******************************************************************************* FAQ for: Heroes of Might and Magic Platform: PS2 Written by: Dustin Wood (aka Ahlyis) Contact: ahlyis@pacbell.net Began on: 05/20/01 Revised: 08/27/01 (version 1.1) Copyright by Dustin Wood 2001 This document may be distributed freely provided that it is kept whole and intact. Any use for profit must have permission from the author prior to any such use. Updates will only be submitted to www.GameFAQs.com, so look there for the latest version. ******************************************************************************* Table of Contents. 1) Overview 2) Things in the game a) Character Classes b) Villains c) Creatures d) Towns/Castles e) Spells f) Artifacts 3) Walkthrough a) General b) Cheese Method 4) FAQ 5) Controls 6) Credits, revision history and contact info ******************************************************************************* 1) OVERVIEW You play the part of one Hero. An up and coming adventurer. You start out by choosing one of four classes and entering your name. You are then dumped into the game at the foot of the Queens Castle on the first of four continents. Your quest is to find the DragonBone Staff and defeat the Dragon Malazak. Doing both within the time limit will save the King who lies on his death bed. There are Villains scattered throughout the castles of the land. Each Villain holds a piece of the map which shows where the DragonBone Staff is buried. Special Note: Heroes of Might and Magic (HoMM) on PlayStation2 (PS2) is apparently more of a prequel than a new release. According to numerous sources, this game is an almost exact copy, with updated graphics, of the game King's Bounty on the Sega Genesis. I took a look at the FAQs on GameFAQs for King's Bounty and just based on those, HOMM really is just an updated version of King's Bounty. The names of Towns, Villains and Artifacts have been changed, but the monsters are almost exactly the same. There are some minor differences in various areas. ******************************************************************************* 2) THINGS IN THE GAME **************************************** 2A) CHARACTER CLASSES There are 4 different classes to choose from. Here are the classes and their initial characteristics: Sorceress - Initial Stats: 30 Peasants, 10 Sprites, 10,000 gold Level Villains Commission Leadership Spell Power Max Spells 1 Sorceress 0 3000 +60 2 5 2 Magician 3 +1000 |+60 +3 +8 3 Mage 6 +1000 +180 +5 +10 4 Archmage 12 +1000 +300 +5 +12 Knight - Initial Stats: 20 Militia, 2 Archers, 7,500 gold Level Villains Commission Leadership Spell Power Max Spells 1 Knight 0 1000 +100 1 2 2 General 2 +1000 |+100 +1 +3 3 Marshal 8 +2000 +300 +1 +4 4 Lord 14 +4000 +500 +2 +5 Paladin - Initial Stats: 20 Peasants, 20 Militia, 10,000 gold Level Villains Commission Leadership Spell Power Max Spells 1 Paladin 0 1000 80 1 3 2 Crusader 2 +1000 +80 +2 +4 3 Avenger 7 +2000 +240 +2 +5 4 Champion 13 +4000 +400 +2 +6 Barbarian - Initial Stats: 20 Wolves, 7,500 gold Level Villains Commission Leadership Spell Power Max Spells 1 Barbarian 0 2000 100 0 2 2 Chieftain 1 +2000 +100 +1 +2 3 Warlord 5 +2000 +300 +1 +3 4 Overlord 10 +2000 +500 +1 +3 **************************************** 2B) VILLIANS Arcathia: Nic Nimble 5K L-Peasants M-Wolves M-Militia M-Peasants M-Peasants Dromm 6K S-Nomads M-Militia M-Militia L-Peasants M-Peasants Cael 7K L-Sprites L-Sprites M-Skeleton M-Zombie F-Ogre Jerloc 8K M-Wolves M-Orcs S-Archers F-Trolls F-Dwarves Andrin Lake 9K L-Militia L-Militia S-Archers S-Elves F-Lizardmn Gemelex 10K H-Sprites S-Ghosts S-Knights F-Archmage F-Archmage Elestria: Mercion 12K H-Militia M-Archers M-Pikemen S-Cavalry S-Knights B Skullbelt 14K M-Elves M-Archers S-Druids M-Pikemen H-Sprites Nayaku 16K H-Orcs M-Ogres S-Trolls F-Giants L-Wolves Baron Narmaunt 18K X-Skeleton H-Zombie M-Ghosts S-Vampires S-Demons The Pearl Islands: Rhengla 20K X-Skeleton H-Zombie L-Ghosts M-Vampire S-Demons Vostok 25K M-Giants F-Dragons M-Ogres H-Orcs H-Trogs Tarcanis 30K H-Trogs M-Lizardmn M-Giants H-Nomads X-Peasants Zabrina 35K L-Archers H-Pikemen L-Cavalry L-Knights F-Dragons Vazara: Gen. Piraxus 40K M-Demons L-Vampires H-Archmage X-Trogs X-Peasants Dedrus 45K L-Demons S-Dragons H-Cavalry H-Knights L-Archmage Malazak 50K H-Dragons M-Dragons M-Dragons H-Demons H-Vampires F = Few S = Some M = Many L = Lot H = Horde X = Multitude Villains are found in castles with red roofs. Blue roofed castles are under your control. Green roofed castles have some random monsters guarding them. You must have the contract for a Villain when you defeat them or they will just move to another castle on the same continent. Thankfully, they do not get all of their troops back. They will occupy the castle, but the troops will only be those that would be found in a green roofed castle on that continent. Another nice thing is that you do not have to defeat a Villain in one try. If you lose a siege against a castle, any damages you deal to their forces will still be there when you come back with fresh troops of your own. This includes castles defended by Villains. **************************************** 2C) CREATURES Creatures are the enemies you fight