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*********************************************************************** Prince of Persia 3D An FAQ/Walkthrough by CyricZ Version: 1.1 E-mail: [email protected] Created on October 30, 1999 (Can ya believe it? ^_^) *********************************************************************** Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Thoughts on the Game 3. Movement 4. Weapons 5. Potions 6. Traps 7. Enemies and Combat 8. General Play Tips 9. Level 1 - Dungeon 10. Level 2 - Ivory Tower 11. Level 3 - Cistern 12. Level 4 - Palace 1 13. Level 5 - Palace 2 14. Level 6 - Palace 3 15. Level 7 - Rooftops 16. Level 8 - Streets and Docks 17. Level 9 - Lower Dirigible 1 18. Level 10 - Lower Dirigible 2 19. Level 11 - Upper Dirigible 20. Level 12 - Dirigible Finale 21. Level 13 - Floating Ruins 22. Level 14 - Cliffs 23. Level 15 - Sun Temple 24. Level 16 - Moon Temple 25. Level 17 - Finale 26. Final Thoughts 27. Updates 28. Legal Junk *********************************************************************** 1. Introduction What does one do when one looks on the Internet for answers on a game and can't find them? One makes his own walkthrough. Sh'yeah. Yep. This here's my mostly-complete walkthrough for the recently released game, Prince of Persia 3D. I WILL update this as I learn new things. So, learn and enjoy, won't you? WON'T YOU? By the by, if you haven't downloaded the most recent patch, I suggest you do so immediately, if not sooner. A year and a half later: Hoo boy... Guess it's time to dig out the old CD, eh? Those FAQ writers out there will know that this game's now on the Bounty List, so now I have a reason to complete the FAQ... :-P ***********************************************************************

2. Thoughts on the Game If any of you out there are like me, I'd be scared. Seriously, I'm a real retrogamer. I love the classics and the remakes of the classics. This is why I bought Prince of Persia 3D. I loved the original, especially the version for the Super NES with a whole new atmosphere. Naturally, I was drawn to this game, and this is what I found: This game's graphics are phenomenal. I mean, the Persain/Arabic decorum in the palace-type areas is just beautiful, and there are so many little nuances that lend to the atmosphere. I'd go into them here, but they really should be in the context of the game. Der. All this razamatazz presents a few problems with framerate, slowdown, and large loading times that may detract from the lure. The music is lovely, too. General moving around in this game presents a haunting, moody, and, of course, Persian melody. When engaged with an enemy, the beat picks up and a battle-type ditty ensues. Think of a fast-paced Persian/Arabic tume. Now, turn it into a dance mix, complete with the hip-hop percussion. That's cool. Play control in this game is a mite awkward. It's realistic, plain and simple. You can't immediately break into a sprint from the moment you start moving forward in real life, so it's the same in this game - The Prince begins with a bit of a lope to pick up speed, and skids a bit when he comes to a stop. This happens with jumping, too. The play control while fighting is very interesting. in the Combat section.

I'll get to that

Overall, this game is quite a pretty ride, and the combat really draws you in. ************************************************************************ 3. Movement Our Prince is a really strong, agile guy. He can hang by his fingertips indefinitely. He has a vertical jump that about as high as he himself is, and can swing from ropes and poles with the grace of an acrobat. What girl wouldn't want him? Most of this info will be found in your manual, and I won't give specific keystroke commands for each movement, but I'll embellish on key points: General Movement: Some of this goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, dagnabbit! Walk in any areas where the ground is narrow. In his zeal to save the Princess, our Prince may run himself right over the edge of a cliff, if you're not careful with the running. Running in large open areas is usually okay, but sometimes, in tight corridors, running will run you afoul of the odd trap. Don't forget your crouch function either. If some area seems too tight a squeeze, or there's a nasty trap blocking your path, it could possibly

be due to the fact that you're just not crawling like the Persian cobra, assuming there is one... Jumping: Get used to it quick, because you're going to be doing a lot of it. There are a few basic types of jumping. First, the standard vertical leap. This will access to ledges above you, which is invaluable, yet that's all there is to it. Second, the standing jump. You can do this in any direction, and, indeed, some situations will call for you to leap to your side. I haven't found any situations requiring you to leap backwards, but it's nice to know it's there. Finally, the running jump, when the standing jump isn't enough. Of course, using this will latch you onto distant ledges. There are non-basic jumps, too. These are done while not in a standing position, such as while holding onto something. The first is a jump off a stationary rope. Facing away from the ledge you want to drop on, let go of the Jump key and you'll drop to the ledge. It's important to note that the Prince can't push himself back very far while jumping off a rope, so you should be high enough past the ledge that you won't miss it, but not so high as you'll take damage from the drop. You'll figure this out quickly though. Second non-standard jump is the jump off a swinging rope. The time to let go is just before the rope reaches the end of its arc. If you let go on your first swing over, you may not carry as far as if you let go on the second swing, where you've picked up momentum. After the second swing, you'll start over at the lesser swing, so pay attention to your swing momentum. The last type of jumping is off a horizontal pole. When hanging from one of these, pushing forward will set you in a swinging motion. First, forward, then back, and then forward a second time. The top of that second time is your cue to let go of the jump key which was holding you here. It's as easy as that. Swimming: You won't be swimming too often in this game, but for those times you will, it's helpful to know that the foward/back/left/right will orient you in your underwater world: Forward will pitch you down, and back will pitch you up. The Jump key will push you forward in the water, whether it's down and deep, or up and out. Once on the surface, holding the walk key will allow you grab onto a low ledge and pull yourself up. Interaction: The CTRL key is the defualt interaction key. You can use it to activate switches, grab things to push or pull, pick up items, and later use them at their proper spot if they're event items. If you think you can interact with something, and it doesn't look like part of the background, try using CTRL. ************************************************************************ 4. Weapons:

Ah, yes, the good stuff. Gone are the olden days when the Prince had to rely on only his blade to get him out of scrapes. Now, he has a variety of toys to help him in his quest. The Sword: Of course, you knew the Prince would still rely on his trusty scimitar to ventilate his enemies. The sword is a balanced weapon that has average power, speed, and reach. The Staff: This weapon is a three-foot long pole that springs open to a six-foot, double-barbed staff. A slow weapon, but unsurpassed in reach and power. The Double Knives: The favored weapon of the speedy assassin, these twin knives have three blades each. One blossoming from each side, and a third blade pointing straight from the handle. These blades are incredibly fast, which is good, because you'll be fighting a long time with their low power, and you'll be right in your enemies face with their reach. More about the close-combat weapons will be explained in the Combat section. The Bow: Here's an interesting weapon. The longbow was made to be a sniper's weapon. You should never enter a direct confrontation with your bow in hand. The cool thing about the bow is that there are several different arrow types to play with. Let's look at them, shall we? Standard Arrow: What can I say? Not flashy or powerful, but it's more plentiful than the specialty arrows. Each hit on an enemy will drain one life bottle. Call of the Swarm Arrow (aka Wasp Arrow): Shooting this arrow will release a swarm of wasps upon the nearest person. If that's you then watch out. Arrow itself hits for one life bottle, but the wasps can hit the enemy for up to three more. Very useful. Atar's Fiery Messenger (aka Fire Arrow): An arrow encased in a blue flame. Does two life bottles damage, and has a special use later on in the game. Arrow of Freeze (aka Ice Arrow): This arrow freezes your enemy in his tracks, putting him out of the fight until the spring thaw, and reputedly freezes any liquid it comes in contact with. I have found no need to freeze liquid, yet. Snare of the Unwary Soul (aka Possession Arrow): This arrow, if it strikes an individual, will allow the shooter to possess the body of that individual. It has a special use at one point in the game. Ahura's Fury (aka Explosion Arrow): This arrow creates a small explosion when it strikes. I don't know how much it takes away, yet. Arrow of the Thief (aka Lifestealing Arrow): Particularly useful if you're low on health and there are no potions around. This arrow will not only decrease the enemy's health by one bottle, but it will increase the Prince's health by one bottle.

Arrow of Despair (aka Death Arrow): This arrow is quite simple. someone with it, and they die.

Shoot

************************************************************************ 5. Potions Well, they've come up with an excuse. It's seems you HAVE to drink a potion where it is, because they are a delicate mixture of rare oils and spirits, which can't stand violent shaking. Ah, well. Here are the lovely potions you'll encounter, and their color, which allows you to identify them. Some of these potions have actual names. made up have a (*) in front of them.

Some I made up.

The ones I

Soma's Tisane (Blue): What's a tisane? You got me, but drinking this quite plentiful potion can restore anywhere between one and three life bottles. It's not random, though. If you drink a blue potion that restores two life bottles, that potion in that spot will always restore two life bottles. However, I won't go so far as to telling you which blue potion heals how much. You can usually assume that a blue potion will restore one bottle. Dahaka's Blood (Yellow): This potion reportedly increases your strength and ferocity in battle. I have no mathematical proof that this is true, but I have come across a couple of these and I can't remember having lots of trouble in battle shortly afterward. *Rendalim's Elixir (Purple): They say in the manual that this one is Malak's Tears. I think it's the next one, personally. Drinking this lovely lavender potion will fully restore your health. Quite a refreshment after a hard day's combat, eh? (I named it after a good healing potion in one of my fantasy books) Malak's Tears (Red): Drinking this potion will make you immune to all arrow attacks for a limited time, it's better than becoming a human pincushion I s'pose. Gaokerena's Sap (Green): Green means GO! Get this potion whenever you see it! This is that potion, folks. Drinking this sweet, sweet nectar will refill all your life bottles and, as an added bonus, will add an extra bottle onto your health meter. Note: Although very helpful, green potions are not at all required to complete the game. Smart combat and watching for traps will allow you save your bottles and stay alive, so don't panic if you can't find green potions. Ahriman's Oil (Gray): This sludge will render you invisible to your enemies. Attack all you want, they won't fight back. Heh heh. *Phoenix's Breath (Orange): Ever wanted to be Superman? This takes you close. Drinking this potion will give you a little extra spring in your step, and make your jumps extra high and long. *Chameleon's Bile (Brown): This is an awfully unusual potion. Drinking this stuff will allow you to assume the form of an enemy in the area.

You won't be attacked by bad guys if you look like one. *Pegasus' Vintage (White): This potion will make you a breaker of the law of gravity. Once you imbibe this potion, you will fall downward at a much slower rate. Poison (Light Blue/Green): I mistook this for green the first time I saw it. This potion will decrease your health by one bottle. Solution: Don't drink. ************************************************************************ 6. Traps If you enjoyed the other Prince of Persia's, you know that the thing that made the game cool was the kill-o-matic traps. The traps in this game don't show up as frequently as in the other games, but they're still here. Spikes are a classic. In the old game, walking could get you past spikes. Not in this game, boyo. Getting too close to the spikes will leave you with a few extra holes than before. Slicers are back too. You have to time your way through the vertical blades, just like the old games. Also, a more prominent trap is the horizontal rotating blades. Most are neck high. Gee, wonder what happens if you get too close? There are also some that are ankle level, which won't put you in much of a state to continue. Crawl under or jump over, respectively. Another commonplace trap is a dart trap. A dart shoots out of a hole in the wall. They hurt. They may be activated by a pressure plate, proximity, or they may be timed. Stay alert. There are also a whole bunch of traps that show up once or twice in the game. I'll explain them as we get to them. ************************************************************************ 7. Enemies and Combat Enemies: Despite all the walks of life of the combatants, all minor enemies fall into five basic categories, one-handed weapon users, two-handed weapon users, double weapon users, archers, and unarmed adversaries. All armed adversaries increase in skill as you progress through the game. They become more and more efficient at blocking and counter striking. Archers perch in high places and let loose standard arrows down on you. They beg to be shot off with arrows. Sometimes that's your best option. Other times you can avoid their arrows and get close enough to them to strike. They do have their own melee weapons, but it takes a while for them to put their bows away and pull out their weapons. You can get plenty of licks in at that point.

