__ __ __ / | / / / | / (___| ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ( (___| ___ ___ ___ ___ | | )| | )| |___) | )|___ | |___)| )|___ | | ) | | | | / |__ |__ |__/ | | |__ | __/ | |__/| ___ / / / / | / (___ ___ ( ( ___ ___ (___| ___ ___ | | )| | |___)| ) |\ | | )| ) | |__/|| | |__ | / | \ | | / |__/ __/ ============================================================================ Walkthrough by: Bacterx Contact: Bacterx@gmail.com Version: 1.00 Last Updated: May 24, 2009 ============================================================================ Note: items in [brackets] are put there for easier searching. If you want to skip right to World 2, for instance, search for [WLD2]. Also note that I number levels in the order in which they become available, this is generally left to right. If two levels open up at the same time, I number the level to the left before the level to the right. TABLE OF CONTENTS [INT] Introduction [NOT] Opening Notes [MVS] Moves [EMS] Enemy Strategies [STG1] Stage 1 [S1L1] Stage 1 Level 1 [S1L2] Stage 1 Level 2 [S1L3] Stage 1 Level 3 [S1L4] Stage 1 Level 4 [S1L5] Stage 1 Level 5 [S1L6] Stage 1 Level 6 *boss* [STG2] Stage 2 [S2L1] Stage 2 Level 1 [S2L2] Stage 2 Level 2 [S2L3] Stage 2 Level 3 [S2L4] Stage 2 Level 4 [S2L5] Stage 2 Level 5 [S2L2*] Stage 2 Level 2 revisited [S2L1*] Stage 2 Level 1 revisited [S2L5*] Stage 2 Level 5 revisited [S2L6] Stage 2 Level 6 [S2L7] Stage 2 Level 7 [S2L8] Stage 2 Level 8 [S2L9] Stage 2 Level 9 [S2L10] Stage 2 Level 10 *boss* [STG3] Stage 3 [S3L1] Stage 3 Level 1 [S3L2] Stage 3 Level 2 [S3L3] Stage 3 Level 3 [S3L4] Stage 3 Level 4 [S3L5] Stage 3 Level 5 [S3L2*] Stage 3 Level 2 revisited [S3L3*] Stage 3 Level 3 revisited [S3L1*] Stage 3 Level 1 revisited [S3L5*] Stage 3 Level 5 revisited [S3L6] Stage 3 Level 6 [S3L7] Stage 3 Level 7 [S3L8] Stage 3 Level 8 [S3L9] Stave 3 Level 9 [S3L10] Stage 3 Level 10 *boss* [STG4] Stage 4 [S4L1] Stage 4 Level 1 [S4L2] Stage 4 Level 2 [S4L3] Stage 4 Level 3 [S4L4] Stage 4 Level 4 [S4L5] Stage 4 Level 5 [S4L3*] Stage 4 Level 3 revisited [S4L5*] Stage 4 Level 5 revisited [S3L6] Stage 4 Level 6 [S3L7] Stage 4 Level 7 [S3L8] Stage 4 Level 8 [S3L9] Stave 4 Level 9 *boss* [STG5] Stage 5 [S5L1] Stage 5 Level 1 [S5L2] Stage 5 Level 2 [S5L3] Stage 5 Level 3 [S5L1*] Stage 5 Level 1 revisited [S5L2*] Stage 5 Level 2 revisited [S5L3*] Stage 5 Level 3 revisited [S5L4] Stage 5 Level 4 [S5L5] Stage 5 Level 5 [S5L6] [S5L1**] Stage 5 Level 1 re-revisited [S5L2**] Stage 5 Level 2 re-revisited [S5L7] Stage 5 Level 7 [S5L8] Stage 5 Level 8 *last level of the section* [STG6] [S6L1] [S6L2] [S6L3] *omg final boss* [SCR] Scroll Locations [TRS] Hidden Treasure locations [SCRC] Scroll Contents *SPOILER WARNING* [BGS] Common Bugs and Fixes [FAQ] Your Questions! [RKS] Closing remarks =========================================================================== [INT] Alright well shucks and welcome to the Prince of Persia Fallen King walkthrough! If you are here you are probably wanting some tips for some of the trickier parts for this game, or just a general help on some of the tougher levels. First a brief word of introduction. Prince of Persia: Fallen King was released for the Nintendo DS, and takes place in the universe of the Newest (as of 2009) Prince of Persia continuity. In a nutshell, the Big Bad’s name is Ahriman. You’ve already had one adventure’s worth of fighting the guy. He is an evil god that fought with his brother, Ormazd, and was imprisoned in the tree of life after conquering many states. Later, the King of the unnamed state where Prince of Persia takes place saw his wife and daughter die. Unable to deal with this, he made a deal with Ahriman: if he would revive the king’s daughter, named Elika, the king would free Ahriman. Ahriman revives Elika, who of course is horrified at her father, and her father, who has become The Mourning King, a corrupted creature, destroys the Tree of Life. In the original Prince of Persia the prince meets Elika on the way back from a battle. The two team up and destroy the corruption that now plagues her kingdom as Ahriman starts to break free. As a necessary final step to re-sealing Ahriman, Elika sacrifices herself. The Prince, maddened by grief, undoes everything they had just accomplished and gives his life force to free Ahriman and revive a very angry Elika. He wanders off into the desert with Elika as Ahriman is totally freed. This is where Prince of Persia: Fallen King starts. =========================================================================== [NOT] The game is divided into a number of stages, each containing several levels. Levels are indicated by colored circles on the map- red for a level you cannot access, green for unbeaten levels, and blue for beaten levels. Because the levels are not numbered in this game, I will use the following number system: levels will be numbered by the order in which they become green. This is often in a roughly left-to- right direction. In times when two levels become green simultaneously, I will number the levels in a left to right direction. Complete level numbers will be something like "Stage 2 Level 3", which indicates that we are on the second stage, third level. In most of the stages you fill find yourself returning to earlier levels with Zal’s new powers to get things you couldn’t get at first. Returning to an earlier level will be noted with an asterisk (*). This is a pretty fun game in my opinion! You will have to spend some time familiarizing yourself with the controls to really be effective, and there are some very frustrating parts, but overall the game is quite worthwhile. A few things to keep in mind as you play: - Sometimes the Prince has a hard time determining if your stylus is telling him to move a little bit to the right, or just LAUNCH himself. This is especially frustrating and difficult when you are on a moving platform over spikes. If you are not in danger on a platform, just stay put. Otherwise, start the stylus very close to the Prince’s body and move it slowly away from him. Try to walk. -If you quit a level midway through you lose EVERYTHING you picked up in the level. Gold coins, health bonuses, prince spheres- everything. The same goes for dying and starting from a checkpoint. You have to get everything again. The one exception to this is scrolls, which once you get them they are got forever. - If you are a completionist (like me), remember that YOU CANNOT GO BACK TO OLD STAGES. This mean you MUST have all hidden and unlockable treasures from a stage before you defeat the boss. This is especially annoying on one later stage, when there is a very expensive unlockable treasure in the last level in a stage. Once you beat the level, you move onto a new stage, so you must get this treasure on the very first play through! - I have tried to strike a balance between just giving a very barebones walkthrough, which can be hard to follow, and giving too many spoilers by typing in all game dialogue. When characters make speeches, I might mention it, but I will not actually include the dialogue, just a vague idea of what is being said. Being as this is a walkthrough, I imagined people aren’t terribly shocked by spoilers, but here is your alert. ================================================================================ [MVS] Moves: This section is divided into three parts: one part for the prince, one for Zal, and one for something else that is a spoiler, and is at the bottom. - PRINCE Moves for the prince are fairly intuitive. One of the real selling points for me in this game was the move system. Basically touch the stylus on the screen wherever you want to move. If you don’t want to use the stylus, tough luck. Touching the stylus near the prince will make him walk (which is handy for spike traps), touching it far from him will make him run. Tapping the stylus quickly will make the Prince roll in the direction you tapped. Tapping on a wall up from the Prince makes him run up the wall. While on a wall, tapping up and away from him will make him leap (good for wall jumps), and tapping DIRECTLY beneath him will make him start to slide down the wall. Ladders are fairly straightforward: tap above him to climb, below him to drop. When he is swinging from a post, there are a number of ways he can jump, essentially tap where you want him to end up. When fighting, you can perform a charge attack by slicing an object diagonally in half with your stylus. This is useful for reinforced boulders (you can tell them because they have a band with blots around them), but I find that it’s too slow for regular fighting. All you need for regular fighting is tapping on enemies makes for regular attacks, double tapping makes for a jump forward + attack, and holding the stylus on the prince makes him block. You do not need to face the same direction you are blocking. One special case is if the prince is climbing a wall, and needs to get onto a ledge which has an enemy standing right at the edge. Clicking on the enemy in this case will cause the prince to perform a high jump attack. -PRINCE AND ZAL Sometimes these little black bugs come and corrupt Zal. He will turn black and after a short period of time he’ll have stars circling around his head. You have to activate Zal and rub the stylus on the stars to snap him out of it. This usually happens at the most annoying times possible. Also in this half and half section are the stones with the Prince and Zal’s picture on them. You’ll run into them when you split up, usually because of poisonous fog. While standing on these stones, click on the other character’s portrait on your screen to switch perspectives. -ZAL Activate Zal at any time by pressing one of the letter buttons or one of the directional buttons. He will rise slowly and you will be unable to move as the prince. Tapping on the screen anywhere with Zal will make him fire a blue blast. This will stun, but not damage opponents. Except for a few special cases, I never used this ability against enemies. Other than this, Zal’s powers are environmentally based, in other words different objects in the level will allow Zal to do different things. They are listed below, first by what you see, and second by what you can do with it. Keep in mind that often Zal runs into things he can eventually interact with before he has the ability to do so. Just because something really looks like it should be able to be interacted with does not mean Zal can immediately interact with it. A red gem: This will open a gate- three red gems per gate. Fire Zal’s blue orbs at them to open them (they will turn green when activated) Tall black grass with a red glow around it: This is a corruption weed. Zal can shrink them by firing his blue orbs at them. Smallish blue/black circle with one end showing short waving "tentacles": There might be a big spiky block nearby: Tap and drag the circle, it will stretch like taffy. Use it to pull up blocks or yourself (but that is way later in the game spoiler alert). You can also use it to destroy mooks and other enemies! Huge black pulsing circle with veins and tentacles near the end of a level: This is an eye, and you have to destroy it to open up a gate. Have Zal just shoot his magic at it until it blows up. Black spikes with a red glow: While in Zal mode, tap on them with the stylus and drag them up or down, you can move the spikes to destroy blocks or enemies this way. Blue and purple orb: Zal holds this open while the Prince proceeds. Tap it with your stylus and he’ll stay near it. Small black orb with blue glow around it: Have Zal tap this orb once- it’s a grappling orb and you’ll be pulled towards it. Red and black orb: This is a flame sphere, you can use it to destroy cracked blocks. Have Zal tap and drag to move it. It will blow up if held for too long- you can put them back on the little plantlike bases they grow out of, and that resets their blowing up timer. You can also use these to trip switches. Mook with a shield: Just tap and drag the shield to disarm him. It’ll turn into a regular mook then. Red glowing box that shoots flames: If this is on a track, you can move it by tapping and dragging. Otherwise, no luck. Red glowing boulder: Not the boulders with the blue outlines, these glow red. It’s either on spikes, in which case you crush it by moving the spikes up with Zal, otherwise tap and drag the boulder SLOWLY. If you move too quickly, you’ll drop it automatically. The Player Character, and it is 4th level or later: As Zal, click on him to activate a shield which protects against falling fire orbs and some enemy attacks. Note that Zal can shield himself if he is the player-controlled character. A trapdoor with that red glow: You can move this around with Zal. You’ll want to move it 90 degrees to make it a floor you can walk on for a short time. Red glowing fire: By rubbing back and forth on this Zal will be able to freeze it briefly. When it’s frozen any buzz saws that come into contact with it will be stuck and not a threat any longer. Half-moon shaped black corruption next to a grabber: Move the grabber into this, then run your stylus across the resulting middle section. This will freeze it in place, and you can either walk across it or bounce magic off of it to get hard to reach gems. Chaos Armadillo’s chest is glowing red: Rub it with your stylus as Zal to make the armadillo freeze so you can hit it with the Prince Blue icecycles on walls: Rub back on forth on this until it glows, then rub another one until it glows. Anything you send through one comes out the other, including the Prince and Zal’s magic spheres. A Tatterbones: Rub them with Zal to freeze them so that the Prince can hit them with his sword and