58 and 70. My map is wrong here as the UR is walled off but there is a pretty easy way in. The actual quest bit is east and south through the gates. Then another gate. and 13,11 is a fake treasure with a nasty fight, so avoid it. S*(treasure) N 4W 2S 4E gets you the first of two prisoners. Then go back to the intersection, 3W S and a secret door is W. W 4S W leads to a fight hiding treasure. As usual you need a fireball to knock things out. Each door except the NW gives treasure, which isn't too useful but gives experience. 3N of that is a door with another fight. W* for treasure then 3E 2N for more. S W* and now get your guy with the speed boots a wand of ice storm/fireballs before you go north. This is because enemies are located far back and you need to hit them quickly. Twice if need be--the driders and mages can be tricky. But once they are down you can mop up the fighters. Sir Deric leaves the party. There's a fight with golems to the north, too, which guards the final treasure. It isn't much but the experience is. 4-2-8. THE REST OF THE DUNGEON W S* W N, fight with umber hulks, W S gets you the Brass Key you need. Back to (14,8) and W 2N 2E N* W 2N W S* W N*. This leads to level 2. LEVEL 2: W 3S to some Umber Hulks. Beat them then 2S E N E S E 2N 2E (medusa E S with some fights and traps in side rooms) 3N 2E S and the first puzzle is RIVER. This kicks you to the southeast. S W N 2W 2S and 3E 3S W has a clue but you need to win a fight, and the clue doesn't really help. So 3W N for treasure then S W S* and answer WATER. That leads to the NW, with W N 2E S 2E 4N W and 3S leads to a portal back to the well if you need it. There is a fight with pyro hydras ahead--along the corridor and W at 2,9. Hit these guys with a fireball. E S E leads to the last bit. SILENCE. S W N E* N* E 2S E for trapped treasure, then W 2N W s* W S E is a long one- way passage to the end. (15,9) is a tough fight for treasure and (13,9) is thefinal stairway up. WIND is the final answer. LEVEL 3: You start off in the top half. N E N W N E* N and E are some giant fights. S E* and S W 2S W leads to a portal fight with Umber Hulks and then Pyro Hydras. There is a portal back to the well there. Or you can just go S* at the T, E and N*. Hack through the illusion. W S W* S*-1 (to the east are some fights that show enemies trying to burst into the castle but you can't quite get there.) 3W N 3W 2S and W is a fight, then 2N 2W 3N fight 2N, then you fight some Pyro Hydras for the key at 2E 2S W S. You can let the enemies by on the west side and fight some Umber Hulks. Use a fireball per fight here if you have trouble hacking through. You are let out at the ice paths. 4-2-9. ICE PATHS AND FROST GIANT VILLAGE The ice paths are not terribly tricky if you have a ranger, but they are long, so save after you make it past each door. If monsters follow you, you can always flee and just turn around and keep moving. It is tedious, but they stop following you at the next door. Eventually you'll see more than just generic monsters--Black Circle types. No choice but to fight them. There is one branch off where you see the clerk of Phlan has been captured. You can rescue her if you want, but you go on a big wild goose chase. She instructs you how to get to safety and there is no serious treasure at the end, just a teleportal to the well and some gems. In general you will either go east or southeast when you get to a clearing, and just before the village is a teleporter it's a good idea to use. You will need to hack through a lot of Frost Giant fights. Just before the frost village is a good time to get the staff if you want, but you have one more chance after this. Still, you probably need to heal, so on the way you can