------------------------------------------------------------------------ The definitive... ### ### ########### ############ ############ ### ### ### ### ### ### #### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ###### ########### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### #### ### ### ### ### ############ ############### ### ### ### ######################################################### FAQ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chris Allen's definitive Kroz FAQ (v1.03) Contents I) About this FAQ II) Basic Information about Kroz III) How to get Kroz working on your system IV) Gameplay V) Object list VI) Walkthroughs for individual games A) Caverns B) Dungeons C) Kingdom I D) Return (a.k.a. Shrine, a.k.a. Castle) E) Temple (a.k.a. Valley) F) Final Crusade G) Lost Adventures H) Kingdom II VII) Interesting factoids VIII) Other Kroz-styled games -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I) About this FAQ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This FAQ is copyright (c) 2011 Christopher Allen. You may distribute this FAQ, but please give me credit for any original information you publish elsewhere. I decided to write this FAQ because it seems there isn't a good Kroz FAQ out there. There are many different "FAQs" covering the history and game listing, but none that cover the actual games themselves in depth. This FAQ is game-focused. For the most part, the information that does not relate to the actual Kroz games is not covered here. Since there are many games in the Kroz series, I figured it would be better just to cover the entire series at once, instead of writing individual FAQs, one for each game. This FAQ will be a 100-page monster as a result, but given the similarities across each episode, it helps just to have everything that needs to be said in one place. My contact info: chris@chriskallen.com http://www.chriskallen.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- II) Basic Information about Kroz -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Kroz games were created by Scott Miller, and developed by Apogee between the years 1987 and 1991. That's all I'm going to say for now. If you want more info on the background, look it up online. This FAQ covers the games. Everything in Kroz is represented as an IBM-PC extended ASCII character. All sound effects are monotone, PC speaker bleeps. The graphics and sound might be primitive, but these features are actually some of the things that give the Kroz series its characteristic charm. It appears the original CREATION order of the Kroz games was this: Caverns I Dungeons I Kingdom I Return (a.k.a. Shrine, a.k.a. Castle) Temple (a.k.a. Valley) Final Crusade Lost Adventures Kingdom II, Caverns II, and Dungeons II However, the SERIES order was later described as this: (ORIGINAL TRILOGY) Kingdom Caverns Dungeons (SUPER KROZ TRILOGY) Return (a.k.a. Shrine, a.k.a. Castle) Temple (a.k.a. Valley) Final Crusade (LOST ADVENTURES) Lost Adventures If the ordering seems confusing, it's because it is. Don't beat yourself up too much over the details. That's my job. The Kroz games were built to run in 80-column CRT text mode for 8086-based machines. This means that back in the early days of the IBM PC and clone computers, you'd be hard-pressed to find a PC that didn't run Kroz. BUT... The timing! Oh boy, the timing sucked. The game was written in such a way that the clock did not throttle the frame rate. Even though Kroz is a real-time game (not turn-based), it was implemented with the most primitive timing mechanism imaginable, which is to say, your FOR...NEXT style loop. See the next section for how to get Kroz working on your system. Kroz is a keyboard-only game. No other peripherals are necessary. You can download the entire Kroz series from a number of locations. The best location is the 2009 Freeware release from 3dRealms, formerly Apogee: http://www.3drealms.com/downloads.html The organization has released all the Kroz games, plus the entire source code, free of charge. The directory structure is a bit convoluted, given that they figured it was easier just to zip up the whole tree and dump it on the public than carefully catalog every file in every directory. So I'll make life a bit easier and identify how to locate specific programs in the krozfree.zip file: Original program distributables can be found here: PATH CONTENTS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- readme.txt 3dRealms' comments \1987 - Kingdom Of Kroz\* Kingdom of Kroz I \1988 - Caverns of Kroz\* Caverns of Kroz I \1989 - Castle of Kroz\* Castle of Kroz (Return) \1988 - Dungeons of Kroz\* Dungeons of Kroz I \1990 - Caverns of Kroz 2\* Caverns of Kroz 2 \1990 - Dungeons of Kroz 2\* Dungeons of Kroz 2 \1990 - Kingdom of Kroz 2\* Kingdom of Kroz 2 \1989 - Shrine of Kroz\* Shrine of Kroz (Return) \1990 - Super Kroz Trilogy\1990 - Return to Kroz\* Return to Kroz \1990 - Super Kroz Trilogy\1990 - Temple of Kroz\* Temple of Kroz \1990 - Super Kroz Trilogy\1990 - The Final Crusade of Kroz\* Final Crusade of Kroz \1990 - The Lost Adventures of Kroz\lost.exe Lost Adventures of Kroz \1990 - The Lost Adventures of Kroz\lostdemo.exe Lost Adventures DEMO The differences between Kingdom I and Kingdom II are substantial, enough for me to treat them as two separate episodes, but the differences across the revisions of Caverns and Dungeons are not. This FAQ will discuss the games Dungeons II and Caverns II; Dungeons I and Caverns I are not different enough from their "II" variants to warrant more than a few notes. Note that some versions of the programs, especially the 1990 ones and beyond, would use code obfuscation. Many Apogee titles would utilize obfuscation. I wouldn't recommend reverse-engineering these, especially since the source is available! The Pascal source tree is a bit harder to understand because backups and revisions were often made. I'm not going to discuss every source file, but I will pair up folders with the corresponding game. PATH CONTENTS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- source\ADVKROZ\* Lost Adventures of Kroz with various revisions, including the delay screen introduced for the demo. source\LOSTKROZ\* Lost Adventures of Kroz, full version. MASTER2 is the most recent. source\KROZTRLI\BACKUP\CAVERNS Caverns I, full version. source\KROZTRLI\BACKUP\DUNGEONS Dungeons I, full version. source\KROZTRLI\BACKUP\KINGDOM I Kingdom I, full version. source\KROZTRLI\CAVERNS Caverns II, full version. source\KROZTRLI\CAVERNST Caverns II, full version (dup). source\KROZTRLI\SHAREWAR\CAVERNS Caverns II, shareware. source\KROZTRLI\DUNGEON Dungeon II, full version. source\KROZTRLI\DUNGEONT Dungeon II, full version (dup). source\KROZTRLI\SHAREWAR\DUNGEON Dungeon II, shareware. source\KROZTRLI\KINGDOM Kingdom II, full version. source\KROZTRLI\KINGDOMT Kingdom II, full version (dup). source\KROZTRLI\SHAREWAR\KINGDOM Kingdom II, shareware. source\SUPERKZ\FINAL Final Crusade, full version. source\SUPERKZ\FINAL1 Final Crusade, full version (dup). source\SUPERKZ\RETURN Return to Kroz, full version. source\SUPERKZ\RETURN1 Return to Kroz, full version (dup). source\SUPERKZ\TEMPLE Temple of Kroz, full version. source\SUPERKZ\TEMPLE1 Temple of Kroz, full version (dup). This is good a place to say it as any: Thanks very much for releasing this, 3dRealms! While there are a number of development tools in the source tree, nothing seems to resemble plans or level designs for the cancelled project that was originally planned by Apogee, known as "The Underground Empire of Kroz." Oh well. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- III) How to get Kroz working on your system -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please pay attention to this section! A person's first impression of Kroz largely depends on the speed at which the person originally tried to run Kroz. That means younger gamers more or less will hate Kroz if they don't know what to expect. Please read carefully! If you want, you can see if your operating system gives you the option to run the 16-bit application in its own emulator. But the only way to do Kroz justice is to run it from DosBox. Before running Kroz, you should slow DosBox down to the desired number of cycles. I can't tell you for sure what the ideal number of cycles is, for two reasons: 1) CPU base speeds will vary. Ctrl+F11 and Ctrl+F12 modify the cycles, and you should find the best speed for your computer. 2) It's difficult to know for sure what speed is ideal for Kroz. Unless you have an actual XT or PCjr around somewhere, the run speed is subjective. I suggest slowing the speed WAY down using Ctrl+F11. If you have thousands of cycles showing in the DosBox title bar, you need to aim much lower, like in the hundreds. How do you know which is the right speed? There are three ways to tell... 1) Sound effects. If sounds are washed-out, too high-pitched or completely inaudible, the game is running too fast. But if they are drawn-out and time-consuming, it isn't necessarily wrong--this is an 8086 application we're talking about here! 2) Monster movement rate. If the monsters move a million times faster when you're standing still as opposed to when you're moving, the game is running too fast. If the standing-still rate is comparable to the moving rate, the game is running normally. 3) Patience. People had a lot more patience back in the day, so they allowed games to run slower. You might not like waiting, so a faster speed might be something you want. It is a common misconception that Kroz games are supposed to be horribly difficult because you have no time to make decisions when standing still. This was not originally the idea behind Kroz, especially when considering how much it was designed to resemble Rogue, which was turn-based. Any slowdowns that do occur during the game happen for two reasons: 1) Updating screen data takes time on older computers, which throttles the overall speed. 2) Sound effects are played in foreground. While sound is playing, nothing else can occur. On a slow computer, this also throttles the overall speed. Also: the fast/slow CPU setting present in many of the Kroz games does NOT make as big a difference as slowing down the emulation speed. The fast/slow setting only modifies a few internal counters. Fine for an 80286; crap for every computer beyond that. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IV) Gameplay -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction The first thing you see when you run a Kroz game is typically a request for color/monochrome monitor selection (only color makes sense), a speed selection request (you probably want to select the fast computer setting), and a difficulty level selection request (Novice, Experienced, or Advanced). After you make your selections, you proceed to the main menu. Depending on the episode, you might be able to invoke a "SECRET" difficulty selection, which will be either "X" or "!" instead of "N," "E,", or "A." This cheat might be helpful if you only want to tour Kroz and not actually play it like a hardcore gamer would. Difficulty settings affect only a handful of measurements. Chest contents, gem pouch contents, reveal gem scroll contents, and starting inventory items are the usual spectrum of quantities impacted. The only menu option you probably care about is the first one, which begins your adventure into Kroz. If you want to load a saved game, you must first begin a new adventure, then use the in-game restore command to load your game. Note that earlier games had fewer options. Before you had Kingdom II, Caverns II, and Dungeons II, which were the revised games of the original trilogy, you didn't have a speed control setting. Only one savegame slot, too. Most episodes throw you into the thick of things right away. Items, monsters, and dangers everywhere. The earlier episodes didn't have automatic pause on level start, too, so watch out if you're playing Kingdom I. Controls You move by using the arrow keys. Like many other Apogee titles, you can move diagonally with the Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys. It is important to note that Kroz is a game for which you MUST be able to move diagonally! Most episodes cannot be finished unless you do. For people using laptops, a PCjr keyboard, or any other type of interface that lacks a standard numpad/arrow pad conducive to 8-directional arrow key configuration, Kroz offers an alternate key configuration. This is as follows: U: Up-left I: Up O: Up-right J: Left L: Right N: Down-left M: Down ,: Down-right During the game, there are two non-movement action keys: W: Whip T: Teleport Both of these actions use up one unit of inventory (a whip or a teleport scroll). If you run out of one of these, that's it. You can't whip or teleport. We apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused. Incidentally, it is pretty inconvenient not to be able to attack if you run out of whips or escape from traps if you run out of teleports. One major part of Kroz games is keeping a budget of inventory: use whips and teleports only when you have to, and find the most optimal way to collect them without taking too much damage or wasting too many to get to the destination. There are other commands you can invoke in the game: P: Pause game (any other key unpauses) S: Save game R: Restore game Q: Quit game Esc: Quit game +: Reset found-item text descriptions -: Inhibit found-item text descriptions (: Spawn level-skip stairs (Only if SECRET mode selected) ): Give extra items (Only if SECRET mode selected) Savegames Note that the revised trilogy, as well as Lost Adventures, gives you a choice of three savegame slots when you try to save or restore (A, B, or C). For the rest, you have only one. Unfortunately, Kroz is one of those games where savegames are very, very important. It is impossible to know in many cases if you've accumulated enough in your inventory to play the next level. This means your savegame might mean nothing if you had saved the game with a poor inventory. Use all 3 slots if you have them, and be wary about saving if you only have 1 slot. It is possible to "savescum" in Kroz. There is no penalty for saving and reloading a level; the score and inventory always reset to the level start values upon a restore. This means you can restore progress to maximize your "profits" out of any one level, provided your patience has no limit. Gems and Monsters You use gems to keep yourself alive. You need to collect as many gems as possible, because almost everything in Kroz wants to take them away. If you lose all your gems, you die. In some far-off world, I'm sure it makes perfect sense. There are three ways to get gems: 1) Single units (diamond-shape characters) 2) Chests (between 2 and 9; shaped like red/gold C characters) 3) Gem pouches (between 11 and 25 depending on episode; these are disguised as question marks "?") There are many ways to lose gems: 1) Enemy contact (red=1 gem, green=2 gems, blue=3 gems) 2) Lava contact (10 gems) 3) High voltage electric wall contact (1 gem; do not confuse with border walls) 4) Collect gem eraser (3 gems) 5) Let statues bleed you dry (continuous) The enemies come in 3 varieties: red, green, and blue. On occasion they will appear as different characters, but their behavior is fairly consistent across episodes: they track you using simple rectilinear/45-diagalinear transitions, and don't try to maneuver around anything in their way. The gems you lose also reflects the kill point value for the enemy. Think of gems as a multiplier of sorts: red is worth 10, green is worth 20, and blue is worth 30. You get points for killing an enemy directly, like a whip strike (doesn't hurt) or by walking into the enemy (does hurt). In episodes that have boulders, you can also push boulders to kill enemies and get points. Bombs and spears can also be used to eliminate enemies. Most episodes give these points if the enemy crashes into a breakable wall. Breakable-wall kills are a very important part of Kroz, since you don't need to expend inventory items to kill enemies this way. In some episodes, you don't get points for breakable-wall kills. If an enemy moves into you, you get no points (just lost gems). Because the enemies in Kroz games are so numerous, you won't be able to fight them all off. Your strategy must reflect your limited means. Whips should only be used to break walls or tight clusters of enemies, and you should try to circumvent enemies whenever possible. Teleporting Teleports can help to get to otherwise inaccessible places. Since teleport scrolls are rare, use them wisely. They tend to be most useful when you are trapped. There are also teleport traps, which may or may not be visible on the floor. If you touch one, it acts like a teleport scroll, but takes 50 points away. Some levels don't allow you to teleport ahead. It is rare for the later Kroz games in the series to allow you to skip complex puzzles by teleporting. Progress The objective of any level in Kroz is to go down the stairs to the next lower level, a staple for most dungeon-crawlers. Some doors are locked and require you to locate keys before proceeding. You can save keys from earlier in the game to help bypass difficult parts of later levels in some episodes. There are many different types of objects in the game. Kroz games let you know what an object does if you've never touched it before during the game, so the function of nonsensical characters is always made apparent. Each Kroz episode has a quest artifact. You will need to travel to the very bottom floor of the episode to reach it. Along the way, there are occasionally other artifacts, and most of them are decoys. The -REAL- artifacts are always very difficult to get to. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- V) Object list -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are a LOT of object and terrain types in Kroz games. As the series progressed, more were implemented. This section discusses the objects in the order they were introduced in the series. Kroz games like to randomly disguise some objects as question marks. Some items will be disguised based on a certain probability, while others will ALWAYS be disguised. This will complicate your ability to decide if an item is worth getting or not. OBJECT: The player METADATA: P (usually) APPEARANCE: Yellow smiley face (yellow wireframe on red BG in earlier episodes) This is you. Great graphical representation, huh? You can move, whip, teleport, and hopefully do all that without dying. OBJECT: Red enemy APPEARANCE: Red "A" with umlaut; various other appearances METADATA: 1 POINT VALUE: 10 The level-1 enemy is the slowest in the game, and takes off one gem on contact with you. OBJECT: Green enemy APPEARANCE: Green "O" with umlaut; various other appearances METADATA: 2 POINT VALUE: 20 The level-2 enemy moves at medium speed, and takes off two gems on contact with you. OBJECT: Blue enemy APPEARANCE: Blue omega; various other appearances METADATA: 3 POINT VALUE: 30 The level-3 enemy moves fast, and takes off three gems on contact with you. OBJECT: Breakable wall APPEARANCE: Brown porous block METADATA: X POINT VALUE: -20 on contact Breakable walls can be destroyed by whips, bombs, or enemies that ram into them. OBJECT: Whip APPEARANCE: White hook METADATA: W POINT VALUE: 10 Whips can be picked up and used to destroy enemies, breakable blocks, boulders, and various other items. It only takes one whip to destroy most objects. For breakable blocks, ease of destruction depends on how many power rings you have picked up. For boulders and statues, it normally takes many whip swings, although power rings can help. Once a whip is expended, it can't be re-used. Enemies destroy whips if they walk over them! OBJECT: Stairs APPEARANCE: Gray box with three flashing black lines METADATA: L POINT VALUE: Varies by episode; either 50 * Level Number or 10 * Level Number This is the destination of a typical level. There might be one or more stairs where you can descend to the next level, but they all lead to the same place, one level down. Earlier Kroz episodes made enemies climb down (or fall down?) stairs if they came across them. For the later episodes, they just ignore stairs. OBJECT: Chest APPEARANCE: Red box with gold "C" METADATA: C POINT VALUE: Varies by episode; either 500 (earlier) or 50 (later) A chest gives gems, whips, and teleports. Only the earlier Kroz episodes had teleports inside the chests, and you never got more than 1 or 2 in such cases. The revised original trilogy removed them from chests. You always get 2-3 whips from a chest. The scheme for awarding gems upon contact with a chest depends on difficulty level. For Novice, the range is 2-9 gems. For Experienced, it's 2-6. For Advanced, it's 2-3. If you use the cheat code, it's actually 2-10. This is a good time as any to address how Kroz handles difficulty in a mathematical sense. Think of each difficulty level having a specific value for which calculations are performed, as follows: Cheat code: Diff=9 Novice: Diff=8 Experienced: Diff=5 Advanced: Diff=2 Enemies destroy chests if they walk over them! OBJECT: Slow time spell APPEARANCE: Light blue hourglass METADATA: S POINT VALUE: 10 When picked up, enemies will drastically reduce their movement rate for a brief period. Note that the duration of the period depends on both the Kroz episode and the fast/slow CPU setting. If you want to, you can whip these out of the way. The spell slows all enemies down to the same rate equally. However, the spell does not take effect right away. The counters for bulk enemy movement are simply reset to longer durations after the next movement event occurs. Enemies destroy spells if they walk over them! OBJECT: Gem APPEARANCE: Diamond, various colors METADATA: + POINT VALUE: 10 Not much to say. A gem is a gem. Enemies destroy gems if they walk over them! OBJECT: Blindness potion / Invisibility Ring APPEARANCE: Green upside-down exclamation point or circle METADATA: I POINT VALUE: Varies by episode; either 250 (earlier) or 100 (later) When picked up, a potion/ring turns the player invisible. This doesn't adversely affect the player, but it will make navigation harder. If you are around lots of enemies, lava, or pits, it might be dangerous if you can't see yourself. If you need to, you can whip these out of the way. The duration of the invisibility period depends on both the Kroz episode and the fast/slow CPU setting. Enemies can still find you if you are invisible. Enemies destroy potions/rings if they walk over them! OBJECT: Teleport scroll APPEARANCE: Purple arrow pointing up METADATA: T POINT VALUE: varies by episode; either 20 (earlier) or 10 (later). Teleport scrolls can be picked up and used to transport the player to a random location in the level. You can only teleport to an empty space. Many levels will only let you teleport to spaces that you have traversed using some other means than teleportation. Despite their convenience, teleports should be saved at all costs. Use when trapped or when you're in some similarly desperate situation. Enemies destroy teleports if they walk over them! OBJECT: Key APPEARANCE: Red lowercase "I" with caret METADATA: K POINT VALUE: 0 Keys can be used to open doors. This makes them probably the most important inventory item you'll ever come across. Once a key is used on a door, it disappears from inventory and can't be used again. Enemies destroy keys if they walk over them, and this proves to be a serious problem when it comes to beating some levels. In many cases, you will need to carefully plan your movements in such a manner that monsters will not overrun keys before you can pick them up. OBJECT: Door APPEARANCE: Purple block with small hole METADATA: D POINT VALUE: 20 Doors are pretty straightforward. You can pass through a door only if you have a key, and monsters can't pass through them at all. Bombs destroy doors. Keep an eye out for bombs that might be able to blast a passage open. This is an important key-saving tactic. OBJECT: Solid wall APPEARANCE: Brown solid block METADATA: # POINT VALUE: -20 Solid walls block everything: you, enemies, etc. OBJECT: Speed time spell APPEARANCE: Light blue theta METADATA: F POINT VALUE: varies by episode; either 50 (earlier) or 20 (later). When picked up, enemies will drastically increase their movement rate for a brief period. Note that the duration of the period depends on both the Kroz episode and the fast/slow CPU setting. If you need to, you can whip these out of the way. The spell speeds up all enemies to the same rate equally. However, the spell does not take effect right away. The counters for bulk enemy movement are simply reset to shorter durations after the next movement event occurs. Enemies destroy spells if they walk over them! OBJECT: Teleport trap APPEARANCE: Gray dot METADATA: . POINT VALUE: -50 A teleport trap has the same effect as a teleport scroll: you will be transported to a random location in the level. Once a trap has been activated, it disappears from the level. If you need to, you can whip these out of the way. Enemies destroy traps if they walk over them. This can be useful at times, because expending whips (or just walking into each trap) can be exhausting if you don't use enemies to help you "clear" the traps away. OBJECT: River (water) APPEARANCE: Blue block with similarity