Swords Of Xeen
RPG by NEW WORLD COMPUTING
Tips
----
By Lu Richardson
The first tip is: cheat! It makes the difference between getting
killed umpteen times or breezing through the game. Save your game
before you move a muscle and edit it. The characters won't appear
in the same order as on your screen, but it doesn't matter. Go to
the offsets I give below and change the number you will find to FF.
Do this 7 times, leaving two zeros (00) in between. I give you the
first offset for each character and also the offset to change for
the hit points:
1: C59 D9B
2: F1D 105F
3: 1CF1 1E33
4: 253D 267F
5: 2801 2945
6: 2963 2AA5
The money is at 357B (type A0 25 26) and the gems at 357F (type FF
FF). Of course, if you REALLY wanted to cheat, you could change the
09 you can see, at the end of each block of those 7 values, to 63.
This ought to give you an edge, though it does detract from the
game. You might prefer to have a bash without cheating. Good luck.
General tips:
This game is very easy: to judge from the state it's in, it looks
as though it was abandoned at an early stage and it does not contain
any really difficult puzzles, so you will have no trouble. However,
I hope you'll find what follows of some help - I'll mostly assume you
are not cheating.
As ever, in these series, you start slowly and take your time
building up your characters. The whole area is divided in sections
named A1 to F8. At first, you explore the town you find yourself in
(in A1), then go out and follow the road to the next town, killing
whatever gets in your way. Once there, you fight your way around
and you'll soon be given more instructions than you care to
receive.
You can do things in whichever order you prefer, though you'll
be limited by your vulnerability. Nevertheless, eventually you'll
have to explore every inch of the map: the easiests zones are A1 to
A8, followed by B1 to B8 and so on. The further N you get, the
tougher it is to stay alive. Leave the far northwest (i.e., crossing
the sea) for last. In the northernmost part of the map, right in
the center, there are loads of dragons, so don't be in a hurry to
get there.
While exploring enclosed areas it is a good idea to cast Wizard's
Eye, if you have it (later on you get Day of Sourcery, same thing),
because it reveals important hidden areas which you can then access
by kicking a wall in or casting Teleport. Keep comparing the map
with the Wizard's Eye view.
You'll find that you'll have to do a lot of hard work to save each
town and to get the citizens back in, so that you can visit the
facilities. They will return slowly, the more monsters you kill
round and about; so go back often to see what's on offer.
The trouble with this game, as indeed was the trouble with the
previous ones, is that it has some serious bugs. This means that,
when things don't work out as you expected, you never know whether
it's because you did something wrong or because it's a bug.
However, this should not prevent you from having a lot of fun.
And now for more detailed tips, from the start. I've tried to set
them out so that you can go straight to the spot which is giving you
trouble. First I give the instructions for the moves most people
are likely to make. At the end, I give a list of the most important
sites for each area. No need to read the lot, if you don't want to.
Greyhaven
---------
Explore the town: go to the Inn, get a drink, buy food and ask for
tips and rumours. You must do the latter every time you have the
opportunity. Go to the Shop and buy long range weapons and also
anything better you can afford. Go to the Guild and buy the best
spells: Awaken, Levitate and Jump are a must. Visit the rest of
the town (giving a Donation in each of the Temples should result in
you getting a gift eventually). Leave the "dangerous" doors alone,
even if you are cheating. There be dragons in there and you don't
stand a chance just now.
Outside (A1)
-------
You'll be allowed into Greyhaven until you sort out the next town.
After than, you won't be able to get in. This is a very great
nuisance, as you'll find out later. If in your travels you should
be lucky enough to come across a Lloyd's Beacon item, you can set it
inside Greyhaven before it is shut to you, and thus keep coming
back. (If you are interested, there should be a Beacon Wand in the
center of a hut village in A3 - just follow the road from Greyhaven
N and then E to get to it.)
When you are ready, leave Greyhaven and follow the road N to the
next town. You could explore around this area (A1) before you
actually go in. You will find a guy in a caravan who will teach you
all to swim (essential) in exchange for melons. Make sure you pick
six only, and get everyone in the party taught. There are also some
interesting wells and fountains to investigate. To activate some of
the wells, which increase your attributes temporarily, you will need
some magic coins which you will find later on. Frankly, I never
find this exercise worth the trouble - by the time you get to
wherever you wanted to be with your enhanced attributes, the charm
wears out and you are back as you were before.
As in every area, you'll find people who want certain items.
You'll notice that you cannot get across mountains or forests -
you'll have to wait quite a bit before you learn how.
Hart
----
You start by clearing the town of an assortment of monsters. If you
click on something and monsters come out, click on it again once
you've killed them. Various people will ask you for items. You'll
find the mayor in a cage. Come back to his desk when you've cleared
the whole town. Next, visit the tower and kill everyone. Go to the
mayor again. He'll ask you to sort the sewers and the Black Tower.
