Alternative walkthrough
Isle of Croth (The)
I just discovered that I missed a good part of the story because the game balance is really broken, which gives you a way to defeat the end boss without ever needing water magic. But anyway. There is a way you can get to level 12+ with 15+ in every stat within 5-8 minutes or so of gameplay in HERO mode. Here's how to do it:
The basic idea is to get to the underground city ASAP with 5000 gold and enough health to survive a visit to Jenny.
- From the first screen, go east to the inn/pub and go upstairs where there are 6 rooms. The idea here is to (ab)use the naive AI to get the goodies without needing to kill the monsters (they are next to impossible to kill at this point in time).
- First, the bottom left room. When you enter the room, move right a bit, and wait until the left zombie starts walking east. Run west and wait at the corner, the zombies should start wandering east. When they are far enough, or when they start hitting each other, quickly sneak south around the bed and hit the chest. Throwing axe within 1 minute of gameplay!! (It may take a few tries to get the hang of this, but I can do this pretty reliably.) If you want, you can now kill the zombies, but it's still risky at this point, so sneak out again when the coast is clear. If you do kill them, though, you will level up: make sure you select magic. (Magic needs to be at least 3 to get to the underground city.)
- Next, the bottom center room. As soon as you enter the room, run to the NE corner, then south to the bed as fast as you can, then west, south, east around the bed so that you're standing in the SE corner of the room. (If you're too slow the zombies will kill you.) Now wait until both zombies are crowding around the other side of the bed, then run out again, hit the chest on the west of the room to get 5000 gold, and escape before you get killed. Not bad! Our main objectives have been accomplished.
- For an additional bonus, go to the north middle room, run to the SW corner quickly and grab the mega-potion, then run out again before the zombies reach you. Go to the NW room, hit the chest to get a golden heart, and run before you get hit. Pretty good! Now you have a mega-potion, a golden heart, a throwing axe, and 5000 gold. This only takes about 2-3 minutes or so if you know what you're doing.
- Now, leave the inn, and go east one screen, then south. Kill the zombie from a distance with the throwing axe and save the girl (make sure you don't hit her). Talk to her and she takes you to the church and after the cutscene you get the Scroll of Aldus. Drop some coins in the fountain to get healed (don't drink) if you want.
- Now leave the church, go N 2 screens, east 3 screens back to where you saved the girl, then another screen east, then south 2 screens to the entrance of the temple. Enter the building (not the temple), get the defense potion and read the note. This increases your magic by 1 and gives you fireball. Your magic should be 3 by now. Also grab the lantern by the fireplace.
- Leave the building, go N 2 screens, west 3 screens, then south into the village.
- Evade the zombies and go 1 screen south. Enter the SE building using the east door. Examine the shelves with bottles, and make 3 bombs. Leave the building, and leave the town (evade the zombies for now).
- From the entrance of the town, go east 2 screens, south 1 screen to where the old guy is (don't bother talking to him). Stand near the west edge of the screen toward the south end. You will be going west to a screen crawling with slimes, and the idea is to quickly cut through the SE corner of that screen so you don't have to fight them.
- Go west to the screen with slimes, then quickly south to the NE corner of the screen with many zombies. Run west then south past the first 2 zombies on the right, then SE past the 3rd zombie to the SE corner of the screen, then across the bottom of the screen to the SW corner (the next screen has a lot of dangerous pillbugs, so again the idea is to cut through only a tiny corner to minimize damage). If you're up to it, try entering the hole in the pit, evade the two zombies, grab the potion and the hearts. If you do this, you'll be ready to visit Jenny immediately upon reaching the underground city.
- From the SW corner of the zombies screen, go south to the pillbugs screen, then quickly go west to the screen with 4 boncas.
- Kill the boncas with the throwing axe. If you level up, choose strength so that your attack is at least +6. Now push the rock to the right to reveal the entrance into the mine.
- Enter the mine, plant a bomb against the rocks and stand back. Once the way is cleared, plant another bomb on the NE corner rock to reveal another golden heart. Next, enter the building.
- Go through the back of the building into the tunnel, which leads to the underground city. Go east 1 screen, enter the pub and save your game.
- Leave the pub, go south 1 screen, enter the door on the right. Talk to the woman, and pay $5000 for Jenny. You should get +10 to all stats, and enough experience to get you up to level 12 or so. This should be within the first 10 minutes if you followed everything in sequence here.
- From here, things should be relatively smooth sailing. After the Jenny visit, your health may be somewhat low; you can use the casino and the potion shop to heal up, or, as I prefer, go south to the mines, go south 2 screens (evade the slayers, although by now your defense should be high enough they shouldn't be a problem). At the bottom left corner is a bunch of potions and golden hearts. Now go to the NE edge of the screen (take care not to go up a screen), go E, and then south, then east several screens until you come to a screen with many slayers. There's a red heart here that will restore full health; that should give you enough to kill off the slayers. Now plant a bomb on the rock in the south part of the screen to blow it up and reveal an underground secret chamber. This has a LOT of potions that will enable you to clear up the rest of the mines, earning lots of cash in the process---so you can now go visit Jenny again to get another +10 stat boost. (Remember to save the game each time, there is a small chance she will not do anything for you and waste the $5000.)