symbol METADATA: R POINT VALUE: -20 Water is a barrier, much like a solid wall. Some item effects are not stopped by water, like spears. OBJECT: Power ring APPEARANCE: White ring or blue smiley face METADATA: Q POINT VALUE: 50 or 20 A power ring increases the player's whip power for the rest of the game. Multiple rings gradually build up the whip to increased handiness. The whip starts out with a virtual power of 2. Each power ring increases the power by 1. The probability-to-destroy calculations for breakable objects will change based on this power: To destroy breakable walls: WhipPower / 7 To destroy boulders: WhipPower / 25 To destroy statues: WhipPower / 50 To destroy everything else: 1 / 1 This means that 5 collected rings will make the whip a 100%-destruction machine for breakable walls. For the harder objects, though, the returns diminish for additional rings collected. Enemies destroy rings if they walk over them--you might need to hurry to get the rings before the enemies do! OBJECT: Forest APPEARANCE: Light green block METADATA: / POINT VALUE: -20 Forest terrain is like a super-weak breakable wall. In most Kroz episodes, it can be destroyed with a single whip strike. In earlier Kroz episodes, forest terrain is not weaker--it has the same strength as breakable walls. Enemies do not suicide into forest terrain--it merely stops their progress. OBJECT: Tree APPEARANCE: Green and brown club symbol or yellow-green hatched pattern METADATA: \ POINT VALUE: -20 A tree is functionally similar to a breakable wall, with two exceptions: 1) Enemies do not suicide into trees; they merely stop. 2) Bombs do not destroy trees. OBJECT: Magic Bomb APPEARANCE: White yen symbol METADATA: B POINT VALUE: 0 Bombs are very useful in Kroz. They eliminate a squared-off region of enemies and certain types of terrains 9 spaces wide and 9 spaces down, centered about the bomb. For enemies killed this way, the standard point value of the enemy is given. A bomb blast does not radiate outward in a fashion that solid walls block the blast from damaging things beyond the wall. The blast simply carves out a rectangular region, ignoring things it can't destroy, and destroying the things it can. What the bomb destroys, exactly, will vary depending on episode. However, there are a few consistent items: Breakable walls Forest terrain Doors Enemies Moving walls (no points given) Teleport traps Blindness potions Speed/Slow/Freeze time spells Power rings Bonus letters Obviously, care must be exercised not to destroy some items in the level that the player wants to pick up. It is often worthwhile to measure how far the blast would reach before activating a bomb. OBJECT: Lava APPEARANCE: Red glowing block, sometimes flashing METADATA: V POINT VALUE: varies by episode; either 1,000 (earlier) or 250 (later). Lava acts as a barrier to you and enemies, although not an insurmountable one. Lava is frequently your worst enemy in Kroz games. Contact with it gives you lots of points, but it takes 10 gems away. Despite this profoundly negative consequence, it is often beneficial to cross lava. Some passages can only be reached by doing so, and some secret items can be obtained as well. OBJECT: Bottomless Pit APPEARANCE: Dark gray hatched pattern METADATA: = POINT VALUE: Village idiot award If lava is your worst enemy, a bottomless pit is your super-worst. Touch it and you die. It's that simple. Earlier Kroz games had a simple animation where the player shrinks to a small dot before getting dashed to pieces at the bottom (the pit isn't really bottomless, despite the message). Later Kroz games featured an improved, hilarious animation that shows a sideways profile of the player falling down into the pit, gradually accelerating until the impact flattens the poor wretch to the height of an underscore. This animation sequence is one of the most memorable humor points in the Kroz series. Sadly, many of the online ports of Kroz games did not include this sequence. Cheap and silly as it is, it has staying power. OBJECT: Quest artifact APPEARANCE: Varies depending on episode METADATA: A POINT VALUE: Varies depending on episode (generally between 20,000 and 50,000) Collect it and you win. Actually, you will need to go into a special green passage after collecting the quest artifact, which will end the game. The quest artifacts are as follows: Kingdom I / Kingdom II / Caverns: Amulet of Kroz Dungeons: Staff of Kroz Return: Crown of Kroz Temple: Holy Grail of Kroz Final Crusade: Fountain of Youth Lost Adventures: Sacred Tome of Kroz In some episodes, additional decoy quest artifact objects will appear on levels above the real one. OBJECT: Electrified border fence APPEARANCE: Colorful hatched pattern around the level perimeter METADATA: None POINT VALUE: -int(level number / 2) * 10 There is not much to say about the border fence, except that it keeps everything enclosed within the level, including you. If you touch it, it deducts from your score. However, unlike ordinary wall collisions, the point loss is much higher as you descend further underground. OBJECT: Text APPEARANCE: Text METADATA: Lowercase characters (usually) POINT VALUE: -20 When a Kroz game generates a level, metadata that doesn't map to anything else is treated as text. Text acts like a wall. Some episodes let you destroy text with your whip. If text is destroyable, it is easy to destroy: one whip strike. You can whip text in Return, Temple, and Final Crusade. In many cases, puzzles are laid out in such a fashion that you must use your whip on text. The metadata used for text restricts what can be displayed as text. Lowercase characters are converted into uppercase characters, meaning only uppercase characters can be shown in a level. As for punctuation, it was clear that Apogee was running out of characters to use as metadata. The encodings for symbols like periods, exclamation points, and commas did not at all resemble the actual ASCII characters themselves, as they had already been taken for use with other objects. This would have been one of the more tedious level design tasks for episodes like Lost Adventures, which made heavy use of punctuation in the diary entries. Other game-unmapped extended ASCII characters can be used as text, too. ^ CAVERNS limited to above objects ^ ------------------------------------ v DUNGEONS has additional objects v OBJECT: Tunnel APPEARANCE: White upside-down "U" METADATA: U A tunnel acts as a teleporter with a specific set of possible destinations. A tunnel blocks enemies; only you can use them. If there are two tunnels on the level, the player always transports between tunnels. If there are more than two tunnels on the level, the player will transport randomly between every other tunnel on the level. The exact square chosen by the game for the player's destination is also random. This can get somewhat frustrating at times, because simply exiting from the correct tunnel is not enough: you must also exit from the correct side. One curious property of tunnels is that it is not possible to exit the same tunnel entered, while at the same time picking a different square to exit. If all the other tunnels are blocked, the exit spot for the tunnel will always be the entrance square, not any other square. This means that some levels require the player to open the space surrounding another tunnel, which then allows transport between tunnels, which then (presumably) lets the player exit from the original tunnel on the other side. There are only a few levels in the entire series that require this, but it is absolutely necessary to do so in order to finish these levels. Somewhat inconsistent across episodes is the selection of non-visible types that block tunnel traversal. Activator and closeable wall types, for example, may or may not block tunnel traversal. Empty spaces and stop spaces never block tunnel traversal. OBJECT: Freeze time spell APPEARANCE: Light blue f METADATA: Z POINT VALUE: 20 or 10 When picked up, enemies will stop their movement rate for a brief period. Note that the duration of the period depends on both the Kroz episode and the fast/slow CPU setting. If you want to, you can whip these out of the way. Enemies destroy spells if they walk over them! OBJECT: Golden nugget / Ancient artifact APPEARANCE: Asterisk, various colors METADATA: * POINT VALUE: varies by episode; either 1,000 (earlier) or 500 (later). This object just gives points and nothing else. They were named artifacts in earlier episodes and golden nuggets in later episodes. Enemies destroy nuggets if they walk over them! OBJECT: Quake trap APPEARANCE: Invisible METADATA: E A quake trap dumps at most 50 rubble pieces on the grid. Enemies and collectable items can get crushed by the rubble. You, thankfully, cannot be. The type of rubble depends on the episode. Most episodes dump breakable walls, but later episodes dump boulders. Kingdom of Kroz I is interesting in that there is a level that allows quake traps to dump breakables over SOLID walls. This offers a rare opportunity to use a quake trap in a beneficial way, as it can open passages to areas that might have been otherwise difficult to get to. Enemies will not traverse quake traps. This fact can be used to your advantage, since an enemy can effectively "locate" a trap for you. OBJECT: Invisible terrains APPEARANCE: Invisible until touched METADATA: ';' (breakable wall), ':' (solid wall), '`' (door) POINT VALUE: 0 Invisible walls and doors can be some of the more frustrating components of Kroz games, as they are invisible until touched. Touching them will reveal the terrain, but this does not take points away unless the newly uncovered terrain is touched again. Bombs destroy invisible terrains. This is intuitive for doors and breakable walls. In fact, invisible solids are destroyed too! This can be useful at times, such as with "Invisimaze" in Dungeons. Spears behave in a similarly strange fashion around invisible terrains. If the terrain is invisible, the spear passes through, although it won't remove the terrain entirely. But if the terrain is uncovered, the spear stops. "Mystery Ramp" in Lost Adventures allows you to use this property to your advantage. Enemies will not cross invisible terrains, which can help to reveal them. Ever the pinnacle of intelligence, an enemy will not suicide into an invisible breakable wall, but it will PROMPTLY suicide the moment you uncover the wall. OBJECT: Stop space APPEARANCE: Nothing to see (empty) METADATA: - This is just a special type of empty space. The player traverses it with no trouble, but enemies cannot cross it unless you have already crossed it or whipped it. There are two uses of stop spaces: 1) Scripted enemy pursuits; enemies stay put until the player gets close. 2) Teleportation inhibitor; teleports will not go to these spaces unless the player has traversed the space using some other means. I have noted that these spaces have been laid out in a devious manner in some sideways levels. This means there is an excellent probability that a teleport early in the level will dump the player into a lava pit. ^ DUNGEONS limited to above objects ^ ------------------------------------- v KINGDOM I has additional objects v OBJECT: Activator APPEARANCE: Nothing to see (empty) METADATA: various; "@" is most common This type of empty space serves a similar function as a stop space. The space, when the player traverses it, removes every other space of the same type in the entire level. This allows for many interesting scripting possibilities. Some levels have monsters that chase the player based on the player entering a certain area. Other levels have a remote-activated type of chase, with monsters that start moving only when the player reaches a different area, far away. Additional teleportation destinations can also be opened up this way. As of Lost Adventures, there are a total of 12 activator types, representing 12 possible activations that could occur at various locations in the level. Kingdom I only implemented one type. ^ KINGDOM I limited to above objects ^ -------------------------------------- v RETURN has additional objects v OBJECT: Creature zap spell APPEARANCE: Red filled arrow METADATA: % POINT VALUE: formula based on number of enemies killed (150 max) This handy spell decimates the enemies on the level, selecting them randomly. As many as 40 enemies are killed with a single spell. Enemies destroy spells if they walk over them! OBJECT: Creature creation trap APPEARANCE: Yellow filled arrow, question mark, or invisible METADATA: ] POINT VALUE: Level number * 20 A bad spell, usually. It spawns as many as 45 red enemies at random locations in the level. On the other hand, it gives a lot of points, especially at higher levels. Kroz games impose an upper spawn limit for red enemies. No more than 945 can exist on a level via creation traps. Enemies will not traverse creation traps. This fact can be used to your advantage, since an enemy can effectively "locate" a trap for you. It is possible to reveal a creation trap with your whip. Unfortunately, you can't destroy them this way. If a creation trap blocks your path, you have no choice but to step on it. OBJECT: Creature generator APPEARANCE: Yellow flashing spade METADATA: G POINT VALUE: 500 A creature generator operates in a passive fashion. For fast CPU setting, each game tick iteration will spawn a new red enemy at a random location given a 1/28 probability. For slow CPU setting, the probability is 1/17 every iteration. Generators are worth a lot of points; a single whip strike destroys them. However, they only stop generating once EVERY generator in the level is destroyed. The generation rate is not affected by the number remaining in the level. OBJECT: Additional activator types APPEARANCE: Nothing to see (empty) METADATA: various, including "(" and ")" Return to Kroz introduced two new activator types. OBJECT: Moving wall APPEARANCE: Brown porous block METADATA: M POINT VALUE: 10 (whipped); -20 (collision) Moving walls are just as fast as green enemies, but they don't attack the player. Instead, they just try to trap the player. Once they get near the player, they simply stop. In all other respects, a moving wall is functionally equivalent to an ordinary breakable wall, except you get points for whipping it. A moving wall is just as difficult to destroy as a breakable wall. Some levels will require you to coax moving walls out of a passage that you need to get through. Since monsters can suicide into moving walls, you can engineer strategies to get these two disparate types to meet each other. The enemy of my enemy is my friend! OBJECT: Reveal gem scroll APPEARANCE: Invisible METADATA: & This is a great find, if you can find one. This spawns gems at random locations around the level. The number of gems spawned will depend on the difficulty level. Generally, the maximum is 21 for Novice, 15 for Experienced, and 9 for Advanced. Kroz games tend to be first-class @$!holes about where these scrolls are placed. It is common to find them blocked by quake traps or creation traps, or just before you reach the exit stairs. OBJECT: Tablet APPEARANCE: Blue rectangle METADATA: ! POINT VALUE: varies by episode; 1,000 or 2,500 Most of the time, a tablet contains just a message. However, Lost Adventures allows tablets to perform a variety of magical change events over the entirety of the level. Most tablets contain useful tips even if they don't contain spells, so they are normally worth your while to read. Enemies can step on tablets and crush them. Even boulders can crush them, if you're not careful with how you push boulders. OBJECT: Explodable wall APPEARANCE: Brown porous block METADATA: O POINT VALUE: 10 (whipped); -20 (collision) This is just a variant of a breakable wall. Once an exploding wall spell is triggered, all of these walls disappear from the level. This is normally done as a way to reveal secret areas. Interestingly enough, this wall gives points when whipped. OBJECT: Exploding wall spell APPEARANCE: Invisible METADATA: H This spell triggers exploding walls (see above object). A level normally has some sort of clue as to where such a spell is located, since you cannot see these spells. In some cases, you just need to be a good guesser. OBJECT: Pouch of gems APPEARANCE: Question mark METADATA: ? POINT VALUE: 1,000 A pouch full of gems is a great find, even better than a reveal gem scroll, because you get the gems right away. In most episodes, you get 25 gems. In Lost Adventures, you will get fewer: Novice skill gives 13-20, Experienced, 13-17, and Advanced, 13-14. Many levels in Kroz make a kind of "Russian Roulette" game out of these objects by placing a handful of these around a whole bunch of creature creation traps, which look identical. Of course, it's the brave type of Russian Roulette, because most of the cylinders have rounds in them. Lots of enemies is often the price to pay for a pouch full of gems. Whipping won't help much in discerning a pouch from a trap: the whip destroys the pouch! OBJECT: Statue APPEARANCE: White flashing smiley face METADATA: > POINT VALUE: 100 (??!) This object is a five-star @$!hole. There will never be more than one statue in a level, but that one causes trouble beyond comprehension. A statue operates in a passive manner, like a generator, but instead of spawning enemies, it simply takes your gems away. Like that. Doesn't need to be close. No limit on number. As long as it's there, it robs you. Specifically, there is a probability of 1/18 that a statue will steal a gem from you on any game tick iteration. You should be very motivated to either leave the level pronto, or destroy that thing ASAP! Statues are the toughest objects in Kroz. Unless you have powered up your whip with rings, don't even bother fighting them. It takes a LOT of swings to kill them, and there is no guarantee that you will have enough whips. To make matters more insulting, killing them does not give that many points, either. If you see a statue, be afraid. Be very afraid. OBJECT: Wall vanish trap APPEARANCE: Invisible METADATA: N Another annoying trap, although somewhat rare. If you step on it, as many as 75 sections of the walls are made invisible. This makes it difficult to navigate parts of the level, especially if the level layout is random. These traps affect only brown solid walls and unmoving, non-exploding brown breakable walls. OBJECT: KROZ bonus letters APPEARANCE: Gold letters K, R, O, and Z METADATA: '<', '[', '|', '"' POINT VALUE: 10,000 if collected in order Many Apogee titles would yield bonuses from letters collected in order, such as the first two Duke Nukem games. For Kroz games, take a wild guess what word you must spell to get the bonus. Bonus letters are destroyed shockingly easily. Watch where you bomb, launch a spear, push a boulder, or let an enemy walk, because once the letters are gone, they're gone. You only get the bonus if the letters are collected in order. However, there is a bug that lets you collect multiple bonuses on the same level. If you have collected the bonus once, you need only collect the 'Z' letter again to collect another bonus! OBJECT: Openable walls and open spells APPEARANCE: Solid walls; light blue pentagons METADATA: '4', '5' and '6' (walls); 0xF1, 0xF2, and 0xF3 (spells) Special solid walls can be scripted to open when a specific pentagon spell is collected. As many as three separate open-wall events can be scripted in a level. The first two openable wall types are brown; the third is gray. Sometimes, just for color variety, the third openable wall type is placed without any way to open it. The pentagon spells themselves are normally visible, although they can be hidden. In this respect, an open-wall event can be either good or bad: it can let you access the stairs, or it could release monsters to attack. Be careful where you push boulders; they can crush these spells. OBJECT: Closeable walls and close spells APPEARANCE: Invisible METADATA: '7', '8' and '9' (walls); 0xF4, 0xF5, and 0xF6 (spells) These walls and spells represent the open-wall system in reverse. When a spell is activated, solid walls appear. As many as three separate close-wall events can be scripted in a level. The close-wall spells are always invisible. 99.9% of the time, they form traps, which seal the player into certain areas. It is this context where teleport scrolls come in very handy! Close-wall spells can actually be useful in sideways levels, since they can form walkways. The closeable-wall tiles, before getting triggered, serve a number of miscellaneous purposes, such as the following: 1) Blocking monsters permanently (no dissolve after player traversal) 2) Inhibiting teleportation permanently 3) Preventing tunnel traversal to certain spaces 4) Acting as a possible toggle point for blinking electrified walls 5) Acting as a change type for tablet-based effects 6) Preventing surround-spawn triggers from spawning objects in certain locations Not all the closeable-wall types act in the same way. There are notable differences across episodes what sort of miscellaneous functions each type of closeable wall can perform. OBJECT: Gray breakable wall APPEARANCE: Gray porous block METADATA: Y POINT VALUE: 10 (whipped); -20 (collision) This is a variant of a breakable wall, colored differently. Spells that affect brown breakables don't always affect gray breakables. Interestingly enough, this wall gives points when whipped. ---------------------------------------------- - TEMPLE has no new objects - ---------------------------------------------- ^ RETURN and TEMPLE limited to above objects ^ ---------------------------------------------- v FINAL CRUSADE has additional objects v OBJECT: Boulder APPEARANCE: Gray "O" METADATA: 0 (zero) POINT VALUE: 1,000 What puzzle game is complete without a pushable object? These boulders can be moved by the player in 8 directions. They can destroy items and enemies without endangering the player, and allow for many new strategic possibilities to be used when playing Kroz. A boulder is designed to be tough, but not indestructible. It takes many whip swings to destroy a boulder, and most of the time, destroying them is not necessary. You can destroy boulders more easily if needed: 1) Push boulder into a bottomless pit. 2) Push boulder down the stairs. 3) Push boulder into a high-voltage electrified wall, which destroys both. On some levels, boulders must be used to minimize damage from enemies, seal in growing lava, or even form walkways. Important note: pushing a boulder increases the movement rate of enemies by a huge factor. Assuming it takes a long time to set a boulder into motion, that makes sense: enemies will sneak up on you while you are occupied. OBJECT: High-voltage electrified wall APPEARANCE: Glowing red "X" METADATA: ~ An electrified wall blocks the player and enemies. If the player touches one, the player loses one gem. Contrast this to the border fence, which takes off points instead. It is possible to destroy these walls, unlike the border fence. By pushing a boulder into the wall, the boulder is vaporized and the wall shorts out, allowing passage. Some puzzle solutions depend on saving boulders until they can be used to open a passage through electrified walls. Counterintuitive as it seems, an electrified wall will NOT shock you into oblivion if you stand on it in a sideways level. As long as you don't walk directly INTO it, you're safe. OBJECT: Additional activator type APPEARANCE: Nothing to see (empty) METADATA: $ Final Crusade of Kroz introduced a new activator type. ^ FINAL CRUSADE limited to above objects ^ ------------------------------------------ v LOST ADVENTURES has additional objects v OBJECT: Gem eraser APPEARANCE: Yellow filled arrow, question mark, or invisible METADATA: ] This is the same object as a creature creation trap. Yes, the SAME object. If you touch it, it takes 3 gems away unless your gem count is already below 10. It sucks, but there are worse things that happen to you in Kroz games. The only way to encounter this object is to touch it in a sideways level. Kroz games interpret creation traps as gem erasers when the level is sideways. OBJECT: Surround-spawn trigger APPEARANCE: Invisible METADATA: ASCII 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, and 151 Surround-spawn triggers liven up the later Kroz games significantly. They can act as item bonuses, traps, or puzzle-solving devices. When a trigger is stepped on, as many as 8 of the spawned type will surround the player. This nearly always comes as a surprise; expect the unexpected. There are seven types of triggers, based on the type of item spawned: Breakable blocks Boulders Gems Blindness potions Whips Golden nuggets Trees Enemies destroy triggers if they walk over them. The spawned items from a trigger also erase surrounding triggers, if they are nearby. OBJECT: Rope APPEARANCE: Long gray vertical line METADATA: ASCII 179 Ropes allow you to move up in sideways levels. A sideways level imposes a special gravity effect, which limits the player to the following movement: 1) Non-rope movement: sideways, downward, or diagonally downward only. 2) From-rope movement: any direction. 3) To-rope movement: any direction. 4) To-drop-rope movement: any direction. 