Unarmed adversaries can slash away with they'll hurt. Muck forward to attack.

refer to certain monsters. They can't block, so you abandon to kill them. If they get close, though, monsters like to stay out of your range and dash Right slash as they dash to hit them.

Combat: Combat's not all that difficult if you know the intricacies. Beginner's Combat: The basic thing you need to learn is how to block. To successfully block an attack, you need hit the block key as your opponent moves to strike. As soon as your blades connect, launch a counterattack. The best way to counter strike is to attack in the direction your weapon is at the time. If the blade is to your right, attack right. If your blade is above you, attack high. This way, you'll get off the quickest hit. Intermediate Combat: Once you get more effective at blocking, add dodging to the mix. Dodging is effected by hitting back, left, or right, twice or more. This is more effective in wide areas. Also of import are some of the effective counterattacks of specific weapons. Attacks with the sword can be combined into one fluid movement, increasing the chance for greater damage. The staff can be used to execute a deft spinning manuever. When a side strike is blocked, the attacker can use the blocking weapon as a fulcrum and use it to give an opposite strike more leverage. Having the double blades is better than having one, as you can parry a blow with one, and then quickly strike with the other. Also, pressing both left and right attack will make you lunge forward in a double strike, unblockable, but dodgable. Expert Combat: Now this is stuff that goes really well when it works, but it's tough to pull off and requires pinpoint reflexes. Feinting requires some good keyboard movements, but it's a good tactic to throw off your opponent. To me, it seems a bit unnecessary. Stijn van Empel says: "Feinting is basically useless with twin blades, since a succesful counterattack with the blades is so lighning-fast it can't be blocked. It's very useful with the staff. Since the staff's fastest attack is the left-handed one, the best strategy is to do a right-hand feint then a left-hand attack." Probably the hardest combat maneuver to hit right is anticipating your opponent's movement and striking first. This can end a battle really quick, but it leaves you open to attack, so it's quite risky. Finishing Moves: This is the fun part about combat. Once you have your opponent down to one half health bottle, you can execute a killing manuever. All you need to do to execute these is wait until your attacker slumps from his wounds, and then hit any attack key, as opposed to finshing him off with rapid strikes. These can be deceptively simple, brutally grotesque, or exceedingly showy. Just for fun, I'll point out what happens with each type of enemy when you kill it with different weapons.

************************************************************************ 8. General Play Tips Goes without saying.

Save OFTEN!

Always keep an eye on your surroundings. Look up and down all the time. You never know when you'll find a ledge to climb, or an archer above you trying to shoot you down. If you find yourself in a really dangerous situation with multiple enemies, there may be times where you can avoid combat altogether by running past the whole mess. Always flip switches.

No bad comes of flipping them.

The designers tried to give the impression that you were in a real palace, so there are a lot of doors lying around that you'll never open. Assume that unless you can see beyond the door, you won't open it. If you run into a lousy combat situation, and you come out seriously wounded, consider restoring your game and giving the combat another shot. It helped me get through the game my first time. Don't drink the poison. ************************************************************************ 9. Level 1 - Dungeon General NOTE: I won't point out how to advance if it's an obvious route later on in the game. In this level I'll point out how to get around, though. However, I won't tell you how to reach a new area if it's really obvious. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Opening movie: Camera pans down onto Assan's palace. Zoom into a chamber next to a large pool. Cut to a close-up of a belly dancer with a sword. Dancer begins dancing against a black background. Moves back and then close again. Scene swithces to a lavishly decorated throne room. Musicians play their instruments as the dancer continues her dance. Pan past Assan on his throne smoking a hookah over to the other spectators of the dance: the Sultan on a square cushioned stone, his two bodyguards, and to the Sultan's right, on a cushion, looking quite bored with the spectacle, sits the Prince. The dancer comes close to him, and he begrudgingly looks up at her, as she balances her sword on her head and smirks at him. He inches over to the Sultan: Prince: "Excuse me Sultan, the Princess was expecting me..." Sultan: "And I expect you to remain seated. brother? Refuse his hospitality?"

Would you insult my

The Prince returns to his seat and casually fidgets with a tassle on the cushion.

Cut to the Princess walking down a hallway to the throne room. A guard pivots his spear to block her entrance. She begins a terse arguement with the guard, unheard to the Prince due to the noise of the dance. The guard slams the door behind him, leaving the Princess and the guard out of sight. One of the bodyguards notices and turns to his comrade, who has noticed the slamming door as well. They begin to move, when the dancer steps between them. She performs a particularly provocative move. The guard is clearly aroused, but his look of astonishment soon turns to a scream of pain. The dancer has plunged her sword into his gut (who knew?). She quickly withdraws it and strikes the other bodyguard down. The Prince stands but is quickly detained by the suprisingly strong musicians. Both the Prince and the bewildered Sultan look to King Assan. He nonchalantly releases a puff of smoke from his hookah. The camera focuses on the smoke, from behind which the Prince of Persia 3D logo appears. Cut. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, it's not that you haven't been in this situation before. Yeah, you, the Prince. This time, you have to get yourself out of prison. Fortunately, your exit from your cell is clearly defined. Note the outlined portion of the wall. Try pushing it. You're free! Kinda... The guard outside the gate apparently doesn't notice your breakout. The only way for you to go would be the cell area to the left. Stepping on the plate shuts the gate behind you, but don't worry about it. Walk up to the two prisoners to speak to each of them. Above and to the right of the entrance as you walk in is your way out. See the hole? Shimmy yourself up there. You're now in a small room with a prisoner seated at the far wall. He'll mention that you'll need a sword. Please. You think you can figure that out, huh? Continue past Captain Obvious to a room with a trough of water suspended above the floor. Hmm... What could this be? There's a pressure plate near the far wall. Hey. Get used to looking for these, they're everywhere. Step on it. Of course! You've found the showers. As the amount of water decreases in the trough above you, a door will open up next to the trough to maintain the water level. That door up there is your destination. Climb up on the bench, and then to the trough. Proceed through the now open door, and you'll enter the reservoir for the showers. Swim to the stone ledge on the right. Climb up to the bridge across the rocks. Run across this bridge, as, you guessed it, it collapses. Don't worry if you can't make it. It's jumpable. Climb up the rocks up to the passage that leads out of the reservoir area. The small alcove off to your right as you exit contains nothing. Well, here's your first trap of sorts. All it really is is a jump that, if you don't make it, will kill you. There are spikes laced along the bottom of this small pit. Just take a running leap and you'll clear the spikes. No prob. At the end of the passageway, crawl through the small opening to enter the main cell area. You'll find a prisoner here that tells you how brick stupid these guards are. As you exit his cell, there will be a guard patrolling the cell block to the right of you. To your left is your way out, a locked gate

with spikes in front of it. The pressure plate to open this gate is beyond the patrolling guard. All you really need to do is walk behind the guard as he paces back and forth. On a walkway suspended above him, you'll find a gray potion, but invisibility really isn't necessary for this occasion. Once you hit the pressure plate, the gate will open. The guard who threw you into your cell will come out of a door nearby and chase after you. Just run to the gate, jump over the spikes, the gate will slam shut behind you, and you'll be home free. In this next corridor area, there are plenty of floor traps to make life miserable for you. Just walk around them and there shouldn't be a big problem. You'll come to a big door that you can't climb over. However, the nearby awning you CAN climb on, from which you can leap to the ledge. Drop down on the other side. You're now in a room with three exits. Take the exit to your right. You'll pass a guard snoozing next to a switch. Leave him be for now and continue onward. You'll come to a corridor with two side rooms. One room has a slave working at a smith who reiterates about the sword. The other room has a slave sitting at the bottom of a shaft singing to himself (no, really!) and a box along the wall. You can pull the box away and crawl in the hole for a blue potion if you need it. Continue along the corridor and you'll come to a crane-type contraption. Turn the crank. Yippee. You lifted a box. No, that didn't do anything, but now you know what cranes can do. Climb down to the sunken mining area. Flip the switch on the wall to open a way to a large room. The wall will shut behind you, but don't panic. Using the middle platform, climb up to the door on the opposite wall and hop across the gap. Below is an area with a blue potion and a crane, but there's no way to pick anything up. Unless you need to go to the area, don't bother. Take a flying leap to the wooden platform across the room. Down below you'll see a guard. Quickly run past him to the corridor on your left. Don't move too far, though, as there's a rotating blade trap. Crawl under it, the guard won't follow you. Follow the short passage, and climb up onto the far ledge. You'll be situated above the guard now. Notice a movable box near you. Hmmmm.... Push the box over the gap in the wall. That sounded like it hurt... Wait. What did he drop? Yes! The sword! You can drop down on top of the box (and listen to the satisfying squish as you apply more pressure to the already broken body), and grab the shining blade. You'll see a small cinematic where a guard runs in to a previous room yelling "What's that noise?" to no one in particular. Retrace your steps to that room and battle the guard. Finishing move (same for all these specific armored guards): The Prince rears back his sword and comes forward in a flashy slice across the guard's chest, striking a pose as the sword spins to his other side. Follow the newly opened passage until you reach a crane. Push the box under the crane. Climb up and turn the crank. Huzzah! A green bottle! Right after your first combat, too! Drink, won't you? Continue further along the passage and you'll be back in the first mine room. Retrace your steps (battling another guard along the way) until you reach the sleeping tatooed guard. Advance towards him. Battle. Finishing move (standard sword finisher for most enemies, assume that this is the finisher if I don't bring it up): The Prince swings downward

across the guard's body, grabs the sword with his other hand, and shoves the blade through the guard's chest. On thinner enemies, the sword will be visible sticking out from the other side. Yeah, baby. Right. Flip the switch. This will open a door back in that three-exit room. Go back to that room, but take the remaining exit, with a guard beyond its threshold. Deal with him (blue potion in the corner) and proceed to the next room. You'll watch as a guard sticks his hand in a stone face's mouth and the gate will open. You can save the game and see what happens if you stick your hand in there, or you can check out that small box on the table. No way to open it, eh? Go to the room you previously opened, the torture chamber (watch the blade trap). Flip the switch on the wall. Ick. Good thing you're head's not going there. Hmm... Place the box on the table with the head crusher. Now flip the switch. Why, inside is a rather tacky bracelet! Grab the bracelet. NOW stick your hand in the stone face's mouth. Go through the gate. Up the stairs, you'll face an unhappy guard. Do him in. Continue through the gate and you've escaped the prison! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cutscene: Assan's throne room: Sultan: "Traitor!