and the troops that make up your army. Each group of creatures can be recruited from a specific type of structure. Each structure will have a limited number of one of the types of creatures 'native' to that structure type. Once you have taken troops from the structure, it will only replenish the creatures if the week for that particular creature type passes. What creature is selected each week appears to be random, but with some creature types being more likely to be selected than others. Peasants appear most frequently. The exception to replenishment is King Argus' Castle. The King's Castle ALWAYS has creatures available, up to the maximum that your Leadership will allow. Note: Morale plays a factor in this game, but I have not taken the time to try to decipher the exact combinations that lead to low morale. The FAQs for King's Bounty here on GameFAQs in the Sega Genesis section list which creatures are affected by which other creatures. Since much of this game is the same, those charts are probably accurate. I just don't care to take the time to verify it myself. Just look at your army whenever you add a new creature group and see if anyone is now Low morale. Only buy one of a new creature if you are worried about it. That way you don't lose much if you need to dismiss them. King Argus' Castle - The main castle next to Rockville, where you start at. Name Hit Points Skill Move Damage Cost/upkeep Notes ---------------------------------------------------------------- Militia 2 2 2 1-2 50/5 Archers 10 2 2 1-2 250/25 Note 1 Pikemen 10 3 2 2-4 300/30 Cavalry 20 4 4 3-5 800/80 Knights 35 5 1 5-10 1000/100 Plains - Looks like a covered wagon. Name Hit Points Skill Move Damage Cost/upkeep Notes ---------------------------------------------------------------- Peasants 1 1 1 1-1 10/1 Note 2 Wolves 3 2 3 1-3 40/4 Nomads 15 3 2 2-4 300/30 Lizardmen 40 4 3 1-6 750/75 Archmages 25 5 Fly 2-3 1200/120 Note 3 Forests - Looks like a large tree with structures in the branches. Name Hit Points Skill Move Damage Cost/upkeep Notes ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sprites 1 1 Fly 1-2 15/1 Note 4 Troglodytes 5 2 1 1-3 60/6 Elves 10 3 3 1-2 200/20 Note 1 Trolls 50 4 1 2-5 1000/100 Note 5 Druids 25 5 2 2-3 700/70 Note 3 Hills - Looks like a small hill with a cave entrance on the side. Name Hit Points Skill Move Damage Cost/upkeep Notes ---------------------------------------------------------------- Orcs 5 2 2 2-3 75/7 Note 1 Dwarves 20 3 1 2-4 350/30 Ogres 40 4 1 3-5 750/75 Giants 60 5 3 10-20 2000/200 Note 1 Dragons 200 6 Fly 25-50 5000/500 Note 6 Dungeon - Looks like a square, brown mausoleum. Name Hit Points Skill Move Damage Cost/upkeep Notes ---------------------------------------------------------------- Skeletons 3 2 2 1-2 40/4 Note 7 Zombies 5 2 1 2-2 50/5 Note 7 Ghosts 10 4 3 3-4 400/40 Note 7,8 Vampires 30 5 Fly 3-6 1500/150 Note 7,9 Demons 50 6 Fly 5-7 3000/300 Note 10 Skill - Indicates how good a creature type is. The higher the Skill, the harder they are to hit and the harder they hit. Move - Indicates how many squares from their current position a group can move. It doesn't matter how many squares they might have to cover to actually get there, as long as they never move more than X squares away from their starting position. If the group can get next to an enemy group and still have at least one square of movement left, they can attack the enemy. Damage - This one is tough. The damage is modified according to the difference between the attacking and defending creatures' Skill ratings. But I do not know exactly how it is calculated. It may rely solely on the defenders Skill level, having already been set for attacking Skill level one creatures. But again, I am unsure of this. Cost/upkeep - The weekly cost for your troops is almost always 1/10th the cost to hire them in the first place. The exceptions are: Sprites and Orcs are rounded down to the nearest integer. (1 and 7) Dwarves have an upkeep of 30 instead of 35. I think this is just a mistake that the programmers missed, but it could be intentional for some reason. Notes: 1 - These creatures have a ranged attack. They can launch missiles at far off enemies as long as no enemy groups are immediately adjacent to them. They can also move and shoot provided they have at least one square of movement left. The damage caused by missiles is not necessarily the same as that caused by hand to hand attacks. Orcs are stronger in hand to hand than Archers and Elves, but considerably weaker when firing arrows. Elves are stronger than Archers, probably due to their Skill of 3 vs. 2 for the Archers. Giants are the strongest by far. Each type has a limited number of missiles. Elves can fire 24 times, Archers 12 and Giants and Orcs 6 each. 2 - Peasants can ALWAYS be recruited from the Plains structure on "Peasant's Way" near Dabney's Mill. Other than that, all of the creature structures are scattered semi-randomly throughout the continents, with stronger monsters appearing on the later continents. 3 - Druids and Archmages have magical, ranged attacks. They can fire from any location regardless of enemy proximity. Druids can cast Lightning 3 times and Archmages cast Fireball twice. They will always use these attacks in the first rounds, then resort to hand to hand combat afterwards. 