5) The player gradually slides down if there is nothing solid underneath, and if the player is not currently hanging on a rope. Monsters cannot use ropes, and their movement is restricted in sideways levels. They can only move left or right; they cannot move up or down. OBJECT: Drop-rope chord APPEARANCE: Gray arrow pointing down METADATA: ASCII 185, 186, 187, 188, and 189 Drop-rope chords cause ropes to fall from other drop-rope chords of the same type in the same level. Note that this doesn't apply to the chord the player just pulled, which means the player must select the correct chord to complete the level (usually the lowest one). Drop-rope chords limit their drop range based on certain blocking types. Normally this means walls, but other types like activators and closeable wall types can also limit the range. You should take care to remove any obstacles that might limit the drop range before pulling the chord, as the puzzle solution might hinge on keeping the rope as long as possible. OBJECT: Amulet of Yendor APPEARANCE: Female symbol METADATA: ASCII 131 POINT VALUE: 25,000 This artifact was put into level 26 of Lost Adventures as a joke. The level in which it is found is a tribute to Rogue, which inspired Kroz. OBJECT: Magic spear APPEARANCE: Gray arrows pointing left or right METADATA: ASCII 175 (right facing); ASCII 174 (left facing) Magic spears fly in a straight line horizontally, eliminating many things in their way. It is a good way to get rid of long lines of enemies, but it risks destroying items as well. Spears can pass through some types of terrains normally not traversable: water, pits, and invisible walls. Spears do not give points for enemies killed. A spear leaves a dead-zone behind, consisting of stop spaces. I suppose it makes sense that enemies would be scared to cross it after what had just happened to their comrades! OBJECT: Additional activator types APPEARANCE: Nothing to see (empty) METADATA: ASCII 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, and 231 Lost Adventures of Kroz introduced a whopping 8 new activator types. Random level layouts do not support these additional types. This is not necessary, of course, considering that a random level layout rarely needs many, if any, activators. OBJECT: Secret Message Tree APPEARANCE: Same as ordinary tree METADATA: ASCII 252 Lost Adventures of Kroz advertised a secret message. At various locations in the game, you can touch the secret message tree and receive the message. You can also destroy the tree and proceed no more enlightened than before. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VI) Walkthroughs for individual games -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you tally the levels found in the games discussed here, that works out to 40 + 30 + 25 + 25 + 20 + 20 + 25 + 75 = 260 levels! For this reason, the FAQ will not cover every corner of every level, but rather the highlights of each one and any subtleties worth a mention. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A) Caverns -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first Kroz adventure. And the hardest. If the emulation speed is too fast, there is no way you'll ever beat Caverns. And even if it's set to a reasonable speed, Caverns still manages to be a very, very difficult game. If you actually have a mind to play Caverns I, chests play a much more important role than in Caverns II: they can contain teleport scrolls. There are some levels that are absurdly random in Caverns, especially level 14, because they rely upon a series of lucky teleport destinations for you to finish. If you are new to Kroz, you might want to consider skipping Caverns and moving on to the next game in the series. Caverns is tough, ugly, and brutal. ENEMY COMPACTION STRATEGY: A common strategy to use when large volumes of monsters appear on the screen. In most cases, random level layouts with lots of enemies will leave little room for you to maneuver without taking damage. But if you skirt around the perimeter, enemies will gradually start packing closer together, allowing you to outrun them (as long as you stick to the edges of the screen). Since enemies are less likely to destroy items on the edges of the screen, you can normally pick up goodies with minimal damage. If the exit stairs are in the middle of the screen, though, enemy compaction does not work to your benefit. You will have to dive straight through them when it is time to exit the level. If enemies have completely closed in, a teleport scroll is useful. With the enemies packed in so tight, the teleport will normally take you to a place far behind them, since teleports only go to empty spaces. ZERO-SUM STRATEGY: Employ this when deciding if it's worth it to expend whips to get items. There is a 2/7 probability that an unimproved whip will destroy a breakable wall. However, if you need only destroy one of three adjacent walls to proceed, the chance of a whip swing allowing you to progress is 3 times that: 6/7. If the direction of your progress will net you 1 whip or more for every 1 whip expended, it's a good direction to go in. Otherwise, it's more sensible to avoid blocked items. WHIP-VERSUS-GEM STRATEGY: Should you use a whip or just take the damage from enemies? When presented with this dilemma, take into account the following: For narrow corridor of unavoidable enemies: red enemies take only one gem, making it better to run through them. Green and blue enemies are better when whipped, since they take more gems in one fell swoop than you would be able to restock. But if you can restock with a comparable number of gems right away, it might be worth running through solitary green or blue enemies. For clusters of enemies: if there are 4 or more surrounding enemies, it's usually better to whip them. The damage you take from 4 or more surrounding enemies can be nasty. In the case of blue enemies, it's downright hideous. ------------ Starting out ------------ 1) Collect items; dodge enemies; advance. 2) Whip IMMEDIATELY. Use your judgment about collecting the speed time spells; you don't want to waste whips this early. Use the breakables as much as possible to get rid of enemies and open routes to the teleport scrolls on the right. Try to whip in such a way that you can get to the chest and whips on the left with as few swings as possible. 3) Collect items; dodge enemies; advance. 4) Don't bother with the chests to your right. Go down and spiral towards the middle of the level, running as much as possible. Don't waste whips on enemies. Don't waste whips getting the chests in the middle of the level. 5) Don't stick around too long. Use the enemy compaction strategy. 6) Use the zero-sum strategy. ------------- Into the turf ------------- 7) "Run for your life" sounds like a great idea. Grab the slow time spell and do your best to ram the blue enemies into the breakable walls. For the blue enemies at the bottom, stand at the very bottom of the screen to draw them out, then ram them into the breakables. This gives access to the two chests at the sides of the screen. A lucky teleport can net you three chests in the enclosed area, but this is very lucky indeed. Do not attempt. 8) Use the enemy compaction strategy. Do not whip the potions, because the enemy movements will tell you where you are. 9) Use the same strategies as level 7. In this case, you will need to be a bit more inventive when figuring out how to ram enemies into breakables. The items in the lower right quadrant and upper left quadrant are worth collecting. The treasure in the upper right quadrant may or may not be worth it, depending on whether you want to expend a key. The treasure in the lower left quadrant is definitely not worth getting. The power ring in the same quadrant is a big risk to get, since you must expend a lot of whips. I do not recommend getting it. 10) Kick back and enjoy the fireworks. Leave. 11) Let the blue enemies suicide while you manipulate the red ones. To do this, wait for exactly one movement to the left by these red enemies, and then move diagonally in a switchbacked fashion. If you pause at a bottom switchback, the red enemies can't pursue you aligned as they are. Collect the items and the key. Teleport away, get the rest of the items in the level, and go through the bottom locked door to leave the level. ------------ Pain central ------------ 12) Get the items in the "island," moving as fast as possible. Teleport away. Keep teleporting (preferably using the traps) to the right side of the screen. Get the key. Advisable not to open the nearby door, but if you have a spare key, go below the room to make the red enemies open a passage for you through the breakables. Teleport to the left side of the screen. Draw out the blue enemies from the corner, then unlock the door and leave. 13) Use enemy compaction strategy. If you are very lucky, you can pick up an extra key. 14) Save your game! Luck makes a big difference on this level. Use teleport traps (and teleport scrolls, once you run out of traps) to teleport to the right side of the screen. Get both keys, then teleport to the top part of the screen if you haven't already. Get the top-of-the-screen key. Teleport back to the entrance room. Collect the slow time spell, then move through the red enemies (no whipping) to get the items and the door. For the green enemies, use a combination of whips and movement depending on your inventory. For blue enemies, use whips and waiting to snake around them to get the stairs. 15) You can pick up a few items here, but it's easiest just to move or teleport towards the stairs and exit as quickly as possible. 16) Beware, indeed. First, go left. Grab as many items as possible without expending too many whips. Grab the speed time spell, and cluster the blue enemies at the bottom of the screen towards the breakables. Grab the slow time spell, rush past the blue enemies, and grab all the keys and items as you can as fast as possible. Try to run the columns of blue and green enemies above you downwards, such that they hit breakables and teleport traps. Teleport away. The next part of the level is open-ended. I suggest getting the leftmost key, but not the 9 whips in the same region. Get the gems if you need them; you can zero-sum your key count if you go to the corridor left of the gems. Finally, get the key to the northeast of the "BEWARE" message, then circumvent the long line of blue enemies in a clockwise fashion. There is no way to avoid the green enemies, but they do less damage to you than the blue enemies. Whip through the walls, unlock the doors, and leave. Good riddance! 17) Not much room. Teleport until you get to stairs, then leave. 18) Level of peril? I'll say. If possible, teleport ahead, beyond the bulk of the enemies found in the lower right quadrant. This allows you to collect some if not all keys without getting torn up too much. Use the traps at the top of the screen to escape. The key in the lower right is worth getting, but the key that requires lots of breakables to reach is not, unless you have a lot of whips. You can lure some enemies into the lower left quadrant to make it easier to get to the items, but this has limited effectiveness. It's best just to hurry. The exit passage requires 3 keys but has a free power ring. If you have enough keys already, you might want to consider skipping the bulk of the level. --------------------- They just keep coming --------------------- 19) Enemy compaction strategy. 20) When you get a speed time spell, consider hanging back and letting the spell run out before proceeding. Rush through the level, using whips as little as possible. The power ring on this level is not worth getting. To get the 5 chests at the top-middle of the screen, draw out the blue enemies for 3 squares once you get on their right. This prevents them from moving into chests. Crash several into the breakables, then use the same switchbacked strategy as in level 11. 21) Use speed time spells, strategy, and patience. Let a large portion of the red enemies pursue you across the bridge, then crash them into the breakables on the left side. The gems at the top might not be worth getting. After you've eliminated a lot of the red enemies, you can do one of two things: make a run for it, or try a teleport (there is a good chance you will go to the right side of the screen). Use the bombs to even the score on the right side, collect the gems in the corner, and maneuver the rest of the enemies into position that allows you to sneak around them to the stairs. 22) Enemy compaction strategy. Easy to teleport around enemies. --------- Hot times --------- 23) Collect the key and slow time spell, then teleport. The first part of the level is best ignored. If you can teleport to the top or right sides of the level, collect all the keys you can manage without unlocking any doors. You can then easily travel to the bottom of the level; run as fast as possible to avoid losing too many gems. 24) Just find the exit as fast as possible. Bombs can help. Green enemies are bad, but lava is worse. Avoid touching. 25) Draw out the blue enemies, collect the key, collect the remaining items, and teleport away. By this point, you've gotten an idea of how to play Kroz, so I won't spoon-feed you every strategy. Use the bombs to destroy as many packs of enemies as possible. 26) Enemy compaction strategy. Avoid the speed time spells! 27) Looks can be deceiving. You will lose more gems snaking around the blue enemies than you will charging straight across the lava. You don't even need to pick up any keys on this level, although I recommend picking up at least a few. 28) Enemy compaction strategy. --------------- Just plain mean --------------- 29) Stock up on whips. Grab the keys. The best path to take is through enemies and forest; you will expend more whips going through trees. 30) It's actually possible to kill every foe on this level, if bombs are used intelligently. 31) Nasty level with a decoy amulet (which you don't need). Try to teleport to the lower left, upper left, and upper middle screen portions to get the keys in these areas. If you can teleport to the right of the lava, though, forget all this and just exit the level. If you can get to the upper middle screen portion, observe carefully: you can get within one door's distance from the stairs if you are willing to whip some walls and traverse only two lava squares. The power ring requires that you traverse only one lava square. 32) Step carefully. Collect as many teleports as economical and find the stairs. 33) Let the red circle close in first. Teleport, if you want, to the outside of the ring, and collect a few keys. I prefer not even to try to exit the water circle. Crossing the lava is more economical, since you can get keys and items without opening doors, and losing a comparable amount of gems as you would getting past the outer ring of red enemies. You can get two power rings on this level, too, which can make your whip a formidable weapon. 34) Use the bombs. --------- Final run --------- 35) Whip, whip, and whip again. Get the key. By now, you've probably collected many excess keys. Decide which ones to collect on this level; some are far easier than others. There are many ways to play this level. 36) Same strategy as level 30. 37) Grab the key, gems, and teleport away. This level is open-ended; figure out the best way to ram enemies into walls, use bombs to destroy doors, and minimize inventory losses. 38) Enemy compaction strategy. 39) This level is best if skipped. With your stock of keys and gems, I find it better just to use keys and take the lava damage, since a comparable amount of damage would be taken through the level itself. Only play through the level if you have no keys. 40) This is it! Ram the top enemies into the walls, grab the slow time spells, and collect as many of the easy keys as possible. By now, your gem stock is probably suffering, so easier said than done. Use the whip-versus-gem strategy. You can get two keys easily by crossing lava around the left and right sides of the screen. Teleports can make it easier to get around the vast numbers of blue enemies. You need a total of seven keys to enter the temple, and you are screwed if you run out of whips before then. Once you have enough supplies, proceed to the bottom of the level, then work your way to the amulet. Cross the lava, collect the amulet, and you win! Note: If you are playing Caverns II, you get the typical award for gems, whips, teleports, and keys remaining: 100 x Gem 100 x Whip 200 x Teleport 10,000 x Key For Caverns I, the quest artifact bonus is all you get. One of the reasons to hoard keys is the huge bonus you get for them at the end of the game. For Caverns, though, I'd say hoarding keys makes a lot more sense for survival than anything else. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B) Dungeons -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Apart from Lost Adventures, I'd say that Dungeons is one of my favorites of the series. This is because it seems like you have a lot more options in this episode. It's a major step up in quality from Caverns, and definitely a lot easier, if not quite as long. There are many more opportunities in Dungeons to save inventory items for later. I found that intelligent use of gems, whips, teleports, and keys lets you finish the game with an impressive stock. The biggest difference in strategy from Caverns is that many of the levels do not let you skip parts via teleporting, so you must persevere by walking most of the time. This is due to the introduction of stop spaces. These stop spaces are discussed in the object list section. ------------ Starting out ------------ 1) Not much to say. Let enemies smash into walls, collect items, leave. 2) Again, not much to say. 3) This level is surprisingly tricky. Carefully observe how monsters will move before deciding where to go. You can manage to collect every key on this level, plus a nice helping of treasure, but only if you pay attention! 4) Enemy compaction strategy. 5) Bomb the red enemies, collect the key, collect the whips, and use the key to open the door to the tunnel. What door is that, you ask? It's invisible. Too bad. The top part of the level is fairly straightforward. 6) Enemy compaction strategy. ---------- Going down ---------- 7) This level is kind of like a whack-a-mole game, where you are the mole. Enter the tunnels repeatedly until you reach the leftmost tunnel. Decide if you really want to get the power ring: there are LOTS of quake traps along the way! 8) Zero-sum strategy. 9) Use the freeze time spells before trying to get the keys. It is actually worth it to get the gems in the center of the ring; you need only cross two lava squares. If you are making a high-score run, try to approach the stairs from this ring--you'll take even more lava damage, but you'll save two keys. 10) Enemy compaction strategy. The quake traps on this level are actually quite useful--they will eliminate the enemies for you. 11) Tricky. Get the freeze spell, get the gems and keys in the second "enemy column," then use the suicide-after-invisible technique to eliminate the first "enemy column" so you can pick up even more gems. Approach each subsequent "enemy column" in left-to-right order, since you don't want the enemies to destroy any keys! The top right compartment is not worth it--an invisible door blocks it, and this is for a reduced value of treasure. The bottom right compartment requires three keys to open (the doors are invisible). 12) Enemy compaction strategy. Get the key if you can. ------------- Shaky grounds ------------- 13) Whip IMMEDIATELY. Get all the keys on this level. It is most economical if you cross the lava, without unlocking any doors. Watch out for the top left quadrant, which has many quake traps. 14) Enemy compaction strategy. Tunnels can help. 15) Tough level! There are many ways to play this, but the best strategies are at the start. Use the topmost blue enemy to remove the teleport traps, ram the rest of the blue enemies into breakable walls, and do your best to bomb the green enemies. The power ring is worth it to get, but you need a lot of skill to get it without taking too much damage or losing too much inventory. For the giant pit on the right side, tread carefully. Invisible walls are present; you shouldn't be too hasty about movement. Whip the blindness potion. Teleport after you get the key. 16) Not much here. Leave ASAP. 17) This water level is one that really requires you to observe how monsters will move before getting started. You don't want to remain in any location too long that will let a monster creep up and destroy a key. Furthermore, quake traps protect much of the treasure on this level, so you're better off avoiding some of it. 18) Somewhat annoying level; all the walls are invisible. You can use the suicide-after-invisible technique to avoid taking damage from enemies. Get as many items as possible. ------------------- Bridges to oblivion ------------------- 19) Get the two keys in the area where you start. The second key in this area can be reached by whipping the middle-left part of the forest line. Teleport away. Collect all the items you can. An invisible line of breakables can be used to get rid of some enemies (just southeast of the pond). Get the two chests near the bottom of the screen--you will trigger a quake trap, but this is a good thing! By triggering the trap, you will eliminate many of the red enemies, which will give you more space to move around when you cross the bridge. Don't forget to get the key in the center of the pond before leaving! 20) Kick back and enjoy the fireworks. Get the key if possible. Leave. 21) Need help? Here's some. Teleport, get a freeze time spell, grab as many gold nuggets as possible, grab the other freeze time spell, grab the rest of the nuggets. Run right, grab the keys, teleport away, run left, grab the key, and leave. Warning: quake traps are at the left and right "T" intersections; move diagonally through them. Also, crossing some lava might be worth it if you want to pick up additional treasure. You can even cross lava to skip the doors. 22) Enemy compaction strategy. 23) There are a number of ways to beat this level. There are only two points that aren't very intuitive: the blue enemy gauntlet, and the tunnel traversal. The blue enemy gauntlet should be navigated by going through the EXACT CENTER of the corridor made by them. If you get near the enemies, they'll attack. There is an invisible breakable close to the middle of the bottom row of invisible solids. Whip this, move down, and the green enemies will suicide into the wall. The reason you must do this is because it's the only way to give yourself an opening to that tunnel. If you remember the tunnel properties in the object list, you can only reach the left side of the tunnel in the top left corner of the level if you first go to this second tunnel, then go back to the first tunnel on the opposite side. You can't reach the stairs any other way! 24) Surprisingly, the enemy compaction strategy doesn't work that well, because these guys are patient. Just snake around them to the stairs. -------------------- That glow ain't hope -------------------- 25) What's this? A lava pit level BEFORE the sideways level lava pit that is much more well-known? Indeed, it's here. Get the three keys using the tunnels, teleport away, collect massive amounts of treasure, and cross two lava squares to return to the exit. 26) Step carefully. You can pick up some useful items, but it's best just to find the stairs as quickly as possible. 27) There are many ways to play this level. Try to get the topmost keys first, and hook around left through the path through the lava. Cross the lava if you want to make shortcuts. The important strategy is not to allow enemies to walk over and destroy keys. The final "door city" portion of this level lets you take two possible routes through. Both routes use up the same number of keys and yield the same number of items, so it doesn't matter which path you take. 28) Enemy compaction strategy. 29) Invisimaze, one of the more frustrating levels in ASCII-character-game-based history. It's on par with Epic's "The Room of Extreme Annoyance" in Town of ZZT. I'll only cover a few notes: a) The bomb at the start can remove a lot of invisible solids. b) The freeze time spells are placed strategically, such that you can run past a pack of enemies. c) Get the five whips at the bottom of the level, but don't go any further! A quake trap is there. d) You need at least 5 keys to unlock the invisible doors blocking the stairs. 30) At last, the lowest level! Get the freeze time spell, grab the nearest keys, and use whatever strategies you see fit to finish the level. Watch out in the lower left part of the level, because ALL the empty spaces are quake traps! You can use the quake traps to your advantage. They eliminate enemies, which can make it easier to get past them. The chamber just before the staff can't be reached unless you use quake traps to open a spot next to the tunnel, or else go the lower right or upper right parts of the screen to ram the blue enemies into the breakables. You need a total of 9 keys to collect the staff, which is accessible by taking the middle tunnel to the antechamber. Get past the remaining blue enemies, unlock the final door, collect the staff, and you win! Note: If you are playing Dungeons II, you get the typical award for gems, whips, teleports, and keys remaining: 100 x Gem 100 x Whip 200 x Teleport 10,000 x Key For Dungeons I, the quest artifact bonus is all you get. It's much easier to finish Dungeons with a robust inventory and supply of spare keys than it is for Caverns. Provided, of course, that you play smart. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C) Kingdom I -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kingdom of Kroz I. Here we go. Engine-wise, it's almost identical to Dungeons. There are many levels in Kingdom I that have been lost to time, because the remake, Kingdom of Kroz II, replaced them with others. But this is not to say that they lack quality. The ORIGINAL "Crazy Cubicals" level is present in Kingdom I. One criticism of Kingdom I is that it copies many of the designs, in whole or part, from Caverns. This is not a terrible thing in itself, especially when taking into account that numerous improvements were made in the Kingdom I versions of each level. But Kingdom I stands on its own as a good adventure. It's hard, for sure, but not notably harder than Dungeons. ------------ Starting out ------------ 1) The trademark first level of Kingdom places you in the center of an arena, with enemies, items, and breakable walls. Since the breakable-wall physics are self-explanatory, not much in the way of strategy needs to be explained. You should collect as many items as possible, trying to prevent monsters from destroying too many of them in the process. 2) Enemy compaction strategy. Collect as many items as possible. 3) Wait for the green enemies to open an exit to the breakable wall "container." Run to get as many gems as possible before the blue enemy destroys too many. Get the slow time spell, run past the leftmost green enemies, get the key, whip the teleport trap, and leave. 4) Enemy compaction strategy. 5) This seems to be borrowed from the design of the "Run for your life" Caverns level, although it is not exactly the same. There are more items to collect, and the level seems "upside-down" compared to the similar one found in Caverns. Ram enemies into breakables, and stay at the top of the screen to draw out the enemies on the topmost row. 6) Use zero-sum strategy. --------------- Trouble brewing --------------- 7) Big trouble? Yep. The level seems to resemble the Caverns "Beware" level in some ways, but there are enough differences to call them different designs. Grab the key, teleport out (you must have a teleport scroll!) and handle each part of the level in a different way. The bottom right part should be handled first. Grab the freeze time spell, race past the blue enemies, get the key, double back to the teleport scrolls, get them, and step on the trap. The upper left part should be handled next. Use the blue enemy to crush the long line of teleport traps, kill it, and get the key it was guarding. It is then safe to get the key just below it and to the right. You can get a power ring on this level, but be wary of the green enemies guarding it. DO NOT rush past them immediately after grabbing the speed time spell! Instead, grab it and follow it with the slow-time spell. Then it is okay to run past them (although not entirely safe). Go through the tunnel to reach the power ring. Grab the rightmost middle key quickly before the blue enemy crushes it. Then, whip to let out the green enemies blocking the stairs. Yes, that's right, let them out. Lure them over to the breakables, and then move down to erase the lot of them. Depending on how well you've done so far in getting the other keys, you might want to skip the key in the upper right. Enemies guard it in force, and there are FOUR invisible breakables blocking the path, to say nothing of the trees in your way. You'll notice a lot of the treasure in this level is not worth getting. You should focus on getting the keys and the power ring, and then leave when you are ready. 8) This level is surprisingly fun. Let the lone blue enemy chase you, carving a path through the traps. When it gets close, step on a trap and move away. Repeat as much as necessary. You can get a large amount of points by collecting the potions. 9) This resembles the bridge level in Caverns, with a similar strategy involved. But this time, you must hurry, at least at the beginning. Grab the freeze time spell and RACE to the key--there is an invisible breakable blocking it--before the horde starts across the bridge. There are multiple ways of playing this level. You could decide to brave the red enemies right away by using bombs and quick maneuvering. You could also ram enemies into the breakables, then try to teleport behind them. In any case, you should try to collect every key before proceeding. 10) Enemy compaction strategy. 11) This level resembles level 37 from Caverns. The strategies are similar, but this version doesn't let you teleport outside! You must brave the pack of green enemies; there is no way to avoid them. 12) Enemy compaction strategy. -------------------- Trouble boileth over -------------------- 13) This is an annoying level. A lot of the items can't be gotten. The upper key can only be reached by crossing the lava. The stairs can only be reached by teleportation. The freeze time spell can be very useful when collecting the gems close to the long line of enemies along the chasm lip, but it's only a matter of time before the spell wears off and the enemies come after you. 14) Kick back and enjoy the fireworks. Leave. 15) The original Crazy Cubicals! It's crazy all right, because it's tricky. Hmmm...shouldn't the word be written "cubicle?" Well, it's hard to say how standardized the term "cubicle" was back in 1987. At the very least, some poetic license should be granted. First, get the freeze time spell, then race back (without getting the gems) to the starting point. Then run all way down to the ring, grab it, and hightail it. If you waste any time, the blue enemies will crush the ring. You must make a decision how to play the rest of the level. The ungotten gems and key near the starting point should definitely be collected, but to go south of the tunnel in the same area, you have two options: crossing the lava to get to the second tunnel, or destroying the invisible breakable at the lower right, moving down, making the blue enemies suicide near the second tunnel, and navigating back and forth between tunnels to go south of the first tunnel. The key tucked away in the upper right quadrant might not be worth collecting. Many of the items in the cubicles before that point, however, are worth getting. You need at least two keys to exit the level. 16) Avoid the lava, avoid the enemies, and leave as quickly as possible. 17) Whip IMMEDIATELY. Grab as much treasure as you can, but the perimeter foes will close in the moment you try to get it. Get all four keys and leave. Note that quake traps surround the stairs. If you're in the mood for revenge, you can intentionally step on these traps and make all the monsters suicide. 18) This "door city" level is frustrating because it eats up your spare keys if you aren't careful. It's best just to teleport until you get near the stairs, then run through enemies and leave. -------------- Here they come -------------- 19) Think before you act! If you have enough whips, just wait for each green enemy to come to the starting position, then whip each quartet until all of them are killed. Then, you can get all the chests that had been blocked and restock your inventory. You will need to move towards at least one enemy in order to get them to chase you. Next, collect the items in the passages above and below. Next, proceed left and collect the nuggets and items reachable via tunnels. If you are feeling lucky, proceed to the upper right part of the level, grab the freeze time spell, and get as much treasure as you can. You need five keys to reach the stairs (4 doors are invisible). 20) Watch your step; hurry to the stairs as fast as you can manage. 21) This is almost identical to level 39 of Caverns, and just as hard. If you have enough keys and/or gems, skip the level entirely. If you don't, observe carefully how the monsters will move before trying to get past them. 22) You can pick up a few items here. Bombs can help you navigate. 23) Repeatedly traverse the tunnels until you come out the right-hand side. You can also teleport out, but there is a risk that you'll cause the monsters to turn and eat up valuable keys that you desperately need. You'll really need to use your head when you get close to the freeze time spell. It should be gotten as a way to prevent the blue enemies from destroying the key they are just next to. Collect the guarded key, let the spell wear off, then let the entire pack chase you down the corridor. Once they've almost exited it, hook around the opposite side. The blue enemies will now be trapped in the corridor! Collect the 5 keys behind the original pack of blue enemies, but don't go too far to the right, or the solitary blue enemy in the upper right will crush the key it guards. You should get the second freeze time spell next, and use this period to race up to the blue enemy and snatch the key. An invisible breakable blocks you, so think and act fast. Next, collect the remaining keys. As for the big supply of treasure chests and gold nuggets, you will want to get them, despite the fact that TWO LAYERS of quake traps block the way. Here's why: the quake traps on this level can replace solid walls with breakable walls. This means you can open a quick path to the power ring and chests that would have otherwise been blocked by a long line of teleport traps. The downside to triggering the quake traps is that the top row, which you must traverse, now requires you to expend more whips. In addition to that, you will need 15 keys to reach the stairs! 24) Enemy compaction strategy. Of course, the enemies here are so numerous that they can't possibly compact all that much. Good luck. 25) Your goal is in sight! The end is at the beginning, for a change. If you have six keys at the start, you've already won. If not, you will need to enter the tunnel and pick up as many keys as necessary. This level is tricky in many different subtle ways, but if you've come this far, you'll figure it out. Get the amulet, and you win! No bonus for inventory items! Don't bother holding on to spare keys. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D) Return (a.k.a. Shrine, a.k.a. Castle) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the original trilogy, what comes next? A sequel? Of course! Well, it's kind of flaky how to best describe the name. Although the project directory and main executable are titled RETURN, various other versions exist that named the episode things like SHRINE or CASTLE. The name is not the only different characteristic. Although I'm not entirely sure, it seems that there were a few bugs and quirks in some of these alternate executables. For example, in one version, there is a problem with reaching a lava-filled random level with no exit stairs. Another might have savegame corruption. It's hard to reproduce or isolate these errors, quirks, and small differences, so I won't try. The program covered in this FAQ is called RETURN.EXE. If there are slight differences in the Return-based game you're playing, I apologize. Return to Kroz introduced most of the "modern Kroz" object types. This had the effect of making Kroz levels a lot more interesting. Unfortunately, it also let the designer put in traps, which randomly spring and ruin your chances of finishing a level despite a lot of hard work. If you're willing to deal with these annoyances, go ahead and fire up Return to Kroz. ------------ Starting out ------------ 1) The first level is an arena setting, much like that for Kingdom, but it lacks the symmetry. There are a number of ways to play this level, but you should be warned about certain trap points: the crook of the "L" which seals off keys (you can't win in that case), and next to the key in the center of the "L" (which is less of a big deal because you get a free teleport out). On the other hand, there are TWO reveal gems scrolls in this level. 2) Collect treasure; dodge enemies. 3) This and the first level mark a turning point for Kroz games, because they are far more about secrets than before. Let the red enemies open your way, then ram the green foe on your left into the gray breakables. Hook around the left side, but DO NOT get the chest or the Z, not yet. Instead, get the teleport scroll and step once further to explode the perimeter breakables! Now, you can play the level using more traditional Kroz strategies. Be sure to get the power ring before leaving. The bonus letters require doubling back a few times, so get them only if you are doing a high score run. You can leave the level with an extra key if you circle the north and east perimeter walls to the exit! 4) Enemy compaction strategy, although the enemies are a bit reluctant to chase you at first. 5) Kroz now introduces a new feature. With this level, the lava grows! It doesn't grow over you where you stand, but it pretty much eats everything else that isn't solid, including enemies and items. You must hurry! Get as many items near the lava as you can before it seals everything off. You might want to consider getting them even if the lava has blocked them, since you could take only 10 gems of damage. Note that the 25-gem pouch actually IS worth getting, because you lose 20 gems to get it, yielding a profit of 5 gems. There are other treasures on this level, including two reveal gem scrolls, a second 25-gem pouch, and numerous other chests and nuggets. But the dangers are many: not only the lava but also an entire legion of green enemies bears down on you if you get close. Getting all the keys is the most important goal in beating this level, because you'll need all three. By the way, if you are so scared of the lava that you absolutely must seal it off, there is a hidden spell located off to the right, up twice from the starting position. ----------------- Better off broken ----------------- 6) Use the zero-sum strategy. Note that you NEED the two keys on this level, so don't leave without them! 7) What's this? Doesn't look too hard? You'll be eating those words. Kroz games can set starting delays for certain enemy types. In this case, you get only a few seconds before the enemies on this level close in. Which enemies are those, you might ask? Answer: moving walls! The entire level is filled with them! Stop spaces prevent them from closing in until you walk down a stretch of the path, but once you've walked it, it disappears forever. The power ring and K are most easily accessed by grabbing the exploding wall spell in the upper left. But the walls will chase you a moment later, so you need to be quick. The rest of the level pretty much requires you to stay on the path. If you get sidetracked by items off the path, you'll find the walls will close in, forcing you to waste whips. There is only one location where this is absolutely necessary, which is the key in the lower right. You do have some recourse against the moving walls. There is a bomb at one point, and several green enemies, both which remove sections of the walls. If you've used up the entire path, you'll be faced with a nice big blob of moving walls. What now? Well, the enemy compaction strategy works with moving walls just as well as other enemies. Use your teleports in a smart way, and you won't have to do the impossible and whip through the entire pack. 8) The enemy compaction strategy helps, but there are so many that they can't compact much. It's better to try to grab freeze time spells, which let you pick a path through the enemies that nets the most items and minimizes losses. 9) I like to call this level "Creation Science" because it's filled with lots and lots of creature creation traps. The vast majority of the question marks represent creation traps. There are gem pouches, but they are few and far between, and both are blocked by traps in narrow corridors (one vertical, one horizontal). The first task on this level is to coax the green enemies down the corridor, trapping them. Then, teleport away (don't get the question marks!) and proceed to the upper left corner where there is growing lava. Grab the key, the chest, and the exploding wall spell (it's in the upper right corner of the lava-filled area), and get out of there fast. You'll want to collect the remaining keys now. If the one guarded by the huge blob of green enemies seems daunting, note the creature zap spells located in the thick of the forest. These will cull the herd nicely! Despite the large number of creation traps, there is quite a lot of treasure on this level. There are THREE reveal gem scrolls, bonus letters (which are really challenging to get in order), and the corner chests that the exploding wall spell had opened earlier. But no matter how much success you have in collecting all this, chances are good that the whole level will be filled wall-to-wall with red enemies by the time you leave. Remember: question marks nearly always have serious consequences! 10) Kick back and enjoy the fireworks. Leave. -------------------------- Enough to drive one insane -------------------------- 11) This is the sequel to the Kingdom I "Crazy Cubicals" level. It's easier, but there are unique challenges that set it apart from the original. First things first: go up and get the freeze time spell. DIRECTLY up. DO NOT get the gems. Then run all the way to the left, grab the power ring, and get any chests that you can before the spell wears off. Now that that's out of the way, enter the cubes. Most of the cubes are just careful navigation challenges, but things harder as you go. You'll need to whip a lot to get through the trees. The slow time spell (or the freeze time spell) should be gotten before getting the key on the bottom row, for obvious reasons. The level is somewhat odd in that the green enemies sleep for a long time before finally coming after you. All the better for you, I guess. An exploding wall spell can help you open the passage before you get the final three keys. But that pack of blue enemies is just mean--use your whips on them. The bonus letters are hard to get in order, since you probably want to teleport out instead of getting torn up by all the enemies you've bypassed. It's your judgment call. Before you leave the level, get the column of gems you ignored at the beginning. Now you see why I had you wait? You can goad the blue enemies into killing themselves on the wall to their left! The exit requires four keys to open, and there are many traps along the way. There is a reveal gem scroll at one point, but now the level is so ruined with enemies that few if any gems are worth getting. 12) Enemy compaction strategy, although the enemies are a bit reluctant to chase you at first. 13) Oh boy, this level. There are many ways to play it, and there are lots of traps. Good luck. This is one of those levels that you should scan carefully before starting, since your movements will determine which treasure the enemies will try to crush. At the beginning, be sure to step diagonally through the openings, because you will trigger traps if you don't. A new object is in this level: a creature generator. In the interest of preventing the whole level from getting filled with enemies, you should play the western parts of the level before taking on the eastern parts. Getting the key closest to the starting point opens the path to the generator. Another reason to play the west regions first is because of the lava: it grows, and will eat up items if you don't hurry. The very last key you should try to get before heading towards the exit is the one by the freeze time spell. This is because quake traps block the path to the key, and if you try to get this key too early, the narrow passages everywhere else in the level become blocked. Once you have all the keys, proceed to the stairs. Good thing you got them, right? There are six invisible doors. 14) Another fun level that lets you make paths through the traps by allowing the blue enemies to chase you down wherever you are. Note that there are a few new factors here, such as quake traps and moving walls, which the enemies can suicide into if you're not careful. 15) This level is just evil. It marks the debut of statues. If you've gotten some power rings (I assume you have), your first point of business should be to destroy the statue. Once that's out of the way, you can hear yourself think. Assuming you want the bonus letters, follow these instructions precisely. Go get the open spell (crossing the lava), then get the K, go through the tunnel, get the R, go BACK through the tunnel (nowhere else), and get the O. But the way to get the O is very specific: you must approach from the bottom row, without straying upwards at all despite the teleport traps. If any part of this process is screwed up, the letters are sealed away. Now that's annoying. Now you can proceed back through the tunnel and play the rest of the level. The creature zap spells are very useful on this level. You will minimize losses if you ram the top row of enemies into the breakables. Use the bomb on the rest of the enemies, then collect the keys and Z out in the open. The exploding wall spell located next to the row of gems may or may not be useful. On one hand, it lets you get one of the keys more easily. On the other hand, it removes a great deal of the breakables that the enemies could have suicided into. Decide which one works for you. Get the power ring and the key in the bottom right. Yes, you will be trapped. By now you should expect crap like this. Teleport out. The remaining open spells should be gotten next, and both cause even more traps to be sprung. Note that you will sacrifice a key getting the top open spell unless you move diagonally into the corridor. You're almost to the stairs. The level has the audacity to deliver a final egg in your face with moving walls and quake traps. Leave, and never come back. --------------- Sinking feeling --------------- 16) This level is just crazy. There are traps, treasure, a statue, terrain- changing spells, generators, and pits, all thrown into a blender. Do what you can and find the stairs. 17) The "Chamber of Horror" is misnamed, I think. There are plenty of chambers in Kroz games that are worse than this one. First, get the scrolls and step on traps until you reach the compartment to the south. Get everything in there and teleport back. Go down, get everything there, and teleport back. Go up, get everything there, and teleport back. Now you can play the level. I suggest making your way to the zap spells before you do anything else. The bubble creatures will not chase you unless you wait for a long, long time, but they still take off gems if you touch them. To minimize losses, whip/take damage until you reach the zap spells, and then watch the fireworks. The advantage from doing this is now obvious. You've made some makeshift, broken paths between the bubble creatures. Collect the keys, open spell, and bonus letters, and then work your way to the lower left. There are actually more zap spells near the exit, but these are somewhat pointless now, although they increase your score a bit. 18) A rare level where creature creation traps and generators are actually good. There is a surprisingly large quantity of reveal gem scrolls here. Get the most out of this level that you can, then leave. 19) This is indeed a water labyrinth, similar to level 17 from Dungeons. Observe carefully where monsters would move before moving yourself. You don't want them to destroy keys. The worst one is the green one on the top row; you need to be very careful with that one. Deploy the freeze time spell before triggering the bomb that destroys the blocking doors, so that this green enemy can't creep up while you get there. The rest of the level gets easier, but not much easier. Quake traps will make it harder to get around due to the breakables dumped in your path. Try not to skip some branches, because monsters are configured in such a way that backtracking is difficult. The bonus letters can be gotten. Text is whippable in Return to Kroz. It takes a lot of whips, but you can get this bonus, and even a gem pouch, if you persevere. Seven keys to open the exit...can you manage that? 20) The final level! And hard as $#!