put them down for good A rotating platform glowing red: Click and hold this as Zal to freeze it in place- makes for good timing for jumps. You can also pull on it to reverse the spin of the platform, but you won’t ever need to do so. SPOILER ALERT FOR REST OF MOVES SECTION Prince/Zal Hybrid moves: You pull yourself up using grabbers a lot, and remember that a lot of your attacks are slower. I actually don’t like this form as much as when you two were separate because many enemies can attack you while you are charging your impressive looking but useless attacks. Just don’t go for the full combo. Do one or two attacks then block. ================================================================================ [EMS] These are listed by: Enemy name (not official!), level first encountered: strategy. Corruption Ravens, Stage 1 Level 2: They will just charge you trying to do damage. Don’t bother blocking, just time your swings to when they get close. It only takes one hit. Yellow Mook, Stage 1 Level 2: These guys are not your jet set of material. Sometimes encountered alone, sometimes in packs. If they are about to swing their sword at you, tap on the prince to block. Then quickly tap on them to murder them. Should never be a challenge. They take two hits to kill, or one charge hit (don’t do that though). Boss 1- Ghosty sword guy, Stage 1 Level 6: Like most boss fights this guy works on a pattern. When he is charging around on your level, block his sword slashes. Then he will fly to the top and the blue ruby will glow. Position yourself towards the red ruby and face the blue ruby. A big glowing pot (??) will fly from the blue ruby. Hit it with y’sword when it gets close to you. It will fly back into the ruby and stun him somehow. When he drops down slash him up with your sword. He will then spin towards you, just block it. Repeat this one more time. When he is down to two skulls he will make the red instead of the blue ruby glow. Position yourself near the red ruby, facing the wall when he flies to the top. He will shoot a beam into the center of the screen, and it will move towards you. When it gets near you climb up the wall, and the beam will hit the ruby and stun him. Smack him with your sword, block, and repeat. DONE. Pustules Stage 2 Level 4: These purple warty things run towards you hoping to explode all over you. Don’t melee attack them! Use Zal’s magic to push them away off a cliff or until they turn red and pop. Screamers: Stage 2 Level 5: Not really an enemy so much as a cutscene, these guys show up periodically to carry away Zal and corrupt him. This is theoretically bad, but he ends up with a new power out of the experience, so it’s actually pretty nice. You can’t do anything about them, not that you’d want to, and they dump you back into the main map. Just sit back. Corrupted Zal: Stage 2 Level 2 (after S2L5): Zal is freaking out and it’s up to you to stop him! Just kind of run up to him and hit him with your sword. Try to doge his magic, but he doesn’t do a ton of damage and only takes about two hits before he snaps out of it with a shiny new power! Corruption Bugs: Stage 2 Level 7: not a true enemy, these things come and turn Zal black for awhile. Don’t worry about it, you can’t stop them. Remember to rub the stylus over the stars over Zal’s head while in magic mode when he zones out! Boss 2- Big ‘ol Knight, Stage 2 Level 10: This one gives a lot of people trouble. He starts out at the top of the screen. He’ll either poke at your or fall down sword first. Either way try not to be right underneath him. When he falls down you want to be on the opposite side of the screen from him facing the wall. He will shoot out black webbing and grab one of the black circles, pulling himself towards you. When he does this, wallclimb. His sword will stick into the wall and he’ll have to pull it out. Drop down onto his sword, and run up to him and hit him four times for 1 1/2 skulls of damage. After you do this twice, he’ll start to stab the top of the screen, which makes his sword come out of the ground. I guess this is a tiny, wrap-around universe. Anyway try to stay out of the swords way, and eventually he’ll pop his head onto the bottom screen and it’ll glow red. This is your cue- activate Zal, and drag his head as far up as it will go. This will stun him, and you can hit him with your sword. Do this twice and you’re aces! Red Mook- Stage 3 Level 4: Just a buffed up version of the yellow mook. They take four swipes with your sword, so a good strategy is hit twice, then block their strike, then hit twice again for the kill. If they are blocking your strikes, block back, and they’ll attack. When they’re recovering, smack them. Red Shield Mook- Stage 3 Level 4: This just is just a red mook with an impenetrable shield. Use Zal to pull its shield away by tapping and dragging it anywhere, then fight it like normal. Belfry- Stage 3 Level 5: These guys are bats that swoop after you and also have stingers I guess. Use Zal to move them around, and try to pull one into the other. They usually come in pairs, and that destroys them both! Yellow Shield Mook- Stage 3 Level 6: Included pretty much only for completion here. Just a weaker version of the red shield mook. Pull their shields and chop ‘em! Boss 3: Purple Gigantoad- Stage 3 Level 10: Ok so it is a huge horrible frog/toad thing. Run under it when it jumps, and eventually it’ll jump up and grab the ceiling. Grasp it’s tail with Zal and pull it back down to stun it, and aggress with your sword. You should hit it for 2 damage before it gets up. Repeat. It’ll jump up to the roof and stick its head down at you. Move the fire orbs it spits away from you with Zal, and eventually its tongue will glow. When this happens, grab it with Zal and pull down. That will cause the tongue to snap against the toad, stunning it and letting loose 4 fire orbs. Grab one and hit the frog with it, which makes it fall to ground level. From there aggress with ye olde sworde. Repeat and the Gigantoad croaks (ho ho ho!) Chaos Armadillo- Stage 4 Level 6: This thing will leap into the air and pound the ground three times, avoid them. When that’s done, its chest will glow red. As Zal, rub it’s chest (I like to think this is like a puppy, and it freezes because it enjoys the sensation). At any rate, it freezes, and then thwack it with the Prince. Do this twice and it’s a goner. Slinger Stage 4 Level 7: These jerks just float there like they’re so cool. They’ll toss red spheres at you- when they do so fire Zal’s blue orbs at it until it moves back to hit the slinger. They will then be stunned and fall to the ground. Smack them with the Prince’s sword. Rinse, repeat, and they are toast. Boss 4: Snakesley Vipersworth- Stage 4 Level 9: Ok this guy will start out by tossing corruption blasts at you. Grapple to the top center and drop down to avoid them. Wait until the first one has just about hit you then grapple quickly, and you should avoid all of his blasts. When he flies up top, it’ll try to hit you with his tail by teleporting it through the fires on the walls. Try to be on the opposite side of the screen as it is, because its tail will come out through the fire on the same side of the screen as he is on. When he fires his tail, freeze the fire behind it and an eye on the end of his tail will open. Thrash this eye for two skulls of damage. This next part is tricky. He will randomly teleport one part of the bottom of the screen to the top of the screen. If teleported, you will fall and take damage. Since there are three possible teleportation circles, on the left, center, and right of the screen, try to stay in between where two circles could be so you can quickly run away no matter where the circle is. Note that the grappling point is gone for this section. Once he gets tired of this he will make the grappling point reappear, this is a sign that he is about to charge. Whichever fire starts to have a blue glow is the fire he will charge out of. Wait for him to appear at the bottom of the screen, grapple to the top, and freeze the fire on the opposite side. He will hit his head on the wall and be stunned. Run up his tail and smack his head. Repeat this twice and he is an ex-snake! Note that at least my game was bugged on this last part and didn’t make the *smack* sound. Just watch the skulls, if they’re decreasing you’re doing it right. Tatterbones- Stage 5 Level 1: These guys are a throwback to the original prince of Persia! The deathless warriors can be stunned very easily with just the prince, but you’ll have to rub them until they freeze with Zal THEN hit them with the prince to put them down for good. Blinky- Stage 5 Level 6: These ones fly and shoot a beam of energy down at you. You can guard against the beam with Zal’s shield. Once that’s deflected, run to the opposite end of the area from the beholder and hit it with Zal’s magic bolts. Once you’ve hit it enough (you must hit it in the eye) it’ll be blinded and fall down. Smack it with the Prince’s sword. Repeat, and you’re done. Purple Mook Giant- Stage 5 Level 6: The big daddy of the mook world, these guys will fall to conventional mook tactics, I.E. block and strike quickly once their sword gets deflected. The Big Bad- Stage 6 Level 3: To start out with he will try to cast magic at you, run back and forth and avoid it. Then grappling spheres appear overhead and he charges out to try and hit you on your level. Freeze the fire opposite the side he charges out of to make him hit the wall and get dizzy. Drop down (you should be up top grappling to avoid his charges) and smack him silly. Four skulls per attack is what we’re aiming for. This is like a beefed up version of the snake boss. After this he will move back and forth on the top screen and drop down with his sword to cause area damage. Avoid him! He will eventually come down to one side. Get to the opposite side and face the wall. He will charge forward with his sword, and it will stick into the wall if you wallclimb. Drop down onto the sword, run up and smack him silly. This is like a beefed up version of the knight boss. After this he will raise you up to his level and then drop you. Catch yourself with the grabbers on the way down! Then he will fire huge fire orbs after you. Stay on the opposite side of the screen as him. When he fires one, use the grabber on his side on him, which will hold his arm back. Then hit the fire orb back at him. It will knock him out, letting you go to town with your sword. This is a beefed up version of the frog boss. After you handle this, he is TOAST. ============================================================================= [STG1] Stage 1: Arrival After a brief opening speech by Ahriman, Elika, and the Prince, which introduces us to a city of light, with folks who can summon Ormazd. This would be incredibly handy now that Ahriman is all up in our business. "The City of the New Dawn". You first get a short cutscene where two red-robed ghosty figures are fighting. Being somewhat impulsive, you decide that dashing forward, knife at the ready, is a good shot at opening diplomacy. You are somehow surprised that you get a ghosty mage blast thrown at you. The ghost flies off, and we are left in... [S1L1] Welcome to ye olde tutorial level. As you first run off to the right, you may notice a blue and white block with a question mark appear at the top of the screen. Whenever you see this in the game, tap it for hints. Anyway this level introduces you to running, them climbing. Roll under the pinkie of the hand. You can use the next two gaps for practice on jumping over gaps while running- this can be a little tricky. If the prince runs off a ledge, the default is flipping over the edge and clinging to the wall. He can start sliding down from there, but if you are attempting to cross a number of gaps quickly (as you will later), double tap the area above the prince and across the gap as he approaches the edge to jump as he hit’s the edge. Anyway, more hands to roll under after this. Crush the boulders, and continue to the right. After a few more jumps and a quick wall climbing tutorial, you will see a scroll hanging in the air. Tap it for the first of your extensive collection of backstory scrolls! After this, the floor will crumble and you will fall down, seeing the stage map for the first time! [S1L2] When you are on the world map, notice that this level has a picture of a gold and blue face on the stop screen. This means that there will be a door that’s unlocked by having a certain number of coins in it. Anyway, after talking to himself a little (and recognizing that he is talking to himself. At least he knows he’s crazy!), you get your grubby hands on your first three coins! Press the button on the top left to open the grate and run through for your first combat section! After vanquishing the corruption birds move to the right, and drop down. Make sure to get the scroll and touch the flag (these are save points, you will come to love them). Follow the gold coins, and climb the wall to press the button which opens the grate. You know the button will stick because it turns green- a button which turns yellow would only keep the grate open for a short time. After another wall climb you will see your first priceless, historically important vase which you promptly break with your sword because these things always have health potions. Open door go through. In the next section, look at the three coins on the bottom. Tumble under the low-hanging wall to get them, and get the coins in the semisecret area. Climb to the next save point. In the next point you can either jump left to right in a zigzag pattern or (as I prefer), hanging from one ledge, and drop down. You