I will have you--"

Assan: "My dear brother, your tongue betrays a forgetful mind. We have a pact. Is today not your daughter's twenty-first birthday?" (And they didn't invite her to the party?) Sultan: "You don't mean... your son?" Assan: "My son is not the problem, your WORD is the problem!" (smashes glass bottle) "Has it grown as weak and impotent as your mind? You're daughter, as promised, shall marry my son, Rugnor." Sultan: "Have you forgotten that I am still the Sultan?" Assan: (wipes hands) "Of course not. But, with your entire bodyguard.....relieved? It would be most advantageous of you to honor our agreement." Cut. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ********************************************************************** 10. Level 2 - Ivory Tower Note: From now on, I'm going to assume you can navigate areas. For example, if you see a ledge above you and there's nowhere else to go, go that way. I'll only bring up specific problems or special instances, and I'll still point out where the bad guys are. Proceed up the passage. Hey! Who's shooting at you? Fortunately, your agile and can automatically avoid the extra holes in your person. Another fortunately is that the archer up there has run out of arrows. (I told you we should've bought more than three!). There will be an

interesting-looking pool in front of you, with tusks poking out of it. To the right of where you came in is your ultimate destination, but as you proceed towards the bridge, a guard pulls the switch and raises it. Now what? The only option is to the left of where you came in. Proceed along the pathway, jumping across ledges, until you reach some medieval floor-situated paper shredders. This is tough. First, jump up to the ledge where there are shredders above you. Don't climb all the way up. Inch over to the right where the ledge has no shredders. Now, climb up, IMMEDIATELY turn around, and do a forward jump. You'll hit the ledge in the distance, and the wall that was gonna push you into the lower shredders has failed its purpose. Proceed along the platforms. Soon, you'll reach a passage with several plates on the ground and several odd-looking holes in the wall. Do yourself a favor. Don't step on them. Lightly-poisoned darts shoot out of the wall if you do. Continue past this area and you'll reach an area with two gates. The pressure plate in front of you as you enter the room will open the first gate, and the one in the back of the room will open the second gate. Simply stand on the first one, aim at the second one, and turn (while running) and you should be able to make it through the gates. Just STOP once you pass them. A small jumping puzzle awaits beyond. There are certain parts of the thin ledge above you that will crumble away. Be careful and be sure to save. Once you reach the top, you'll see a familiar face. The archer who was just trying to plug you is perched here. Advance on him. He sees you!....whoops. Man, that guys gotta switch to decaf. So, what score do you give that dive? Not very high, as he missed the pool. Grab the bow lying on the floor. Yes, you need it. Maybe you can perform a better dive? Well, just try to hit the pool, and save first, of course. While you're down here in the pool, explore a bit. There's a rather well-defined passage that leads you to a blue potion and some arrows. There are also some arrows lying by the archer's heap. Now, pull out your new toy and look over at that bridge that was pulled up earlier. Notice that symbol on the winch mechanism? Let fly a shaft. Presto! Cross the bridge. Be sure to switch back to your sword, as the guy who pulled the winch is still hangin' around. After you dispatch him, continue along, avoiding the blade trap. You enter a courtyard with a big door. You notice a prisoner being led in. A VERY familiar looking prisoner. The guard tells the gate controllers to open the door. The two guards on gate control each step on a pressure plate to open the door. Don't worry about tailing the guard and the prisoner, you won't catch up. Anyhoo, there's a door to your left as you enter. Enter that room and take a look at the ceiling. Yep, spikes at certain points on the ceiling. Perhaps you shouldn't walk under them? If you do, the floor tile rises to the ceiling, crushing you against the spikes. So, carefully navigate around the danger zones and onto the ramp. At the top you'll square off against a staff-wielding guard. After you kill him, proceed along the hallway. As you reach the end, the guard you just killed wants to get back at you for killing him and hits a nearby pressure plate before breathing his last. Pieces of the corridor floor will fall away. Don't panic. Just time your leaps and you can reach the far doorways. In one, there's a blue potion. In the other, there's a desk you can pull out of the way to crawl in a hole in the wall. In this room, there's hole in the ceiling and a crate you can push to climb

up the hole. After you do this, make a running jump across to the guard station. There, you'll fight another guard. Kill him, please. Step on the pressure plate in the station. You need to hit the other one, too, remember? No worries. Turns out the guard is a supreme loyalist to Assan and doesn't move from his post, EVER. Just pull out your bow and stick it to him. Turns out that this man is a wuss, too. One arrow drops him on the plate in front of him (Did I mention that this man is such a loyalist that he will perform his duties TO THE DEATH?). Right. Climb down the platforms (walk backwards off them and you'll climb down, and proceed through the now open door. Hit the floor switch behind the door to open the drawbridge. Hope you're not afraid of water! ********************************************************************** 11. Level 3 - Cistern As I just said, this place is mostly water. there are a few tricks to it.

It's not a big level, but

Stijn van Empel says: Use the rope to get down the well at the start. Go right at the intersection. The arrows are near the end of the passage. Since they're "under water", they're easy to overlook. As you go back towards the rope, you'll meet your first muck monster. You'll begin at one end of the underground harbor. At an ornate guard post on a bridge from far off, an archer will be firing at you. Ooh, your first archery combat! He takes three arrows, so plan accordingly. You may also opt to dodge his arrows and deal with him close up. Once you deal with him (be sure to pick up the arrows by the boxes), you'll come across your first swinging rope. Stay calm, have faith, and refer to the section on swinging jumps. You have water below you, so don't panic if you miss, and you can always save and reload. Once you reach the broken staircase, hop up the broken steps. (Hmm... Notice one part of the staircase does not seem to be connected to ANYTHING? What the heck?) Pick up the purple potion and the arrows dropped by the archer. Step on the elevator to lower yourself to the dock next to the boat. Stand next to the boat and make a standing jump onto it. Press the Action button next to the pole and you'll operate the boat. This ain't no pleasure cruise. As soon as you get underway, a sword-wielding Darkhold Assassin descends on the boat. He's better than your average guard. Finishing Move (for Assassins with swords): A downward slash, and a neck-high left-to-right slice. You can guess the result. After you beat the Assassin (there may be more than one depending on the difficulty) the boat cruises into the other harbor. Jump off the side of the boat and climb up on the crates in the water. Hop up to the perimeter docks. Don't fall in the water outside the docks. There are muck monsters swimming around that will make life miserable, and short. Climb the chain over the water, near the front of the docks. You'll land on a small bridge with a box and a switch at one end. Flip the switch, which will set the box on a crane in motion. Move the box under one of the suspended platforms above you. Climb up onto the platform and jump across to the next one. Jump over to the moving box as it slides towards you. Timing is everything, of course. Jump off the box onto the side of the harbor opposite the one you started on. There are

two ways to travel along this platform. The left side has collapsing platforms. The right side has shooting darts. Opt for the left side at a full run and you'll be fine. At the top of the harbor, right before the door, you'll meet another part of Assan's welcoming committee. Finish him. Proceed through the door to finish the level. Quick and easy, eh? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cutscene: The Princess paces back and forth in her "cell", complete with canopy bed. She lies down on the bed. A dark figure, Assan's son Rugnor, approaches the bed. Rugnor: "My royal cousin. You are to be my bride, and yet, your beauty is such that I cannot look upon you." The Princess sits up. Princess: "Bride?

Has no one told you?

I am already married."

Rugnor steps forward, exposing his were-tiger form. Rugnor: "Widowed..." Her eyes widen and she gasps at the sight of Rugnor and her worry for her husband. Cut. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************************************************************** 12. Level 4 - Palace 1 Well, now we�ve finally reached the Palace proper. from here, so stay alert!

Things only pick up

As you enter the drawbridge area, the bridge will be raised. From the passageway beneath it, a guard runs forward to challenge you. Deal with him and get the yellow potion he leaves behind. Proceed along the hallway that he came from. At the end, you�ll see a switch to your left. Flip it. The drawbridge will now lower. Flip the switch further to your right to open the gate, and crawl to avoid the blade trap. It�s timed, however, so you�ll have to hurry. Another bad boy waits at the top. Rub him out. Flip the switch up here and the drawbridge rises. Climb the bridge, watching out for the dart trap. Climb up into the window. You�ll come across a wall of crates, one of which you can push. This will, through a rope mechanism, raise the entire wall and you with it. You�ll be in an open hall, with a bubbling fountain and a blue potion, not to mention a couple of archers. One stands on the floor off to your right. The other is above and behind to the right. Kill the first one using conventional methods, and you can either kill the other with arrows or you can get to him later. There is a crate here. Push into the spot the first crate used to be and the wall of crates will descend. Climb up to the gate on the far side. It�ll close before you get there. D�oh. Look to the side of the

drawbridge that has the guard patrolling. It�s time to give him an unwelcome surprise. Hop through the window and fight him. Cross the crumbling bridge. You�ll be on the ledge above the fountain hall. Note the arrows next to you. That's actually just one arrow, but it's a Call of the Swarm, so it's pretty useful, so pick it up, won't you? Across from you will be the other archer. Getting across to him is tricky. It starts with a horizontal pole jump, followed by a swinging rope jump. Deal with the archer if you haven�t already. Climb through the open window and continue onto the hanging chain. Work your way up to the roof. The camera will shift to show the raised, slanted drawbridge. Yes, you can make it. Hop down to the drawbridge and slide down. (Whee!) Let the guard at the bottom have it. In the darkened room off to the side, there�s a blue potion. Inside the door you�ll see a library. You�ll watch as an odd elevator/platform thingamajig ascends to parts above. Speak to the standing monk. He�ll tell you about the elevator and that there�s another way out, through the bookcase. It�s rather easy to see where the secret passages are. But, which one? You can try all, but save first, of course. You can ask the seated monk and he�ll tell you that the correct one is the one behind him. Behind the bookcase you�ll find a passageway. Continue along until you enter a REALLY big library! Across from the floor, you�ll see a stack of books. That�s your way up. Proceed on up until you come to the doorway above. Climb the spiral staircase and take down the guard. When you return to the library, hit the switch. Quickly step on the platform and you�ll be carried to the other side. Watch out for an archer throughout this next part. Climb up the shelves until you�re within range of the rope to the right of the shelves. Take a guess what you do next. You�re going to have to jump on the second swing, and hold forward or you won�t make it. Cross from the platform and grab the chain. Climb up and leap backwards onto the horizontal chain. Here's where it gets nerve-wracking. Sidestep along the cahin to the archer's platform. Climb up until you�re behind a tapestry and you can see an orange potion. Drink. Hop down a step to the platform below the one you're standing on. With the super jump ability, you can make it to the platform with the blue potion on it, then further out to the platform across the library, then up to the elevator/platform thing. Hit the switch on the platform to rise up to the final room of this area. Face off against an axe-wielding guard up here and pass through the open door to the next level. Oh, wait.

There's a green potion here...