+. You will get a reveal gem scroll at the very start, for a change. Teleport out, and now the fun begins. There are many ways to play this level. I suggest handling the key by the K letter first, followed by the horizontal corridors just above it. This will open access to much of the rest of the level. So many traps on this level! The ones to watch out for the most, surprisingly, are the wall vanish traps. There is one just below the starting position, one tucked in the lower left corner with the gem pouch, and one 4 paces right of the gem column on the left side of the level. The reason these are bad is because they can make the upper right breakables invisible, which ruins your chances of finishing the level. How, you might ask? Here's how. After you get the easier keys, you'll want to grab the key in the lower right corner. But this is hard to get to, because you must unblock the upper-right tunnel first--and you can't ram the green enemies into the nearby breakables if the walls are invisible. After doing this you must use the tunnel-and-back strategy to go below the rightmost tunnel (there is no other way to go below this tunnel). Granted, you can also kill these enemies with the zap spell above the crown, but if you've reached that point, you've already won, so why bother? By the way, two reveal gem scrolls flank the zap spell, which are more worth getting. The bonus letters can be gotten, but they aren't worth it unless you want some sort of bragging rights. I'm serious. After getting 5 keys and opening all the solid walls, you can enter the chamber of the crown. If you have only two keys at any one point, you can actually enter early and explode the leftmost column of breakables. Get the crown, and you win! You get the typical award for gems, whips, teleports, and keys remaining: 100 x Gem 100 x Whip 200 x Teleport 10,000 x Key Return to Kroz is fun, but my goodness, it's a freaking trap-the-player party. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E) Temple (a.k.a. Valley) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The next game in the Super Kroz Trilogy, Temple of Kroz, is just another 20-level adventure with the same object types as Return to Kroz. I'd say it's about as fun as Return to Kroz. The puzzles, of course, tend to be harder to figure out. This is mainly because you can't hoard keys as easily as in the other episodes. Shortcuts? What shortcuts? ------------ Starting out ------------ 1) Yet another arena. Remarkably empty. Hold that thought, because the level will fill up fast with more foes. Basically, this is a minefield with creature creation traps strewn all about. You'll avoid most of the traps if you stick to the outside walls, but there are traps on the east and west perimeter walls. The four corners also have many traps surrounding them. The lower left corner has nothing BUT traps surrounding it! The order you should visit the corners is this: upper left, lower right, upper right, lower left. There are two reveal gem scrolls that can augment your gem stock: in the upper left corner surrounded by invisible breakables, and just to the right of the stairs. 2) Forest level with lots of items. Use the zero-sum strategy. Heed the tablet's advice and get the ring and as many supplies as possible. 3) Legions upon legions of foes! But they don't come after you right away. The ones closest to you can be rammed into the breakables below, but you need to get near them (or go below the breakables) to make them chase you. Try to get all the items in the middle narrow corridors before you take on the rest of the level. You can get the gems and teleports at the bottom of the level, but the red enemies are very reluctant to chase you. You'll have to trick each one, rather than goad the entire pack at once, into chasing you away from the items so you can grab them. The keys and final bonus letters have, not surprisingly, activation events that are triggered when you get the key or move too close to the enemies. On the bright side, the creature zap spells will make navigation through the pack much easier on your way out. 4) Kick back and enjoy the fireworks. Leave. 5) This level is fun. It's also an @$!hole level at the very beginning. You should first get the teleport scroll, the whips, and the key to the southwest. Yes, you will be trapped, but you can teleport out. If you don't do all this at the start, the game will seal off the key anyway! Use the freeze time spell and bomb the red enemy pack. Collect the items (not necessarily the gem pouch past the breakables, not yet at least), and run past the green enemies. Note that it is possible, with creative movement, to coax the green enemies into the gray breakables in such a manner that you can help yourself to the gold nuggets without wasting a single whip! As you get the tablet, the blue enemies will be released. Let them suicide into the gray breakables and run past them. Now you're in a forest area, where you can pick an optimal path to the tunnel without wasting too many whips. The tunnel has two destinations. Ideally, you will want to get the zap spell first, which makes it easier to get past the remaining enemies. Then, head to the upper left tunnel, freeze the enemies, and run past them. Whip past the annoying invisible walls, and let the rest of the green enemies carve out the teleport traps before you go down. Note that you should have two keys, and you can exchange them for four here. If you "dare go below the chest," you will open the path to the gem pouch! Depending on how far you want to backtrack, you could get the pouch, or you could just proceed directly to the stairs. The wall in front of the doors will dissolve as you get near. ---------------- Lost that vision ---------------- 6) A random level filled with invisible walls, and a real pain in the @$$. It's even worse than you think--wall vanish traps erase your knowledge of the maze as you progress! There are two good things about this level, though: there are tons of useful items, and nothing steals your gems. 7) I call this level "Rings of Doom." Whip IMMEDIATELY. Get the chests on the left, get the key on the right, and then pick up the nuggets. Then go to the doors, but DO NOT open them. You'll see why: the gray walls disappear, leaving only the doors intact! Strange world where the doors are walls and the walls are doors, huh? The non-blue enemies hang back for a long time before chasing you. Seize the opportunity to get the perimeter keys and bonus letters, and be quick--you don't have a lot of time. You will need to save ALL 5 KEYS before leaving the level. 8) Lots of fireworks on this level! The red enemies and moving walls will kill each other, clearing out nearly all the space. A few items and quake traps will help you out; pick up as many as possible before heading towards the stairs. 9) Hope you saved your whips! You'll need many of them. All the text in this level is destroyable with a single whip strike. You'll need to find the optimal way through this level. And you'll need all the keys. Yes, ALL of them. Watch out for the empty space next to the top line of whips--it's a trap! The final area at the left has a huge number of traps. Brave them and exit the level. Or...you could decide to get a gem pouch, too, but there are even more traps, including one that requires you to teleport far away and brave the rubble and enemies you've dumped into the level along the way. 10) Tons of items, and growing lava. Decide what works best for you. ----------- Eye of doom ----------- 11) Get the items, teleport out, and proceed to the middle horizontal position of the level. This will let out the ring of red enemies, but it also lets you grab the keys (which you'll need pronto), and if you're willing to brave the growing lava, a few gems and chests. The stairs are opened by hidden spells at the left and right perimeter walls, near the middle line vertically. That's all you'll really need to do in this level. But there is a lot of treasure, so if you want to get that, by all means, do so. The bonus letters make the green enemies attack you. DO NOT approach the green enemies--traps will seal off items encased in the brown eye "lashes." If you get the tablet, the same seal-off event happens, too. The exit is blocked by a creation trap, but it also yields THREE reveal gem scrolls. By now, the level is filled with foes and lava, so it's your call as to whether all these gems are worth it. 12) Lots of teleport traps. Creature generators are actually useful, because the spawned monsters will carve paths through the traps. It's time-consuming to do anything at all on this level, especially when getting the bonus letters, but you will persevere. 13) Time for Black Thirteen. The lava grows, which isn't that surprising. What is surprising is that it grows FAST. The first thing you should do is grab the freeze spell (and a reveal gem scroll--nifty!) at the start, then teleport to a spot that will hopefully get you close to keys. Get the three keys; don't waste time on anything else. Traps surround all the keys. Just deal. How many keys is that? It should be five left over from Rings of Doom, plus three you picked up here. You'll need all eight. Proceed to the stairs, by teleport if the lava is blocking you, and unlock all the doors. Not seven-- eight. One is invisible. The level entices you to collect a bit more treasure near the end. There are 3 reveal gem scrolls near the stairs, plus an open-wall spell, which exposes two chests and a gem pouch...on the other side. If you're feeling lucky, try to teleport to the upper left and pick up this treasure. Walking there is no longer an option! 14) This is like level 18 from Return, with many creation traps that are useful in carving paths for you. But now there is a statue, so that it makes less sense to stick around and collect items unless you can get near the statue and destroy it. 15) The level looks nasty but isn't that bad. First, get the open spells at the bottom of the level. This releases the blue enemy pack, but this isn't your biggest problem. The problem is getting to the four corners, blocked by lots of red enemies. Let the blue enemies chase you to the sides of the level, then use bombs to decimate them. Bombs destroy doors, of course, and will release even more blue enemies, but they also expose more bombs that you will need to trigger to open gaps among the red enemies. By opening such gaps, you will create spaces where you can reach the corner tunnels by way of the top tunnel. You have four freeze-time spells. You should use one before diving into a tunnel, and leverage the time to rush past the red enemies in a corner without taking too much damage. Grab a key and escape, four times. Note the bonus letters can also be gotten in the same areas, but you have no control over which tunnel the game will send you towards first, making successful collection of the bonus a challenging task. The final tunnel leads to four doors, which you can now unlock. Just before you leave the level, you get an unexpected bonus: a reveal gem scroll, and a free opening to the chests behind the stairs. Then again, the red enemies are now free to attack. Every rose has its thorns. --------------------------- I never plan that far ahead --------------------------- 16) A cluster of traps, pits, enemies, items, and trouble. Get what you can, but don't stick around too long. There is a statue on this level! 17) Time for a gang war! But you're right in the middle of it. The moment you pick a fight with either side, the blue enemies and moving walls will charge. Let them get close, then teleport away. The place you want to try to reach is the upper right corner, where the open-wall spell removes the gray barrier between the two sides. Once you do this...mayhem at its finest! Now that the legions have been reduced to a skeleton crew, you'll find that this level is surprisingly easy. Step through diagonally to get the bonus letters, per the tablet’s suggestion. I hope I won't need to explain why. You'll need all the keys on this level, but you must do some accounting to see which door will turn a "key profit" before deciding where to go next. 18) Tons of enemies. But you have an ace in the hole: bombs. You can kill every enemy on the level. Freeze time spells will make the job a lot easier. 19) Yes, you will succeed. If you don't screw up. The tablet gets destroyed right away, but you won't need it. Let the blue enemies chase you down the corridor. There is a hidden open-wall spell blocking the enemies; get it and let them chase you out of the corridor. Now ram them into the breakables. Now you can play the rest of the level. Get the top chest (if you had gotten it too soon, the breakables explode--drat!), get the keys and other treasure, and save the freeze time spell for just before you dive into the tunnel. This tunnel gauntlet sucks. The moment you find out where you're going, grab what you can and dive back inside. Rinse and repeat. Especially repeat. You will need every key! Eventually, you'll be transported to the tunnel at the lower left. This part of the level is a minefield of creature creation traps, even worse than the Temple opener. But you can minimize how many you'll trigger if you stick to the golden nuggets, moving diagonally up when there is a gap in the nuggets. Finally, you'll reach the end. There are two reveal gem scrolls here, but what is the point? The level is now filled with enemies. 20) You made it! Prepare for more torture. Get the bonus letters and key next to them first, doing the typically annoying tunnel-hopping exercise. Now you have a number of options. I suggest going up past the lava before doing anything else. That is, IGNORE spells near the starting point. Open the breakables with the hidden exploding wall spell, then grab the two keys immediately available to your right. Once you've collected them, trigger the open-wall spell that exposes the statue (as well as two squads of green enemies). Run back to the statue, destroy it, grab the nearby key, and check just above the area where the statue used to be. Cool! Next, you must do three things, but these can be done in any order. There is the key (and gem pouch protected by a trap) past the blue enemies, which you can eliminate by ramming them into moving walls. There are two keys below that, one on a rickety trail over a bottomless pit and the other one amidst several green enemies (the lower pack can be drawn out to become blocked in the corridor). Finally, there is a lone blue enemy, all the way to the right, that you must trick into destroying teleportation traps. Now it's time to approach the Holy Grail. Get the freeze time and open spells near the starting position. You did save them, right? Rush past the green enemies. If you are mean-spirited like me, you will let the spell wear off and crash the enemies into the gray breakable walls. Now trick the solo blue enemy into moving down, destroying more teleport traps, and finally, make it move right, destroying the rest. Whip it to show your gratitude. Get the final open-wall spell, get the key in the same area (invisible breakables block it), and head towards the Grail's chamber. It doesn't matter which path you take when it forks, except that one corridor has a quake trap and the other one has a creation trap. Get the final key, open the remaining doors, and here you are. The gems opposite the chamber might not be worth getting--a creation trap protects them. You can end the game right now by collecting the Holy Grail, or you can pick up even more treasure by touching reveal gem scrolls positioned 45-degrees off the Grail itself. There is the eye-popping count of SEVEN reveal gem scrolls in this chamber, but there are traps in the squares not exactly 45-degrees offset from the Grail. Chances are, after all the crap you've gone through, you'll just want to get the Grail and win. You get the typical award for gems, whips, teleports, and keys remaining: 100 x Gem 100 x Whip 200 x Teleport 10,000 x Key Temple is a rewarding, puzzle-intensive Kroz game. But it doesn't tolerate any mistakes. Spare keys are almost unheard-of in this episode, and many of the puzzles have only one possible solution. I wonder how Indiana Jones would do? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- F) Final Crusade -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The final game in the Super Kroz Trilogy, the Final Crusade of Kroz, is NOT the final game in the series, although it was intended to be. This is not just a level pack for Return to Kroz; Final Crusade throws you a number of curve balls. It introduces pushable boulders, electrified walls, and some unique puzzles. The quality of the puzzles definitely improves with this game over the previous episodes. Final Crusade still has annoying moments, like unexpected progress-stopping traps. But it has a great final-run gauntlet in the last 5 levels, and all in all, it's a fun episode to play. ------------ Starting out ------------ 1) This level is composed of a series of cells. It throws you to a random location the moment you try to move, too. Damnable invisible teleport traps. You can play through this level in a number of different ways, but the best route to take is to get the K letter first, explode the breakable walls (the spell is in the same room as the K), get the R letter, trigger the three reveal gem scrolls in the room close to the R, and then proceed to get the remaining letters. Note that if you're going for maximum points, there is no way to avoid touching two creature creation traps without some lucky teleporting. 2) A good place to stock up on items. The game introduces an important new object: boulders. You can use the boulders to kill enemies without wasting whips. But boulders won't be effective at minimizing damage to you if you push them into a broad pack of enemies; they are best for killing long lines of them. 3) This level is easy, provided you play smart. Start by collecting the items in the lava area. The lava grows slowly, but you can duck in and out without any danger. Note that you can use a boulder to effectively "cap" the lava from spreading outside this room--lava does not grow diagonally. Get the tablet and teleports next. Moving walls? Well, deal with them. Next, ram the green enemies into the gray breakables, collect the gems they were guarding, and collect the open-wall spell in the same area. The remaining enemies in this area are now free to attack; get out fast. Go all the way to the right. The walls blocking the power ring explode! Now you can collect the ring easily. But the slow time spell is best saved for the room to the right, where you can minimize losses while getting the bonus letters. The opening to the letters is on the left. Unfortunately, the enemies all bear down on you quickly the moment you collect the bonus! Now proceed all the way to the left. Use the green enemy to destroy the teleport traps, then head down. Get the freeze time spell, sneak past the red enemies, get the key, and push the boulder back left as fast as you can manage. Note that the spell will wear off as you are extracting the boulder, causing the green enemy to your right to start destroying some teleports. Just hurry and push the boulder down. Now for a bloodbath. Destroy this ENTIRE line of red enemies with your boulder. Go back up to the area where the lone green enemy is. Get the nearby slow time spell, then race the enemy to the teleports. The only item you really want is the first question mark--it's a gem pouch! Now you just need to unlock the exit. You can get the final green enemies to chase you and open the gray breakables to get some more gems. 4) Tons of moving walls. Enemy compaction strategy works not so well, because there are so many walls. The zero-sum strategy is better. 5) Another level that requires lucky teleporting, although to a far lesser extent than in Caverns. Get the items in the area (save the bonus letter), then teleport to the area by the "FIND THE HIDDEN SPELL" message. Get the key and look for the exploding wall spell in the right corner of the area. If you try the lower left corner, you get trapped. Actually, not really, since you can whip out the text to escape. Visit each of the rooms below in turn. Bombs will help to even the score against enemies and breakable walls. A free gem pouch awaits just before the tunnel. If you go through the tunnel, you get one of the most unwelcome clues in the game: that some enemies are invisible. There are not many in this area, but enough invisible red enemies are here to aggravate you. Race to the key, then to the exit. Your whips will work on enemies even if they are invisible, so if you can anticipate their movements, you can minimize damage. Do you actually want to collect the bonus letters on this level? It's possible, but it takes both luck and skill. The K must be gotten in the invisible-enemy region. The R will expose you to attacks by the green enemies. The O requires much backtracking, and the Z just requires you to waste teleports until you get lucky. Ask yourself if it's worth it. -------------- Zap, you're it -------------- 6) A level with some treasure, and a new feature: electrified walls. The perimeter fence takes off points, but these red walls are serious business: they take off gems. If you're lucky, you will encounter a quake trap, which now dumps boulders instead of breakables. The boulders can be used to short out the electrified walls, making navigation much easier. Oh, did I mention a statue is in this level? It really sucks to encounter a statue this early in the game. You can get a power ring to help you out, but trying to destroy a statue with an underpowered whip might not be worth it. 7) Interesting puzzle. Nine cells to navigate, and you're going to become an expert at boulder usage by the time you're done. First, get a slow time spell, grab the key to the left, and hurry back. As it turns out, the moving walls lining the cell were invisible! They become visible the moment they move. Now go activate the bomb to your right. This will open the cell above you, too. Pick up another slow time spell, then activate the second bomb. With the red enemies having such reduced numbers, you can reach the open-wall spell easily. If it seems like there are still too many enemies for you to deal with easily, remember that you have three recourses: two zap spells in the cell above, the boulders in the middle, and the moving walls to your left. The zap spells and treasure should be saved until later, since some of the enemies you do not want to kill right away. Go through the tunnel and visit each area except for the upper right. The upper-left corner has many "crystal clear" gems; be sure to comb the entire room for them. After getting the key in the lower right and getting the open-wall spell in the lower left, you can reach the upper-right room. Crash the blue enemies into the breakables, then zap the remaining ones with the zap spells. Now you can reach the upper-right key, since the tunnel system now has openings there. Head to the bottom cell. To get the treasure in this boulder field, you must whip at least one boulder. But most of the time, you will only need to push them in a strategic fashion. Unlock the doors and discover that the level decides to entice you with yet more treasure: a reveal gem scroll, plus a gem pouch, can now be gotten. If you want to backtrack through the results of the traps you just triggered. 8) Now for a level that does not allow you to see anything. Yes, that's right, you can see nothing. There is a lot of treasure on this level, but there are some electrified walls, too. Stumble through until you eventually find the stairs. 9) I HATE THIS LEVEL. You will too. Here's why. You see that tablet? You see how it looks important to get? Well, if you go anywhere near it, it ruins your chances of completing the level, and not in a fashion that is obvious. Avoid the tablet. It says you fell for an obvious trap if you get it...but I didn't think the trap was all that obvious! In any case, you don't want to play that part of the level first. Instead, turn your attention elsewhere. A huge blob of invisible moving walls fills the entire lower part of the level. You will need to sneak around them and collect every key and every open-wall spell. Bombs will help. The power ring will help. The invisible traps in this area will not. After you've collected everything, go back to the area with the boulders, but stay far away from the tablet. You must use every boulder to cut a way through the electrified walls. Next, you must whip a large number of trees, breakables, and enemies out of your way. That big empty space is not empty--more moving walls, of course. Just beyond the tunnels, a maze of doors awaits you. You must take a diagonal path through the doors such that you minimize the number of keys you must use. You don't want to waste even one key. 10) Forest with lots of treasure, most of it worth getting. You can even pick up a gem pouch. ----------------- Rocking the house ----------------- 11) The Chasm of Fate is a massive electrified-wall-and-boulder puzzle. There are many ways to play it, but certain choices you can make will cause the enemies to destroy items, a possibility which you don't want. I suggest first heading left. Go down and collect the power ring and other treasure. The blue enemies will be released, but remember, those boulders can turn the tables on them! Speaking of boulders, you should use them. The two boulders are best moved into the area just above the nearby key, the one just next to the tunnel. This gives you immediate access to two locations in the game that would have been hard to reach otherwise. Get the key and tablet, destroy the generator, and follow the long stretch of potions to another key. The boulder by this last key could be used in a number of ways. The best choice is to push it into the smaller red enemy room and make a hole that gives access to six additional boulders. You can push these boulders back through the hole and open paths to nearby rooms. If you're smart, you can get a good number of keys without ever entering a tunnel. The treasure below the blue enemies must be handled carefully--not surprisingly, they will charge if you try to take it. The rest of the level requires you to tunnel-hop. The chasm itself has some treasure along the edge. The only two places you are required to visit are the upper right corner, which has a key, and the lower right corner, which leads to the exit. One note of interest: Apogee seriously screwed up when they placed the bonus letters in this level. R, O, Z...anybody seen a K? They forgot the K. You're probably thinking, are you kidding me? Nope. That was the way the game was released. Note that the "Cruz" Flash port fixes this flaw. The path to the exit has a freeze time spell. But if you're shrewd, you'll use this spell in a creative way. Most people will just want to use it to rush past the blue enemies. But it's also possible to use the boulders to make a wider hole to the left side of the narrow opening that leads to the stairs. You will want to do this because a hidden close-wall spell forces you to expend four keys if you walk across it. But if you make your own entrance, bypassing the close- wall spell, you can save four keys, with no need to unlock ANY door! 12) A random door-filled maze. Bombs will help navigate this maze. But this level is rotten because a good number of the doors are invisible. If you are precisely trying to pick your way across the level, an unexpected door in your path will force you into a wrong decision, making you waste keys. Why did these doors need to be invisible? For this reason, most of the treasure is not worth getting on this level. Just find the stairs. 