- After you're through with this, your stats should be around +20 or +30 each. Now go back up to the surface, clear off all the monsters you can find (check out the holes as well, some of them have potions and other bonuses). Get the rope from the house next to the inn, go down the well and get the sword from the man. Now go back to the mines underground, and look around the far NE screens for the blacksmith (he randomly appears in one of 2 screens). Talk to him, give him 5000 gold and the sword, and he makes it into a light sword. By now, you should have enough gold for more visits to Jenny. If you like, take a tour around the island, kill everything, get gold, visit Jenny, until you're happy with your stats (if you do it right, you can get 100+ in each stat in about half an hour's playing time from the start--if your attack gets up to +140 or so, you can even kill the end boss without using water magic).
- When you're strong enough, go to the temple (if your lantern got stolen in a hole, there's another one in the basement of the inn at the resort). Use your light sword to destroy the machine, and go down the hole. Hack your way through the monsters until you come to a savebot. Save your game, head north and go to the SW corner for 3 megapotions, then east from the savebot to get another 4 megapotions (there's a pair of crossed bones here that will teleport you back to the surface if you want to), then south from the savebot, where there are arches and a hidden chest with a golden heart in the NE.
- Once you collected all your goodies, enter the arches and face the last boss. Use water magic to weaken him, then kill him with your throwing axe. (Or, if you've insane amounts of stats, like the time I got 300+ in every stat, you can simply whack him to death.) Congratulations, you won the game!
Now that was easy, wasn't it?
The basic idea is to get to the underground city ASAP with 5000 gold and enough health to survive a visit to Jenny.
- From the first screen, go east to the inn/pub and go upstairs where there are 6 rooms. The idea here is to (ab)use the naive AI to get the goodies without needing to kill the monsters (they are next to impossible to kill at this point in time).
- First, the bottom left room. When you enter the room, move right a bit, and wait until the left zombie starts walking east. Run west and wait at the corner, the zombies should start wandering east. When they are far enough, or when they start hitting each other, quickly sneak south around the bed and hit the chest. Throwing axe within 1 minute of gameplay!! (It may take a few tries to get the hang of this, but I can do this pretty reliably.) If you want, you can now kill the zombies, but it's still risky at this point, so sneak out again when the coast is clear. If you do kill them, though, you will level up: make sure you select magic. (Magic needs to be at least 3 to get to the underground city.)
- Next, the bottom center room. As soon as you enter the room, run to the NE corner, then south to the bed as fast as you can, then west, south, east around the bed so that you're standing in the SE corner of the room. (If you're too slow the zombies will kill you.) Now wait until both zombies are crowding around the other side of the bed, then run out again, hit the chest on the west of the room to get 5000 gold, and escape before you get killed. Not bad! Our main objectives have been accomplished.
- For an additional bonus, go to the north middle room, run to the SW corner quickly and grab the mega-potion, then run out again before the zombies reach you. Go to the NW room, hit the chest to get a golden heart, and run before you get hit. Pretty good! Now you have a mega-potion, a golden heart, a throwing axe, and 5000 gold. This only takes about 2-3 minutes or so if you know what you're doing.
- Now, leave the inn, and go east one screen, then south. Kill the zombie from a distance with the throwing axe and save the girl (make sure you don't hit her). Talk to her and she takes you to the church and after the cutscene you get the Scroll of Aldus. Drop some coins in the fountain to get healed (don't drink) if you want.
- Now leave the church, go N 2 screens, east 3 screens back to where you saved the girl, then another screen east, then south 2 screens to the entrance of the temple. Enter the building (not the temple), get the defense potion and read the note. This increases your magic by 1 and gives you fireball. Your magic should be 3 by now. Also grab the lantern by the fireplace.
- Leave the building, go N 2 screens, west 3 screens, then south into the village.
- Evade the zombies and go 1 screen south. Enter the SE building using the east door. Examine the shelves with bottles, and make 3 bombs. Leave the building, and leave the town (evade the zombies for now).
- From the entrance of the town, go east 2 screens, south 1 screen to where the old guy is (don't bother talking to him). Stand near the west edge of the screen toward the south end. You will be going west to a screen crawling with slimes, and the idea is to quickly cut through the SE corner of that screen so you don't have to fight them.
- Go west to the screen with slimes, then quickly south to the NE corner of the screen with many zombies. Run west then south past the first 2 zombies on the right, then SE past the 3rd zombie to the SE corner of the screen, then across the bottom of the screen to the SW corner (the next screen has a lot of dangerous pillbugs, so again the idea is to cut through only a tiny corner to minimize damage). If you're up to it, try entering the hole in the pit, evade the two zombies, grab the potion and the hearts. If you do this, you'll be ready to visit Jenny immediately upon reaching the underground city.