Stijn van Empel says: Walk towards the center of the room until you stand on the trapdoor that closed after you entered the room. Make a big vertical leap straight up and climb on the platform above you. (if you miss, you might lose some hp) Climb on the small pedestall in the center of the platform and make another jump straight up. Pull yourself on the edge and you are on a narrow platform with a green potion. Finishing move: You rear back, skip all flashiness, and ram the sword into his gut, lifting him as you do so. ************************************************************************

13. Level 5 � Palace 2 For those of y�all who�ve played the demo, you�ll recognize this level quickly. There�s a guard rushing you right from the start on this level. Show him how good a swordsman you are, and move on. You have three choices once you enter the split passageway room. Take the high route up the middle. Step on the pressure plate in the alcove. Immediately turn around and walk straight off the edge. There is a blade trap that covers certain areas here, but if you stay in the middle there�ll be no problem. Do an about-face and hit the pressure plate. Both gates ahead will now be open, and they WON�T stay open for long. Rush out of the area, but BE CAREFUL of the blade trap, not to mention the slicer to your left, which you will have to pass. Bound up the steps and leap across to the rope. It�s further out than you think. Swing to the other side and climb the rope on the ledge. In the next room, there�ll be tiles with spikes folding out from them. Avoid them. Attack the staff-wielder in the next room. Swing across the rope afterwards. Continue onward until you hit an empty octagonal room. You fall into a pit and the ceiling descends on you. Don�t panic. There�s a discolored section of the wall that pushes open. Make use of it. Push the wall all the way out. Proceed left along the hallway until you reach a room with a walkway above. Climb onto one of the alcoves and jump to the walkway. From where you�re standing, take the left doorway. At the end will be a switch. It opens a gate at the end of this level. Go back and take the other route on the walkway. You�ll open a gate leading back to the last rope you swung across. This time, jump down into the pool of water below you. You�ll be in the area you would have reached had you gone left in the split passageway. Run past the stairway towards the key member of Assan�s staff. Run through the gate and you�ll watch as the belly dancer assassin jumps into a pool. ************************************************************************ 14. Level 6 � Palace 3 Right. Straight ahead of you is the pool the assassin just dove in. Don�t try to follow her just yet. Instead, go past the pool. Note the archer above you and to the right. Enter the doorway situated below him. Inside, you can speak to a monk, who begs you not to hurt him. Now, to your right as you enter the inside portion is a dead end, but you can make out the outline of a pushable block. Once you push it, a rope will drop from the archer perch to the circular room opposite the monk. Also in that room is your first arrow shrine. You can charge as many arrows as you want, but the enchantment will wear off after a while. The enchantment of this shrine is explosion arrows. If anyone has found any use for the explosion arrows, besides killing guards more effectively, let me know. Anyway, the arrows the archer drops are Life Stealers, so it may behoove you to attack him hand-to-hand, instead of afar. Take a left around the rope chamber and you'll see a passage with a blue potion at the end. Get on your belly and crawl in the passage, because the darts will be flying overhead. To your left will be a hole

with a rope and a platform in the middle. Back up to the wall and leap out to the rope. Let go after the FIRST swing and you'll land short, grab the ledge, and see the reason why I said first swing. Spikes pop out of the platform. Shimmy to the left or right on the platform and climb up on a spikeless area. Walk to the edge of the platform and standing jump across to the doorway. You'll make it. Proceed along the passage. You'll see a platform on your right, and a pressure plate in front of a gate to your left. The gate leads back to the monk. Hop up onto the platform and deal with Mr. Mustache. Right after you beat him, a Darkhold Assassin will drop down to challenge you as well. Once both are dealt with, hop up to the platform above. A switch is there, and there's also a curious-looking item on the ground. Why... It's the double knives! Finally, a new weapon to play with! ^_^ Pull 'em out and fiddle with them for a while if you like, then flip the switch. Note as it shuts off the cogs nearby, as well as some chopping blades in the water. That's what would have happened if you hopped in the drink earlier. Wouldn't have been pretty. So, trot on back to the open area and jump up to the central platform. Hop in the water. You've got quite a long swim, and it'll probably take most of your air. Once you get to the blade area, you can go either left or right and you'll eventually surface in a round room. Note: The standard finisher with the knives is the Prince crosses the knives in his hands, stabs the enemy with both together, twists them, and slices apart. The finisher using knives versus bandits or assassins wielding a staff is the prince strikes his opponent behind the ankles with one blade, tripping them on the floor. Then he plants his other blade in the victim's gut (the opponent grabs the blade) and yanks it downwards, causing the place where the opponent's legs start to be just above his belly-button. This is an interesting room. Smell "puzzle" yet? We've got three closed gates. One with a triangle, one with a circle, and one with a square on the gate. The open doorway leads to three buttons with the same markings. Let's not beat around the bush. Hit the triangle button and go through the now open gate. Proceed and you'll see a room with an alcove flanked by two torches, but one is quite obviously a switch, since it's unlit and horizontal. Flip it, and the alcove opens. This next part requires a bit of timing and luck. What happens is that a Darkhold Assassin rushes up, sword drawn. Sure, you can draw your sword right away and attempt combat, but the alcove closes in a matter of seconds. Sure, you can rush right through, but you won't have time to stop and draw your weapon before the Assassin makes shiskabob out of you. So, run right in and jump past the Assassin. When you hit the far wall, then it's relatively safe to draw your sword and battle. Once you finish the Assassin, climb up the ledge at the far end. Run to the end of the passage, and hop up onto the table-like thing in the middle of the room. Put your back to the doorway, and climb up the far left ledge into the next room. Why? Because that's the only side that doesn't have a dart pressure plate on it. Climb on up. Walk your way around, avoiding the plates, and head towards the doorway leading outside. You're on a ledge now, overlooking two guards on the platform below. Take out your bow, and turn the one on the right into a

pincushion. It should take four standard arrows. You can shoot down the other guard, but it's not necessary, and you probably should save your arrows. So, why did we kill just the one guard? If you took that passage normally, you'd face off against one, and the other would walk up and stab you from behind. Not a good day... Anyway, once he's down, run back to the main shape room and step on the circle button. Head through the circle door. Hop up onto the outer ledge and take the exit out of the room. Get a running start, and take a flying leap off the ledge. You'll sail over some spikes. Continue down the hall and outside. Face off against the remaining guard, if you didn't attack him earlier. Once he's done, head towards the platform and step on the pressure plate. A drawbridge will rise up and you can head over to the tower. Unfortunately, there's nothing going on here. So, just hop onto the outer ledge and head out the left window. Take a flying leap across to the balcony, walk in, and take out the guard standing there. Step on the pressure plate, which will raise the gate, and you're back in triangle land, only this time, there's a circle gate here that's open. Run allll the way back to the first triangle gate and go through the now open circle gate. You'll ride an elevator up. Run through the passage and you'll come upon a ledge with a swinging rope leading to an opposite ledge. Swing across, and in the next room, walk around the ledge and push the vase into the lower room. As you'll soon see, you're above the triangle button, which will now stay pressed no matter what. Head back into the ledge room, and walk off and you'll safely splash into the pool. You're in the main shape room. Head to the button room and step on the square one. Head through the square gate, and the following triangle gate. Don't worry. You're almost done. Run through the passage and down the stairs, and you'll see you've finally caught up with the belly-dancer. After an impressive little spin, she'll attack. She's rather skilled, so be on your guard. Sadly, after whatever impressive battle you have with her, the finisher is still just the standard chest thrust, but at least you get the satisfaction of the sword sticking out the other side... ^_^ Pick up the potion she drops if you need it, and proceed. Be careful though. After you climb the steps, you'll see three spikes in the floor, they blossom into spinning blades of death, so take a flying leap past them, then run into the throne room. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cutscene: The Prince bursts into the throne room: Prince: (yelling) Where is the Princess? Sultan: Forgive me, my son. I am to blame. You shall have any other woman in the kingdom, ten, if you like, but I had no right to marry you to my daughter. While the Sultan speaks, Assan draws a hidden dagger from the sleeve of his robe.

Prince: There are no others for me... Sultan: I'm sorry, but that is the only choice... Assan holds up his dagger to throw... Sultan: Brother!

No!

The Sultan rushes in front of the Prince and takes the dagger meant for him. He collapses in the Prince's arms. Assan (off screen): Guards, come quick! Sultan!

That beggar has killed the

Sultan: Forgive me... As I die, so dies the pact with my brother. Your fate is with the Princess...

Go...

The Sultan gestures towards an odd balloon contraption in the distance. The Prince leaps out of the throne room, slides down the trunk of a tree, and rushes off, while several guards chase him... Cut. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ************************************************************************ 15. Level 7 - Rooftops Now, there aren't really any guards after you. Apparently, you shook 'em, so just relax. Run across the bridge. Note the green potion on your right. Tempting, eh? Shall we go get it? Sure, but we do have to go a little roundabout to get it. As you cross the platform, the gate opens up, and there's a guard standing behind it. He won't attack until you cross the threshold, so draw your sword and inch across and attack. After you finish him, proceed (don't flip the switch). When you come to the stairway, climb over the banister, and drop down the other side. There's a blade trap there for you, so no need to deal with it. Continue on, and an Assassin ahead will shut the gate in front of you. Climb out the window on your right (Ha ha! Outwitted them again!) and drop down on the ledge to face the Assassin. Kill him, and follow the ledge past the gate, and cross the odd-colored stone bridge, which, naturally, collapses. Take a leap off the bridge and run into the room on the right. On the right side of the room is a pressure plate. Step on it to open the nearby windows. Climb out. You'll see a platform opposite you that has an Assassin patrolling it. Jump over to the platform, then scale to the top. Kill the Assassin. Note the rope across the way. Take a swing across it. Now what? Look down and to your right. Nice open window for ya. The leap is tough, though. You'll need to leap from the corner of the platform near the stained glass windows. Once you're across, climb up the spiral staircase, and you'll soon reach the green potion. Yay! ^_^ Run up the nearby stairs and you'll reach a window that will drop you outside the stained-glass windows you recently opened with a plate.