13) Triskaidekaphobia means "fear of the number 13." You don't have that much to fear from this level, though. Good decisions will carry the day. The most annoying aspects of the level are the invisible blue enemies. They lurk in four places: a six-pack just above the starting point (you can crush them with boulders), a loner next to the nuggets at the bottom of the screen, a group of seven to the left of the two chests, and a loner to the left of the three chests. You can dodge and/or eliminate them with some creative whipping and boulder pushing. Hurry and get the key below you, then push boulders to stop the lava flow. It will be much harder to stop if you don't hurry. Pick up various treasures along the way. The freeze time spell is best used to get rid of the first den of green enemies: use a boulder to force your way in, then bomb them. It's a creative challenge to deal with the green enemies guarding the highest key. Using a series of diagonal boulder pushes, you can crush the green enemies without ever putting yourself in danger. Think before you push! The rest of the keys are pretty easy to get. Because of all the boulders in this level, you have a surprisingly strong advantage over all the enemies. The odds are in your favor. You will not have to whip boulders more than a time or two, if you make good decisions. If you want the bonus letters, the level becomes more challenging. Most of them are at risk for easy destruction from enemies or boulders. Plan carefully. You'll need five keys to unlock the invisible doors blocking the stairs. But doesn't the level only have four? Well, if you remember from the Chasm of Fate, there was an extra key as you exited the level. If you didn't use the key-saving trick I suggested for level 11, level 12 tolerates no mistakes! 14) Big boulder-and-electric-wall maze. Cut your way through and get some treasure. 15) Another Crazy Cubicals sequel. Well, these cubes have fuzzy edges, and a gray finish. The puzzles here are very different than in earlier episodes, due to the presence of boulders. The key at the start can't be gotten yet; you will need to circle. Proceed to the power ring, grab it, and enter the cubes. Extract one of the boulders from the third room to reach the key in the second room. Bomb the three doors open (no need to waste a key), whip past the invisible moving walls beyond the door, whip past the teleport traps, let the green enemies suicide on the breakables, and now you're about halfway done. The question marks will spawn lots of enemies. You don't want to risk touching even one of these, for reasons that will be made clear later. Only the rightmost one is a gem pouch. Check above the three teleports in the next room. A passage is opened to the very first key that you couldn't reach earlier. Backtrack, collect it, then proceed to the pit-filled room. Get the freeze time spell, hurry forward and collect the next key, then whip out the trees in the following room. An exploding wall spell is hidden beyond the trees. At the very top row, you should let the blue enemy destroy the teleport traps, never mind the chest it will also destroy. Now get the key and zap spell. Note that if you had filled the level with too many enemies, the zap spell might not kill the red enemy to the left of the tunnel, which will prevent you from completing the level, despite having gotten so close to the exit. If that happens, you will rip out at least half the hair on your head. Unlock the four doors, push the boulders, and decide how best to proceed. You will sacrifice three chests if you keep pushing, but you'll waste lots of whips if you want to keep the chests. Take your pick. ------------ Statues suck ------------ 16) Kick back and enjoy the fireworks. Leave. 17) Now everything is about secrets. Fortunately, the secrets are not all that difficult to guess. The first thing to do is collect the reveal gem scroll just left of the column of rightmost blue enemies. Next, move down to the bottom row, whipping the invisible breakables, so that you will open an area by the lower-left tunnel when the blue enemies suicide. Use the tunnel-and-back strategy to reach the bonus letters. Down to business. Even the boulders on this level are invisible, at least, until they are pushed. Enter the central area, whip your way into the outer "arms" of the area, and collect the open-wall spells. Note that each spell will dump more monsters in the level. But now you can reach the upper part of the level. A long line of invisible boulders can be used to open the electrified wall barrier. Use the bombs to eliminate the legion of green enemies. A line of hidden moving walls is lurking at the very top, too. Provided you didn't kill all the green enemies, these walls can be used to decimate the green enemies even further. Collect the two keys and final open-wall spell. Head towards the exit. The teleport scrolls are not worth getting--traps block them. 18) Stock up on whips, but don't stick around. A statue is on this level. Go down whenever you feel like it (preferably not by dropping into a pit). 19) Another vanishing-path level with lots of moving walls. You will need the seven keys, which means, leaving the trail and wasting whips. Use the same strategy as the one you needed for level 7 of Return. But unlike that level, nothing here lets you eliminate the walls en masse. Your whip is all you get. 20) The final chamber! You are surrounded by blue enemies, which charge. And there are invisible teleport traps strewn throughout the level. You must grab all four keys, plus the open-wall spell, to reach the quest artifact. A freeze time spell and zap spell can help. But don't mess with the statue--it's COMPLETELY surrounded by a solid barrier! That means it will steal your gems with absolute impunity. It also means you should run like you've never run before. Now that you have the keys, proceed to the right side of the screen. The bonus letters require a lava bath. Just before the boulders and doors, a line of invisible teleport traps blocks you (you might want to preemptively whip to avoid getting sent back into the main fray). Once through the doors, though, you're home free. A reveal gem scroll, some chests, a gem pouch, and even some hidden gems all decorate this area, lava bath required for some of it. You must sacrifice at least 20 gems just to reach the Fountain of Youth. BUT... Son of a @!+#$!!! It's a decoy. I guess you probably thought that since the other Super Kroz games had 20 levels, this one would, too. Nope. Five more to go. ------------- World of hurt ------------- 21) This endgame run is suspenseful. Another untouchable statue. You can teleport at the very beginning to reach a hidden gem pouch, but good luck getting back out. The rest of the path has traps galore, growing lava, that abominable statue, and a curious message from the author. No. You cannot teleport ahead. No shortcuts. 22) Now for a water level. A few more traps, but you can teleport ahead this time. The exit has tons of traps, but it also has four reveal gem scrolls just before the stairs. But are the gems worth it? The path is pretty cluttered. 23) Now for an invisible electrified wall level. Head directly down, and a quake trap will reveal the outline of the path you must take. If you stick to the lower wall when moving rightwards, you will encounter a hidden set of bonus letters! 24) It figures. A growing-lava level. No shortcuts. There is a gem pouch out in the open, which helps, but the lava eats most other treasure before you can make use of it. A quake trap gives you much-needed help to cross the electric walls: it's either push a boulder through them, or brave the lava. 25) This is the REAL final chamber! And the fountain is even harder to get to than the level-20 decoy. First things first: whip the slow-time spell, move down twice, and let the blue enemies approach left. Move them beyond the key they guard. Now you can play the top part of the level. But take heed: the corner to your right and the area around the pond have traps. Destroy the generators. Whip your way into past the teleport traps and reach the open-wall spell. But DO NOT move left right away--let the blue enemies suicide into the breakable walls. If you had moved too early, these walls explode, leaving you with more foes to deal with. Push the boulder left, and open your way to the gems and chest on the left. Hook around the bottom of the electrified walls, destroy the statue, and collect the chests and key. Now head left, drawing out the invisible moving walls from the area by the trees. Get the open-wall spell beyond the trees. Now collect the key just below that open-wall spell, and grab the nuggets in the room to the left. More invisible moving walls...naturally. Get the bonus letters, then collect all the treasure in this area, including the key and the two hidden reveal gem scrolls on the far left. Don't forget another key now accessible, all the way to the right. There are two more keys you will need: one just above the fountain, and one that requires tunnel-hopping. Collect these, and head to the lower left part of the screen. The boulders won't block you--they can be pushed into the pit. Unlock six doors to open the final barrier to the fountain. Even though there are eight doors, you will need only six keys...ain't diagonal movement great? The lava rapidly expands the moment the fountain is exposed. Hurry over there, cross the lava, touch the fountain, and you win! There is a reveal gem scroll below the fountain. Honestly, do you care? You get the typical award for gems, whips, teleports, and keys remaining: 100 x Gem 100 x Whip 200 x Teleport 10,000 x Key Quite a fascinating adventure. If you are willing to tolerate lost sleep, lost hair, and lost pride, Final Crusade is very entertaining. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- G) Lost Adventures -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Enough with the sprints. Time for the marathon. Lost Adventures is a marathon: 75 levels, and nearly twice as large as Caverns. Lost Adventures is, in my opinion, the best of the series. It introduces a huge new angle with sideways levels, it has a more adventure-style, less arcade-style look and feel to it, it supports more savegames, and it rewards judgment more than luck to a greater extent than any other Kroz adventure. The game is challenging, but very fun. As Kroz episodes go, this is the one to play. ------------ Starting out ------------ 1) Lost Adventures does NOT start you in an arena. Instead, you start at your dwelling before setting off on your journey. This gives the user a rare opportunity to try out movement and inventory before getting thrown in with dangerous monsters. Note that the secret message is here, in the lower right corner. The certificate it refers to is no longer available. Too bad. 2) Now you get to use your whips for real. There is a reveal gem scroll in the upper left blocked passage. Don't fall in the pit. Don't. I said, DON'T!! Oh all right, go ahead. It's fun to watch. 3) Not much here. Just a basic intro to enemies, breakables, and a few traps. Surround-spawn triggers make their debut here. 4) What's this, a town? Sort of. You should get the whips first, then the hidden gems inside the shop, then the spells. The "spell shop" has most of the spells in the game, but the two that you'll want the most are the teleport scrolls and the open-wall spell that cranks open the passage to the right. The "lair" should only be entered after getting a teleport scroll--you'll see why soon. There is an exploding wall spell below the teleport traps, which opens the shop doors and a path to the tablet, which gives you a clue to a reveal gem scroll. 5) Kick back and enjoy the fireworks. Get as many items as possible and leave. 6) What's this, something new? Lost Adventures mixes up the gameplay with these "diary entry" levels, which give you a kind of mini-level to play while the rest of the level is text. The text doesn't mean much to you and can be ignored completely. What you want to focus on is getting the power ring. Also, dropping down into final "trench" seals you in; watch out. You will notice a strange effect on this level, something I call "partial gravity." The level is NOT sideways, but it still has a gravity effect. This just means that you will get tugged towards the bottom of the screen, but other than that, nothing has changed. The rate of falling is much lower compared with the falling rate in sideways levels. ---------------- Sideways stories ---------------- 7) Use the zero-sum strategy. Bombs destroy the bonus letters, so be careful if you want the bonus. 8) This is a sideways level! It changes pretty much everything you've learned about movement up to this point. See the object list section, under "rope," to see how sideways levels and gravity work. You will fall reasonably fast in sideways levels. You can't jump, so ropes are your only way up. The main challenge is figuring out how to get all the items now that you can't just simply walk over to them anymore. Coordinated leaps from cliffs are required to land on strategic spots, teleports are more necessary to escape from blocked areas, and whipping must be done more carefully, since you can destroy your own walkways now. Also note that boulders are NOT affected by gravity-- they hang in mid-air, and can even support you. Some of the ropes must be dropped by touching special drop-rope chords. You must activate two of them: one near the top of the level, and one just up and right of the O letter. If you get all the bonus letters, you'll find some extra bonuses directly below you! 9) Okay, school is over. Time to enter the workforce. This next sideways level doesn't screw around. "The Lava Pit" is probably the best-known level in the entire Kroz franchise, and it's a tough one. You start at the right side. As you ascend the scaffold, there are numerous traps and items. Note that you should AVOID the open-wall spell for the time being. Once you've reached the bridge over the lava pit, grab the whips and nuggets on the left side. The tunnel at the left side warps you back to the starting point. Note that you can whip through the revealed invisible breakable walls to make backtracking easier. It is also possible to get the nuggets on the right side of the pit, but there is no way out of there without a teleport. But if you teleport, there's a good chance you will get sent below the lava pit, without enough keys. Try again if you reach the wrong location, or just skip those nuggets entirely. Once you've gotten as much as you need from the area around the pit itself, go ahead and trigger the open-wall spell. This allows you to proceed past the lava pit, BUT it also removes the bridge over it! The lava will now start to boil over, meaning you must hurry across via the ropes. Fall down the funnel, touch the drop-rope chord, then get the open-wall spell (which removes the floor you're standing on). Push one of the boulders down until it squashes one of the enemies. Move to the left of the boulder, and now you can crush the entire line of red enemies, no whips or gems lost! The remaining drop-rope chord lets you climb up the funnel again so you can get the key in the upper left corner. Do so and proceed to the stairs. Can you jump over the gap to the nuggets? As it turns out, you won't need to, since a surround-spawn trigger makes a bridge for you! Climb back up and cross this bridge to reach the stairs. 10) Forest with LOTS of items. Lost Adventures throws something new at you yet again: the forest grows! This dilutes the value of all the whips you'll find, since you'll become trapped after a short while. You can get a power ring on this level; it's a good idea to collect it. 11) Back to classic Kroz puzzles. There are a number of ways to play the level. I suggest using the blue enemies to clear out the teleportation-trap-strewn corridors (speed time spells can help), and then get the exploding wall spell that was guarded by the lower-corridor blue enemy. Now you can get the lower-left key easily! You won't need to unlock any of the doors in the upper left; use the bomb. You will need to whip one of the boulders to reach the bomb--don't push, or the boulder will crush the bomb! Go right. Cross the lava if you think it's worth it. Circle the green enemies, get the key to their right, and go down to the electric-wall spiral. Boulders will spawn, which lets you create a shortcut into the spiral. Get the key in the center of the spiral. Now another boulder spawns, which gives you another shortcut out of the spiral! The remainder of the level is pretty easy. Remember: you'll need all the keys! 12) More electric walls and boulders. It's almost like a party. Get treasure, avoid enemies and/or crush them, and create new paths in the maze using boulders. ------------------ Heading for a fall ------------------ 13) Another diary entry, and more partial gravity. Easy bonus letters, if you are willing to take the lava damage. The power ring is gettable, if you search around for the exploding wall spell. Be sure to collect the key before you leave. 14) Ha ha, sucks to be you. Fall the best you can and miss the lava. 15) Now it sucks even more to be you. Land on the gray platform, move to the center, and whip out the floor. Fall on the drop-rope chord, which provides your escape route. Teleport if you are in danger of taking a lava bath. You might think getting the bonus letters is suicide, since you'll destroy the walkway, right? Wrong. A trigger restores the walkway. A teleport is still necessary to escape, though. 16) Enemy compaction strategy. 17) Not much to do on this level. Get what items you can, and watch out for the generator-spawned enemies. 18) Cute; it's Scott Miller's initials. Teleport out of your corridor and start to collect the bonus letters. This means, of course, switching sides of the screen repeatedly, but you can manage it through teleportation or by simply walking. The open-wall spells allow access to the four keys at the corners of the level. But watch out--to the side of each gem leading to them is a tree trigger. The trees on this level grow, so it's best not to let them get started. There are some nice goodies in the pockets of the "M." Get them, but watch out for invisible moving walls and creature creation traps. 19) Enemy compaction strategy, although there are many walls that make it less effective. Slow the green enemies down as much as you can, grab any items you see fit, and leave. 20) You're surrounded again! But the gray barrier saves your butt. Use freeze time spells to collect the items without fear. After that, however, it's a running game. When you've reached the stairs, an unexpected present shows up: you can snatch the items on the other side of the stairs. Nice! --------------- Hold everything --------------- Note: the original demo only let you play the first 20 levels before plastering a much hated "delay screen" on your monitor. This screen forces you to look at ordering info for about a minute before letting you play the next level. And it shows up again for EACH SUBSEQUENT LEVEL. Is that a nag or is that a nag? The Freeware release has the registered version, without the delay screen. You should not encounter the delay screen in this day and age. If you do, get a good copy of Lost Adventures! 21) Kick back and watch the fireworks. Leave. 22) This is another vanishing-path level with lots of moving walls. But now, you'll need to abandon the path several times to collect all the keys. Have enough whips handy, I hope? Good. A bomb, green enemies, and a creature creation trap will help you counter the moving walls. After you've used up the entire path, apply the enemy compaction strategy to reach the stairs. 23) Random boulder maze; not difficult. The zap spells make the level a cinch. 24) Another sideways level with a lava pit. I think this one is a bit easier than "The Lava Pit," but you still need to make good decisions, not to mention hurry. The most counterintuitive part of the level is the faith leap. Do that any other place in the game (or the level), and you're literally toast. You'll know to do it near the beginning, though, because you're out of options. You should not have too much trouble with the rest of the level. But if you want the chests at the lower right, remember that this level is devious about where it places you if you try to teleport--it's more than likely that you will get dumped into a lava pit. 25) This level seems too empty. It's not. There are triggers all over the floor. Most of them just slow you down, but you can actually comb the grid and turn a profit on inventory items. 26) It's a tribute to Rogue! The room configuration resembles most Rogue-like games, although the rooms are not random in this case. When you try to go right, the path disappears...but if you remember where it was, you'll know to go south to the spell-filled room. The tablet restores visibility to the level once more. Other than a few hidden gem compartments, there is little else to say about this level. Beyond the stairs, you will find a spell that reveals the Amulet of Yendor. This gives you lots of points, but it is not THE quest artifact of the game. 27) Another teleport-trap festival. Let the blue enemies cut a path through the items. You can rack up a lot of points on this level by collecting the potions. ------------- Where to now? ------------- 28) Third diary entry. In this case, the author decided to slam Rogue in a subtle way, even though a tribute had already been paid with level 26. The reason? Rogue is ridiculously hard, randomly hard. You could spend "countless hours" at that game, as the diary entry alludes, and you might never reach success despite your best efforts. As for this level, it's pretty counterintuitive what you must do. Take the dead-end shaft, and it turns out to be the right direction. Then, be sure to whip the breakable BEFORE you pull the drop-rope chord. That's all you need to know. 29) Curious level with more staircases than anything else. The only reason to play this level through is to collect treasure. Touch one set of stairs, and it's over. 30) The "Locksmith Shoppe" is not much of a shop. You can only remove one key from the shop, located on the far right of the display. DO NOT get the nearby chests, at least not this early. Visit the lower left corner of the open area. Next, cross the bridge; that path opens for you. Collect the open-wall spell to expose the area far to the left. Let the enemies come after you, move past them, and get the key in this area. Note that there are moving walls blocking the key, and you can use the enemies to help you destroy them. Don't check to the sides of the key--you'll be sorry! You need three keys to reach the tablet. If you have a spare key, avoid the last key and just unlock the doors from the top side (not the left side, dummy!) to get to the destination. But before grabbing the tablet itself, get the freeze time spell, THEN go down and pick up the tablet. You will be sealed in, but the tablet itself contains a mantra that changes all the water to gold nuggets! Teleport out and use the remaining freeze-time cycles to collect as much gold as possible. Pick up the remaining key if you haven't already, then head to the now-accessible stairs. 31) Another growing forest level. This time, with no enemies, and with a few tunnels and bombs. Stock up on supplies. 