Hart's sewers
-------------
Now, I think there is a major bug here. One of the ghosts asks you
to save her family who are hidding in the sewers. When I got down
there I could not find them! And I spent a lot of time at it...
This is important because, at the end of all the monster-clearing
exercises, there is still no Magic Guild in the town.
Anyway, in the sewers, Jump to avoid the holes in the ground, click
on all the bones you find and on the drains on the walls. When
you've covered the obvious bit, look at the map. You'll notice that
it's not "square", i.e., it's all on the right. You'll have to kick
a few walls in to uncover the rest. You'll come to two piles of
bones which tell you something has been hidden in one of the
drains. Not true - I could not find anything of the sort. A lever
near here will open up a wall to the South. Wade into that room and
kill everyone. After you've seen to the chests, go to the grate on
the floor and go down. Cast Light and save your game. I spent ages
on this one, and I think I can categorically say that all there is
to do here is to go into the room in the middle of the area and get
a hammer. To do this, go to the right - step on the wrong square
and you will be sent back to the beginning. If you haven't clicked
on the square on the top right hand side of the screen to view the
area, do so now. You'll soon see which spots are safe to tread on
and you should have no problem getting to the center room.
I left the sewers with the uneasy feeling that something was wrong -
yet I tried everything I could think of an could not uncover
anything else. Perhaps you will discover something new. At any
rate, visit the mayor again. He should say you've cleared the
sewers, but on the other hand he might ask you to carry on with the
sewers and the Black Tower.
Go round giving to the right people the items you have found.
Before you leave, visit the tower again. A guy behind a desk will
teach you something new. Go up the stairs and click on the throne.
You'll be told about the Elder weapons and to bring them back here.
As you leave town, the mayor asks you to sort out the trolls. You
can go to Greyhaven, and try and see if you can still get in. On
the way back, buy a pass at the tent next to the town. Or, if you'd
rather, go directly N to B1.
If you cover this area as you go N, you'll find a Barbarian camp you
can destroy. You will also find the Pyramid of Power - the answer
to the riddle is Rope. This should open up the area, but it
doesn't. Another bug. No matter, come back when you have the
Wizard's Eye spell and the Teleport. Also, you can get in another
way.
Carrying on N you should find a Diamond mine at X11 Y13. You'll
need to come back here later, when you find the pick, but for now
you can explore thoroughly. Don't miss the Witches' Coven - use
Wizard's Eye or watch the face above the play area of the screen.
If it's jaws are moving and you are facing a blank wall, kick it in.
You'll also find a Ruby mine (these gems are needed to activate
mirrors in the different towns) and further to the W, the Trolls
mine. Do it thoroughly and make sure you destroy the camp.
Go back to the mayor of Hart and he still wants you to do the sewers
and the Black Tower. As you go out, get asks you to defend the town
from giants. I went N and found precisely two. Not finding any
more, I followed the road from Hart, going N at the junction, to...
The Black Tower
---------------
Make sure you cover every inch of this place. Here you'll find some
people to free and also the Elder dagger. As you come out, the pesky
mayor will ask you to attend to the Orcs. Head W and, in the
vecinity of the mines N of Hart, you'll find a few orcs to kill.
Go to Hart and talk to the mayor. This time he seems satisfied.
Now you can visit all the shops and do a spot of buying and
selling. There are some tents now, and you can teach your guys some
new tricks (you'll be able to cross forests, for one thing), but
don't fall for the 1,000 gold coins offer.
Visit the tower and you'll get a reward for showing the chap your
Elder dagger. Time to do some more exploring. Might as well find
the next town. From Hart, go E until you hit the crossroads (the N
one takes you to the Black Tower) then continue E. As you go along
the road is a good idea to explore any dwellings by its side. At
the next junction, go S. You will see a fire: click on it to talk
to the mayor. Go S to A7 and into Impery.
Impery
------
First, enter the green patch at the center and you will meet a
ghost. Click on the two clocks - set the morning one to 9 and the
afternoon one to 5. Go into every room and down to the sewers every
time you see a grate on the floor. In the sewers are barrels which
will improve permanently your attributes. Determine which of you
characters need extra points, if you are not cheating - you could
save your game before you try the barrels. Make a note of the
colour of the liquids and the attributes they boost; you'll come
across more barrels later on.
When you've finished clearing the town, go back to the mayor at the
camp fire S of the town. He will ask you to clear the area. In A7
X6 Y1 you will find a Cyclops camp; going N into B7, there is a hole
in a square green patch, B7 X5 Y2, which can be closed, thus
eliminating the electrapedes. Nevertheless, you will never clear
the whole area of monsters till you are able to cross mountains.
So, let's start by getting the hard rock at A7 X12 Y13. We take
that to D8 X11 Y2, where we get a soft rock and then take that to C7
X12 Y8. And now we can go through the mountains. When you think
you've done the job, enter Impery and sort yourself out. You should
have joined the Guild in the sewers, so you can get new spells.
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