4 - Sprites can fly, but only on the battlefield. They can not fly on the world map. 5 - A group of trolls will regenerate hit points to the next higher multiple of 50 at the end of each turn provided they are not already at a multiple of 50. 6 - Dragons are immune to ALL spells directed at them either friendly or hostile. You can not clone them or hit them with fireballs. This includes the special attacks from Archmages and Druids. If you have Dragons in your party and no ranged attackers, the enemy Archmages and Druids will waste their special attacks trying to hurt your dragons! 7 - Skeletons, Zombies, Ghosts and Vampires are the only creatures vulnerable to the Turn Undead spell. 8 - Any creatures killed by Ghosts will become Ghosts as well provided that at least one of the previous Ghosts survives. Beware allowing Ghosts to attack creatures like Peasants or Sprites. You will end up with a juggernaut that is nearly impossible to kill. Also beware Ghosts in your party. If you let them grow to where they have more total hit points than your Leadership stat, they will go out of control on their next combat turn. This is true for all creature types, but is usually only a problem with Ghosts. When the week of the Peasant is proclaimed, all Ghosts in your army or garrisoning your castles will turn into Peasants. 9 - Vampires have the ability to gain the hit points that they inflict as damage. This only allows them to heal up to the nearest multiple of 30, similar to what the Trolls do at the end of a turn. But Vampires do it each time they attack. I have not yet verified this. 10 - Demons have a small chance of instantly killing half of the enemies in a group that they attack. This is not a magic attack and Dragons are NOT immune to it. Neither are other Demons. **************************************** 2D) TOWNS/CASTLES Each town is listed with the Castle it is paired with. The towns are separated according to the continent they are found on. Arcathia: Bondon - Prallor's Bane Borwald - Ebrennar Dabney's Mill - Fort Redwood DeerHaven - Joring Hudson Falls - Shoresberg Laughing Glen - Mount Zunar Olcott - Kloeberg Perthia - Courage Point Rockville - Loscow (Rockville is where you start) Tendara Springs - Ironshield Vickers Mound - Derenoc Elestria: Amerford - Strass Coralton - Uthar's Holdout Ebbinbrook - Raegar's Keep Elmsong - Strongtooth Goeshin - Trorok Silverhill - Granitewall The Pearl Islands Canopy - Whitekeep Lakewood - Idar Scorch - Charhold Swanwick - Ankerstag Underhook - Werlag Willowville - Froethan Vazara Cobbletown - Vonnerstein Newbrook - Ivory Peak Redsand - Mandrinac **************************************** 2E) SPELLS Every town sells one magic spell. Spells can also be found in chests. Magic spells appear to be mostly randomized, though I have yet to find the Fireball spell in a town on Arcathia. Also, Rockville ALWAYS carries Bridge. Dragons are immune to ALL spells. Adventure Spells: Bridge - Creates a section of bridge half way across a water square. Use another to complete a bridge across a river. I find boats to be much more effective. I almost never use bridge spells other than to get them out of my inventory when I find them in chests. Time Stop - Stops "time" for 10 * spell power days. No monsters move on the world map and your days left counter does not decrease. Can be quite useful if you are getting close to the time limit! Also helps if you want to get to a chest without having to fight the monsters guarding it. Find Villain - Tells you the name of the castle where you can find the Villain that you currently are holding the Bounty on. Castle Gate - Instantly warps you to a town of your choice that you have visited at least once in the past. This is a very effective way to avoid a weeks travel by boat if you want to return to a continent. Town Gate - Same as Castle Gate, except for towns. Instant Army - Raises an army based on three things. Your character class will determine which category of monster is summoned (plains, forest, etc.). Your level determines which monster from that class is generated. And finally, spell power determines how many of the creature type are generated. If they match a creature type you already have, they will add to that group. Otherwise, you must have an available slot. Raise Control - Raises your control by 100 * Spell Power. This spell is either extremely useless or invaluable, depending on how you are attacking the final battle. Anywhere other than the final battle, I find Raise Control to be a waste of a spell slot. For use in the Final Battle, see section 4. Note though that you only need to have Raise Control cast if you are about to enter a fight and one or more of your groups has total hit points greater than your current Leadership stat. You can cast multiple Raise Control spells, the effects are cumulative and last until the new Week. Combat Spells: Clone - Not as powerful as Resurrect, but works on fully healed stacks. Here's the formula as near as I can figure it. For a given creature type, clone generates (50 * spell power) / (hit points * skill) rounded down of that creature type. The rule book