32) Yes, you do dare go down. But not right away. First, get the key to your right. The chests below the key are not easily accessed, despite the apparent pit--there is no pit, just a long column of invisibles. Next on your agenda is the tablet. Whip down to it, and it will explode some walls for you. Your destination is now the trench opened up by the spell. You might want to make two runs (one after teleporting) of the items in this area. The rest of the items on the level are not worth getting. -------------------- Twisting and turning -------------------- 33) The tunnels are fraught with annoyances. You should teleport right away-- no walking anywhere first--to get to the secret area with the two chests. If you fidget around in this area, a passage opens back to the main tunnel. Now proceed down the tunnel normally. The key from the last level is required. As you go further, the walls start to disappear. As long as you remember the general layout, this isn't that big a handicap. Go to the area denoted "MAGIC" and check along the top row. Enter and exit this area diagonally, though: the bottom row of this area is lined with unhelpful triggers. You can zap the creatures if you check the corridor around the zap spell itself, but this doesn't help too much, since red enemies take so little gems anyway. Exit the corridor out the left. 34) Okay, another corridor. But this one is invisible! Keep going left, and you will trigger a quake trap. This trap is actually good, because it reveals the rough outline of the corridor you must travel. If you don't stick to the corridor...you get zapped. There are whips scattered all along the perimeter of the corridor. But the real treat is the set of bonus letters, all in a line. You can't see them, but they are there: after the second turn left, you will need to turn right again. By sticking to the outer wall (counter-clockwise from the bottom starting corridor wall), you will collect the bonus! Further down the corridor, there are more quake traps. Ho hum. 35) Okay, ANOTHER corridor! And this one has growing lava. You must hurry, of course. The supplies are worth getting, but only the last question mark is worth getting, which is a gem pouch. 36) You can't see, and you'll really wish you could. Lots of blue enemies, and all the electrified walls are invisible. Get to the stairs as fast as possible. 37) Another sideways level. This one is not so much a lava-dodging cliffhanger as much as a genuine puzzle. First, drop down left and whip out the breakables. Next, go right and push the boulder right into the electrified wall. Yes, you should destroy the chest in its path. Go down the rope, hook left, and pull the drop-rope chord to give you access to the rest of the level. This will have the effect of provoking the green enemy to your right. Don't deal with it right away, though. Instead, climb the rope you've just dropped, go right, down, and left, and get the teleport scroll. Now a walkway forms, letting you get the chest guarded by the green enemy pack! Now go back down and deal with the lone green enemy, getting the key it guarded. Head back to the starting point, collect the treasure on the right side of the rope, and proceed up and right to deal with the rest of the level. Of the areas you must go to next, only one is absolutely necessary: The corridor with the open-wall spell on the left. The tablet in the corridors below it is not necessary to pick up, but it is quite useful: it changes all the boulders on the level into gems. Climb down the enemy-infested rope, get the ring, and blow up the six doors. Climb back up, drop between the green enemies, get the two keys on the left, and go into the tunnel. A bridge now forms over the hole you had just entered. Before going any further, get the open-wall spell all the way to your right. Trick the moving walls into chasing you left, then slip behind them. The way down from here is not that obvious--an invisible platform blocks you, with only one opening, at the far left. Whip it, go through the tortuous tunnels below it, and collect the final key before dropping into your exit tunnel. Now you can go all the way right and up the rope. Work your way left, until you reach the top row of blue enemies. There are many ways around them or through them, but there are two things you should never do: go into the passage directly underneath them, or whip out the platform that you'll need to get to the stairs. This is an easy set of bonus letters to get, but it might be a painful one. You need 5 keys to reach the stairs. Four doors...wait, five. Damn. --------------------- Throwing away the key --------------------- 38) Use zero-sum strategy. You'll need both the keys on this level--don't leave without them! 39) Carefully pick your way through this level. You don't want to waste a hard- earned key on a stray movement, do you? Thankfully, there are no invisible doors on this level. 40) A boulder maze. Unless you are stupid, you will always have a place to push a boulder, except at the very end of the level. The bonus letters DO require you to whip the boulders, but hey, it's a bonus. You will need 3 keys. You didn't waste any on level 39, I hope. That would be horrible. Unexpectedly, when you get near the stairs, the entire frame around them collapses. Check behind the stairs for some free gems. 41) Another boulder-and-electric-wall maze. Get all the items you can, using the boulders tactfully to create an optimal path. 42) Yet another sequel to Crazy Cubicals! There is really no need to backtrack on this level, which makes it easier than the others of the same type. Getting the keys and bonus letters is actually pretty easy. The opening to the cubes is located at the far left. There are a few surprises. Reading the nearby tablet opens the waterlogged area, and you will need to go west of the growing forest in order to access one of the open-wall spells (which is buried among tons of traps). Four keys needed to leave the level. Krazy, indeed. 43) Want what you can't have? Typical. The foes on this level steal the gems, leaving you with almost nothing. Find the exit as quickly as possible. ------------- Mantra tantra ------------- 44) A brief sideways level with a diary entry. Most of the drop-rope chords do nothing, but the last one lets you proceed. You'll need to whip one of the boulders beyond the pit. Move diagonally to get the second key, then make an opening in the electric wall by pushing the boulder right. Next, you must form walkways with the boulder: push the last one down twice, get two keys, push down twice again, get two more keys, and push down twice again to get to the stairs. You'll need all six keys. 45) The level is filled with treasure! Great! And growing lava. Not so great. Get as much as you can before the level fills up with lava and quake rubble. 46) This level should be pretty easy to figure out: visit the sections in the suggested order. Don't forget keys--you won't have a second chance to collect them after visiting the next area. There are two reveal gem scrolls near the stairs...but you can't get most of the gems! Argh... 47) Another random invisible maze with enemies. You can pick up a lot of items here. It's easy to kill the enemies by revealing breakables directly in front of them. 48) "The Swamp" is a tricky level. Note the statue; you must hurry in order to save on gems. Start off by grabbing the speed time spell, drawing the blue enemies down the corridor, and then getting the slow time spell for moving around the other side of them. Race over to the statue, move just beyond it (the passage will open), and destroy that piece of $#!! Now collect the open-wall spell to your right, being mindful not to crush it with a boulder. Go left, get some more treasure, and get the key tucked inside the trees. Note that many trees on this level bear the secret message. The path through the swamp forks several times. A seemingly empty branch off to the left has hidden gems. A path with several blue enemies (which can destroy a nearby key if you move up--watch out) allows you to draw the enemies into the dead-end if you get close to them (get the key after they have bunched together). The remaining corridors have spells to manipulate time. The speed time spell should be whipped. The freeze time spell should be used to get the key under the nose of the lone blue enemy. The slow time spell should be used to sneak past the red enemies. The path that leads to the upper right corner with forest terrain is worth approaching. After entering the tunnel, you will find that the tablet rewards you with a huge gem bonus! Finally, head towards the stairs. The gem bonus really comes in handy, because you must sacrifice a staggering 40 gems just to reach the stupid doors. Leave, and never come back. 49) Zero-sum strategy, right? Well, there's a curve ball. These are moving walls, the types that don't pursue you until you've gotten near them. This means you can go forward fine, but you can't backtrack because more and more walls end up closing in on your trail. 50) Russian Roulette with one gem pouch and lots of creature creation traps. ---------- Entrapment ---------- 51) A room with random breakables and several generators. Get what you can and leave. 52) This level is pretty straightforward at first: follow the breadcrumbs. If you don't, all sorts of nasty traps await you. While there are some useful item bonuses off the trail, it's not worth trying to get them unless you know where each one is, info I refuse to find out as a matter of general principle (I'm lazy). Just stay on the trail, already. At the lower part of the level, it gets easier. Pick up the key at the left, get the reveal gem scroll (the tablet tells you where), and proceed to the exit. Of course, it can never be too simple, because a huge blob of invisible moving walls is waiting for you, guarding the last key. Whip through them and/or draw them out, then head for the stairs. 53) A sideways level with many walkways you can destroy accidentally. But some of these walkways you actually DO want to destroy. Here's what to do at the start: go all the way to the right, destroy the platform directly above you, then go all the way to the left and pull the drop-rope chord. Back to the right for some climbing. Do not approach the corridor with the chest just yet. Instead, climb to the top and get all but the bottommost whips. You won't fall, see? Now go left and down, snatching the chest you ignored earlier. Proceed right, which will spawn boulders. Push the boulder to your left all the way, then find away to circle back around to the top of this boulder. Pushing it down, you'll create a type of "downward descending elevator" that can stop at any floor. The open-wall spell lets you access more "floors." Visit them all. Now you can go all the way to the left and climb the leftmost rope. Drop down to the right, pull the drop-rope chord just above the blue enemies, and climb up to the tunnel. Collect the items as you fall, including the open-wall spell, and don't worry about the lava pit. You can't fall in it! Once again, the blue enemies are no danger, although who would have guessed it. When you reach yet another drop-rope chord, check the empty space below before pulling it. Another free chest! Proceed left, climb the rope as fast as possible to minimize damage from the green enemies, and snake through the long corridors at the top of the level. You can use the bomb to eliminate some of the moving walls in your way. Note that the "Z" letter forces you to teleport out and backtrack. Which drop-rope chord to pull now? The bottom one. Collect the last key, and now head towards the stairs. Of course...they're not easily reached. You will need three keys to reach the stairs. 54) Another sideways level. Hurry, running downward, to avoid getting "trash- compacted" by the moving wall columns. Get the key and dive into the tunnel. These corridors have a number of interesting item bonuses and triggers. The only one you absolutely must trigger is the breakable platform trigger located off to the right of the blindness potion trigger. This platform allows you to collect a key later. The shallow lava pit is trickier to navigate than you might think. Columns of invisible solids alternate with ropes. Try to find the highest opening you can manage as you move left. At the very end, though, there is an opening at the BOTTOM of the column of invisible doors. You do not need to waste a key here! Unlock the trapdoor, then trigger a rather strange rope configuration. Here, you must rapidly move diagonally, although the pattern is not consistent, to avoid taking too much damage from the red enemies. After this, it's up, up, up. You must pick up another open-wall spell to your left, plus the key whose platform you triggered earlier (you did remember, right?). The bonus letters in this area come with a caveat: you must whip a boulder out of the way. Head down to the bottom right corner of the level. DO NOT grab the drop-rope chord yet. Instead, climb up and use the boulder to increase the drop range on the rope. Now you can climb it! By the way, the letter-puzzle is solved by collecting the "K." The tablet reveals this fact, but you will need to restart the whole level if you try to read this tablet. There is no excuse for this level design to have such a stupid backtracking requirement, but that's just the way things are, apparently. After unlocking all the doors, you should be able to restock your k--hey, that's not fair! You fall against your will into the next level. 55) Third sideways level in a row! And another diary entry. You won't fall quite as fast in this level. Some goodies are hidden on the way down into the slanted pit. With coordination, you should reach the base without being singed. 56) There's MORE to the pit? Yep...take the tunnel and be sure to touch the drop-rope chord on your way down. Climb up and read the tablet. Don't crush the tablet--you'll need what's written on it! It opens a gap in the lava to the next level. ------------- Tight squeeze ------------- 57) Lots of whips, most of which you can't get. Use enemy compaction strategy. 58) How about a level with no empty spaces at all? Yes, you'll need to whip your way all the way to the stairs. No teleporting. 59) Now for an arena that features lots of creation traps, fast-growing lava, and invisible moving walls. Collect the keys in the order of lower left, upper left, lower right, and then finish with the upper right corner. I don't need to tell you to hurry. The zap spells can help, but most people will just want to get out of this place. 60) A bunch of boulders, treasure, and enemies. Fortunately, you don't have to waste whips or gems on this level, because there are few enough enemies that you can strategically beat them all with boulders. 61) Chamber of Horror again, not to be confused with the level from Return. Get the K letter, hook around the bottom, and head toward the top of the room you are in now. What you are trying to do is ram the blue enemies into the breakables to their left. Now get the zap spell. You won't need to whip either boulder. Now pick up the tablet. There is an exploding wall spell that clears out any walls not destroyed by the blue enemies earlier. The tablet clears the way to the giant pit. There are a few bonus items in the "notches" in the next room, but there are also surround-spawn breakables as well. Get past the remaining blue enemies and proceed to the walkway over the giant pit. This pit is from hell. One misstep and you're dead. Carefully pick your way along, not forgetting anything like the open-wall spell. At one point, blindness potions will spring up. Whip them! At last, you're near the end. Tunnel-hop until you visit every bomb location. After triggering each bomb, the green enemies below are decimated, making your life a lot easier. Proceed into the next area, dodge the remaining enemies, open the final wall, and escape. ------------------------ Survival of the luckiest ------------------------ 62) Much like level 49, except you can't see the moving walls until they move. This level is annoying, but you can pick up some useful items. 63) Mishmash of enemies, items, lava, and electric walls. Get whatever items you need and find the stairs. 64) This level looks intimidating, but it's not that bad. Destroy the statue, then go left. You'll want to get the tablet, since it gives you a huge golden nugget bonus. Yes, you must teleport out. Go to the bottom corridor and get the key in this area. Note that boulders will spawn. You must whip the top boulder, but SAVE the bottom boulder. Push this boulder down, then right, and you will explode half the walls above you! Proceed to the tunnel. When you come out, the blue legion will charge towards the huge "KROZ" word. Try to collect as many gems as possible before the enemies take them away. Note that you can get a bit of a head start by grabbing the slow time spell near the starting point, then diving into the tunnel. Get the key beyond the huge "KROZ" word (mind the spawning boulders), then go back to the starting point, where you must unlock the doors. Collect a king's ransom worth of gold, then go to the upper right corner and get the open-wall spell. You might want to consider whipping the speed time spells. One more challenge. Head towards the now-opened exit. But a whole army of blue enemies is released the moment you enter! Avoid the speed time spells, avoid the blindness potions, and find a way to get to the exit without taking too much damage. There is a reveal gem scroll in one corner, but it is not just next to the stairs like in many levels. 65) Very frustrating level. Almost no empty space. Bombs can help out. Wall vanish traps will do the opposite of help. 66) Another sideways level tribute, this time of the game "Jumpman." For those who don't know, Jumpman was a C64 title whose game properties make the random cruelties of Kroz look like a walk in the park on a sunny day. Jumpman, in the "Figurit" levels, would cause certain parts of the level to appear or disappear based on the order in which the gems were collected. Which is the right order? Well, you won't know until you collect them. And if you guess wrong, you lose a life. Makes you really want to play Jumpman, doesn't it? The first thing to do is get the bonus letters. Yes, whip the boulders. Yes, take the lava damage. You can escape. Collect the first drop-rope chord, climb up, and then drop into the tunnel. Drop down to the right side of the level, climb the nearby rope, and push the boulder out of the way--once. Now touch the nearest drop-rope chord and climb up further. Pulling the chord above you now is the wrong choice--ignore it. Instead, go right, collect the key and open-wall spell, and climb back up to get the now-reachable open-wall spell. This lets you re-enter the tunnel, although you don't want to go there yet. What you should do is walk left of the drop-rope chord you ignored earlier. The platform extends itself. Get the key, then fall off the platform to reach the drop-rope chord just below. This will extend a nice long platform, making the whips easy to get. Get the whips and final gem, and now a platform forms under the gems, too! Life can be good sometimes. The drop-rope chord near the whips will let you access the tablet and the tunnel, which is useful in reaching the gems. You will need both keys to reach the stairs...and 20 gems for the blocking lava. ----------------- When will it stop ----------------- 67) More forest. Not the growing kind, though. The numerous zap spells can be used to even the score nicely. And one more thing--this level is TEEMING with treasure. You can't see most of it, but it's there. Knock yourself out. 68) Another challenging sideways level. Ignore the title. So many important parts are invisible, and this level is very fault-intolerant, so bear with me. Also, it might be pointless to mention it this far into the game, but DO NOT WHIP WHILE YOU ARE STANDING ON A BREAKABLE WALKWAY UNLESS YOU REALLY MEAN IT!! Go right and "whip" your way up the ropes to the drop-rope chords. That question mark is a gem eraser, so don't bother getting it. Fall into the narrow gap beyond the ropes, and a walkway will form to your left. Climb this walkway, and as you cross, more platforms form to your right, which you will need later. For now, go right and whip your way downward to get to the drop-rope chord. You are not trapped, despite appearances; the exit to this area is on the right side. Now climb the rope to your right, crossing the top of the two newly created platforms. Push the boulder down, then left to remove the electric wall. Get the chests, whip out the gray breakable, and fall down to circle back left. Despite appearances, that gap in the floor is just imaginary. Climb back up and push the remaining boulder all the way right, then squeeze past it and climb the rope to your right. Whip away the teleport traps and open a hole in the ceiling. Circle around and approach the boulder from the top. See what to do now? Push down until you make a hole in the electric floor. The drop-rope chord will shoot through the hole in the ceiling, letting you access the rest of the level! Climb up, go right and drop into the tunnel. Yes, there is a hidden walkway. Go left, climb the rope, drop into the narrow gap to the right, which will yield a boulder. Push the boulder left, destroy the electric wall, and collect the drop-rope chord. Climb up, move over, and touch the open-wall spell directly above the tunnel. Go back through the tunnel. The spell opened another key and drop-rope chord back at the lower part of the level. Go back down there, collect both, and climb back to the upper part of the level once more. This next part is not necessary, but it will net you another key if you need it. Push the boulder on the gray walkway. Yes, you will destroy the nuggets. Too bad. Once you're over a solid portion of the walkway (it's invisible), you can safely whip this boulder now. Now go all the way left, get the tablet and key, and climb the rope to your left. Actions have consequences, of course: the previously dormant lava now starts to rise! It will even destroy the walkways. Climb up, collecting the bonus letters is you're willing to expend enough whips. Whip downward through the breakables to collect the final key. This will also form the final walkway you'll need to cross to reach the stairs. Head to the stairs; don't get the question mark, but do get the chest to your left. Climb up to the doors. Three keys are needed to exit. 69) More blue enemies, but there is some hidden treasure. Use enemy compaction strategy. 70) Not that hard a level, unless for whatever reason you're out of whips. Go down and left, collect the key, and destroy the statue. You probably want to teleport back. Goody! A new item. This is a magic spear, which, when triggered, eliminates enemies in the line of the spear. In this case, it's an entire squad of the green enemies to your left. Whip to uncover it, then let'em have it! Collect the K, then ram the other line of green enemies into the breakables located above them. Go left, get another key, and get the teleport in the corner. This is worth it, because a path is opened to the south. Go through this path, never mind the annoying invisible walls. Now for a fun time. There is a gem pouch on the far left, but all the other question marks on the level are traps. Only get the pouch and any keys you come across. All the breakables are actually moving walls, all along the south wall. Good heavens. Walk to the bridge on the right, whip through the trees, and enter the tunnel. The power ring is not worth getting this late in the game. Just find the exit. There is some treasure behind the stairs, if you want it badly enough. ---------------- Maximum pressure ---------------- 71) Nothing but enemies...and invisible walls, which for whatever reason don't show up as visible even if you touch them. If you can, get the tablet, which will make everything visible. It will also have the effect of getting rid of most of the enemies. 