will automatically catch the ledge below it. Handy! There are three coins below, one hidden behind a pillar. Then click on the big gold head. Oh you will hate these guys by the end. They are the general "give money to open door" type of thing. Give the big stupid head his stupid gold and make sure (I don’t think you can avoid it) to grab the red circle in the bubble. Extra heart get! Climb, save point, birds, save point, drop down. In this next section try to jump right to left on each platform on your level before dropping down to get all the gold. On the final platform to the left you meet your very first yellow mook! Just tap on him to murther him, and remember to block any of his attacks. Health potion in a vase as you continue, and three more coins to the right. There are three more yellow mooks on the bottom level with some coins, but before you move on run all the way to the left for more coins and a yellow mook. A few more wall climbs and you’re out! [S1L3] Notice the treasure chest on the main map for this level. There will be a treasure chest which you break up for BIG MONEY somewhere in the level! First we meet the noble reinforced boulder, and murther it. Get the scroll on the opposite ledge before you drop down! Proceed through the next save point, remember you can only break reinforced boulders with the charged attack. At the closed grate slide down the hole for the button. Murther the yellow mooks and boulders. When there is a clear path on the righthand ledge and a reinforced boulder on the left, destroy the boulder and tumble under the wall for some gold. Yellow mook boulder save point. Get good practice jumping from wall to wall for gold coins as you slide down the next part. The button for the next door is above it, wall climb on the lefthand wall to get to it. At the next save point you should have about 33 coins if you’ve been diligent (more if you’re replayed a level). DO NOT DROP DOWN from the ledge here. Jump to the righthand wall and slide down, it is a loooong drop. Don’t slide all the way down though. Jump to the left ledge and run to the left for some coin. Keep going, jump to a ledge slightly above you and to the right with a reinforced boulder for some more monies. Be prepared for a yellow mook ambush after you drop into the hallway below this. The next button is in a hole by the door. Roll to the left past the button for a secret area. Next button is up and to the left from the next door. Break the treasure chest like a vase or boulder to get to the button. Keep going past button for shiny things. Right past this door you get a cutscene in which one ghosty seals another one in a room. Despite sounding vaguely untrustworthy and not answering any of your dang questions, the prince of fools (Persia) decides to let him out. Every door in this kingdom is locked with rubies. These rubies need not be red. Just get used to it. [S1L4] If you’ll remember when two levels open I number them left to right- this is the level with the blue ruby. Backgrounds start getting creepy, and you come out of some huge bird head. Weird. Anyway, snag the scroll after the first drop. You might take a knock from the continuous falling boulders after you break the reinforced boulder. Just run past this section quickly as you can and hit the boulder with your sword if you can time it right. Watch out for the timed spikes! They will shake a little before they spring up. Climb up the wall to the right, and slide down the wall to activate the button for the next door. Be diligent about collecting the gold coins, you’ll thank me later. Be ready for yellow mooks as you move to the left. Go slowly in the trap-filled hallway, and watch out for the wallspikes! They are hard to see. I hate the overhanging ledges like you get right after the wallspikes. Just stand directly below the end of the ledge and click above yourself. It will take a few tries, and it’s frustrating, and totally unnecessary. Just a middle finger from the developers. Then we get three more of them for coins and a yellow mook too. Whoo! If you cling to the wall in this next part the boulders won’t get you. At the bottom of this gap, run to the right for a hidden area with coins. Later, more lips and wallspikes. Why are we playing this again? Right past the save point is another time you should cling to the righthand wall and slide down (or you’ll die). Move to the left for a yellow mook ambush, coins, the blue ruby (?!) and the next button. Well done! [S1L5] Ok it is red ruby time. Seriously, what is with these undulating red runes. Give me the creeps... You want to slide, not drop, down this first gap. Meet your worst friend, the buzz saw! The one which is going horizontally you have to roll under. Try to do this as it’s coming toward you or stopped. Always check gaps that you might just jump over for coins! Also be ready to wall climb out if they are spikes. Just checking in, by the next save point I have 109 coins. You all doing ok out there? Yellow mook ambush coming up after some buzz saws and reinforced boulder, and another one when you climb up a level. Remember to jump over the buzz saw by the next save point to the next ledge, or you’ll have to redo this whole last section. I know it’s hard getting all the coins while sliding down this buzz saw gap, but you will want coins later. Promise! This next big room I thought for sure would be a boss but I think it’s just to show off the pretty pretty treasure background. You should be more interested in the yellow mooks and the first appearance of the two vortexes that trap you while enemies pour in. It’s just yellow mooks this time so you should have no trouble. After a few more wall climbs there is a secret area to the left. Look for a glimpse of coins and a brick which looks pushed out. After one final yellow mook ambush, we get that red ruby and the ending. [S1L6] Well, we let that guy out. I assume there will be no problem and OH DANG IT! It is boss fight time! Alright let’s throw down. See enemy strategies for how to beat this. Grab the ¼ of the thing you don’t know what it is yet so why do you even pick it up when you beat him. Now it is cutscene time, with you being a huge moron about who is an enemy or friend. You run off after ghostym'n even after you get blasted. [STG2] Stage 2: Follow Them Ghosties! [S2L1] Dang we got two treasure chests and a gold man to open right off the bat! Lets get to it: first glowy evil red spikes of unpleasantness. Walk do not run by them and you’re fine. Time your jumps for the falling boulders. Welcome to stage 2! If you’ll notice the big spiky block and black circle at the bottom of the pit with the treasure chest on the other side. Don’t’ bother with this for now- we’ll be back. I think this is the first timed switch here. Activate it then immediately jump past the gate. Use the special jump attack from the walls to take out the yellow mooks. Please note the scroll on the opposite side before you go into the pit. Ok so this next part is nothing but fun and awesome. Boulders fall in twos in this section. Move all the way to the right, and wait to wall climb and activate the switch until right after the second boulder falls, crushing both of them. Quickly wall run, activating the switch, and jump from the wall. If you run you should make it under the falling boulders. Just make it under the gate before it closes then you can take your time. You can jump from the first to the second platform by hanging on the edge and jumping, but you MUST make the second jump as a running leap. After this just make sure to time the jumps so you don’t get knocked back down by boulders and you’re through. This took me two or three tries the first time. Boy, you get the feeling you aren’t welcome with all these spikes and buzz saws. Jumpkill the yellow mook and note the health up beyond the pay door. You can’t get it now (if you’ve been following my lead), so make a note to come back for it. A little to the right is the other treasure chest you’ll see the other treasure chest. Inaccessible for now, but once we get some more powers. This game LOVES to taunt you early in a stage with unattainable treasure like this. Jerks. Next is a slog through sand with boulders pursuing you. Just keep going as fast as you can away from them. If you are sure you aren’t going to make it turn and hit the boulders then immediately turn towards the edge. On the next park make sure to time when you hit the reinforced boulder so that you will not be caught mid-swing by a regular boulder- remember the preparation time is quite long. When you encounter the moving blocks, remember that you can only climb on them when the are fully extended. Annoying? Yes. It’s how the world works. Corruption raven attack on the top of the ridge. To get through the button/boulder puzzle, stand right next to the first closed gate. The button right above it opens the gate, and it’ll be hit by a boulder. Run forward and kill the yellow mook, and stand on the button right by the rock. A boulder will come and crush the rock, allowing you access to the wall and the top area. Again, stand right next to the closed gate, and a boulder will press the button for you. Run forward, crushing any boulders coming towards you, and stand on the button. This opens a lower level gate allowing a boulder to roll through it. Once it’s through the gate, follow it and it will push the final button and open the final gate. You’re out! Two corruption ravens later, you really ARE done! [S2L2] You can’t climb the sides of the spiky block (go figure), so you have to jump on top of it from the ledge to the left. There’s a yellow mook invasion on top. When you get to the small pit with black glowy circles on either side, don’t drop down- there’s just spikes down there. Don’t worry about the first button you touch either- that’ll be important later. Once you touch the second button however, you see a yellow mook menacing Zal. Wall climb after the coins, slay the mook, and hey a new party member! All he can do now is throw little blue orbs that will stun a monster for like 1/8 a s econd and make the red gems glow green. Get some good practice on that second power here. Ok I take it back Zal’s first power does have one use- use it to push back the yellow mook from the edge of the pit in the next part, then climb up and give him a drubbing. After one final yellow mook ambush it’s the end! [S2L3] A one yellow mook welcoming party soon falls to your blade, as you move into the gear mechanism stage. I HATE these moving platforms, because the prince always seems to run and jump as fast as he can off of them. At least there are no spikes beneath this one. Moving on, don’t drop down the pit where the boulders go, run under them as they fall for a save point. Zal can shrink these corruption weeds that you see by firing his orbs at him, so have him do so. Wallclimb to the top, and line Zal up with the holes in the ceiling to open the first game. Look out for the pit right before the save state. Notice how it has a lip on it, which would prevent you from climbing back out- this means there are just spikes and broken dreams at the bottom. Bypass it, and try to time climbing up the wall to when the moving platform is floating towards you. Another lipped platform with spikes at the top, so jump over. Once you get to the next set of three rubies, remember that you might fall off because sometimes the prince stops following the moving platform when Zal shoots a blue orb- that’s fine, there is just gold at the bottom. Leap the pit, kill the mook. BOY I hate these jump up the wall onto the moving platform puzzles. Déjà vu with that. There are corruption weeds choking the gaps to the next three gems, but seeing as the way you shrink the weeds is the same way you activate the gems, just fire at them until they turn green. Smack the gear mechanism and you’re through! [S2L4] After a little dialogue, you progress in. Grab the scroll and hop up to get three gold coins and your very first encounter with pustules! They’re annoying, but at least they’re better than wall spikes! Which... there are a whole bunch of those next. Neat. Just be patient and wait for the right time to jump. You don’t have to walk through the red spikes next, you can hop up on the platform and grab the coins. Yellow mook ambush following this, be ready. Drop down to the lower level at the jumping section with the spikes for a treasure chest! You DO have to walk through the red spikes this time, but climb up on the platform when you get to the far side to get to the switch for this door. Be prepared for a corruption raven after that. Don’t wall slide with all the spikes, just get to the edge of the ledges and drop. Two more corruption ravens, and a yellow mook ambush are next up. You have to drop down the pit coming up to get to the switch. There is a yellow mook ambush down there. To get back out you have to do a running jump from the left platform to the wall, followed by a Wallclimb. This should let you grab onto the left hand ladder, and get out from there. At least this isn’t a timed switch! The prince is a snaky jerk next. Jump to the lefthand wall to slide down past the spikes. Do rolls to get under the wall and make your way up. Pustule alert on the second and third levels! The fourth level brings a pustule AMBUSH, which is awful. Just keep hitting them with Zal’s magic until they pop, and turn the third gem to open the gate. From here, jump up and to the right to get the second treasure chest, and wall slide back down- on the left side of the gap! Blow up the eye, and you’re through. [S2L5] A corruption raven welcoming party, followed by a moving platform spike pit? YAHOO! It is party time on