indicates that the remainder is held so that multiple clones could be used to summon a powerful creature which a single clone might be unable to produce. I have not verified this. Teleport - Move any one creature stack to any unoccupied square on the grid. Use this to pull those annoying ranged attackers right next to you on the first turn so that you can have all your stacks pummel them. Or use it to move a slow moving stack back to give you an extra couple rounds to finish off the other enemies first. Fireball - Does 25 * spell power damage to one enemy stack. Lightning -Does 10 * spell power damage to one enemy stack. Freeze - Prevents one creature stack from doing ANYTHING during the current turn. You can still attack and damage the stack, but even if the stack is attacked, it can not retaliate. Resurrect - Regenerate hit points (and thereby creatures) to a damaged stack. Resurrect appears to restore (125 * spell power / skill level) hit points, up to a max of the total hit points the stack had when combat was joined. Turn Undead - Does 50 * spell power to ALL undead creature stacks. That's right, ALL of them, including yours! Note though that only skeletons, zombies, ghosts and vampires are considered undead. Demons are NOT considered undead. **************************************** 2F) ARTIFACTS There are two Artifacts per continent. The same two Artifacts will always be found on a particular Continent, but their location is random. Flaming Sword - Vazara - Adds 50% to damage inflicted upon enemies. Armor of Defense - Elestria - prevents 25% of enemies damage. Helm of Victory - The Pearl Islands - doubles Leadership stat. All future Leadership gained is doubled automatically. Pouch of the Leprechaun - Arcathia - increases commission by 2000 gold. Wizard's Hat - Vazara - increases spell power by 5. Cards of Fortune - Arcathia - unknown effect. The text indicates that they increase luck, but it is not clear what that actually means. If anyone knows more specifics, please send them to me and I will update this section. Arcane Orb - The Pearl Islands - Doubles spell capacity. All future spell capacity increases are also doubled automatically. Badge of Passage - Elestria - Reduces the cost of a boat rental from 500 to 100 per week. ******************************************************************************* 3) WALKTHROUGH **************************************** 3A) GENERAL WALKTHROUGH When the game starts, immediately enter King Argus' Castle and recruit as many Militia, Archers and Pikemen as you can. You can enter Rockville, rent a boat and explore, but I will assume that you are going to go after enemies instead of treasure first. Enter Rockville and get the status for Loscow Castle. Exit Rockville and head to the right. We'll go left later. Take out the various creatures you come across and grab all the chests. When you come to a new town, enter it and find out who is in the castle related to that town. Continue to explore this first island, but don't take on Loscow castle unless it is not occupied by a Villain. If you lose some troops, replenish them at the King's Castle. You can also get troops from the structures on the world map, but don't recruit Peasants or Sprites. They are too weak to be effective. Once you have completely explored the land to the right of Rockville, rent a boat and explore some of the other areas. You are looking a the castle that contains Nic Nimble, Dromm or Cael. When you find one, go to a town and get the contract for that Villain, you will also need to buy Siege Weapons. Save the game just before entering the castle so that you can reload easily if there is a 'problem'! lol During the battle, try to focus your troops on a single group of enemies until that group is eliminated. Each group is only allowed to retaliate once. By attacking the same group, only the first group that attacks will get hit back. Use your Archers to take out their ranged attackers first, then whoever you feel is most dangerous. Against these first Villains, it shouldn't matter too much which groups you go after. When you win the fight, leave a group of your troops to garrison the castle. It works pretty well to recruit a single Peasant if you have room in your army. During the siege, don't let the Peasant fight or it will get killed. Leave the Peasant behind to garrison the castle. If you didn't have room, go look for a nearby creature structure and recruit 1 of the creature. Go back to the castle and swap the single creature out and get your troops back. If you leave a castle without an army to hold it, you will likely lose it when the Week ends. The manual indicates that there is a chance that you will lose any ungarrisoned castle at the end of the week. As near as I can tell, that chance is 100%! Each castle you control adds 250 gold to your weekly commission. Once you have captured enough Villains to be promoted, head back to the King's Castle and talk to the Queen. You can now recruit Cavalry. Do so. You should think about getting rid of Militia at this time too, but that can wait for the next promotion. Now head to the left of the Castle and work your way to Celestro so that you can learn how to cast magic spells. It costs 5000 