get the staff. Vala probably gave you a bunch of warnings, too. 4-2-10. THE CASTLE Paragraph #29 at the intro. You will have a medusa approach you no matter where you go, and you will NOT want to sign. She attacks anyway, so ready mirrors beforehand. There is a teleporter back to the well here. Take the second south niche, wait, and S E 2N to get to the well. You now need to pull the lever that will let you out. Go 2S W 2S for a fight, then 2S and now you can go back north to the niche and leave. All the niches in the main hall work similarly. You need to wait to activate them, then find a lever to flip to get back out. But not many of the side paths are profitable. There are some traps to disarm, but other than that the only really interesting ones are the far east south one(treasure at 13,14 and lever at 14,15 with encounter at 15,14 and passage back to the dungeons at 15,9--it leads to the stairs in the dungeons some mages were trying to melt, which means a fight) and the far east north(encounter) and the west south(2 encounters.) And even with those you probably just want to advance. Use the south center swivel and take the west door, leading to a teleport and the stairs at 15,0. LEVEL 2: You don't need to get into the fight to discover the password, but if you want some easy treasure go due south then W to 14,8. This win allows you to go east at 0,2 with another secret door south at 2,1. The NE rooms have two fights and if you follow the medusa at 15,12 it kicks you back to dungeons, level 1. So don't go there. The maze is not bad. If you hit the roving patrol of Driders, you got the word, but you can give it anyway, STEELEYE. From 4,4, S E= 2S W N W 2S W 2N 2W N W*(past guards) S* and follow to where you give the password and go south. There's a nasty trap area from 15,1 to 15,7 which seems to be guarding stairs but isn't. The rest of the maze has 1-way doors and guards and is not much fun. LEVEL 3: This is it. You can rest anywhere here, but there's also an easy portal back. E* N* E* S* E and let the lich attack--he does no damage, but if you try other options you are booted N of the stairs to a fight. E N 3E 3N W and take the portal back. You have treasure E S E but you need to realize that the last two fights will have you FAR away from your opponents, so you need mobility to run at them. Treasure seeking is not worth it. From the portal, E 4N(walk through the illusion) and the E N fight is nice but gives no weapons. W N* E* 2N W* and use the (S)ilver key. W S8 W* and a fight. By now use two fireballs per fight. Go north and (G)old then N* E* N*- 1 W for another fight and W*. I'm not really describing the fights here because the strategy of firebombing the mages and hammering the other opponents is repetitive and enough. Just have enough mage spells in reserve and waste an attack for a Magic Missile or Ice Storm wand if need be. Another fight at 5,1 and then W 3S W. Heal and cast prayer. Drop excess money and give your guy with speed boots an ice storm wand and go west. This is the tough fight--the final is easier. Wipe out the clerics and mages ASAP. You need to do so before they cast anything, since they can kill. Though really at this point losing a constitution point isn't the worst thing in the world. Then hack the remnants of the enemy army up--have someone with Lightning Bolt get rid of the storm giants in the way. One thing to watch for is that the enemy Dreadlord cannot be affected by magic, so you need to rip open a path through the center to get to him to disrupt his spells ASAP. The last fight involves golems and medusas and a couple ice storms did for the medusas without leaving my guys vulnerable to their stone gaze--no need to ready mirrors. Line up vertically if you can and give your mage a chance to run back and forth and cast Stinking Cloud. Then hack away. A portal appears in the NW. You can return and complete optional quests now if you want. 4-3. OUTLINE 0. [cheat if you want] 1. Visit old man in town, go to the Well, duck and win a fight 2. NE, get dragon treasure, use fireball/magic missile 3. use several fireballs and stinking cloud to take out magic shop 4. use mirrors and a bunch of spells to take out N area of magic shop. Same for S area. Don't be stingy. 