72) Last sideways level, and it's hard. Really hard. Fall down, get the items on your way down, then push the leftmost boulder down as far as it will go. Whip out the gray breakables, push the boulder into the electric wall, and launch the spear. It will destroy a chest along with the enemies, but it's more worth it to launch the spear. Oh, wait. I almost forgot: there is yet another new feature introduced! The electrified walls on this level blink on and off randomly. It looks kind of cool, but the puzzles are not very deterministic as a result of them. Mostly, they're just annoying. It means that at any one place where there is a blinking wall, it might be impassible, or it might be no problem to cross. There is no set pattern. Climb up, drop the adjacent rope, and push the boulder all the way to the right, but stop before crushing the key. Whip the boulder first. DO NOT launch any of the spears--they will also destroy the key. The configuration of the electrified walls just above you would lead one to think that you could time your movements across to get the gem pouch at the end. But since the pattern is random, I don't even think that's possible. Great design, isn't it? The corridors below all have treasure in them. Decide which paths to take. Only the bottom corridor must be traversed. Your goal is the open-wall spell, which grants access to the right side of the level. It doesn't get easier. Whip out the ceiling, then drop the rope. Climb up and pick up some teleports. Go below the "mystery ramp" to get some hidden treasure, then teleport out. Since by now you should have a key, unlock the door further below the "mystery ramp" and fall through the lava. Yes, I know, the truth hurts. So does the lava. The tablet has an interesting message on it. Too bad there was no sequel that made anything of it! Get the whips and chest, then whip out the gray breakable below the ropes. Now launch the spear. Great; you just iced ten green enemies! But if you try to go into that corridor yourself, you'll find an invisible solid was there all along, blocking you. (Twilight Zone theme) Go right along the bottom of the screen. I suggest pushing the boulder at an angle, then rolling it over all the green enemies, but you could also whip out the breakables next to it and use the spear. It's not worth going over them-- a half-dozen surround-spawn triggers are on the walkway! Get the whips, climb to the nearest corridor, and head left. Several boulders will spawn in your way; whip them. There is also the chance that a blinking electric wall will block your way to the key. Use the boulder to neutralize it, if your whip didn't destroy it. If your whip DID destroy it and the wall is still up, you'll just have to wait a really long time. Don't you love this level? Climb the rightmost rope ALL the way up this time. You can get the bonus letters easily, as long as you coordinate your falling. Each drop-rope chord will save you from the lava pit, extending a rope just above you. Eventually, go along the "mystery ramp." When a boulder spawns, whip it. DO NOT push it. You will trigger a platform that lets you get the final key. Note that if you failed to get the key below it, this key is now permanently sealed off. My respect for this level's design just grows every time I play it... Now you can go to the exit. You will need all the keys in the level to reach it unless you have some spares. Fortunately, the last blinking electric wall can be destroyed much more reliably, since a boulder spawns as you approach it. 73) It's a last stand by the blue bad guys. Get as much treasure as you can, then leave. 74) The heat is certainly on now. Get the open-wall spell up and to the left, and immediately rush down to the lower right to whip the statue. Of course, an invisible barrier protects the statue, with the only opening at the bottom. Figures. Use the tunnels to pick up a super Kroz bonus. Now go get the next-nearest open-wall spell. Lots of invisibles and spawning boulders will hamper your progress. Now you can access the lower left part of the level. All these green enemies might look daunting, but if you go lower, you will attract the attention of some invisible moving walls, which reduce the number of enemies significantly. Collect all the keys in this area (moving diagonally through the passages), and get the power ring. This ring is actually easy to get. The bottom row of enemies can be handled one of two ways: launching the spear, or drawing them out, wasting whips and gems, and getting ANOTHER set of bonus letters. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Unlock the doors, get the last open-wall spell (watching out for the boulder trap), and collect an important tablet. This tablet starts to boil away the water, giving you access to the stairs! Unfortunately, it also gives the horde of green enemies blocking the exit access to you. Travel to the northwest corner of the level. There are many nugget spawners below the pit. There are also two solid-surrounding traps near the middle of the "HEAT WAVE" area. It's best to stick to the edges of this area. Push the boulders out of the way of the spears. You can dump them into the pit itself, which is convenient. See what you're going to do now? Let the water evaporate for a while, let the enemies approach the pit in a long line...and then it's bye-bye. Now it should be easier to get to the stairs. Not easy, but easier. A hidden door blocks the stairs, but you should have gotten all the keys you need. 75) Could the marathon finally be over? It's the sacred chamber. Finally. It's not necessary to collect any treasure on this level. The most non-intuitive treasures are the reveal gem scrolls that dot either side of the "SACRED CHAMBER OF KROZ" message. There are also many hidden traps at various locations in the arena, which will dilute your earnings. Finally, there are the bonus letters, which can only be reached by whipping a lot of boulders. What to do, what to do. Good question. There's a lot of stuff you are going to have to do. First, visit the upper left and upper right corners, which have open-wall spells you'll need in order to complete the level. Of course, each area seals you inside, requiring you to teleport out. You must enter both small rooms on the left and right sides, blocked by a single door each. The left yields one key profit; the right opens a critical barrier to the quest artifact. There are two more keys, located at the bottom two corners. The left one is protected by a blinking electric wall maze, and the right one just has layer upon layer of breakables. An exploding wall spell near the breakables will cut down on the amount of whips you'll need. The nearby enemies can help out, too. You'll need to use one key to reach the bottom tablet. DON'T try to go to the sides of the tablet. The tablet removes the trench surrounding the chamber. Are your eyes "widening with anticipation" yet? The chamber itself is blocked by a door, a generator, a boulder (which you should whip, for reasons you'll see next), and a ring of lava. Get the tome, and you've won the marathon that is Lost Adventures of Kroz! You get the typical award for gems, whips, teleports, and keys remaining: 100 x Gem 100 x Whip 200 x Teleport 10,000 x Key The ending to Lost Adventures of Kroz is worth a mention, unlike the more generic endings accompanying the other episodes. Basically, the next Kroz adventure in the series, called "The Underground Empire of Kroz," is advertised here, with a backstory of Lord Dullwit, an evil wizard, and a trapped civilization. Sadly, this is the last you'll hear of these characters, because no sequel to Lost Adventures was forthcoming. Wait, that was one tough slog, and really annoying. Oh, boo hoo. Well, anyway, if you've come this far, you probably liked Lost Adventures of Kroz. Apart from its numerous annoyances, it's the longest game and the highlight of the entire series. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- H) Kingdom II -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kingdom of Kroz II is a remixed version of Kingdom of Kroz I. It uses the engine from Lost Adventures, and replaces several levels with the best from Temple, Final Crusade, and Lost Adventures. Numerous tweaks have also been applied to the retained Kingdom levels. What Kingdom of Kroz II lacks in originality, it makes up for in overall experience. Although no longer than the original Kingdom adventure (25 levels), there is enough variety that the game ends up being more stimulating, and less monotonous, than most of the other Kroz games. It's perhaps for this last reason that Kingdom II is more likely to be ported online than any other episode. Kingdom II is Kroz in a nutshell. The walkthrough for Kingdom II will be short. There is no point rehashing the strategies for levels already discussed in this FAQ. However, there are certain noteworthy modifications to the levels from their equivalents in different adventures. These I will discuss. 1) Same as Kingdom I opener, with a few differences at the bottom of the screen. A message occupies some of the space that used to be empty, and a magic spear is now present, which you can use on the enemies (and the chest at the far right if you're not careful). 2) Same as Kingdom I level 3. A new boulder trigger is in the upper left, and a new breakable trigger is located just above the gems. 3) Not much to say; enemies and breakables. There are a few breakable triggers. 4) Same as Kingdom I level 7. A door no longer blocks the gems at the left, monsters don't destroy items as easily, there are less invisible breakables near the forest area, a spear can be used against the green enemies, and a breakable trigger blocks the path to the power ring. 5) Enemies and breakables; not much to say. Use zero-sum strategy. 6) Same as level 5 of Temple. There is one major difference: the gray wall holding the blue enemies can no longer be opened. You will get very hurt as you try to rush past them. 7) Similar to level 7 of Lost Adventures. Use zero-sum strategy. 8) Same as level 9 of Lost Adventures. The tablet message is different, and a message at the lower left makes the lower-left room a bit tighter, but these changes are not significant. 9) Same as level 10 of Lost Adventures. 10) Same as level 7 of Final Crusade. 11) Electrified-wall-and-boulder maze, with lots of treasure. 12) Same as level 13 of Final Crusade. The open-wall spells and blue enemies are visible, this time. Some of the keys have been moved, and all five keys needed to finish the level are present. Since this is no longer level 13, the title was changed to "Boulderville" which is fitting enough. 13) Lots of enemies, treasure, and generators. Use enemy compaction strategy. 14) Same as level 46 of Lost Adventures. 15) Same as level 45 of Lost Adventures. 16) Same as level 33 of Lost Adventures. The arrangement of traps, doors, and enemies is a bit different. The creature zap spell now traps the player, requiring a teleport. There is also a new power ring, with an exploding wall spell in the upper right corner of the final twist in the passage that allows access to the ring. 17) Same as level 50 of Lost Adventures. 18) Same as level 42 of Lost Adventures. 19) Kick back and enjoy the fireworks. Leave. 20) Same as level 22 of Lost Adventures. 21) Same as level 23 of Lost Adventures. 22) Same as level 30 of Lost Adventures. 23) A mostly-empty level with lots of triggers on the floor. You can comb the level and pick up a decent amount of treasure if you want. 24) Same as level 24 of Lost Adventures. 25) Same as Kingdom I level 25, with significant modifications. There are a lot of surround-spawn triggers of boulders and breakables at various locations. A statue and some generators have been added. The top row of gems and power ring have been replaced by fewer gems and two spears. There are bonus letters that can be gotten, and the right blue-enemy gallery has been replaced with a blinking electric wall puzzle. Six doors to reach the amulet, as before. You get the typical award for gems, whips, teleports, and keys remaining: 100 x Gem 100 x Whip 200 x Teleport 10,000 x Key It's hard to say which one is easier: Kingdom I or Kingdom II. There is definitely a lot more going on, with more variety, in Kingdom II, but when it comes to applying strategies, each episode requires a slightly different emphasis. What works well for one might not work so well for the other. If you only want to play one Kroz game in the series, and you don't want to waste time getting all the way through Lost Adventures, I highly suggest Kingdom of Kroz II. ------------- In conclusion ------------- The Kroz series had a short but productive lifespan. But people had the gall to upgrade their computers to the point where not one of the games would run well on a modern platform. The puzzles are very innovative and rewarding, not like any other game since. That people don't want to bend over backwards to play older games today is unfortunate, but that's called progress: people demand quality and simplicity with every form of entertainment they come across nowadays. But the real killer of the Kroz series' once-great popularity was the fact that the games were not easily moddable. The source code was available at one time, for a steep price, but no modding community sprang up like it did for similar titles, such as Epic's ZZT. It would be decades before anyone would try to create new content for Kroz, and in that time, the eight original episodes were all that anyone had to play. The two principal efforts to create new content are The Hidden Caves of Kroz (John Wilson) and Cruz (Christopher Allen); more info about these games can be found at the bottom of this FAQ. Likely there will be more, since the source code for Kroz was released for free in 2009. Who knows where Kroz will strike next? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VII) Interesting factoids -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These factoids are observations I made during the building of the Kroz reboot Flash application, called "Cruz." While cataloging the Kroz engine features, I wrote an article that covered them in detail. Many of the following paragraphs are reprinted from that article. ----- Sound ----- The original sound in Kroz was generated using PC speaker effects. This usually meant programming the single-tone speaker to a specific frequency and using time-delayed loops to manipulate the pitch and duration. However, in some cases, a limited form of pulse-wave modulation was used to generate sound, which involves turning on the speaker for a small fraction of a second in order to generate more complex waveforms (monster movement, moving wall movement). Kroz sound effects are played in foreground. While sound is being programmed, nothing else can occur. The illusion of sound effects happening while visual effects are also happening is based upon the fact that in many instances, the PC speaker would be left on at a particular frequency while visual effects were manipulated as interstitial operations between sound programming. In this respect, the sound programming actually helped time the visual aspects of the game and even the gameplay itself. A lot of Kroz effects can sound substantially different depending on the emulated computer speed used during gameplay. What is normal at one speed might be annoying or inaudible at another speed. ------ Timing ------ Kroz did not utilize any directly taken-over timer routines, which means that timing relies on the Pascal "delay" function, waiting loops with constant counters, and actual computer speed. A confounding factor to determining the speed at which Kroz should "really" run is its fast/slow CPU setting at the start of many of the episodes. Far from determining a simple delay counter, this choice in fact modifies many different timing nuances in diverse ways. The crux of the timing issues in Kroz is how its main gameplay iteration proceeds. The following is a brief summary of a main gameplay iteration: . After pausing for a set amount of time, an iteration takes place, which controls bulk monster movement, terrain multiply/toggle/evaporate, generator spawn, statue gem steal, and player's falling movement in levels that have gravity. . If player had moved, whipped, or teleported, the delay that normally would have caused the pause before a main gameplay iteration is erased, causing it to occur immediately after the move. There are other timing nuances concerning monster movement: . Every "nth" main gameplay iteration, monsters move in bulk. The value of n will depend on the following: type of enemy, fast/slow cpu setting, and various other gameplay-oriented speed-up and slow-down effects. . When the player pushes a boulder, the program drastically reduces the value of n for all enemy types. This seems to imply that it takes a while to persuade a boulder into motion, allowing enemies to sneak up on you very rapidly. . Slow-time, speed-time, and freeze-time items alter the number of n iterations for monsters. However, the extent of the alterations depends on the fast/slow CPU setting. In a similar vein to monster movement requiring bulk servicing every n iterations, other events also require servicing, including blindness potion time left, slow-time time left, speed-time time left, and freeze-time time left. These also depend on fast/slow CPU setting. Regardless of how fast Kroz "should" run at, one thing is definite: if the player moves, the gameplay cycles one turn by default regardless of CPU speed. Therefore, running won't let you sneak past monsters more easily at ANY emulated speed. Kroz confounds bulk monster movement timing with a rather odd algorithm: every time a monster moves, there is a probability (varies depending on episode and type of monster) that the player can execute an interstitial move before the bulk movement is complete. -------- Gameplay -------- Kroz uses a relatively inefficient system for random level generation: picking random spots to place a specific type, and rejecting coordinates already taken in favor of other coordinates. This means level generation with few or no "spare" spaces could take a long time to generate. Kroz has two records of moving objects: the grid types themselves (identifying enemies, items, walls, empty space, etc.), and an array to store the positions of each moving object. This means that enemies do not necessarily iterate in a predictable order; rather they iterate in their spawn order. The spawn order depends on three factors: . If ordered level: At the start, enemies will move in the order from left to right, then proceeding down each row. . If random level: Arbitrary order, since enemies have positions selected randomly initially. . If mid-play spawn: Order is after every other object already spawned. Iteration, of course, still depends on how many ticks are remaining for the monster type. Blue enemies have the smallest tick reset value, while red enemies have the largest tick reset value. Gaps will inevitably appear between diverse monster clusters as a result of these out-of-sync counters. There are two problems with the Kroz implementation of monster storage and movement: . Depending on spawn order, gaps might appear between monsters of the SAME type if the player is located to the right of a long row of monsters, making it impossible to coax them to one side as a solid pack. For this reason, most of the times you will need to move them like this, you will be on their left. . Destroying some monsters (using whips or bombs) causes existing monster data to be moved into the array-of-monster-positions gap made by the ones just destroyed. This is bad because the game does not veto the movement right away for monsters that had already taken a turn--they might get two or more moves per iteration, erasing any veneer of safety you might have gotten from whipping the closest monsters! Sideways levels in Kroz do not automatically stop monsters from moving off the edges of cliffs. The reason monsters normally don't move like this in the game is because closeable wall types line the cliff edges, which stop monsters and moving walls. -------- Metadata -------- The complete characterization of game data in Kroz is fairly straightforward, although the storage for every nuance of gameplay is not necessarily co-located. A Kroz level's layout is typically characterized by either a "PF" ordered level array or a "DF" random spawn count list. Terrain modification info, hide-item-type flags, gravity info, start delays, and item-specific appearance modifications tend to be characterized by assignment statements at or near the body of the Pascal procedure that set up the level. The file names and extensions for the Pascal level data tend to be identified by "LEV." Tablet messages and effects are stored in a completely separate source file. Character encodings for ordered levels are very simple to understand: one character equals one object. The metadata associated with each object has been identified in the object list section. The random spawn count metadata is somewhat harder to understand. A random layout simply dumps a set quantity of each object type into the grid at random spots, so the level data is composed of just a vector of spawn counts. However, in the interest of readability (?), the counts were placed as TEXT STRINGS in the source, one after another, with each count occupying exactly three digits, plus a space to separate them. When the game needs the vector of spawn counts, it generates it by interpreting the string content and parsing it for values (each value is a number between 0 and 999). Since there are no characteristics in the string that identify which count goes with which object type, the order of the object types itself is what is used. Special "comment legends" were placed near the strings to align symbols in the comment with their corresponding spawn counts, to act as a "table header row" of sorts. It still manages to be quite hard to read. FYI: The full article can be viewed here: http://www.chriskallen.com/cruz/differences.html#differences -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VIII) Other Kroz-styled games -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In this section, I discuss several of the Kroz-influenced games that you can find online, either downloadable or playable in a browser. ------------------------------- Kingdom of Kroz II online ports ------------------------------- There are two ports of interest for the game Kingdom of Kroz II: 1) A Java-based browser emulation of the DOS game (Classic DOS Games). 2) A Flash port by Talon-Designs, Inc. (various locations). -------------------- The Java emulation of Kroz, and others like it, will have varying levels of quality based on the computer used to emulate it, the version of Java, etc. You can play it here: http://www.classicdosgames.com/online/1kroz.html While this version of the game -IS- Kingdom of Kroz II, there is no way to manipulate speed (which is too fast) or control the type of sound output (which has quality issues). While the ability to play in a browser is nice, you're better off running it in a native DosBox emulator. -------------------- There are many hosting locations for the Talon-Designs Flash game. One such location is http://www.quickflashgames.com/games/kingdom-of-kroz/. Although this one claims to be built "as closely as possible" to the original, that claim has no basis in fact. Many of the sound effects are completely wrong, and several bloopers were made in level design, such as with invisible walls. I know this because I've played through the entire series repeatedly, and I've looked at the metadata in the 2009 source code release. The game is playable, but it runs fast. Good luck. It appears that ports of the other episodes are advertised as "coming soon" within the body of the Flash application. They aren't. To my knowledge, only Kingdom of Kroz II was released by Talon-Designs. -------------------- Hidden Caves of Kroz -------------------- This Flash game was designed by John Wilson: http://www.kingdomofkroz.com The official information for this game is that it has 18 new levels. It also has its own PDF FAQ, so there is no point in covering the details of that game here. "The Hidden Caves of Kroz" looks like Kroz and smells like Kroz, but it isn't Kroz. I would consider this to be a stand-alone game more than anything else. The production quality for the game is a lot higher than any of the Kingdom II ports, even though the main character and the monsters in the game still have an "ASCII-noir" appearance. While some of the properties are the same for this game as for the original Kroz games, you will have to learn completely new strategies in order to play it to completion. Many properties are not unlike those for DRoD. If you don't know anything about Kroz, "Hidden Caves of Kroz" will likely just confuse and mystify you. It is not for beginners to the series, given its difficulty, and it makes references that only diehard Kroz fans would get. If you are well acquainted with Kroz and looking for a challenge, try it out. -------------------- Cruz - Kroz rebooted -------------------- Of course I have to plug my own Flash port! Cruz is a project which aims to reboot the entire Kroz series, with a single Flash application that can "play" any of the original episodes, plus any new episodes others come up with. It even has an unofficial sequel to Lost Adventures. With Cruz, you can play online ALL the original Kroz games. The game is available at the following locations: http://www.chriskallen.com/cruz http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/569388 Cruz offers graphical and sound enhancements to Kroz, such as actual sprite models, better animation, refined DOS sound effects, and a musical score. There is also a "retro mode" that displays everything in the original ASCII characters. The level editor, CruzEditor, is planned for release to the public sometime in 2011. This editor will make Kroz into something it never was before: moddable. ---------------------------- DRoD (Deadly Rooms of Death) ---------------------------- This game hardly resembles Kroz at all, but it's clear that Kroz played a big influence in the making of this game. The roach monsters seem to move in a fashion similar to Kroz enemies. The screen-at-once gameplay resembles Kroz, as does the need to move diagonally and break blocks. The production quality is VERY high for DRoD. For a 2-D dungeon crawler, the rendering is pretty sophisticated. It features advanced graphics, advanced AI, and voice-overs. Caravel Games is responsible for the DRoD series of games, which can be tried out at http://www.caravelgames.com. ----- (END) ----- My name is Christopher Allen (a.k.a. Appetite4Deduction) and I approve this message. chris@chriskallen.com http://www.chriskallen.com