this level. You can roll under the buzz saws here. There are a number of walking speeds, from slow to quick, so try to quickly walk over the red spikes with the buzz saws. Go too fast, of course, and you get buzz sawed. I don’t often encourage people to not get gold coins, but if the timing doesn’t look right for the two gold coins below the switch on the wall with the moving platforms, just leave them. Have I mentioned that I hate moving platforms in this game? After this, keep in mind that the cracked looking floor with fall a few seconds after you run over it, so be quick. Ok after this things get weird. These horrible screaming things come and take Zal away. This actually ends up being super good for you, but I can see that you’d be unsettled. So you exit the stage, and it looks like it’s back to... [S2L2*] Observe black creepy Zal moving the spiky block to the side, and then slide down the wall after him. You’ll fight with him briefly, just watch out for his magic and run up to him and smack him one when he’s down at your level. Get some practice moving the blocks around with Zal’s new power. To get the third block in the part coming up, Wallclimb the wall on the right, and then use Zal’s power from that vantage point. After the save point, use the stickies to move the spiky block into the spike pit, and jump over it. Use Zal to cause the spikes to destroy the right-moving boulder, then follow the left moving boulder until it trips the switch that opens the gate trapping you. Right after the three-gem gate, pull yourself up to the next level with Zal’s power, and prepare for a yellow mook ambush. You can use the sticky in the middle of the ambush to grab and destroy the mooks! It’s great fun. Leave the level like normal, using Zal’s new power to deal with the mooks you encounter. Since you have the new power, let’s first return to... [S2L1*] This is played just like before, except that down the first pit and after the gate that takes money (you should have more than enough to open it now, so do this and get the health bonus), you can use Zal’s sticky power to move the blocks. On the second chest, be careful because having a block dropped on you (they don’t stay up forever) is an insta-kill. [S2L5*] Ok now that we’ve cleaned up, back to business. This time there are no baddies to bother Zal, so proceed as before. Right after where he had his weird shrieking fight is the classic "push the button to open the grate for the boulder, which pressed the button to open YOUR gate" puzzle. I hope you like that puzzle, we’ll be seeing it again. Pull the block to the right first before standing on it and getting pulled up. When you come to a fork, a lower and an upper path, take the lower path first. Another REALLY FUN moving platform jumping section ahead. Whee! Use the sticky to pull down the moving platform so you can jump on it in the next part. Coming after that is a puzzle with tons of stickies. First pull up the block in front of you and jump on top of the block to the right of that. Pull up that block and jump back onto the first one. Pull that block up, and while it’s on the first rung, use the sticky above it to pull it up again. From there jump onto the block to your right and pull that up, then Wallclimb out. Use the sticky to pull over the moving platform, then wait for it to move right twice (once back to normal, once to the right of that on it’s own), and jump to the right. Smack the gear and you’re out! [S2L6] These blocks are moving way too fast! Use Zal’s grabber power to keep them in once place while you Wallclimb. You can jump onto the rope here by standing under it and tapping it. You’ll have to Wallclimb to get to the next one. Just launch yourself towards it, he’ll grab on automatically. After the next two quickly moving blocks that need to be held with grabbers, jump left and Wallclimb after you hit the destructible floor for a treasure chest. Kill all the yellow mooks with the jump attack. Once you kill the one on the top level, jump to the left wall and Wallclimb for the second treasure chest! In the next section with ropes and buzz saws, don’t neglect the right wall, which has a pay door (200 gold, which you should have well over) for a health bonus. Note that you can’t climb over metal looking parts of ropes, but some wall climbing will get you around this. Some more pulling blocks, some more yellow mooks ahead. Nothing too fancy. After that is a gate that has to be held open by Zal. Make sure you tap the orb once you hit the switch inside to get Zal back! The destructible floors ahead require you to roll under the buzz saws while running. Just double tap quickly on the far end of the screen in the direction you’re running. Zal will hold the gate for you while you run ahead again, make sure to hit the switch that opens the gate leading back to him and pick him back up again. Once he’s in your party you can move the block on the top-left to get the gold coins there. Then it’s just a block- grabber, a yellow mook, and you’re out! [S2L7] Dodge under the boulders that jerk of a lion statue is spitting at you, just try to be slightly to the left of where they hit the ground. After that is another FINE example of my favorite kind of puzzle. Make sure you cut the weeds down as you’re approaching them, or they’ll grow back when you’re jumping and throw you into the spikes. Climb over the wall to the left of where the boulder hits (after the moving platform takes you up) and slide down for some gold. If you’re following this guide and are diligent about coins, you should have the 100 gold it takes to get the prince sphere to the right. After this we get our first run in with the corruption bugs. These turn Zal black and after awhile he’ll get stars over his head. In magic mode, rub the stylus over them to snap him back to reality. We have to do this shortly, then we see the ancestor who gives us an elixir to turn Zal back. Shame, really, I liked the new color scheme! Once again climb over the wall to the left where the boulders hit and slide for some coins. After a yellow mook ambush for old times’ sake, and two more boulder statues (who MADE these? Their religious icons are so weird), it’s out! [S2L8] Buzz saws, yellow mooks, save points. You’re getting the hang of this game. It’s a tricky Wallclimb (on the first gap) to get up to the first red gem, the middle one. Zap it. From there go left, across the destructible floors, all the way to the left. Then climb up, circle around back to the right, drop down, zap the gem, and head right past the first gem. This part is a mirror of the other side, only a little more difficult. All the way to the right, up, back left, yellow mook ambush, zap gem. The next section is all about patience and timing- just wait for the buzz saws to be in the right place before you use the grabbers, or run and jump. At the top left here is the level’s treasure chest. This next part looks pretty norma... OH GOD GIANT BUZZSAW RUN AWAY! Well, that wasn’t so bad. Hey, a save point! We’re on easy street no... OH GOD TWO GIANT BUZZSAWS RUN AWAY BUT NOT FULL-TILT TRY TO STAY BETWEEN THEM! One tap from these guys and you are toast. Note that the block moves a little faster than the buzz saws. Try to be on the very lefthand side of the block, and pull when the left buzz saw is near you. Pull yourself up, QUICKLY kill the yellow mooks (another buzz saw but I’m done being freaked out by them), and move on. [S2L9] Slide down the pit. To get the first gem, pull the blocks up and run underneat them one by one. Wallclimb and jump onto the first block, and pull it up. From there, jump right onto the second block, and so on until you can see the gem. Zap it, and then head back left by the same process you used to go right. Wall jump to the moving platform, and go right at the top for the first treasure chest. Head left. To get the second gem, jump onto the spiky block from the ledge you are on, pull yourself up, and pull up the block on the ledge to the left. Run under it, Wallclimb and jump back to the right. From there you can get up to where the gem is. Head left for the third gem. Destroy any boulders rolling near you, and run left. Use Zal to shrink the weeds and zap the gem, keeping a lookout for boulders to destroy as the prince. Make your way back past the 3 gem gate, pull the moving platform up with the grabber, jump to the next platform, and blow up the eye. Make sure to get the scroll here, and then move on. More yellow mooks, weeds, boulders, and spikes. This next part should look familiar. Jump on the first block, pull it up. Pull up the second block, run under it and jump onto the third block. Pull up the third block, Wallclimb out. Only one yellow mook between you and the boss for stage 2! [S2L10] Alright let’s do this! This guy actually gave me a lot of trouble. Look for tips in the enemies section! Once he’s toast, you grab your second piece of the seal (at least we know what it is now), and move on! Once the knight takes it in the teeth, you grab the second piece of the seal. Zal goes emo for a second (this happens a lot), the prince waxes philosophical, and I guess they find a boat or something, because it is time for... [STG3] Stage 3: In a faraway land across the sea! (Actually it was probably like 500 feet away) [S3L1] We find out about Zal’s grappling ability early in this stage, which will come in quite handy. Grapple your bad self up and right and then up and left. Also you get to work on your mid-air grappling swings here. You will have to do a lot of this, so a little practice is a good thing. Open the door with the button, pull the block after you through the open gate, etc. After some more pits and blocks, you’ll come to a pit you can’t see your way across, and you can catch a glimpse of a pay door above you. Just launch yourself into the air above the pit, and be ready to grapple the sphere when you see it. The door is 250 gold, and I had 200 by this point. We’ll come back later. It’s worth noting in the section ahead that if you use touch a yellow mook while grappling he’ll be instantly killed. Do so to this one, and move forward. There’s some more business with pulling a spiky block along a spike pit. Make sure to time your blasts against the corruption weeds pretty well. After his part, if you look up to the left, you’ll see a cracked stone blocking your way to two treasure chests. We’ll be back for this later. More pulling of spiky blocks. This part was funny because the first time I accidentally launched the prince right into the spike pit right as he started to talk. He hit the spikes and got impaled on them, and said "is it just me, or is our task getting harder?" Heh. Anyway, right past this is the gear mechanism. Hit it and go! [S3L2] I should point out, because this is pretty close in terms of left-to-right, that this is the topmost level. Run and jump and etc. You can destroy the two yellow mooks that ambush you quickly by using the grabbers above them, then slide down the right wall. Make sure to grab the scroll by this save point. A little bit further is a pustule. If you hit him above the destructible floor, it’s three coins for you! A little bit further on and you’ll see a breakable floor and a pustule will appear. Destroy the pustule on the floor to get the first red gem, and grapple your way up to the second. Go all the way to the right on the top level, wallclimb, and grapple then grapple again for the third. Run through the door, hit the mechanism, and you’re out. [S3L3] The normally friendly or at least inoffensive red spheres start dropping on you here, so watch when you run under them. The designers apparently missed breakable boulders, because I cannot fathom why else they are here. Remember while climbing out of this pit that you are clinging to the edge of a cliff a boulder will knock you right off. Get all the coins by grappling at the top, but ignore the grapple to the top left. We’ll be back for it. Next is one of those fun, deadly-floor type traps with falling flame spheres and grappling. Once you wallclimb to activate the next switch, grapple over to the door so you make it in time. The same principle applies to the next switch as well. After the boulders chasing you through the sand trick we all remember so fondly, you’ll see a glowing red boulder. There are glowing red spikes underneath it, which if you’ll remember Zal can control. In Zal mode, tap and drag the spikes up to break the boulder. Next is the walk-through-spikes with boulders coming at you thing again. This time use Zal to move the spikes up and destroy boulders before they hit you. Get the coins by grappling, and move towards the end. The pay door with the prince sphere is 150 coins, which you should easily have. Pay it, get the sphere, and go right to end the level. [S3L4] This stage introduces the bars you can swing across in the first part. Click on it to jump to it, and while swinging around click where you want to jump to, in this case the far edge. Go as far up the wall after jumping on the two bars as you can, then wallclimb and grapple to the top. Don’t neglect the scroll here. Go down, hit the switch, then down again. This next part is a grapple challenge, not very difficult. Grapple to the top left, hit the switch, and HEY LOOK OUT it is the first ever red mook! Waste it, then hit the bottom switch, grapple back to the top, and zap the gem. Move to the right, and when the pustule appears force it onto the destructible floor and smack it, then drop down. There is another red mook guarding the next gem, so be ready. Also there is a slightly more complex grapple button puzzle, but nothing you can’t handle, just spider man around until all the right doors