5. In the SE win the dragon treasure with the amulet 6. In the Well, Icestorm the dragonbabies, heal, take out new dragons 7. get the treasure NE of the well 8. Clear the well by beating the Ancient Dragon *9. Go to admin building and clear it out, getting to inner sanctum 10. Clear the temple below the mine and meet Derf. Find stuff behind secret doors. 11. Get the staff pieces for Derf. Vala is a great NPC on level 6. 12. Use the L8 teleporter(be VERY healed) and win the fight to break the way to L9/B 13. Barrel through to the castle dungeons. Answer the puzzles as you get them. Get the silver, gold and brass keys. *Clear the Black Circle Compound for extra goodies. 14. Set play level to Novice to keep sane. East to the Frost Giant village. Save at each fork in the road. Win the king's trust by fighting the Black Circle. 15. East to the castle. Use the Silver, Gold and Brass keys. Defeat the Dreadlord. Then defeat the golems behind him. 5. CHEATING The simplest way to cheat is to start a game with one player, take all the items, save and drop the player. Repeat with 6 others. Then form the party. Everyone has everything! Another cheat is unverified but at http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=74303 It involves hex editing so 5-3 and 5-4 are irrelevant. 5-1. VAULT TRICKS There are several ways to duplicate items using the vault. The easiest follows: 1. save game a 2. put items in vault. Save game b 3. load game a, repeat 2 4. take items from the vault when done Another is 1. save game a 2. put items in vault. 3. backup vault.dat to vault.bak 4. take items 5. copy vault.bak to vault.dat 5-2. HEX EDITING For save game X, player Y, CHRDATXY.SAV contains the following important data: multi byte = high byte 1st 0x01-0x0f = name 0x10-11 = cur/max str 0x12-13 = cur/max int 0x14-15 = cur/max wis 0x16-17 = cur/max dex 0x18-19 = cur/max con 0x1a-1b = cur/max cha 0x1c-1d = cur/max for 18+ str 0x070 = max HP 0x071 starts memorized spells 0x109 = gold(2 bytes) 0x10b = platinum 0x10d = gems 0x10f = jewels 0x12c = experience(4 bytes) 0x19b = encumbrance(2 bytes) 0x1af = min damage 0x1b1 = max damage 0x1b3 = bonus damage 0x1b5 = current HP 5-3. JOURNAL ENTRIES 1 map to the dragon's hoard 2 fanatic soldier's tale: we have done 3 sir deric's story: the black circle 4 BLACK CIRCLE MAGE AT TOP OF MINE 5 MAYOR TALKING OF THE BLACK CIRCLE 6 One of the miners saw red robed 7 OLD MAN'S TALE OF THE SCROLL 8 I didn't drink that much. I'm 9 OLD MAN'S TALE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE 10 A DYING MAN'S LAST WORDS 11 EXULTANT BANITE PRIEST the beholder corps 12 OLD MAN'S TALE OF THE TEMPLE 13 BLIND MAGE'S STORY 14 THE CAPTAIN'S TALE 15 MEETING THE FROST GIANT KING 16 BLACK CIRCLE COMMANDER'S PAPER 17 OLD MAN'S TALE OF THE BROTHER WARS 18 STORY OF THE SILVER BLADES 19 THE AMULET OF ELDAMAR. 