There's another plate right in front of you. Step on it to open the windows once again. Proceed through and back to the open area from a while ago. Don't worry about much of this open space, just hop across to the ledge opposite and climb up to the windows right above. Walk onto the ledge and look down. Note the Assassin. Face him and side-hop down to the lower floor. Pull out your weapon and teach him a lesson. Continue on and you'll reach another open area. Rugnor will be here with the Princess and he'll tell a bare-chested Assassin to stop you. The Assassin will do so by closing off the nearby gate. What is it with people and their thinking they can stop you with gates? Anyway, there's a rooftop off to your left that's your new destination. Hop up onto one of the brick pillars lining the roof you're on, and hop over. Note the Archer above and to the left. Kill him if you want, but it's not necessary. Look to the right and you'll see a small window with a blue ledge. It looks far, but you can make it with a leap. Climb up and jump onto the chain in the middle of this new room. It's actually connected to a lamp, so you'll have to jump off when you reach the bottom. You have two exits in this new room. Take the one that has a dark room in the distance. DON'T enter this dark room! There's an invisible bad guy there that will dice you up nicely, and you can't return the favor! Instead, climb the staircase and you'll eventually reach a pressure plate. Step on it and you'll open up the first set of bars in a grille above you. To open up the other set of bars is a little more complicated. Get to the room below you, either by dropping or going back down the stairs and going the other way, and head outside. There's a tower immediately to your right that you need to get to. To get up there, you need to push a box, but it's at an odd angle. Push it one space to the right side of the tower, and push it towards the tower the rest of the way. You can scale the box and then the tower. As you look across the nearby passage, you can see you're in Trap City. There are floor spikes first, then a blade trap just after. Save, natch. Leap across the spikes and stop short. Drop to the ground and crawl under the blades, then watch out again, for there's a timed dart trap in the wall. Such fun... Proceed out the doorway, avoiding the darts, and hit the pressure plate to remove the other set of bars. Climb up to ledge, shimmy over to the now open grille and go through. Where the heck are we now? There's a ledge above you. Get to the very edge of the ledge you're on, turn around and jump up. Note the potion. Note the greenish-blue color. That's poison. Get it? Good. Turn around and jump onto the next ledge. Get a good running start and leap onto the rope, swinging across. Nothing to do here, but jump onto the roof off to your right. Enter and descend the stairs, but watch out for a floor spike trap at the bottom. Tough to avoid on stairs, so get at the very bottom of the stairs, and make a standing jump across them. Once you're in this new area (looks like the exit would, doesn't it, well, tough...), hop off the ledge and look across. You'll notice an Assassin has seen you. Now would be a good time to use some good arrows. If you picked up a Call of the Swarm arrow, use that. Jump over to the ledge, climb the stairs and you'll eventualy hit a switch.

This will drop a lantern into the dark room, and you'll be able to see your adversary. Run back down the stairs, around the right side, and you'll hit the plate for a gate that'll lead to Mr. Black. He's armed with a staff and he's actually pretty good, so beware. Once you finish him, continue forward and you'll ride an elevator up. Go out, turn left on the ledge and carefully enter the doorway at the end, avoiding the spikes in front of it. Turn right and run head down the passage. Look out when you get the stairs and note the rafters hanging overhead. Jump and grab onto one of them and shimmy your way across. As you'll see, the stairs will open up below you, so it's a good thing you used the rafter. Once you make it all the way across, drop down and exit the hallway to the outside. Jump across to the waterway you'll see across from you. Go forward down the waterway and down the stairs. You'll see a rope and the bare-chested Assassin across from you. To get across, you need to make a run from the stairs, and leap at the bottom, grab the rope and swing across. Regain your composure and draw your weapon as soon as possible. The battle with the Assassin is tough, because you'll have to learn to deal with a knife wielder. Remember to back up whenever he tries the double stab. Once he's dead, pick up the potion he leaves behind, hop onto the balcony behind him and head for the double doors to finish! Yay! ^_^ ************************************************************************ 16. Level 8 - Streets and Docks Time for some street combat. You'll notice immediately that directly across from you are two ruffians. They're not friendly, and fighting them is very tough, since you can only concentrate on one at a time... You have a couple of options. You can try fighting them using fancy dodging techniques to avoid both of them, which is risky and hard, or you can climb up on the box next to you, and either shoot them with arrows or just plain avoid them. This is, by far, the safer choice... Once you're on the box, climb up to the ledge above quickly, because the bad guys can still hurt you from this height. Walk along the ledge, and be prepared to jump past the first wooden section of the ledge (it gives way). Walk onto the gate next to you and cross to the other side of the street. The reason you're up here is to get a Call of the Swarm arrow, so if you feel you don't need it, just drop down. Anyway, on the opposite side of the street are several traps. First, there's a floor spike, as you'll be able to see. Right after that, there's a plate that'll activate a dart shooter. Across the way, on the next ledge, is another plate that'll activate another dart shooter. It doesn't help that the camera likes to pick an angle for you here, either. Anyway, hop over the spikes, then sidestep to the edge of the ledge so you can avoid the dart, then jump over to the ledge, hopefully close enough to the edge so the next dart misses you, as well. Cross over to the alcove here, and claim your Call of the Swarm arrow. Anyway, drop down and head towards the fountain. Note that past the fountain, are a couple of gates. Note also the keyhole. Continue down the street, and there will be a small alcove off to your

left. You can see the misting of a potion there. It's a brown potion. Chugging it will make you look like any of the ruffians on the streets at this point. Let's not use it yet, though... First, let's kill the thug down the small alley to the right. With him out of the way, you don't have to rush as much. Anyway, take a few cautious steps down the long alley to the left, and you'll see that the camera man is on your side, for you're given a shot of the area at the end of the alley. There are two guys, which can make life very complicated. Naturally, this is where the potion comes in. Drink it. You'll be a thug for about thirty seconds. Run down the alley. Follow it all the way to the end and climb up the opening into a building. Run up the ramp, and you'll notice a key on a table. Pick it up, and the blue potion nearby, and hop down out of the window. Head back to the fountain and use the key on the keyhole. Note: You CAN make it without killing the first thug, even chugging the blue potion and picking up the key, but it's a tight squeeze, so you're better off in the long run just getting rid of the first guy ASAP... Once you open the gates, you have two choices.

Left or right:

Right: Don't go this way. You have to jump over some spikes, avoid a guard, and jump over another set of spikes, and your reward is a bottle of poison. Left: Go this way. Both ways lead to an There's a lot of dart-shooting going on, about that. Just run off the edge, face sword, so you can deal with the old coot Once Old open it. holes in your run may take

area with some wooden rafters. but you don't need to worry the far end and draw your with the staff.

Guy's dead, walk over to the grate and press the Action key to Hop down into the sewers. Watch that first turn. See the the doorway? Those have nasty spikes. You'll have to time through them. Wait until they poke out, then hit forward. It some experimentation.

Go towards the hole in the floor and back into it to grab onto the side. You'll get a new angle on things, and you'll see the spikes in the hole. Wait until they stop, and drop down. Head up the stairs and look down into the pit. Your first muck monster! Jump down when he's not all that close and draw your weapon. As I said in the combat section, the way to beat muck monsters is to strike to the right as soon as he starts to slither towards you. He'll go down rather easily... Walk into the next passage. You'll see the pit in front of you has spikes. The passage ahead of you is elevated, so you can't reach it even with a leap. Solution? Look above and behind you. Climb up into the alcove. Back up to the wall and take a running leap out to the horizontal rope. Swing off the rope (on the second swing) and climb into the passage. Oh, fun... Now you've two sets of those wall spikes to deal. This'll take a while. Run through them one at a time, stopping short of the second one. It's tough, but doable.

Climb the rope at the end of the passage and you'll leave the sewers. Finally, you're at the docks. This area's big, haphazard, and quite confusing, but there are three points of interest. One has a green potion. One has an item you need to proceed, and the third has the way out. Note: Don't fall in the water. There's been a recent muck monster infestation, and they're much more adept at combat in the water than you. First of all, watch out for the wooden platform near the building in front of you, it'll collapse (but it'll only drop you a level). Climb up onto the wall to the left to avoid it. Drop down on the far side. You'll be facing a few ramshackle buildings. The one in front of you and to the left has the green potion, but there's no obvious entry. To get inside, you'll need to get under it. Drop down a level of platforms, and you'll notice a whole on the bottom side. Climb up, and claim your prize. The item you need is in a rather obvious building, in the sense that it's the only one with burning torches. It's at the far end of this dock system, and tough to miss. Go inside, talk to the old man if you like, and pick up the flute on his table. Now, for your way out. You can try the docks that extend out onto the water, but you'll quickly learn that part has broken off and you can't make the jump. As you exit the flutist's hut, you can see a rather large stone building off to your right. You can try the water level entrance, but it won't help, since there's a nasty patch of spikes in the way. The way you need to get in is on the top floor. So climb up there however you can (there are several ways) and look inside. With all the rotten beams and wood, it's tough to see the wooden panels. The first is right across from you on the same level, but a little to the left. Hop onto it. Next, face towards the left, back up as far as you can on the platform, and leap out towards the wall. You should land on, or at least grab, a platform one level down. After that, turn around, and you can jump onto the wall below. Just make sure you don't land in the small section. If you fall at all, you want it to be in the larger section. Anyway, once you're on the ground, head towards the dug up hole in the corner. This will lead to a mineshaft type thing. Proceed along the tunnel. Evenutally, you'll come to a big pit. This is too far to jump, but you can get a few extra steps from the planks sticking out. Just don't linger on them, because they fall. Proceed along the tunnel and you'll come up on a muck monster in a pool of water. You have to make it past him, but you don't necessarily have to fight him. What I normally do is get a running start, leap into the pool, then quickly climb out the other side. Simple, and relatively painless. Proceed and you'll come to another hole, but this has a ledge on the side, so make use of it. Keep going forward. Eventually, you'll see a side passage to the right, which has a blue potion. At the end of the tunnel, you'll see a rope on the floor. Press the Action Key and you'll pull out your flute. With a silent song, you'll raise the rope (It's magic, baby!) and you climb up to the pier.

Okay. As you proceed along, you can easily see two huts. One to the far left, and the other to the far right. Go left first. There's nothing in the hut, but try climbing on top of it. Still nothing? Turn around and look at the raised pier. Ah! Arrows! Hop over and grab them. You now have three Atar's Fiery Messengers (aka Fire Arrows). Head back to the other hut. This has a yellow potion inside. Take it. You'll need all the help you can get. Move out towards the balloon thing in the distance. Once you reach a big square platform, a rather large muck monster will leap out and attack you. I've found this guy likes to get really close, so, if he tries to go toe to toe with you, just swat him with the sword. Yes, you're partly in the water, but you're okay for now. Simply head to the ramped pier in the distance (Use the Look function if you really want to see your floor) and start hopping along the wooden piers, and you'll reach your destination, of the dirigible dock wall. Climb over the wall. There are two guards and two archers around here, but you don't need to worry about any of them. Just jump into the water, (it's safe) and swim to the pier on the other side. Climb up and run into the open door to end the mission. Hope you're not afraid of heights... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cutscene: The Prince enters the main staging dock for the dirigible. He looks above and sees Rugnor and the Princess on a platform above. She sees him and waves and screams to get his attention. Rugnor pushes her away and roars to the crew. The crew cut all the ropes holding the dirigible in place. A herd of elephants pulls on a wheel that guides the massive wonder of techonology out of its dock and into the open. The Prince cuts a pulley line which vaults him to a higher platform, races out and grabs a trailing rope on the lowest platform, as the dirigible takes to the sky. Cut. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ************************************************************************ 17. Level 9 - Lower Dirigible 1 If you've looked at the Table of Contents, you'll see that there are four areas to the dirigible. This is one big puppy... This first part is actually quite straightforward. Climb the rope. Walk inside. The (unarmed) crew member will tell you the passenger compartments are above (Duh, everything's above at this point). Climb up the boxes. You'll fight a roustabout here. These guys are really thin, but they're no different than any other guard. I'm going to call them rousts from now on, to shorten things...