are opened. The first switch is on the top right, then the middle left, then the bottom left. Head right, explode the pustule into the breakable wall, and press onward. Be quick with them corruption weeds, there’s a huge buzz saw! Get Zal onto the lock, and proceed as the prince. This next part is tricky. Vault over the beams at your own pace, but be ready to rush the next part. As soon as you hit the switch, wallclimb and jump onto the platform. Quickly vault from one beam to the next (click the next beam to jump to as soon as you are in the air), get over the platform, down, MAKE SURE to click the orb to get Zal with you again, and then grapple up the shaft that just opened. This is hard to make. Couple of pustules next- have Zal throw magic at both of them, knock the right one off the cliff and keep the left one pressed against the wall until it blows. Down this hallway is your very first red shield mook! Wow! Two new enemies in one level! So pull its shield away from it with Zal, beat the stuffing out it, and keep going. They spawn continuously in that hallway, so don’t dawdle. Coming up is the first mook ambush that might be trouble for you- a red shield/red mook ambush. Pull the shield away from the ones on the right immediately, and block until they have both struck. Take them out one at a time, keep your guard up a lot, and you should be fine. Grapple up to get the third gem and a switch. I’m not really sure why you have to move the spiky block, maybe it keeps you from backtracking? Anyway we’re not going that way, we’re going up and left then right, past the three gem door. Grapple up, wallclimb and swing while Zal blows up the eye, and you’re out! [S3L5] Watch out for the second of the bar jumps, the wall to the right has a buzz saw that can knock you down. At the bottom of a drop to the right, there’s a small red mook ambushing party. Wallclimb to get to the next beam and jump up to the right. You’ll slog through some sand and oh no that is an awfully familiar scream! Alright time to head to... [S2L2*] Run after Zal, and notice how he uses those red spiky orbs to kill a mook and blow up a wall. When you reach him, stay on the opposite side of the waterfall from the orbs and he can’t hit you wit those. When he descends a little avoid his magic (or take one hit point of damage, no big deal), and when he gets to your level smack him. Two smacks and he’s on your side again, and he can now control those red orbs! He can also move the orbs right through the waterfall now that he’s on your side, so break the block with the orb. Hit the button, grapple over through the gate. Before you jump down, use the fire orb above you to break the destructible floor. Make your way out of the level as normal. It’s time for a little backtracking! Yaaaay! W [S2L3*] We’re doing this level first so we can have enough money for the pay door on the first level. This plays exactly like it did before, except that once you climb out of the pit with boulders falling on your, grapple up and left, break the wall with the fire orb and get the chests. I had 254 gold at the end of this level, enough for the door in... [S2L1*] Again, this level plays just like the original description of it, except that you now have enough gold to pass by the pay door (unless you’ve been a slacker), and after the long tunnel where you are pulling the spiky block through and shrinking the corruption weeds, jump up and to the left, and then use your fire orbs to break down the wall to get two treasure chests. Sweet! [S3L5*] Ok back to business. Get to where you got last time and keep going. As long as you have a decent lead on the buzz saws, don’t worry about wall sliding to get the coins- you’re moving just about as fast as the saws are. Red mook ambush at the bottom of the pit. You may notice the glowing box shooting flames- you can’t do anything with it, so keep moving. Use the fire orb to trip the switch, and grapple across the pit. Next grapple to the beam, and while swinging trip the switch above with the fire orb. Use the beams to help you wallclimb, then get ready for a new enemy: the belfry! After offing them, run from the buzz saw and be quick and shrinking the corrupted weeds. Hide in the little nook until the buzz saw is past, then use the fire orb below. First move it to the fire orb base on the right as a temporary holding spot, reposition yourself to the right, and trip the switch with the orb. After this there’s another similar puzzle, using the holding bases to hold the fire orbs while you reposition yourself, then tripping a switch, this time while you’re swinging from posts above a spike pit. Then AUGH two giant buzz saws. Grab a post, swing to the wall, wallclimb, jump back to the next post up, repeat until you’re out. Trip the switch, then do the same thing again and you’re out! [S3L6] Got a big buzz saw for you to outrun- watch out for the mushrooms at the end of the ledge, they’ll slow you down. Pull the shields away from the yellow mooks and chop ‘em. Up on top, use the fire orb both for killin’ mooks and for activating the switch. Slide down the walls, but be ready to Spiderman over to the other side with grappling to avoid the saws. Once you get to the bottom be ready to wallclimb the left wall and jump over the buzz saw. Follow the coins as you grapple your way up and wall jump to the top of the ledge. At the top here, lift up one block, walk under it, lift up the second, then grapple out of the mushroom patch. There is some tricky fire orb and spiky block handling ahead, get it done and proceed to the next section. Remember in this part, while sliding down the poles, that you can’t grapple while clinging to one. You have to jump off first, then grapple. It’s tricky, but there is a save point right next to it, so just give it a few tries. Slide down the pit for some running action- grapple to get away from the saw. Break the breakable floor, climb up the toothpicks, grab the ruby, and you’re gone! [S3L7] There’s a pustule ambush real early on in this level, followed by one of those awesome puzzles where they make you navigate a fire orb through an obstacle course to break a wall. Then do it again! This is gettin’ great! After this climb up to the top, and climb a rope followed by four diagonal-right grapples. Note the scroll at the top there. Past this there is another pustule ambush. Just jump and climb all around here. Be on the lookout for pustule ambushes, there are many in this area. Make your way right and down. Once you hit the floor, go down the pit and take a left. There will be a grappling section with a red mook ambush if you hit the ground. Once you’re past the grappling, get both the treasure chests. Move up and to the right, and use Zal to move around that red glowy boulder. Use it to break the wall. Moving on, we come to one of my least favorite parts in the game. Red mooks continuously spawn from the ceiling as long as you are in the pit, and the boulders don’t spawn fast enough for you to take out the mooks with them. Here is what I did. Start the boulder rolling towards the right side of the pit, then climb out on the right side and slay the mooks. Move the boulder up and start it rolling right and run ahead of it. Once it’s past the mook spawning point, move it up and over you, and then break the wall with it. If you run fast to the right you can avoid the pustule ambush. Be prepared for a belfry ambush right before the gem and the EXIT. [S3L8] The first thing to be prepared for is a yellow shield mook. After him, watch for a fire orb by a long tunnel down. Wallslide down the lefthand wall, moving the fire orb between bases as you slowly slide down. Once at the bottom use it to break open the wall. Prepare for Zal to get corrupted here at the bottom. The next part is pretty annoying- you drop down into a pit with a buzz saw, Zal goes all wonky, and there are walls blocking you in. Be nimble in this part, and roll under the buzz saw. Rub Zal’s stars away, and run right up to the breakable walls. Use the flame orb to break the walls, then roll under the buzz saw and repeat. Run to the right and don’t dawdle breaking these walls with the flame orbs- there’s a huge buzz saw coming at you. Grapple over the huge buzz saws in the next area, zap the gem, and continue up. Move the flamethrower blocks to shield you from the fireballs and climb up. Get the flag before you slide own the wall for the coins- it’s less to do over if you die. Don’t neglect the scroll here. A lot of buzz saws and a deadly drop in this next area, so be careful. Get down to the bottom rope, and use Zal to move the flamethrower block up its track until it destroys the rock in your way. Move left and down, once you zap the gem fire orbs will start to fall, allowing you to break the floor. Next up are some yellow shield mooks, then climb the ropes and guide the fire orb to break your walls, zap the gem, and move on. Jump down past the three gem door, down and left to the exit. Climb the ropes, blast the eye, and scram. [S3L9] To start with move the flamethrower so it breaks the overhead bricks. Wall run and grapple your way to the top. Don’t neglect the scroll that you can see from here. Move up and all the way to the left, dealing with the red mook when he appears. Move the flamethrower blocks out of your way as you swing higher, eventually reaching the top left part of the level. Zap the gem here and move back down and right. Grapple to a pole and swing to a ledge to the right for three gold coins and a save point. After this Zal will get corrupted by the bugs, and conk out VERY shortly afterwards. You’re in no danger, so take your time in reviving him. While it’s possible to break the floor and go down, PLEASE DO NOT DO SO. It makes for some annoying backtracking. Instead, head up, break the ceiling with the flamethrower, continue left, and zap the gem. Once that’s over with break the floor and head down. Be prepared for a yellow shield mook ambush at the bottom. Go right, and get Zal to hold the door while you trip the switch, then grapple up and zap the third gem. You should have the 250 gold coins to pass the door here and get a nifty health bonus. When that’s done, move the flamethrower and grapple up the shaft to the left to get the treasure chest. Continue left and make your way to the triple gem door. It’s kind of annoying the way they make you fire Zal’s power mid-grapple to pop this eye, but do it and you’re OUT. [S3L10] Alright it is boss fight time. Check [EMS] for tips on how to beat it. Once that business is over with, grab the seal, awaken Zal’s power, exchange some witty banter, and move onward. Onward into... [STG4] Stage Four: Since when are there jungles in Arabia? [S4L1] Good. Starting off with a moving platform. Way to win my heart, guys. The next moving platform (argh!) is your first chance to get in some shield practice. Just click and hold on the Prince as Zal. There’ll be another platform just like it on the next level up, as well as Zal getting corrupted by bugs. Don’t forget to pick up the scroll right by where he gets corrupted. In the rope and fire orb section it helps to pull down the orbs yourself, so you know they aren’t just about to fall when you jump. Be prepared for a yellow shield mook ambush and Zal goes catatonic right then. Shake him back to wakefulness, then drag away their shields and waste them. In the jumping sections remember that rope blocks fire orbs, so stay behind it. Be prepared for a yellow shield mook ambush at the top, but you can just use the grabber in the snake’s mouth to eat them. You see the spectacularly unhelpful ancestor again. Remember to shield the Prince during the platform ride right after. It’s pretty smooth sailing with no new puzzles. There is one time when you are the top of a series of platforms there will be a moving platform and two grappling circles. Just move between the two of them while waiting for the platform to come to you. Move on, zap the gems, exit. [S4L2] A lot of red mooks will spawn here, but just let the buzz saws take care of them. Be ready to jump from the slope you start sliding down. Can’t hold down this switch for long enough yet, so go right and up. Only take out the lefthand yellow mook, the buzz saw will take care of the right one. Carefully move the red boulder to the switch, and move on. The red boulder will roll faster than you will down the next incline, so be ready to pick it up and move it over you. Break the wall and continue. When you climb up and see the first movable trapdoor, ignore it and wallclimb the right wall for three coins, and wallclimb again for the treasure chest. Use the platform to go right, then slide down. On your way down this time grab the flame orb, place it on the base nearer to the bottom, and then use it to break the wall. Get th’ scroll right past this point and continue on. Another red boulder to hit switch puzzle (is it just me or do they LOVE duplicating new puzzles? And RIGHT after one another). Now this next part is a lot of back-to-back danger. You’ll be sliding down an incline. First fire orbs will rain on you. GRAB ONE OF THEM and break the wall at the end so you can jump over the spike pit. The next incline will have a few jumps, then more raining fire orbs. Grab one again, there’s another breakable wall. The last incline requires you to jump and grapple right at the end. Good thing there’s a save point right near this! Next is a two-part "use a boulder" puzzle, just to test if you have figured out they can break walls and trip switches. Then you’re OUT. [S4L3] Can’t do anything with this fire yet, so just let it be. In the area ahead, take the topmost path for maximum coins. Grapple up and away from that