gold for Celestro to teach you, so make sure you have the money. If you are the Sorceress, just go back there for the treasure that is back there since you start with spell casting abilities. Now go after the other Villains here and explore the rest of Arcathia to find the map to Elestria and the two Artifacts. Beware of Gemelex, he is one tough fight! If possible, get all the other Villains first and get promoted again. Otherwise, look for the strongest creatures available that you can recruit. Beware of Ghosts though. Check the notes in the creature section if you need to know why! Once you have captured all six Villains and have finished exploring, head back to the King's Castle and replenish your troops. Also get promoted if you can. Next, sail off the edge of the map and go to Elestria. It will take you to the end of the Week to reach Elestria. Each Week is exactly 5 days, so if you had 348 days left when you left Arcathia, you will have 345 left when you arrive in Elestria. Save the game frequently. Explore Elestria much the same way you did Arcathia. There really isn't much that is different from here on out. Just remember to go back to Arcathia and the King's Castle periodically to get promotions and restock your army. Don't feel that you have to stick with the creatures from the castle. If you find some good creatures in a structure, recruit them. Elves are particularly nice to have in Elestria and The Pearl Islands. Eventually, you will want to stop using Pikemen as well as Militia (which you should have stopped using before coming to Elestria). They just aren't strong enough. The reason to keep Archers is for their ranged attack, but if you find a bunch of Elves, Druids or something else, feel free to switch if you want. You can even keep both. Eventually though, Archers just won't be strong enough for the area you are in. Especially once you get to Vazara. After finishing all three continents (not Vazara), save the game. Look at the map for the Staff and try to figure out where it is hidden. Compare features on the map to those on the world map and switch to the other continents if necessary. Dig where you think the map might be and once you find it, reload and head straight to it. Get the DragonBone staff, then head to Vazara, stopping by the King's Castle first if you need more troops. On Vazara, explore around the interior mountain to find some really strong creatures you can recruit. Dragons are probably the best. Take on some of the encounters for really good gold, but try not to lose any Dragons. They can take a lot of punishment before they die, but they can't be replaced as easily as other creatures since they are immune to Clone and Resurrect. You will want all 50 Dragons when you go after Malazak. Hopefully, you will actually find two Dragon dens. Each holds 25 Dragons, but occasionally, only one will appear on Vazara. (Note added, version 1.1: I have only had a few games where there were two Dragon dens. Most games there is only one Dragon den to recruit from. This limits you to fewer Dragons, but you shouldn't need that many anyway. With the DragonBone Staff, your 25 Dragons should hit harder than his 101 Dragons!) Be sure to get BOTH Artifacts here before going after Malazak. Also be sure to get the DragonBone Staff. It is always buried under the piece of the map which Malazak has, but you should be able to see enough of the rest of the map to be able to figure out where it is. I strongly recommend you stock up on a LOT of Freeze spells for the final battle. No other spell will serve you better for this fight. Also, save the game before entering the castle. You should have an army of as many Dragons, Knights, Demons, Cavalry and something else as you can afford/find/control. Dragons are the best, so get them first. Avoid Archmages for this fight since three of Malazak's stacks are Dragons which are immune to the Fireball that the Archmages can cast. Ok, pick up the contract for Malazak and head to his castle. When the fight begins, cast Freeze on the enemy Demons and continue to do so as long as the fight lasts and you have Freeze spells left. Fly your Dragons over and start pummeling the BIG group of enemy Dragons. Bring your Cavalry up next to your Dragons to help protect your Dragons from attack. It doesn't matter if your Cavalry is getting slaughtered, they're mostly cannon fodder at this point anyway. Anything your Cavalry kills is a bonus. Run your Knights into the fray as quickly as is possible, but remember to keep casting Freeze on the Demons. Use your own Demons wherever you see fit. Once you have killed all the Dragons and Vampires, then go after the enemy Demons. If you still have Freeze spells left, you can use them and still attack the enemy Demons. The enemy Demons will die without ever being able to attack you back. Congratulations, you just beat the game :-) **************************************** 3B) CHEESE METHOD At the start of the game, dismiss any Militia in your army. Enter the Castle and recruit one Militia. Exit the Castle and dismiss all groups except the single Militia. Enter the town of Rockville and rent a boat. Exit Rockville and save the game. Enter the boat and sail around the continent