Twin knives versus roustabouts finisher: The prince stretches his arms and spins around hitting his enemy 3 or 4 times. The last strike goes right across your opponent's spine. Anyway, keep climbing up ledges until you reach a metal tub like structure. Don't worry about the nearby conveyor belt. Just climb onto the boxes into the back of the tub, then to the hanging box. Climb onto the ledge. Notice the roust across from you. He looks a bit different. It's tough to get into combat with him, because you start at a different level. You can try to soften him up with arrows if you like, but he has to be killed in close combat, so run up and past him, and then draw your sword. If you're lucky, you won't get hit. Kill him, please. (Finisher for these guys: Slash, Slash, and then a gut thrust, and a short lift into the air before dropping him) Hit the plate and walk inside the compartment. As you walk in, the roust you just finished will dissolve into the ground. The crew hand will tell you that you have killed one of the Al-Khazin brothers. When you kill one, the rest grow stronger. What this means is that subsequent guards of that type have more and more bottles of life. Beware. There are Ice Arrows in this area. Climb up to a balcony on the outside using crates, and you'll find them outside a balcony blocked from the inside by horizontal bars. Off to your right in this little compartment is a blue potion if you need it. Climb out the other side of the compartment. There a couple of ways to go from here. Neither is particularly perilous, nor particularly rewarding. You can jump straight off the platform in front of you, climb the rope, and jump to the other side of the tower, or you can go to your left, hop across the crate, and then onto the suspended ramped walkway. Either way, your destination is above. Climb a rope into a metal compartment. There's another rope nearby. You'll have to make a running jump to get on it, because the floor below it gives way. Climb up. Ascend the ramps and you'll face off against another Al-Khazim brother. Kill him, watch him dissolve, and make your way around the platform. Hop onto a wooden platform near the main mast, and climb up until you're in a little gear room. Walk out the other side and hit the plate to lower another platform. Go out onto the new platform and start climbing. Eventually, you'll reach a large platform with a roust. Take him out. There's a blue potion on the unfinished portion of the platform. Grab it at your own risk. Note the moving platform above your head. Hop up onto the nearby crates and jump onto the platform when it gets close. Jump to the higher bridge when it reaches it. Proceed along this bridge and jump up onto the suspended square platform, then up onto another bridge. Move to the end and hop onto the large suspended crate. The crate will lower and raise another crate at the opposite end. Make your way to that crate, hop up onto the square platform next to it, jump onto the crate, and quickly jump tothe next square platform before the crate drops. I don't think it's timed. It seems to be only gravity sensitive. Anyway, now you're next to a vertical conveyor. Carefully hop onto a nearby rising platform and ride up. As you get high enough, jump onto

an opposite platform, then hop onto the rope and climb up to the inner mast. A door closes behind you. Guess what? You're done 1 out of 4 dirigible sections! ************************************************************************ 18. Level 10 - Lower Dirigible 2 This part is less single platforms and outrigging and more actual large platforms. It's still a bit of a mess, though... Climb up and you'll notice three openings. Take the one furthest to the right, and climb up. Climb up the rope and watch the moving platform. Drop onto it when you get the chance. Jump onto the bridge. To your left is a small enclosure you can jump to and swing a rope to. This enclosure has five standard arrows for your snagging pleasure. You can use these to snipe at the guard if you wish, or you can just hop up and duel with him yourself. The nearby plate will open a small pen with a blue potion. Cross the platforms and bridges and take note of the nearby archer. If you jump up to the platform near the small enclosure, and step on the plate, you'll find a red potion, which will make you impervious to the archer's arrows. Climb further up and make your jump to the moving platform. Jump onto the bridge, and, if you wish, you can use the rope to climb down and attack the archer. Beat him, and hop down to grab a purple potion to refill your health, which probably needs it... Climb back up, and you'll enter a new platform. You'll be able to climb inside and out to fight a roust. Flip a switch to raise a platform, and now you can cross to another bridge, and fight another Al-Khazim brother. Take him out and proceed onto a new system of platforms. Whee... There's a green potion up here, but there's also a guard who operates a little cannon dealie... This cannon will fire at you if you get in front of it, so you'll have to climb around it, using a rope and the platforms nearby. Note the chain suspending two crates. Eventually, you'll need to step on one crate to lower it and raise the other that'll block the cannon. But first, let's get that potion. To get to the potion, proceed across the platforms to the left of the cannon, then, as soon as you get a good position next to the horizontal chain, jump out and grab it (standing jump). Swing across and snag the brew. Head back down, step on the furthest crate to lower the near one, then proceed to that crate, hop up, and deal with the guard standing there. Defeat him, and a box will bust open revealing an Al-Khazim brother. Note the switch and the two pressure plates. These control the cannon. Formulating an idea yet? Yes... Step on the plate nearest the switch twice to point the cannon at the Al-Khazim brother, then flip the switch to kiss him goodbye. Hop onto the platform he previously occupied and run up to the elevator. Don't relax. You're not done yet... Ride the elevators up to the top. You'll get a small cutscene where you'll see an Al-Khazim brother entering a stone building, but the door will close behind him. If you try to get there, the bridge beneath your feet will drop you a level lower. You need to get there the old

roundabout way, like always. Far below you is the lowest platform. There's a guard on patrol here, and there's no reason to go down there. Near below you is a moving platform on rails. You need to drop onto that, and climb up at the other end. After which, you'll need to get by a conveyor belt/slicer duo. Run up to the slicer, stop as it slices, then run again and take a mighty leap as soon as you have room. This is the monkey bar area. Take a standing jump out to the first bar, swing over, hop onto the elevator and climb up. At the set of two bars, jump straight up to the first one, then swing over to the second one (let go of the jump key, then hold it down again before you grab the second bar). Once you're on the next platform, turn right and you'll see a rope. Take a running jump out to it. Now, you need to swing onto a moving platform. Wait until it gets close, then let go and pray. Ride the moving platform to the stationary one and jump on it. Now face to the left and you'll see two moving platforms below you. Jump on the closer one when it's under you, then jump on the second one, and climb up to the bridge. Tired of all these acrobatics yet? Walk into the metal structure and flip the switch. Jump on the platform that lowers, ride it up, and jump off at the top. Walk outside, face to the left, and run over to the box moving area. This is where the dirigible performs the essential task of moving boxes back and forth! Drop onto the floor of that area and time your runs. After the boxes, you should see a doorway on your left. Run through it, and drop down onto a big crate. You can drop down onto the lower bridge and deal with the slicers, or you can simply run and jump to the bridge on your right. You can make it. Anyway, now you can hop onto to the spinning fan blade and cross to the other side. Naturally, you'll need to time your jumps properly to get it. Climb up and you'll finally be able to access the room that contains the final, most powerful, and most skilled Al-Khazim brother. Defeat him, and flip the switch. Whooooooa! Your foe's body tumbles out and you almost follow him. Unfortunately, your weapons do follow him. You're now unarmed. Poopie... Climb up the inside of the room that's now vertical. Once you reach the top you'll find an elevator. Hop on and you'll ride to one final bridge. Go to the end of the bridge, where the lift will take you up and out of these accursed bowels... Finally! ************************************************************************ 19. Level 11 - Upper Dirigible Hey, this is new... So, how'd they manage to fit a whole palace on here? to ask questions... Now's the time to get armed... First of all, note the locked gate.

Now's not the time

The key is in the pool.

Once you

open the gate, crawl under the sword-swinging statues. In the next room, run straight for the first pressure plate, and leap over the second one. There's a guard that'll make mincemeat out of you if you don't hurry. Run into the next room and look at the floor on the far left. Why, it's a staff! Pull it out and experiment with it. Fun, eh? There are two finishers for the staff. One is an artsy little move where you knock over your enemy with a smack, spin around, and plant the staff in his back. The other one grabs the enemy around the neck with the staff and snaps his neck with it. Groovy... Now, run up the nearby steps and you'll engage in your first staff duel. After the guard's finished, crawl under the sword-swinging statues, and under the most dangerous ceiling fan ever... Continue on. Jump out the window and run like mad towards the opposite end of the bridge before it retracts. Make a jump if you have to. In this new room, flip the switch. Watch the crate drop into the pusher. Once the crate drops out of sight. Run over and jump onto it. Climb up on top of it. Make a standing jump off it, run up to the wall, and jump up quickly. Once you're up on top, continue, grab the blue potion, and move onward. Run down the stairs, and outside, and you'll fall through a trapdoor. Whoops! Hit the pressure plate, then fall through another trap door. Oh no! We're back on the outrigging! *sob* Well, drop down to the next platform and fight the guard. Take the potion he leaves behind and continue along the platforms. Watch out for an archer to your right. When you reach the box pusher, you could keep climbing, etc., or you could take a shortcut and jump right from the platform to the archer's perch. It's a completable jump. Do that. Once you kill the archer, take his bow. That was quick. Now you're ready for some action. Note that you lost your bow, but you still have all your arrows. Not bad. Pick up the three standard arrows on the floor nearby, and head for the top of the box being pushed around. Cross the box top to the gray platforms. Climb up the platforms, cross another box top, and more gray platforms. Watch out for the long one. The middle collapses. Keep moving and climb up to a red-stained metal hole. Red-stained? Grab the ledge but don't climb up, because the mother of all food processors is up there... Watch it with the Look, and wait until it stops. Climb up and get down on the ground. Look up for a hole, crawl under it, wait for the blade to stop, and jump up. Next, you'll have to deal with a conveyor and two slicers. Simply run past both of them, but stop a little short at the end so you don't fall past a ledge and take damage. Anyway, get to the ground floor, and head for the opening in the wooden wall. Get up to the ramp and you'll be at the garden (in a dirigible?) Face off against the guard and move into the next room. The gates will slam shut behind you. Start climbing the tower in the middle. Once you can jump to the nearby platforms, do so, and grab the orange potion. It'll be a little awkward, but you'll have to make some vertical jumps to catch the ledges. Jump straight up, then back to the tower. Jump out to the next platform and hit a pressure plate to drop a bridge. Jump over there, jump up a level, and hit another pressure plate. Keep doing this, and eventually, you'll lower an elevator. Hop on, and your super jump will wear out as you go up.

There's a Despair Arrow in this area. It's on one of the hanging islands in the area. It's tough to reach, though, even with the orange potion. Climb the rope. You're going to drop into a rotating room. Getting out is a simple matter of jumping when you pass the ledge. Keep moving, and you'll reach a room with hammers. The hammers are actually pretty easy to avoid. You won't take damage if you run into them while they're down. Pass them, and continue on to a metal room. Lower yourself down the hole. Don't drop or you'll take damage. The crewman here will tell you there's poisonous gas in the next room. Step on the nearby pressure plate and enter. You can see the vent on the floor. You can also see a box at the far wall. There's a switch that will open the ceiling above you, lower an elevator, and release the gas. The first two are pretty good, but that last one kinda stinks... To alleviate it, grab the box and pull it onto the vent. Flip the switch, get a step away from the box, and jump onto the lift. Ride up, jump off, and face a staff-wielding Darkhold Assassin. Kill him. Head to the center structure and climb up on the upper deck. Hmm... A catapult. Look up and look for a post with a net in it. That's your destination. How are we gonna get there? Well, I think you know the answer, but we have to compensate for a failing in the machine. Hit the pressure plate to the right of the catapult and you'll twist it to the right. Jump up the ramp leading to the launcher, and you'll slide(?) up. Walk onto the launcher, and you'll be thrown into the net. Climb on top of the net, and climb once more to reach the very top of the dirigible. Phew! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cutscene: As the prince reaches the apex of the dirigible, the contraption enters a nasty patch of cumulo nimbi (storm clouds). The storm rips into the dirigible, setting a patch of canvas on fire. Cut. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ************************************************************************ 20. Level 12 - Dirigible Finale All right! butt!