giant buzz saw- that’s a puzzle for another day. Beware of isolated red and yellow shield mook ambushes in this whole area. Go left, away from the fire at the fork in the path ahead. Past the corridor of yellow shield mooks you’ll see more of your and my favorite puzzles- the floating platforms. You know I figured out what it is I hate about them so much: you can’t hang from them! The only things you can do are slide off the edge to your death, launch yourself off the edge to your death, or be panicked that you’re about to do one of those other things. Anyway, Zal’s shield will protect the prince from flamethrowers. It’s theoretically possible to reach the pay door, but it’s 300 coins and unless you’ve been repeating a lot of levels without me you don’t have that kind of scratch. Towards the end of the level you’ll see a flame blocking your path to the right. It might be worth the 1 HP damage to snag the two treasure chests you can get over there. Go ahead and get ‘em! I really like the ending of this level, where the Prince reveals one of the secrets he has been keeping, and Zal laughs at him because the it’s such a stupid secret. Seriously! "I’m not doing this for a girl. GIRLS HAVE COOTIES!" Anyway you’ve destroyed this level! Not that you won’t be back. [S4L4] This level introduces a new dynamic. Ignore the stone with the Prince and Zal’s picture on it (it’ll be important later), and move to the left and down. When you split up, stand by this stone and tap the other person’s icon to switch main characters. So now you control Zal! It’s just a BUNDLE of fun. When you control him, of course, he loses all his flying abilities. Move all the way to the right and grapple up to the moving platform. While there, move the fire orb from base to base until you destroy the wall with it, then switch to the Prince. Head as far right and up as you can do with the Prince, to trip the switch and switch to Zal. Pull up the platforms so you don’t fall to your doom, and head right. Zal’s not much of a fighter so just run from the red mook. Take the platform up, move the flamethrower block to break the wall between you and the prince, grapple right, and switch characters. As Zal, get on the platform, move all the trapdoors so the Prince can walk on them, switch characters, and QUICKLY run across them. After some swinging and switch flipping as the Prince, switch to Zal. Remember the switch you just tripped as the prince though! Keep it in mind. For this next section, the game wants you to move the flamethrower quickly over you when it’s not firing so you can escape unharmed while you break the walls with fire orbs. I suggest doing this only once- move the flamethrower block all the way to the left. Zal can shield himself just as he can the prince. Use this to escape harm. Use the flame orb to trip the switch, and switch characters. Descend as the Prince, and have a blissful reunion. Trip the two switches up top with fire orbs, head left and GOODNESS WHAT THE HECK IS THAT THING. Well I’m sure we’ll be hitting it with a sword later. Remember that switch I told you to remember? On your way back left, go to that switch, head right past the red mooks, move the flamethrower block, jump kill the other red mook, and net yourself a cool 40 coins in treasure chests. Back left further. When you reach the spike pit with bunches of moving platforms, move down to the post that’s also a grapple point and grapple left twice. You’ve got to be quick, but you net yourself another ice cold 40 coins in treasure chests. You should have a little less than 300 coins by this point if you’re following me. Run past the three-gem door, move across the moving platform, blow up the eye, move on. Make sure to pick up the life boost in this section past the pay-door as well. [S4L5] Get ready for some quick grappling, and also for using the grabber to deal with a red mook ambush. Plenty of mooks here, nothing you can’t handle though. Remember to keep your guard up! After awhile the screamers will come and take Zal away. Time to exit this level, and let’s get him! [S4L3*] After that corrupt masked magus! Notice how Zal calms the fire, make the big buzz saw disappear (sorry, you never get THAT power), and makes buzz saws stick into the fire. When you get to him notice how he moves the grabbers into the half-moon shaped corruptions and solidifies them to make a barrier. Wallclimb and jump over them, smack Zal twice, and he’s yours again. Make a wall out of the corruption to the right, and climb up. Calm the fires to let boulders roll into the destructible walls, and move up. When you get to the fork in the road where you went left last time, calm the fire and go right and down for the final treasure chest. Continue as before. Freezing the fires lets you vault up the lefthand wall to the pay door, which, if the pay door in Stage 4 glitches for you as it did for me (or if you didn’t get it out of solidarity. Thank you! I’m touched!) you will have enough funds to open. Continue as normal and leave. [S4L5*] After the normal grappling and mooks, you’ll have some fires to calm and some practice with the insta-walls. Don’t neglect the scroll in the area up past the second flames on walls section. Then it’s corruption bug time again (this level seems to be corrupting Zal pretty hardcore). Naturally he loses it right as the yellow shield mooks start pouring out of the twisted portals, so make sure and slap him around quickly. Pull their shields away and march on. For whatever reason this next wall jumping section with the two insta-walls was tough for me. I did it this way. Pull one down freeze it quickly, then pull the other down and freeze it. Jump onto the right wall, and run up. Jump onto the left wall but do not run, then jump right and run up to the top. After some flamethrowers and moving platforms (wahoo), run all the way to the right. What the... corruption bugs AGAIN? They are not kidding around about changing Zal’s color scheme. Maybe it’s just me but this bit was annoying I thought. I mean Zal goes starry at the SAME PLACE as last time, in the same situation. They could at least have had a different bad time for him to lose it. You even get the same two walls for wall jumping! Well ignore them and head left for the treasure chest, then head back right to climb up. Ok not to get on a soapbox but this last part is just bad level design. This is just a direct copy paste from earlier, down to the structure of the grapples and the coins beneath them. Bah. Anyway hit the gear and move on. [S4L6] CHAOS ARMADILLO OMG! Heh that is the best way to start a level walkthrough. Crush it and move on. Once you split up, move left with Zal. The gate that he trips by hitting the switch with the fire orb has an incredibly quick time before it drops, so chop chop! Switch to the prince, roll under, and move to the left. You can dodge the buzz saws if you want, or switch to Zal and catch them by freezing the fire. Switch to Zal, grapple up. Stand right by the character switch sign. First move and solidify the horizontal insta-floor, then move the spiky block up with the grabber. Quickly switch to the prince, wallrun and jump onto the block and run across the floor to the left. After some brief jumping and dodging (and what on earth is that horrible tentacle eye thing in the background?) you’ll flip some switches, make your way right with both Zal and the Prince and you’ll be reunited. Alright, I have to take a second and just record my DISDAIN. My UTTER CONTEMPT for this next section. In it, there is an insta-wall and a gem. What you’re supposed to do is solidify the insta wall and use it to bounce Zal’s magic off of to hit the gem. I want to point out a few things here. 1) We have never done this before or seen it done 2) Zal’s magic does not bounce off of regular walls 3) We have been trained to run up these walls 4) The wall stretches almost to the ground, making it look like you’re supposed to jump somehow. 5) There is a meaningless, stupid, misplaced red glow right above the gem. Why is it there? THESE ARE FIVE POINTS OF HATRED. I HATE THIS SECTION. I spent way too long just running around like an idiot trying to wallclimb on this stupid wall. Alright. Rant over, you know what to do because I said so. Let’s move on and take a deep breath. Zal gets corrupted just to the right of here. This is a carbon copy of a previous situation, except the buzz saw doesn’t stretch all the way to the right so it’s way easier. You just have to duck under once. I might submit that while puzzles were copied earlier (they LOVE giving you the same puzzle twice in a row), it becomes a lot more intense and noticeable (as in, CARBON COPIES of puzzles) in the fourth level. I bet this game was rushed! Either that or they all ran out of ideas. Oh I also have one comment about the little exchange between Zal and the Prince in this next part. The Prince mentions that the temple that was imprisoning Ahriman "failed". Yeah, sort of. It failed because the Prince was a huge idiot and didn’t respect Elika’s sacrifice and undid everything she did. So it wasn’t exactly a "failure", at least not by the temple! Ok now we rush on. There is another mysterious empty pay door to the right here. My theory is that if you don’t die on any of the bosses you can only hold so many prince spheres and pay doors that would have contained a prince sphere just don’t appear. If that’s the case, you guys are on your own for repeating enough levels to get the gold to open these. Sorry! Anyway you split up, go right up and left as Zal, break the floor, and move up as the Prince. Switch to Zal, make the insta-floor, and run across as the Prince. You’ll have to do that stretchy insta-wall thing to hit the next gem before you meet up and move on. There are two chaos armadillos on the lower level. From here it’s a cakewalk. Hit the gem, go through the three-gem door, explode the eye, bam done. [S4L7] Freeze the wall so the boulder will bounce off of it and trip the switch for you. Do the same thing with the insta-floor coming up. At least this isn’t a carbon copy repeat! Head right and down at this section, and watch for the red mook ambush. Don’t neglect the scroll slightly to the right of this point. Freeze the wall and the floor to let the boulder destroy the breakable wall. Re-freeze the wall for wall-climbing, grab the red boulder to destroy the wall and keep moving right. Pretty intense red mook ambush coming up, followed by another grab the red boulder switch and breakable wall. Pretty soon after this we find the very first slinger. You might want to head all the way to the right and break the breakable wall with the red boulder before defeating him- sometimes the game is bugged here and after he’s gone the boulders won’t come. Anyway move right and down to take on another slinger. Once it’s toast, hit the switch and climb back up. After some more insta-wall wall climbing and boulder juggling you waste a corridor of red mooks and drop down. Be careful handling this boulder- it’s real easy to fall into the spike pit and then you have to redo the red mook corridor. After another careful boulder handling puzzle, you run in front of this giant creepy gold snake. I have to say there is a LOT of background gold in this game. If you had just gone back a little bit in ten of these levels you could be swimming in gold coins, but no, the Prince is too hardcore for that. Anyway grab the gem and scram. [S4L8] Remember: as long as you are standing on solid ground boulders just take off life. If you are hanging on the edge of a pit they will knock you in! Once you’re over the spike pits there’s a yellow shield mook ambush welcoming party. Show them how much you hate welcoming parties and vault up and head right. You don’t get too far before the very same folks attempt to welcome you again. Re-murder them and head right until you split up. Trigger the switch with Zal, and head up with the Prince. Open Zal’s gate, switch to him and make your way right. Zal triggers a gate for the prince, then take over as him. There sure are a lot of buzz saws! It’s fairly straightforward from here until you’re reunited. Head up and right, shrinking the corruption weeds. When you drop down the pit, head left for a treasure chest. Head right and the welcoming party of yellow shield mooks makes two last ditch attempts to welcome you. Repel them, and reach the moving platform up. Go right past it for the second treasure chest. Nice of them to put all the gems in once place. Use the insta-wall to bounce your magic off and hit them all, pop the eye, and you’re out! [S4L9] Ok we are ready for this boss fight! This is going to be a tough one but stick with me, and check the enemies section for tips, and you can get through ok. Once you’ve got some new snakeskin boots, grab the last remaining part of the seal. Zal of course runs off with it like a jerk. Sigh. Guess it’s time for... [STG5] Stage 5: The loneliest number All alone, abandoned by all your pseudo-girlfriend and your weird masked ghosty buddy, you set out on your own. Your footsteps echo in eternity, but all you can think about is justice. Cold, delicious justice. Justice is the local beer that your friend the Persian brew master makes specially for the royal family. Now let’s find that ghost so we can all go home! [S5L1] The Prince realizes at the beginning of this level that he has no idea what Zal is ("I’ll find you, you... you..." ). Either that or he is about to let loose a stream of profanity at Zal but remembered that this is a family friendly game. Either way we fight corruption ravens, some of our oldest friends! To past the first big moving block wallclimb the block, jump to the wall on the