looking for the chest containing the map to Elestria. Any chests you find containing gold should be given to the peasants to increase your Leadership. Don't worry about creature groups wandering the land, hostile creatures can not attack while you are in a boat. Exit the boat only to quickly grab an inland chest, but avoid any encounters or you will have to reload since one Militia won't stop anything. If you find the Pouch of the Leprechaun while looking for the map, make a note of where it was. If you can't find the map to Elestria, either start a new game or reload this one and play the normal way until you can find the map. If you plan to play normally if you can't find the map, you should probably save before dismissing your initial armies rather than after renting the boat. Once you find the map to Elestria, reload the game, enter the boat and proceed to the map as quickly as possible, only pausing to grab the easily accessible chests along the way. If the Pouch of the Leprechaun is on the way or not far out of the way, grab it too. Once you get the map, sail to Elestria. If you did not pick up the Pouch of the Leprechaun yet, then go get it before sailing to Elestria. It may push you beyond the first week, but it is worth it. Once you arrive in Elestria, save the game. Now sail around Elestria looking for the map to The Pearl Islands. This time you should also check creature dwellings as you search. If you find Archmages, or any other flying creature (Sprites don't count), hire one of them and dismiss the Militia. Now press Triangle to fly (press it again to land) and fly around looking for the map rather than using the boat. If you can't find the map, but did find some strong creature structures. Try hiring some of them. Elves, Druids and Archmages are excellent choices. Then battle into the interior and try to find the map. Once you find the map, reload. If you found some Archmages or other flyers, go get them, then go get the map. Otherwise, just go get the map. Grab any easily accessible chests as well. Next head to The Pearl Islands. Once you get to The Pearl Islands, save the game and repeat everything you did in Elestria. This time you are looking for the map to Vazara. You should also focus a little more on grabbing chests at this point since they get more and more valuable for increasing your Leadership stat. You also want to find the Helm of Victory which doubles your Leadership stat. Once you get the map and Helm, head to Vazara and save the game. Vazara is a large mountainous area surrounded by desert. Cross the desert to the mountain and work your way around the mountain. Grab every single chest you can and examine every creature dwelling. You are looking mainly for Dragons. There should be two Dragon dwellings somewhere on the island, though occasionally only one will be present. Once you find the Dragons, recruit as many as you can and dismiss any non-fliers you still have in your army. At this point, use flight to continue exploring and gathering chests. Also be sure to get both Artifacts on Vazara. Then go to the edges of the islands and pick a fight. You should probably save at this point. Even just 5 dragons should be enough to win the fights around the edges of the map. These fights will give you a lot of gold which you can then use to go get some more Dragons. Don't worry about getting all 50 Dragons. You only need 10 or 15 right now. If you have the Helm of Victory and chose to give all the gold you found in chests to the peasants, you should have plenty of Leadership after cleaning out Vazara's chests. Once you have the Dragons and have killed some of the encounters for good gold, head back to the boat and sail back to Arcathia. You should probably save periodically, but I'm not going to post anywhere specific until you get back to Vazara. Land on Arcathia and press Triangle to fly. Fly around to the castles. If they have red roofs, they contain Villains. Otherwise they just contain random enemies. If it is a red roofed castle, find out who is inside, then go to any town and obtain the contract for the Villain. You should also go get magic casting ability from Celestro if you don't already have it. Don't worry about populating the castles. You will be killing things fast enough that you shouldn't run out of gold, ever. You can populate them if you really want to. It will help a little later to keep you from losing so much gold each week, but I tend to just go straight for the red roofed castles and not even worry about anything else. None of the fights on Arcathia should cause the loss of even a single Dragon. Keep an eye out for the Artifacts as you go and grab them as well. (Note added, version 1.1: It is probably best to populate the castles and probably to even take out the green castles. Just kill the enemy with your Dragons, then look for a nearby creature dwelling. Recruit one creature from the dwelling, then go back to the castle and use that creature to populate the castle. You may need to rent a boat from a town since the creature you recruit won't be able to fly.) Once you have captured all 6 Villains and have both Artifacts, get a boat and sail to Elestria. Do the same thing on Elestria and then The Pearl