20 That old man -- south of the mayor's 21 EARLY DAYS OF THE TOWN. This 22 DYING CLERIC OF BANE. The Black 23 TALK OF MYSTICAL ITEMS. The mages 24 THE GUARD OF GRIMDRA HOARD 25 MESSAGE FROM THE WELL: The miners' 26 WARNING ABOUT THE AMULET. The Dreadlord 27 RESCUED MAIDEN'S STORY: The mages took 28 OLD MAN'S TALE OF THE VORPAL BLADE 29 VALA'S DESCRIPTION OF THE OLD CASTLE 30 So many gems down in that mine and no way to get at them. Lif e ain't fair. 31 BANITE PATROL'S STORY The Black Circle 32 MAP OF THE 4TH LEVEL 33 PRISONER'S TALE I am one of 34 OLD MAN'S TALE OF THE FLAMING ONE 37 MAYOR'S INTRODUCTION: We are a small 39 OLD MAN'S TALE OF THE CLOAK 40 LEDGER FROM NEW VERDIGRIS MINING: 2nd 41 Map to the first key 42 THE MEDUSA'S TALE I don't care! 43 LETTER FROM MARCUS TO THE BLACK CIRCLE 44 PHLAN CLERK'S TALE Well, I had 46 LETTER FROM MULMASTER 47 MAYOR RELATES YULASH EXPERIENCES 48 THE GLOWING MOUSE'S SPEECH 50 DERF MEETING VALA 51 OLD MAN'S TALE OF THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE 53 THE BLACK CIRCLE'S PLAN 54 OLD MAN'S TALE OF THE WELL OF KNOWLEDGE 55 CLERK'S STORY 56 MEETING WITH OSWULF 57 LETTER FOUND BLOWING IN THE WIND 58 A PRISONER'S SPEECH 59 TALE OF THE WOUNDED WARRIOR 60 MESSAGE FOUND BY POUCH 61 MAYOR REVEALS HIS TRUE MISSION 62 MAGE'S REPORT 63 VALA'S STORY the amazonian woman 64 MAD DWARF'S RAMBLINGS 65 LETTER IN TEMPLE 67 MAD CLERIC'S RAMBLINGS 69 CLERK'S LETTER 70 PRISONER'S TALE the black circle has 71 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE AMULET 5-4. RULE BOOK HEADINGS Sometimes the game will ask you for something from the rule book when you save a game. I've compiled a few subheaders and should not have missed anything. HOW THE HEROES ARRIVE... The miner's haul the chests of gems CHARACTERS AND PARTIES To play SECRET OF THE SILVER BLADES The Player Races There are six races from which Ability Scores Every character has six randomly generate Character Classes A character must belong to at least ALIGNMENT Alignment is the philosophy a character lives by. Building a Successful Party Forming a strong and adaptable party is a key COMBAT Combat occurs often during your adventures. ==== Before You Play There is no copy protection on your SECRET OF THE SILVER BLADES disk, Getting Started Quickly SECRET OF THE SILVER BLADES comes with a ready-made party that allows Using Menus All commands are menu based, and the concept of the active character Beginning to Play To begin playing the game you must load a saved game or generate From Where Menu FROM WHERE: SECRET CURSE EXIT Viewing Characters The VIEW command displays the character summary screen. Character Status OKAY status means that the character has positive HP and can move and Display Screens and Points of View SECRET OF THE SILVER BLADES uses three different points of view: 3-D, Viewing Characters: The VIEW command displays the character summary screen. Adventuring Options The following menus control most adventuring options: Adventure Menu MOVE AREA CAST VIEW ENCAMP SEARCH LOOK Encamp Menu SAVE VIEW MAGIC REST ALTER FIX EXIT Rest Menu REST DAYS HOURS MINUTES ADD SUBTRACT EXIT Alter Menu ORDER DROP SPEED ICON PICS LEVEL EXIT Speed Menu SLOWER FASTER EXIT Pics Menu ANIMATIONS ON/OFF EXIT Level Menu NOVICE SQUIRE VETERAN ADEPT CHAMPION EXIT Magic Menu CAST MEMORIZE SCRIBE DISPLAY REST EXIT Memorize Menu MEMORIZE NEXT PREV EXIT Scribe Menu SCRIBE NEXT PREV EXIT CIVILIZATION The mining town of New Verdigris Armoury Menu BUY VIEW TAKE POOL SHARE APPRAISE EXIT Temple Menu HEAL VIEW TAKE POOL SHARE APPRAISE EXIT Vault Menu DEPOSIT WITHDRAW TRADE EXIT Combat Menu MOVE VIEW AIM USE CAST TURN QUICK DONE Aim Menu NEXT PREV MANUAL TARGET CENTER EXIT Done Menu GUARD DELAY QUIT BANDAGE AUTO SPEED EXIT Treasure Menu VIEW TAKE POOL SHARE DETECT EXIT ENCOUNTERS When a party comes across monsters or NPCs End of FAQ Proper ================================ 6. VERSIONS 0.3.0 sent to GameFAQs 10/10/2007, good start 1.0.0 sent to GameFAQs 10/14/2007, complete 7. CREDITS project64.c64.org GameFAQs's anonymous walkthrough for general ideas