left, wallclimb there, jump back to the block, and then run and wallclimb up the rightmost wall. It’s a very near thing, kind of tricky. Anyhow some more ravens, some boulders. We’ll run past a three-gem door which should let you know we’ll be getting Zal back at some point. Up at the top of the level here we meet a new friend: The tatterbones! See the enemies section for info. For now the best you can do is stun them, so run ast them to the right. Onward and upward, jump kill the red mooks, hit the switch, and we’re out. This is NOT the full experience, we’ll be back for more. [S5L2] You’ll see a rotating platform with a red glow at the beginning- drop down into the pit there to pick up the first scroll. Anyway head up and stun the tatterbones and head right. You’ll want to slide down the righthand wall here to avoid death. More tatterbones to deal with, and be ready to swing right quick from these pegs as a giant buzz saw will be chasing you. Check out the Horrible Thing cutscene at the next check point! I guess bosses are into showing us their faces before fighting us now. Anyway head right, again we’re missing a lot but we’ll be back. Hit the gear and move forward. [S5L3] BOY are there a lot of skulls in this level. Start off sliding down the incline of skulls, and Wallslide down the lefthand wall. Be ready to jump at the bottom to avoid the buzz saw. Go as far up and right as you can, hit the switch, and slide down and head right. Deal with the tatterbones, keep heading up. Whole BUNCH of corruption ravens to deal with- I think you found their nesting grounds. Anyway just like before head right, slide down the lefthand wall avoiding the giant buzz saw, make your way up and right out of the big pit, but at this second switch up top head right past the tatterbones. Grab the second scroll here, then head back left and down into the open gate. Just a couple more tatterbones and you are out. It’s nice to see the Prince get called on the carpet by Zal here. I’d like to point out that the prince doesn’t acknowledge any guilt at all, though what he did was quite stupid. Anyway we are back together hooray. I do like how they don’t bother to explain the teleportation mechanism that you can already use (they do later, but why not now?) Anyway. Back to... [S5L1*] Start off by rubbing the two portals and jumping in the top one. Now we are in a new area already! Slide down, and rub the two portals you see. Grapple over to the righthand one and drop in, then run right. For this next part stand on the spiky block. Rub the top portal, then pull the block to the right with the grabber and quickly rub the bottom portal. You should fall onto the spiky block in its new location. Proceed right. Do the same thing again. Next up, use the portals to allow a boulder to trip the switch and open the gate for you, then use those portals to get to the top level. You can truly kill the tatterbones around where the gems are, so do so. Since Zal’s magic can pass through portals, use them to light up the gems and go back down and through the 3-gem door. Through the door, use the portals to make a boulder crash into the back of the yellow shield mook. Roll under the wall where the portal is to get a treasure chest. Head up and right to exit the level, right before the red mooks you kill with jump attacks use the portals to get the final treasure chest. [S5L2*] To get the first treasure chest, activate the first set of portals you see. When you come out the portal on the ceiling, quickly grapple to a position to your left. Then run to the left and get the chest. Activate the second set of portals and jump through- break the barrier with the fire orb, head down and activate both the switches. Break the boulders, remember it’s a slicing motion across the reinforced boulder to break it, and use the portals to escape the giant buzz saw. Head right through the newly opened gate, and use the portals to skip the boulder rolling corridors (yay!). Activate the next portals, and climb to the top. Waste the tatterbones with Zal and the Prince, and swing on the pegs across the gap for the second treasure chest. From here climb up and to the right, and move the fire orb from base to base as you Wallslide down the left side of the wall. Use the orb to break the floor, and explore down there for the last two treasure chests. Then leave. [S5L3*] Instead of wall sliding down the first pit grapple across. Light up the three gems using the portal and the insta-wall to bounce the magic off of for the middle gem. Go left past the fire for some extra coin on the wall climbing section. Grapple across the second pit and activate the gems pretty much just like before to open the second 3-gem door. Grapple back left across the pit, climb up, and slide down between the raven nests to net all three treasure chests. Once that business is over with you can take off. [S5L4] Watch out for the tatterbones ambush in the beginning. By now you’re experienced with using portals and insta-walls to light up gems, which is good because you’re going to have to. Watch out for the tatterbones by the second two gems here. Head left and up. A pair of belfries are up ahead- drag them into each other. Grab one of the flame orbs on the moving platform up to destroy the wall at the top. Shield him from the rest. There’s a yellow shield mook/slinger ambush ahead. I think is the first multi-enemy type (not counting mooks and shield mooks) ambush of the game! Head up and left, and that is poison mist and it is Zal time. Use the grabber to deal with the yellow shield mook, and the portals to activate the gems. Reunite, reach the top, and hey it is ancestor time! Ugh how did I know it was going to be rubies? [S5L5] Armadillo alert! I know I’m snarky about level design and whatnot a lot, but I really do dislike the spinny platform puzzles. There is little less interesting than trying to stop the other platform for just long enough so that it’s the perfect alignment. Unfortunately that is exactly what you are going to be doing, so get to it. After this it is split up time again. Activate the portal farthest to the right and the one above the breakable floor so that the prince can drop down into it. Have the portal on the righthand side on this level lead to the first portal you activated, all the way to the right. Flip switches, activate gems, reunite with party members- these truly are the good times; your salad years. Armadillo alert! Boy, you know what’s actually LESS fun that the spinny platform puzzles? Those same puzzles with flamethrowers! Whee! Get across somehow, hit the save point, and get the scroll. Keep going to get one of those prince spheres. I guess the game makes this one be here, even if you have the max. Armadillo alert! Just a little further and you’re out. If you’re with me you should have about 630 gold pieces. Just checking in on you! [S5L6] First thing in THIS level is a new enemy! Say hello to a blinky. Deal with it as described in the enemies section and move on. Use portals to advance and escape buzz saws. A little later one we have another blinky to deal with, and then the somewhat uninspiring introduction to our next enemy type, the purple mook giant! To deal with these guys, though, just teleport away from the buzz saw and let it do the rest. Once you portal down to the lower level, be prepared for a slinger ambush followed immediately by a purple mook giant ambush- your first real taste of battle against them! Wallslide down and hurry up with the portals to avoid the buzz saw, then break the floors one by one with the red boulders. Keep tunneling down with portals. Corruption bugs will be back when you hit the bottom level. There’s a slinger here and Zal predictably conks out right when facing him. When you see the portal down keep going right to get the next scroll. Portal through the right wall for some more coins and a prince sphere pay door (if you can still get those, I couldn’t and so I’m reckoning coins with not purchasing any). Head back left and tunnel through the floor. Notice that Zal conks out when you tunnel through. Revive him before leaping off the edge to the right because you’re going to need his grappling to not die. Keep tunneling through the floor. Buzz saws will take care of the purple giant mook ambush, so just keep heading down. Get the ruby and get going. The first two levels also have rubies, so let’s head to... [S5L1**] You guys are stone pros at this level by now. Nothing is different except there is a ruby at the end. Go git it! [S5L2**] Same deal here. Go the old way or the new way, pick up some gold, get a ruby, move on. [S5L7] If you miss the grapple in the beginning of the level, there’s a pustule ambush on the ledge below. More timing plat forming business yahoo. The start of this level is actually super frustrating. You have to platform really well to make it to the right, where a combination pustule/blinky attack awaits you. From there you tunnel to the floor, but make sure you time it just right or you’ll fall to your death on the spikes. After that there are two grapples up, but only do one grapple at first so you get the save point and the final scroll. Another pustule/blinky ambush ahead, and some more awesome plat forming. I’ve found it works best to hold your own platform steady while the one you want to jump to moves into position. Once you reach the right ledge two more pustules charge you. Knock them into each other before heading right, which leads to a slinger ambush. Watch out for the deadly walls as you grapple up in this next section, and for the pustule that will charge you when you reach the right ledge. At least they didn’t hide the treasure chest in this one! Get it and go up. One more timed tunnel drop and a blinky/pustule ambush to make just absolutely sure you don’t miss this level. [S5L8] Alright almost there! After some acrobatics with the red boulder, grapple up and go left. Snake your way upwards, encountering a yellow shield mook and a blinky. This next part is tough. Tunnel through the wall and land on the moving platform. Take it to the left, then grapple up and you can just barely see the grapple points above you. A lot of really tough grappling in this section, and when you finally get to the top right it’s a blinky ambush. Keep climbing, stopping the buzz saws with frozen fire. Keep heading up until you see a portal in the left wall. Tunnel through it and grapple and swing over to the pay gate. This is the most expensive in the game, 500 gold, and you MUST get it in THIS play through of the level. If you don’t have the 500 gold leave, get more, and come back to the level. DO NOT COMPELTE THE LEVEL as you can’t go back. So, now you have that and a full health bar. Congrats! Go back right and up for a giant purple mook ambush, and further right for the longest darn grappling section ever. After one more blinky ambush and one more giant purple mook ambush, you’re DONE. So now we get a cutscene and the two become one… are you still a virgin? Only Persian magicians know. I don’t complain about the artwork much- I think it’s really well done. It’s just that I know you are supposed to look badass in this cutscene, and instead you look ADORABLE. Anyway, onward to [STG6] Stage 6: Me, myself, and Zal [S6L1] Use the grabbers to pull yourself up, and prepare for the biggest darn purple giant mook ambush EVAR. I deal with it like this. Take out the one on the right first, then run behind him. This way you can take out all the giant purple mooks that spawn on the right and basically fight all the mooks one at a time. Attack twice, block, repeat. Then it’s another round of "pass the Zal/Prince conglomeration" with grabbers. Click below yourself to drop on the platform when it’s positioned correctly. Some more giant purple mooks, escape the buzz saws by catching a ride on the grabber. It’s more grabbing and platforms, with one more giant purple mook ambush before the end. Then the end. [S6L2] Run and jump right and then up and left. You’ll use a combination of wall climbs, grabber lifting, and jumping down inclines in the first part of this level. I honestly hate the next part. Most of the attacks with Pal (Prince and Zal. That’s the name now), don’t seem to land, so I’m SCRAMBLING to kill these purple mooks before the buzz saw gets me. This part of the game seems a little hastily done. Anyway, get out of there alive somehow and keep going right. The next part is all about timing. I got the "going up" part of this done quickly with little effort, but for some reason the "going down" part took me a lot of tries. If you ever get hit in midair by a saw, you’ll plummet to your doom. At the bottom there’s another giant purple mook ambush, this one blissfully small. There are more of those awesome rotating platforms ahead, and falling boulder "jump from stalagmite to stalagmite" tricks. Once that’s over there’s another giant purple mook ambush just for old times’ sake. Oh gosh now we go to... [S6L3] FINAL! BOSS! BATTLE! This is the corrupted part of Zal that is evil and has been growing in power. It sure doesn’t want you to let it out of a room with some rubies anymore! Ok check the enemies section for how to handle this monster. After all this is over you get to watch the climactic finale! They give you some very vague maybe plot related clues. In other words: hey good job beating the game! We may or may not make this canon! Y’all did a FINE job defeating everything though. ======================================================================== [SCR] Scrolls can be collected by tapping on them- they look like blue glowing pieces of parchment and add to the backstory. They are normally pretty easy to find, but some are hidden. Stage 1 S1L1- The Scrolls of Ormazd, right past a pillar you have to roll under, almost at the end of the level. S1L2- The Scrolls of Ahriman, just to the left of the first save point S1L3- The Scrolls of Magic, at the very beginning, on the righthand ledge. S1L4- The Scrolls of History, after the first drop, to the left. S1L5- The Scrolls of The Spirits- Secret area to the left more than halfway through the level. Stage 2 S2L1- The Scrolls of Ormazd - right by a save point, on a ledge to the left. S2L3- The Scrolls of Ahriman- right by a save point, should be obvious. S2L4- The Scrolls of Magic, near the beginning in a medium sized chamber, top right S2L8- The Scrolls of the Spirits- Right by the three-gem door S2L9- The Scrolls of History- After the 3 gem door by the exit. Stage 3 S3L2- The Scrolls of Ormazd- Next to the save point after you kill two yellow mooks and slide down a wall. S3L4- The Scrolls of Ahriman- Right after the second wall you climb, near the ground. S3L7- The Scrolls of Magic- After the navigate-the-fire-orb part, past four top-right grapples. S3L8- The Scrolls of History- After the first moving flamethrower block, by the save point. S3L9- The Scrolls of the Spirits- On the top of the first shaft you climb, in a little nook below where you land Stage 4 S4L1- The Scrolls of Ormazd- Right by where Zal gets corrupted. S4L2- The Scrolls of Ahriman- Right past a destructible wall and the first movable trapdoor. S4L5- The Scrolls of Magic, past the second flames-on-walls section. S4L7- The Scrolls of History- a little to the right and above the red mook ambush in the beginning of the level. S4L?