We're at the top!

Woo hoo!

Let's go kick Rugnor's furry

Climb up, turn right and time your movements so you can get past the flame jet. Attack the guard. Once he's dead. Jump across towards the rope. Swing it to the center platform, which will give way. There's a rope down here, though. Climb up, jump off, and climb on top of the structure. Step on the pressure plate. The panels surrounding will fall down, and the last one reveals Rugnor... Pull out your staff and attack.

Rugnor's good, and he's got the advantage of a long sword... The way I usually do things is inch towards him until I can hit him with the staff with a right attack (the longest). He usually can't respond, and you can knock him down easily this way. Finisher: The Prince rams him with his shoulder, knocking him off the platform. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cutscene: Rugnor plummets into the mists. sword in his hand?).

The Prince looks down on him (with a

Princess (from far off): My husband! The Princess waves from her perch. swing over.

The Prince grins and grabs a rope to

Suddenly, Rugnor reappears on an odd winged beast. He swoops up and grabs the Princess. The Prince makes a swing on the rope, but his luck catches up with him, and he misses, plummetting into the clouds. Princess: Noooooooo!!! Cut. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ************************************************************************ 21. Level 13 - Floating Ruins Ack!

Where the heck are we?

Well, apparently, this was the leftover of a mad wizard, who created a floating castle in the sky. Now, all that's left are these ruins. Perfect for a running and jumping Prince such as yourself. You'll splash down in the water. Climb out. You'll see a harpy across the way. They're nasty. With their long double blades, they can make a mess out of you. I suggest making her a pincushion with your arrows. Once she's down, jump onto the spot where she was, and continue on. When it looks like you have nowhere left to go, a path will form in front of you. Run along it before it drops. Take a leap onto the ledge and hop onto the structure. Time your jumps across the two up and down platforms, and hop onto the next set of appearing platforms. Run, jump onto a swinging rope, land on a horizontal bar, swing onto a moving platform, jump onto a swinging rope, and hop up onto a ledge, and get me some coffee... Wait, scratch that last one... Anyway, there's a castle-like structure in front of you. On the left side is a blue potion. Run onto the structure, watch for falling blocks, and start climbin' up the structure. Once you reach the top, leap out to the horizontal bar. Jump off, slide down the ramp, and jump off the next two horizontal bars. Run up the steps and you'll see a fiend. He's a tough fight, mainly because you can't attack him until you're really close. I usually run up to him, pull out the staff and just hit him a billion times, since he can't block at that range. He'll drop a blue

potion. Run up to the next structure. Hop across the gap to the other side, and there'll be a moving platform. Jump onto it and ride it up. Jump across and inside. Immediately rush and jump onto the bar before the wall crushes you. Swing off the bar, and rush and jump onto the next platform. Climb off and cross the roof of the structure quickly, before the walls push you off. At the end, jump onto the railing and walk into the hole. Time your movements between the moving walls and drop into the next hole. There's another harpy down here. Shoot or risk the fight. Cross over to the stairway, run down it and out to the next platform. All right, jump out, hit the pressure plate on the next platform, and a section of the wall will move away. Jump across the platforms and hop up the hole in the wall. You'll find an orange potion. Time for some mad jumping. Take some flying leaps across the platforms. You're aiming, eventually, for some large stone platforms. You'll see a spiral staircase thing. At the top is a blue potion if you need it, but it's quite out of your way. Look for a big pool. To the right of it is your next destination. Keep jumping, and look for a big rock formation above and to your right. On a stone railing nearby is a sheaf of five arrows. You can use them for the harpy on the large rock formation, or just fight her. After the fight, go to the far end of the platform and climb the series of stone platforms. To your left will be an interesting statue. To your right is your next destination. Climb up to the right. This is an interesting little area. First, you've got ankle-high blade traps. Walk around them. Next, you've got a rotating platform with zapper things and three pools around it. These three pools connect by cute little warp points at the bottom. The pool on the right is your first destination. Avoid the zapper things, and jump into the pool. Once you warp, surface and jump out onto the rotating platform. Hop onto the stone platform nearby and make your way to the odd-looking gem in the stone. Grab it, and jump up to the light brown stone platform. There are ankle blade traps up there. Don't even bother with them. You make the jump back into the pool from the side you're on. Dive in and you'll surface in the third pool. Climb out of the pool, up the stairs, and make your way past the first ankle traps and head for the statue. Note that the eye of the statue is exactly the same as the gem you carry. Climb up to the empty eye socket of the statue and down and watch the hands open up. The creature, a but you should be more interested in what's behind your sword! Or, at least, a sword that looks like

place your gem. Jump lamasu will fly off, the lamasu. It's it... Grab it.

There's a harpy, too, and she's ready for you. I suggest just jumping and running past her, unless you want to use up some more arrows. Anyway, jump past her and you'll slide down a ramp. At the bottom, you'll reach a new area, and the camera will decide to play a little trick with you. It'll be at a fixed angle, and you'll see a complete floor, but if you use your Look function, you'll see it's an optical illusion. Carefully, make your way around this area, snagging the blue potion if you wish, and jump over to the fiend. Kill him quickly, grab the potion he leaves behind, and run up to the raised platform inside. It's an elevator, and a long one at that... Ride it

all the way, and jump up at the top. Using the ropes and jumping, climb up to the top of this new structure and head inside... Hmm... Interesting. First, I'll tell you to push the box against the closed door. Now, step on the pressure plate.

Whoa!

WHOA!

Where are we?

Take a good look around. Hey! You're shrunk! Neato! Run towards the center and climb the rope. After you reach the top, climb up the ledge, run out and swing across the rope. Run around the rotating disk and hop off the edge onto the ledge. Keep running and jump onto the nowhumongous box, and through the keyhole, where you'll grow back. If you take too long, you'll regain your size prematurely. Anyway, cross some more platforms. You'll notice a green potion off in the distance. Don't worry, we'll get to it. Make your way down and to the right. Notice that arrow shrine? Use an arrow on it. Weird... Shoot it at that roust that's pacing back and forth over there. WHOA! Talk about your out-of-body experiences. Use the roust's body to push the box. Once you change back, get the potion, and make your way back to the arrow shrine and up to the structure. Enter the plaza and you'll be set upon by three harpies. No es bueno. Ah, but the lamasu showed up! Run over and leap onto it to finally exit this acid trip of an area. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cutscene: The lamasu, with the Prince astride, takes off from the ruins. It flies over the ocean until it reaches a land high in the mountains, with darkness all around, and a looming castle. The lamasu swoops down and lands on a platform near the bottom of the castle. Cut. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ************************************************************************ 22. Level 14 - Cliffs All right! For some reason, the lamasu dropped you off at Rugnor's magnificent palace thing! Lucky coincidence I suppose... Of course, he had to put you at the farthest possible place, but whatever... Anyway, proceed along the rather obvious cliff path, jumping and running as necessary. No real surprises here. Note the waterfall. Note the cave behind the waterfall. There are five standard arrows in there for you if you desire. Climb up to the highest point on the right side of the waterfall and cross using a horizontal bar. Once you reach the other side, you'll see a door, and a human-sized mound of snow nearby. Hmm? Well, you can't do anything here, so proceed along. Move along the right side of the mountain and you'll eventually reach a

temple. Go to the right of the temple and up into the nearby alcove. Note there's a small piece of meat here. Grab it and enter the temple. There are a lot of rats in this area, and a pressure plate. Step on it, and you'll open the gate that leads further inside (and what the hell is that?). Unfortunately, the plate needs constant pressure, so drop the meat on it. The meat alone isn't enough weight, but the rats that swarm towards it are, so head straight ahead or to the right to enter the inner temple. Square off against the demon (Finisher: Beheading) and grab the double knives in the corner. Hooray! You're fully armed now! Step on the pressure plate and the skull will rise, revealing a flame. This is actually an arrow shrine. Charge up an arrow with fire and quickly make your way back to the door and human-sized snow mound. Fire the fire arrow at it, and lo and behold, you've freed a kindly monk, who opens the door for you. Fall through the patch of snow at the end of this path, and jump over to the opposite cliff. Climb up. Note there's a really thin path. You'll have to side jump to grab it. Inch around and keep climbing up. Evenutally, you'll reach a broken bridge. The way to cross is with a swinging rope in the distance. Climb up and jump across ledges. Be sure to be constantly looking around for ledges that lead up. Watch out for snow patches. Sometimes they conceal holes. Keep climbing up. As you get higher, you'll run into a manrat. These guys can't block, so slice him up. Climb up to the building area. Hit the pressure plate to the right of the door to open it up. Proceed through, and note the Assassin that's far off in the distance. Don't go too far forward to attack him, because there's an archer behind you. Kill the Assassin and go inside the larger building. There's a big hole in the floor and a gray potion behind the gate. Climb down the hole and drop down. There's a manrat down here, and a green potion. Easiest green potion you'll ever get, believe you me... Run back up and climb the rope. Once you're out, you can grab the gray potion to make yourself invisible. Climb up, walk past the Assassin (or run him through while he can't see you) and drop back down to the first room. Now, you're back outside. Run across the bridge, which, naturally, collapses behind you. Enter the nearby cavern and face off against the demon, who drops a blue potion when killed. Proceed along and drop into the water. Look out over the right edge. That's your destination, but it's a real long drop. Instead, swim over to the left and climb up onto the shore. There's a door on this level, and the plate to open it is right next to it. Flip the switch inside, which will turn off the waterfall. Run up the ramp and over to the waterfall stream, which you can pass now that it's shut off. Continue around the path and into the next area. Move along the passage, and you'll enter another temple. The gate will shut behind you. There are two buttons beneath torches here. Push both of them and the skull will rise up revealing a nasty-looking satyr guy. He's good and strong. Fight smart and don't die. (Finisher: One of my faves. The Prince flips the sword in his hand so that it's blade down, raises his arms up and slams the sword into the demon's chest. The demon roars and the Prince yanks it back out.) Hit the two buttons again and grab the potion.

It's a white potion, so

it'll make you fall slowly. Flip the blue switch behind the potion to open the gate. Run through, out into the lake, and jump in. Run off the edge of the wall to fall to the ground below. Climb up the cliff and at the top, watch out for the archer. As always, you can shoot back, or climb up and hurt him good. (He falls off the edge after you kill him ^_^) Continue climbing and you'll reach a fast-moving river. Jump in. AAAAAAAHHHH! OOF! OW! OUCH! OW! Hold the Jump key as you fly off the edge, so that you'll grab the bridge. What a ride, eh? Now, this next part, for all it's dizzying heights, etc., is actually quite straightforward. It's basic climb and shimmy stuff. There's a point where you'll have to jump sideways to latch onto a horizontal bar, and there's another point where you're shimmying along a crack in the wall, and you'll have to drop down to another crack, but it's very simple. After a bit of this stuff, you'll make it to a cliff top. Step on the plate next to a door to release a staff-wielding Assassin, who'll drop a blue potion, and step on the next plate to release a sword-wielding Assassin, who'll also drop a blue potion. After both are dead, flip the blue switch in the second tower to lower the drawbridge. Run inside to finish the level. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cutscene: In a part of Rugnor's palace, the Princess weeps on her bed. enters.