Islands. For The Pearl Islands, you may want to go back to Vazara first and recruit more creatures. I would stick to Archmages, Demons and Dragons though since they all fly and are VERY strong. I would skip the Vampires as too weak and the Druids because they don't fly. But do whatever you find works best. While doing all of this, look for towns that have the Freeze, Town Gate or Raise Control spells and buy 10 Freeze and a bunch of Raise Control spells. You should try to keep at least 3 Town Gate spells in inventory. If you can't afford the Freeze or Raise Control spells right now, just remember what town they were in so you can come back later. Remember where you can get more Town Gate spells from. You should probably take on a lot of the small encounters on The Pearl Islands and Elestria to help increase your gold surplus. It'll help later on. Periodically, cast Town Gate to return to Rockville and King Argus' Castle so that you can get promoted by the Queen. Then cast another Town Gate to get back to the continent you were exploring, stopping by the town with Town Gate spells if you need to restock. After finishing all three continents (not Vazara), save the game. Look at the map for the Staff and try to figure out where it is hidden. Compare features on the map to those on the world map and switch to the other continents if necessary. Dig where you think the map might be and once you find it, reload and head straight to it. Get the DragonBone staff, then head to Vazara. If you want to increase your score, take out the last two Villains now. Find out where Malazak is hiding. Get his contract and save the game. If you don't already have them, get the Freeze and Raise Control spells. Go to the Dragon dens and recruit all of the Dragons. Use the Raise Control spells if necessary. If you really want to be cheesy, save the game at this point then repeatedly choose "Wait for Week's End" until the week of the Dragon passes. Reload periodically if the Week of the Dragon doesn't happen. Now go get another 50 Dragons. It may require a BUNCH of Raise Control spells. If you don't want to be THAT cheesy, cast Town Gate to get to Rockville so that you can recruit as many Knights as possible from the castle. Head to Malazak's castle and save. Use Raise Control spells if a week has passed and your previous ones expired. Then head into the fight. Each turn, cast Freeze on the Demons to prevent them from halving one of your groups. You shouldn't have too much trouble with this fight, especially if you have more than 50 Dragons! Congratulations, you just beat the game :-) ******************************************************************************* 4) FAQ I can't beat Malazak and get the last piece of the map, what should I do? You should be able to identify where the staff is without having the final piece of the map. Having the staff already when you go after Malazak makes the fight MUCH easier. Your armies hit harder against Malazak's troops when you have the Staff. (Note added, version 1.1: You can defeat Malazak without the Staff, but you can't capture him and get the last piece of the map. Malazak will just flee to another castle, possibly on the Pearl Islands. So it doesn't really make sense to go after him without the Staff unless you just want to see if you can beat him without the Staff. The fight is definitely tougher, but still possible to win. I only tried once. I nearly defeated him in my first attempt, but his Dragons were slightly too powerful. When I came back with another batch of Knights (about 250 Knights), I easily slaughtered his last Dragons and the Demons (which I had been Freezing every turn). Malazak then fled to the Pearl Islands. I did not check, but I expect that he had an army standard for a green roofed castle like any other Villain that flees.) How do I get that chest surrounded by trees in the NW corner of Vazara? You must have only Flying creatures in your army, Sprites don't count. Press Triangle and you will begin to fly. Press Triangle again to land. Just fly in, land and grab the chest. Why can't I recruit Cavalry and Knights? You must get promoted by the Queen before you can recruit Cavalry and Knights. One promotion for Cavalry and two for Knights. Go capture some Villains and then return to the Queen. What's the relationship between my creatures and my Leadership? The total hit points for any one group in your army MUST NOT be greater than your Leadership skill when you are in combat. This is not usually a problem since you are not allowed to recruit more than your Leadership allows. But you can run into problems if you used Raise Control or Clone. Also, Ghosts will grow in size as they kill other creatures and can easily grow beyond your ability to control. The other possible way is to accept a wandering group of friendly monsters into your army. Any of these may result in having an army that is greater than your Leadership can control. Why did my army go out of control? See the above question. What happened to my Ghosts? They're all Peasants now! If the Week of the Peasant happens, any Ghosts in your army or Garrisoning any of your castles will be converted to Peasants. This does not affect the enemy armies. How do I