- From the SW corner of the zombies screen, go south to the pillbugs screen, then quickly go west to the screen with 4 boncas.
- Kill the boncas with the throwing axe. If you level up, choose strength so that your attack is at least +6. Now push the rock to the right to reveal the entrance into the mine.
- Enter the mine, plant a bomb against the rocks and stand back. Once the way is cleared, plant another bomb on the NE corner rock to reveal another golden heart. Next, enter the building.
- Go through the back of the building into the tunnel, which leads to the underground city. Go east 1 screen, enter the pub and save your game.
- Leave the pub, go south 1 screen, enter the door on the right. Talk to the woman, and pay $5000 for Jenny. You should get +10 to all stats, and enough experience to get you up to level 12 or so. This should be within the first 10 minutes if you followed everything in sequence here.
- From here, things should be relatively smooth sailing. After the Jenny visit, your health may be somewhat low; you can use the casino and the potion shop to heal up, or, as I prefer, go south to the mines, go south 2 screens (evade the slayers, although by now your defense should be high enough they shouldn't be a problem). At the bottom left corner is a bunch of potions and golden hearts. Now go to the NE edge of the screen (take care not to go up a screen), go E, and then south, then east several screens until you come to a screen with many slayers. There's a red heart here that will restore full health; that should give you enough to kill off the slayers. Now plant a bomb on the rock in the south part of the screen to blow it up and reveal an underground secret chamber. This has a LOT of potions that will enable you to clear up the rest of the mines, earning lots of cash in the process---so you can now go visit Jenny again to get another +10 stat boost. (Remember to save the game each time, there is a small chance she will not do anything for you and waste the $5000.)
- After you're through with this, your stats should be around +20 or +30 each. Now go back up to the surface, clear off all the monsters you can find (check out the holes as well, some of them have potions and other bonuses). Get the rope from the house next to the inn, go down the well and get the sword from the man. Now go back to the mines underground, and look around the far NE screens for the blacksmith (he randomly appears in one of 2 screens). Talk to him, give him 5000 gold and the sword, and he makes it into a light sword. By now, you should have enough gold for more visits to Jenny. If you like, take a tour around the island, kill everything, get gold, visit Jenny, until you're happy with your stats (if you do it right, you can get 100+ in each stat in about half an hour's playing time from the start--if your attack gets up to +140 or so, you can even kill the end boss without using water magic).
- When you're strong enough, go to the temple (if your lantern got stolen in a hole, there's another one in the basement of the inn at the resort). Use your light sword to destroy the machine, and go down the hole. Hack your way through the monsters until you come to a savebot. Save your game, head north and go to the SW corner for 3 megapotions, then east from the savebot to get another 4 megapotions (there's a pair of crossed bones here that will teleport you back to the surface if you want to), then south from the savebot, where there are arches and a hidden chest with a golden heart in the NE.
- Once you collected all your goodies, enter the arches and face the last boss. Use water magic to weaken him, then kill him with your throwing axe. (Or, if you've insane amounts of stats, like the time I got 300+ in every stat, you can simply whack him to death.) Congratulations, you won the game!
Now that was easy, wasn't it?
Too long; didn't read. Good effort though.
What's the matter with you two? Too long to read? I've seen better? I suppose in the past few months we've seen dozens of new walkthroughs being written that there's a competition for best walkthroughs? Not really. It could use some better formatting, but a walkthrough's about the information being offered first and foremost and that's what he delivers.
I applaud the effort he's put into writing this, thanks for contributing!
I applaud the effort he's put into writing this, thanks for contributing!
I agree.
Obviously there's more to a walkthrough than just offering information, but the most important thing is that there is one. However I don't find this walkthrough to be particularly helpful as there is a perfectly helpful walkthrough available at the dink solutions. And if I want to mess up with the game balance I just cheat. So personaly I think Dew12529 has a point when he says the balance is broken. As such this is more about pointing out the flaws that this DMOD has than a proper walkthrough (although it will do).
There will however probably be people who think this is a nice way to win the DMOD on the highest difficulty without 'cheating' (whatever that is). Nice for them that this is available.
Obviously there's more to a walkthrough than just offering information, but the most important thing is that there is one. However I don't find this walkthrough to be particularly helpful as there is a perfectly helpful walkthrough available at the dink solutions. And if I want to mess up with the game balance I just cheat. So personaly I think Dew12529 has a point when he says the balance is broken. As such this is more about pointing out the flaws that this DMOD has than a proper walkthrough (although it will do).
There will however probably be people who think this is a nice way to win the DMOD on the highest difficulty without 'cheating' (whatever that is). Nice for them that this is available.