Rugnor

Rugnor: I'm sure your grief is real, my love, but the beggar Prince is now gone. Will you never allow me to comfort you? The Princess gets up and runs to the window. Princess (between sobs): Get out... Rugnor growls and rips down a curtain. Rugnor: You will learn to NEVER turn your back on me! You will look upon me when I speak to you, and when I act you will see that I am in every way the equal of your late husband! The Princess stops and turns towards him... Princess: Perhaps you're right...

my husband...

The Princess sidles close to him, and suddenly yanks his sword from its holster. He growls. She swings, and cuts off his left tiger arm at the elbow. (You go, girl!) He roars in pain. She raises the sword again, and he punches her in the face dropping her to the ground. He nurses the grevious wound as she lies there on the floor. Cut. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

************************************************************************ 23. Level 15 - Sun Temple I was surprised the first time.

This level is actually very short.

Hop across the lava and deal with the female assassin. The blade wielders are tough, but they're killable. The button here will open the nearby gate, but it requires constant pressure. Jump up to the next level, kill the next female assassin, and keep climbing up. You'll find a box on the third level that you can push down onto the button. Drop down to the first level and head towards the door, avoiding the slicer. In the next room, flip the blue switch and press the button. Cross the moving platforms in the next room with well-timed jumps, and press on. Avoid the slicer and enter the next room up the stairs. Defeat the demon, and head for the far door. The floor gives way. Eek! And... that's it...

Told you it was short.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cutscene: The Princess regains consciousness to find she's strapped to a large gear. Rugnor's associates finish tying her down. Rugnor: It's a pity that a flower so lovely must be crushed... He strokes her face. Rugnor: Perhaps... Perhaps that fate can be changed? The Princess responds by spitting at him. Rugnor snarls and wipes his face with his new golden prosthetic hand. Rugnor: Very well... Prince (from God knows where): Rugnooooor! Princess: My husband! Rugnor: Not a movement.

Not a breath from you...

Rugnor steps back and pulls a lever, starting up the machine. The gear the princess is strapped to lifts into the air and starts a slow movement towards another, much sharper gear... Cut. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ************************************************************************ 24. Level 16 - Moon Temple This is a mad puzzle level...

It has some acrobatics, too, of course...

You'll start by splashing in a pool of water.

Swim out.

Run up the stairs and enter. In the first room, climb on the rocks so you can clear the gap in the floor. Soon, you'll see an entrance to your left. This has a sword-wielding assassin. Take care of him, and climb up the hole in the ceiling. Jump across the chasm up here and drop to the ledge below. Walk through the small tunnel and grab the blue potion. Start climbing up to the doorway at the top. Ooo... Pretty catacombs. Walk around the outside of the room and climb up at the wall that's shorter. Climb up to the top of the center structure and into the hole, watching out for the spikes. Find the tunnel that will let you enter a temple area. Climb on top of a piece of rock and jump across the hole. Get your weapon out to receive the attack of the female assassin. Once she's dead, grab the blue potion if you feel like it and make a sideways hop onto the thin ledge on the right side of the pit. Yes, we see the archer over there, but unless you saved some arrows, there's little you can do about him. Cross over and kill the archer. Note the floor here... Sun = I Moon = II Wind = III Lightning = IV Is that important?

Of course it is, duh...

Head into the next room. Step on the Moon plate. This will raise up a crystal. Nice, eh? Proceed to the room on the right. Keep going through rooms until you reach a room with a hole in the floor and spike traps. Face the wall with the picture of moon, wind, and lightning. Side-jump onto the ledge and drop to the bar below. Swing onto the rope nearby and climb up. Take out the knife-wielding assassin at the top. Once that's done, climb to the top of the structure behind you. Flip the switch at the top, which will lower a telescope. Go down the hole using the left or right side, to avoid spikes at the bottom. Climb out and head to the telescope room, which is close by. Climb up the telescope and jump to the upper ledge (it's tough, but you can make it). This next room had me puzzled for so long. You've got a rope to swing across, but you land on a ledge blanketed with spikes. The easy way to get past this is to not use the rope at all. Just jump off the corner and aim for one of the side ledges. Pull yourself up and kill the archer. Move on. You're now in a room with two ledges. Push the box in the next room in front of the higher ledge and jump up. Kill the assassin that's up here and move on. You'll find a switch up on this ledge. This lets the moonlight into the room, which reflects off crystals and opens doors. Your task here is to divert the moonlight around here to get around. Okay. Step 1 is to get back to the main spire room, which you can do by retracing your steps. In the spire room, flip the switch to rotate the crystal. Go through the open door and duel with the demon on the other side. Continue on to the next crystal spire room. Don't bother going straight ahead. Instead, go up on the ledge and flip the switch to divert the light to the other door in the room. Go through that door.

In the next area, you've got a nasty swinging puzzle. You have to jump before the spike trap, grab the rope, and let go on the first swing, so you don't swing back into the spikes. Let go and you'll drop to a lower ledge. Climb up on the left side, where there aren't any spikes. Next, you'll be in a large courtyard area. At the far end is the switch that opens the two gates on each side. The left side has a potion, but you'll have to fight a female assassin to get back out. The right has the way forward. The next jumping puzzle is nasty. First leap up onto the horizontal bar and swing yourself over to the hanging rope, jump off on the first swing to the second rope, and jump off on the second swing to the gray rope. Climb up and face off against the staff-wielding assassin, then later a knife-wielding assassin. Eventually, you'll reach a big room. Flip the switch up here and you'll start two platforms moving. Drop down a level and you'll realize you're back in the second crystal room. Flip the switch down here to open a different door. Proceed through. Take out the assassin on the other side. Time your jumps onto the moving platforms. Watch out for the flying darts at the top. Once you reach the next room, pull the switch that will open up the floor and a crystal spire will rise up. Now, you need to go back to the first crystal room. Do this by climbing through a hole in the nearby ceiling and you can make your way back to the second crystal room. Run to the first crystal room, flip the switch, and you'll open another door. There are horizontal bars here. Swing across the three of them to avoid spike traps. You'll soon be in the third crystal room. Simply climb up the rope and proceed through the door. Deal with the demon on the other side and press on. You're almost done! Okay. Now, you're in the last room. Note the tiles on the floor. You must step on them in the order of Sun, Moon, Wind, and Lightning, and keep stepping in that order until you reach the other side. Simple. Here's the layout, in number form. 2 3 1 1 3 1

4 4 2 3 2 3

3 2 3 4 4 2

1 1 4 2 1 4

You could probably even trace out a path from this, but, because I'm such a nice guy, I'll give you some instructions. Jump on the Sun at the left. Jump forward and right onto the Moon. Step either forward or back on the Wind, then to the right onto either of the Lightnings. Go to the right onto the Sun, forward onto the Moon, and forward and to the left onto the Wind. Right onto the Lightning. Forward onto the Sun. Left onto the Moon, and foward onto the Wind and you're done! If you want some fun, step out of order on any of the tiles to die in different interesting manners, depending on the tile.

Anyway, go through the double doors, and prepare for the final battle. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cutscene: The Prince bursts into the Gear Room. and Rugnor.

He looks up and sees the Princess

Rugnor sees him as well and shoves a lever down, making the gear the Princess is strapped to turn faster. He then breaks the lever off, sneers, and tosses it aside. He draws his wicked-looking sword and roars his challenge. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ************************************************************************ 25. Level 17 - Finale All right. As you might expect, you have a time limit on this level. It's really short too; about two minutes. If, at any time, you fail, just start the level over. It can be done, but you have to be fast and lucky with your sword strikes. Don't bother Quicksaving... Immediately run up the path, up the stairs and jump onto Rugnor's platform. Pull out your favorite weapon and challenge him. I suggest not using the knives, just because Rugnor's sword is so long. Duel with him down to a half a bottle and perform the finisher. Before you can lay down the final blow, Rugnor chugs a potion. He jumps up to a higher platform. Turn left and jump on a hanging chain. Climb up as fast as possible (You'll get a camera pan over to the Princess to see how you're doing). Jump off when you get to the next platform, turn around and jump to the small blue platform near the big one. Climb up to the top and face Rugnor for one last time. Duel with him as best and as fast as you can. Take the initiative a few times. It's much better than waiting for him. If you can whittle him down far enough, you can perform your finisher of a shoulder to the head, knocking him off the platform. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bad Cutscene - Take too much time The Princess disappears behind the gears, and we hear her scream as she is crushed. The Prince cries out in despair and slumps to the ground, defeated. Rugnor steps up behind him, snickers, raises his sword, and ends the life of the second of two lovers. Cut. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ending - Kill Rugnor in time

Rugnor screams as he plummets from the platform. He grabs onto a gear, but his grip slips and he drops further into the mechanism. He's lost behind the crushing gears, and his golden hand gets caught up on one and freezes the machine, just as the massive gear was about to crush the Princess. The Princess breathes her sigh of relief. gear and unties her. Princess: My love!

The Prince leaps over to the

But, I thought--

The Prince interrupts her by joining his lips with hers... spins around them.

The scenery

Cut to the two riding away on the lamasu (in full CGI!) Princess (looking around): Persia lies to the north... Prince: So it does... Princess (jokingly): Am I to be stolen away... again? Cut. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ************************************************************************ 26. Final Thoughts Gotta say... That ending left me kinda hollow... Sure, everything's happy for the two lovers, but what now? What happened to Assan? How will Persia be run without a Sultan? If both the Princess and the Prince are running off, who'll be in charge? Will Assan take over? Geez... Anyway, it was a pretty cool final battle. Best part was the camera cut to the moving gear as you climbed up. Added quite a bit of suspense to the situation... So, that's it. There's not much else to the game. There are probably one or two green potions I missed, but the game can be beaten without any extra life bottles, so don't panic if you miss some. ************************************************************************ 27. Updates Version 1.1 - September 2, 2001 - Big help by Stijn van Empel here, so we've got Ice Arrows and Despair Arrows. Version 1.0 - May 13, 2001 - Well, that's it. That was a quick one. Enjoy the game, and e-mail me if you have any problems... Version 0.6 - May 12, 2001 - Added from Palace 3 to the beginning of the Floating Ruins. Boy, have I set myself to this or what?

Version 0.4 - May 11, 2001 - This is pretty much what I had done some time in December, 1999. ************************************************************************ 28. Legal Junk This FAQ was made 100% by me, Scott "CyricZ" Zdankiewicz. You may not take it in whole or in part and claim it as your own. You may not alter it in any way, even if you ask me first, and that includes putting it in HTML format. Please don�t post this on your site unless you have express consent by me. I�ve put a lot of time into this. Give me some credit... Thanks a lot to Stijn van Empel for a big help with potions and arrows. Enjoy the game... ^_^