enable cheats so I can use GameShark codes? I don't have a Game Shark, so I can't verify the accuracy of this info, but thanks go out to David Wiles for providing this code. According to David, the master code is EC87DB04 1456E60A I hope that makes sense to those of you with a GameShark :-) I have too many Ghosts now. What can I do about it? Unlike HoMM on the PC, you can't split an army. You will have to disband them, stick them in a castle or cast Raise Control on yourself. If you stick them in a castle to retrieve later, remember that the week of the Peasant will convert them all into peasants. If you decide to use Raise Control, wait until just before you engage in a fight. Raise Control will only last until the end of the week. Also, be sure to use enough Raise Control spells. While in the fight, try to get some Ghosts killed. Have them attack the strongest enemy or you will just end up with even more Ghosts, causing even more of a problem. One of the Villains had Ghosts that attacked my Sprites and now there are well over 100 ghosts in his army. How can I beat that? You don't have to. Only a few Villains have Ghosts. You can skip them if you need to and still be able to get Bounty sheets on the others. All you have to do is not skip more than 4 Villains so that you can get Malazak's Bounty sheet. If you really want to kill them, just to be thorough, then buy as many Freeze spells as you can. Get the strongest army you can, then go attack the Villain. Every turn, cast Freeze on the Ghosts. They won't be able to move or defend and you can pound them mercilessly without fear of reprisal. Just be sure to cast Freeze EVERY turn! Trolls keep regenerating and never die. How can I kill them? Trolls have 50 hit points each. There will be a lump number for the group that represents their total hit points. At the end of each turn, the group will regenreate up to the next multiple of 50, provided they weren't already at a multiple of 50. This means that you must do at least 50 points of damage in one turn in order to kill a Troll. If you can't do 50 points of damage, you can't kill a Troll. What difference does morale make? I haven't researched this fully, but morale doesn't really seem to be a big factor in this game. If you want some more information, check out FAQs for King's Bounty on the Sega Genesis. The few I have seen have some charts which list which creatures work well with each other and which get unhappy. Like I said though, I really haven't noticed a problem at all with morale, so I haven't bothered to document it myself. ******************************************************************************* 5) CONTROLS Thanks to Peter Viox for these. My dog ate my manual so I don't have the ability to make my own list without trial and error, but Peter has graciously agreed to let me post his list. I have made minor modifications and/or corrections for clarity, accuracy or formatting purposes. On the Map - X: Doesn't do anything on the map. - O: Adventure Spells menu. - Square: Brings up a map of where the DragonBone Staff is hidden. To reveal squares that are still covered, you must find the artifact or capture the Villain represented by the picture on the square. - Triangle: Toggles between foot and flight mode. You must have all flyers in your army in order to use flight mode. - Start: Adventure Options menu. - Select: Doesn't do anything on the map. - R1: Brings up a picture of the world map. - R2: Contract menu. - L1: Info about you, the character, the leader and the player of the game. - L2: Your army menu. - Right Analog Stick: Zooms in and out on the character on horse or dragon. - Left Analog Stick: Moves the character on the horse or dragon. - Directional Buttons: Moves the character on the horse or dragon. In a Battle - X: Choose spot to stand after moving around. Also attacks when in correct range. - O: Combat spells menu. - Square: When held, it centers view in the direction the selected character is facing. - Triangle: Character skip turn. - Start: Combat Options - Select: Does nothing in a battle. - R1: Changes 5 different views. - R2: Shows stats on character chosen and monster chosen. - L1: Info about you, the character, the leader and the player of the game. - L2: Your Army Menu. - Right Analog Stick: Circles view around character. - Left Analog Stick: Moves the characters. - Directional Buttons: Moves the characters. ******************************************************************************* 6) CREDITS, REVISION HISTORY AND CONTACT INFO Version 1.0 Original draft. Version 1.1 Added more questions and answers to the FAQ section. Thanks go out to all those who sent emails with questions, some of which I added into the FAQ section. Thanks to David Wiles for providing the GameShark codes and to CLN007 for pointing out that you need the Staff to capture Malazak. Thanks to Peter Viox for the list of controls. I did read the FAQs on GameFAQs for King's Bounty on the Sega Genesis, but only as a sanity check. I took no material directly from them. If anyone notices any mistakes, has any suggestions for improvements, has additional information that I have left out or has any questions, please send an email to me at: Ahlyis@pacbell.net