- The Scrolls of the Spirits- I couldn’t find this one. Does it exist? Is it hidden? Email me if you know! Stage 5 S5L2- The Scrolls of Ormazd- In the right pit at the very beginning S5L3- The Scrolls of Ahriman- To the right of the switch on the top right side of the pit after the raven nests. S5L5- The Scrolls of Magic- Past the spinny platform puzzle with flamethrowers, by the save point S5L6- The Scrolls of History- Past the slinger after Zal gets corrupted S5L7- The Scrolls of the Spirits- Right by the first save point ======================================================================== [TRS] There are three kinds of treasure: treasure chests which you can break open for BIG MONEY (20 gold), health ups which look like a health sphere floating in a bubble, and prince spheres, which resurrect you in boss fights if you lose all your health. The first is usually out in the open but usually require one of Zal’s powers to get, and the last two are behind locked doors that you have to pay coins to open. Be diligent in coin collection! Stage 1 S1L2- Health up- right past the pay door. S1L3- Treasure Chest- by button near end of level, can’t miss it. Stage 2 S2L1- Treasure Chest- at the bottom of the first pit- need Zal’s lifting blocks power to get it S2L1- Health up- Right past the annoying boulder drop jumps. Need 200 gold to get S2L1- Treasure Chest- Just to the right of the health up- need Zal’s lifting blocks power to get. S2L2- Treasure Chest- Right after the three red gems section- need Zal’s lifting blocks power to get S2L4- Treasure Chest- At the bottom of a pit, with spiky floating platforms. Midway through the level. S2L4- Treasure Chest- Right near the end, after you get through the pustule a mbush it’s on a ledge to the right. S2L5- Treasure Chest- Midway through there will be a fork with an upper and lower path- take the lower. S2L6- Treasure Chest- After the second set of quickly moving blocks, jump left from the breakable floor. S2L6- Treasure Chest- Close to the first one. After yellow mooks on the edge of platforms, Wallclimb left wall. S2L6- Health up- In the section with ropes and buzz saws, check the right wall. Need 200 gold to get S2L7- Prince Sphere- Right after the second rolling boulder section to the right. Need 100 gold to get S2L8- Treasure Chest- Top-left after a long spiky block pulling section with buzz saws. S2L9- Treasure Chest- Just past the first gem, after you ride a moving platform up jump to the right. S2L9- Treasure Chest- after the second gem, head to the left and drop down to get it. Stage 3 S3L1- Health up- Right after a pit you have to jump and grapple to get to. Need 250 gold to get S3L1- Treasure Chest- After long pit pulling spikey block, past broken stone. Need Zal’s flame sphere power S3L1- Treasure Chest- Right next to the other treasure chest in this level S3L3 - Treasure Chest- After a long pit with boulders, grapple up left to get to it. Need the fire orb power. S3L3- Treasure Chest- Right next to the other treasure chest on this level. S3L3- Prince Sphere- Pay door right near the end of the level to the left. Need 150 gold to get S3L7- Treasure Chest- After you descend the ropes, it’s down a pit to the left. Down the shaft on the minimap. S3L7- Treasure Chest- Right next to the other one S3L9- Health up- Right below where you drop down after zapping the second gem. Need 250 gold to get S3L9- Treasure Chest- Right after the health up, can’t really miss it. Stage 4 S4L2 - Treasure Chest- Up and to the right from the first movable trapdoor. S4L3- Health up- Behind the pay door- you should have Zal’s fire power to get to it. Need 300 gold to get S4L3- Treasure Chest- Right near the end, to the left past flames. S4L3- Treasure Chest- Next to the entry above S4L3- Treasure Chest: To the right, past fire in a fork in the path midway through the level. S4L4- Treasure Chest- In the middle area of where you are separated from Zal, get it on your return trip with Zal. S4L4- Treasure Chest- Right next to the entry above S4L4- Treasure Chest- At the bottom of a spike pit with moving platforms just to the left of the above. Need Zal. S4L4- Treasure Chest- Right next to the above chest. S4L4- Health up- In the pay door, visible on the map Need 300 Gold S4L5- Treasure Chest- To the left of the second time when Zal gets corrupted by bugs. S4L8- Treasure Chest- To the left, after you drop down the first pit after shrinking corruption weeds. S4L8- Treasure Chest- Just to the right of a moving platform towards the end of the level. Stage 5 S5L1- Treasure Chest- In the 3-gem door, roll under a wall behind the yellow shield mook S5L1- Treasure Chest- Neat the end of the level, need Zal to access it (with portals) S5L2- Treasure Chest- To the left of the first set of portals you see, need Zal S5L2- Treasure Chest- On the top right of a large number of vertical buzz saws. Need Zal’s portals. S5L2- Treasure Chest- Below breakable floor just to the right of the last treasure chest. Need Zal. S5L2- Treasure Chest- Right next to above entry S5L3- Treasure Chest- Behind lefthand 3-gem door, need to make leftmost three gems glow to get it. S5L3- Treasure Chest- Behind righthand 3-gem door, need to make rightmost three gems glow. S5L3- Treasure Chest- Right next to above entry S5L7- Treasure Chest- Towards end of level, on right side of ledge, not hidden. S5L8- Treasure Chest- Tunnel through a wall on the left towards the top of the level- Need 500 gold to get ========================================================================== [SCRC] Scroll Contents- Here I write out the contents of all the scrolls I found. The spoiler warning is pretty mild, I think you guys know the basic setup anyway. Well here goes! Stage 1 The Scrolls of Ormazd: Ormazd, the God of Light. He brought light to the world, but once the war with his brother Ahriman was over, he passed into the heavens. Only his fading powers and the memory of him remain in these lands. The Scrolls of Ahriman: Ahriman, the God of Darkness, brother of Ormazd. Betrayer of all. A thousand years ago he almost conquered the world. Now, he is free once more and his forces are growing stronger. Without hope there will be only his darkness. The Scrolls of Magic: The King’s Magus is the most powerful wielder of magic in the City of the New Dawn. Gifted with powers by Ormazd, the Magus serves to defend the state, seek ways to push back the darkness and to shine the light for those not strong enough to carry it themselves. The Scrolls of History: The Desert of Sighs. End of the deep desert, doorway to the City of the New Dawn, the Desert both protects and welcomes those who come to the city. The Scrolls of the Spirits: The Ancestor. The first ruler of the City of the New Dawn. An Ahura and the most powerful magus of her age, the ancestor has passed into the spirit world and lives on to advise all the rulers of The City that have come after her. Stage 2 The Scrolls of Ormazd: The War, Ahriman the deceiver, master of darkness. Once before he fought to take more than was decreed to be his. His Corruption poured across the land until Ormazd and the Ahura stopped him. Now, he seeks to complete what he failed before. The Scrolls of Ahriman: Corruption, Ahriman’s Darkness, it spills over the land, swallowing, Corrupting all it engulfs. Deadly to the touch, only those chosen by Ahriman survive it. Those who serve in darkness can use this Corruption to attack, to destroy, to Corrupt... The Scrolls of Magic: Light orbs. Formed from the light of Ormazd, these orbs serve the Ahura. They can lift, attack, and fight Corruption. These orbs are the centre of power for the magus who follow Ormazd. The Scrolls of History: The City of the New Dawn. Home to the Ahura who protect this kingdom and the lands around it. Governed by a monarch, the kingdom has always offered a place of hope and safety in times of need. The Scrolls of the Spirits: The Eyes of Ormazd. Centres of magical power, the Eyes of Ormazd carry his magical power within them. Stage 3 The Scrolls of Ormazd: The Ahura, followers of Ormazd, upholders of the light, they have tended Ormazd’s power and held Ahriman captive. Defenders of all mankind, their power is waning, those who were once many are now few. The Scrolls of Ahriman: The Corrupted. Ahriman’s chosen, his Fallen Ones. These creatures gave their souls to Ahriman’s service or had it taken from them by sorcery. They are Ahriman’s lords, his most trusted servants. The Scrolls of Magic: Shield. A blessing from Ormazd, this protects those who wield it from the magic used by Ahriman’s dark forces. The Scrolls of History: Water’s Edge. A port on the edge of the desert and the Ahura’s portal to the rest of the world. Crystal waters and sea breezes make this a paradise for all who come here. The Scrolls of the Spirits: The Temple- home ot the City of New Dawn’s priests and site for the seal of Ormazd. Stage 4 The Scrolls of Ormazd: Ahriman master of darkness was close to victory when Ormazd and the people of the light saved all by pushing him into the Tree of Life. These Ahriman was sealed, all hoped this would be forever. But Ahriman was not imprisoned... he was waiting. The Scrolls of Ahriman: Soulless creatures, monsters owned by Ahriman. They h ave no will of their own. They exist only to spread Ahriman’s darkness. The Scrolls of Magic: Power Jewels. Magically infused jewels, used to seal and to open doors. This magic is known only to the king and his Magus in the City of the New Dawn. The Scrolls of History: The Temple of Ormazd. A mighty and secretive temple that has protected the seal of Ormazd for many years. Now, overgrown, many of it’s richest powers lost to history, the Temple clings on as Ormazd’s powers weaken. The Scrolls of the Spirits: ??? Does it exist? Do you know where it is? Email me! Stage 5 The Scrolls of Ormazd: The powers of Ormazd, gifts to the Ahura from the God of Light. These powers, these gifts allowed the followers of Ormazd to defend the world against the darkness. The powers have grown weak and only a few remain who can wield them. The Scrolls of Ahriman: Corrupt orbs. Concentrated areas of Corruption, almost alive, they wait for the unwary and kill those that touch them. The Scrolls of Magic: The Light of Ormazd. A magic light blessed by Ormazd, the only power that can push the Corruption back and free the land from Ahriman’s touch. The Scrolls of History: City of Shadows. A mausoleum and city to the dead. A place of darkness amongst the light. A reminder of mortality and the dangers faced by all those who follow the path of Ormazd. The Scrolls of the Spirits: Fusion. Power of the Ormazd, gift to the Ahura, a magic power that stops the effects of Corruption allowing those who channel its power to resist Ahriman’s darkness for a time. =================================================================== [BGS] This is organized in the following way: Bug (fix) When hitting the snake boss's head, sometimes the "hit" sound does not play (he'll still lose health. Look at the skulls to see if you are hitting him) Sometimes the pay doors look open but have nothing behind them (No available fix for this besides restarting game) In Stage 4 Level 7 sometimes after the slinger boulders don't roll out of the head (break the wall to the right before beating the slinger) ======================================================================== [FAQ] This section is waiting for your questions! Email me with anything you'd particularly like to see in this section ======================================================================== [RKS] Whew! This ended up being longer than I had anticipated. So now it’s all up to YOU guys. What did you think? Was this helpful? Was it wrong? How can I improve? Feel free to email any corrections or suggestions. If you liked this, would you like me to do a FAQ for some other game? I’d be happy to if there’s a need for it. I decided to do one for this game because I saw there were none out there. So whatcha think? Feedback please! I will acknowledge you in any future revisions!