Opening Chests

[Mikkaelson]

I'm a Dungeon Master Novice and bought this for the Super Nintendo a few weeks ago with no previous knowledge, experience or instruction booklet so forgive my simple question. I've only been playing for 3 hours.

I've come on the internet to seek guidance and stumbling on this forum was a stroke of luck indeed.

I am on level 3 - in room one, I have got the chest from the cells (using teleport switches) but I can't open it to get the mirror inside. How do I open chests??

My champions are Elija, Sonja, Hissssa and Gothmos if that helps.

[beowuuf]

Welcome to the forums!

If you place a chest in a champion's action hand, it will auto-open when you go to their inventory.


Good luck!

[Mikkaelson]

Welcome to the forums!

If you place a chest in a champion's action hand, it will auto-open when you go to their inventory.


Good luck!

Thank you! So easy when you know how. I doubt that will be my last question as I venture forth with my quest.

I'm REALLY enjoying this game so far.

[Ameena]

Hey cool, welcome to the forum . It's cool that people are still discovering DM for the first time and enjoying it so much - looking forward to hearing more of your escapades in the dungeon, and in CSB after that .

[Mikkaelson]

Hey cool, welcome to the forum . It's cool that people are still discovering DM for the first time and enjoying it so much - looking forward to hearing more of your escapades in the dungeon, and in CSB after that .

I'm 30 and have always been a gamer (SNES mainly) but surprisingly never heard of Dungeon Master until I found it in a second hand shop for a shiny £5 note (no box or instructions). So I took a gamble.

I have some more really simple questions. I'll keep them in this thread - I'm still on level 3 and just entered the Vault.

1) I'm rubbish at fighting but very good at running away. My champions have been beaten to a pulp by a group of four mummies, two of these green and blue troll things that carry clubs and two rock type creatures that spring up with tentacles and look like they poison you. Some times I can beat an enemy with one swing but others I'm not even sure if I'm hitting them and it takes forever and a day - Would anyone kindly give me a list of enemies and whether there is a most appropriate weapon or spell to defeat them with?

2) I have two dead champions. They have left their bones behind. I have picked them up but what do I do with them?

3) I have picked up an item called a Buckmaster I think (looks like a shield?) What is its purpose?

Sorry for bothering you guys with this but thanks muchly for any help

[beowuuf]

If you go to the DM Encyclopaedia (link http://dmweb.free.fr/) you can find the scans of the story and manual to help you. Plus more detailed descriptions of creatures, items, spells, etc

The spell system in particular is fun for experimenting with and also getting spells on scrolls, but you need to know the names and meanings of the runes, of course!

To answer your specific questions

1) The blue trolins are susceptible to poison darts, if you can learn that spell from above. The rock monstres are tough, and it's better to simply use fast low damage attacks like punch, etc than heavy hitting, slow attacks. They do about 40 damage per hit and poison, so you need to learn the anti-poison serum and also keep your characters topped up with health potions to ensure no one-hit kills.

A basic combat tactic, if you can stand toe to toe with a creature, is to bounce a door off their herads. Monsters usually retreat from it, but slow movers like rock critters can take some decent damage form a door before moving away. Also, pit traps can be used too, for decent damage. Beware the occasional lucky survivor coming back, but the damage from the fall and a background mechanical factor of the game usually means a monster dropped in a pit is a monster you don't have to deal with

2) There should be an altar of Vi back at the start, and also if you can get enough gold keys (three, I think) there is an altear of VI beyond the first set of grates. Put the bones of the champion back in here, and they will be brought back to life - with a slightly lower health

3) The 'buckmaster' is probably a buckler, a small shield. Shields provide small protecion (depending on the verison of DM) to no protection, and also can act as weapons in a pinch. You'll usually find your second hand slot better used by keeping an item you might want to swap to in a hurry, or better yet a potion. It's far easier to swap potions around and heal people if the potions are available in hand to cast spells in to and also grab to use on the person most affected.


No problem, always good to see someone discovering DM even after all this time! And enjoying it too!

[Gambit37]

I second the comments of Ameena & beowuuf: it's amazing to see people still discovering DM and enjoying it after all these years! (24 years, 1 month, 17 days since it was first released, by the way!)

I've been of the mind for some time that DM is now too dated for modern gamers to pick up and enjoy, and perhaps the fact that you're a an old-school gamer Mikkaelson, proves that point. It would be really interesting to give DM to current teenagers and see what they make of it...

[Jan]

Well, I've got nothing particular to add to the complete answers above, so I'll just say 'hello, Mikkaelson, and welcome to the forums!'.

Yeah, and I always use poison cloud on the rock piles! Very effective... I think...

[Mikkaelson]

I thank thee Beowuuf - So it seems I have to go all the way back to the start of the game to resurrect my champions. DOH!

I like this door and trap tactic - I shall try it when I get home from work

[beowuuf]

It's not as far as you think rushing backwards, but if you can hold on for a little bit longer, you can pool some experience in to your two living guys, then ressurect your other two guys later on.

I believe chambers of the guardian, time is of the essence, and 'the matrix' are the easier of the three to get gold keys from (only one rock monster you can manoeuver around).


Anyway, have fun

[Ameena]

One good tactic for defeating enemies, besides the door-on-the-head method (which is also good, though you do tend to get hit once or twice before the enemy retreats back through the door), is the step-dance thingy. You need a set of four squares (two-by-two) and only one enemy so taht you can't get surrounded. Also, this doesn't work too well with mobs that don't have an obvious front (like Rock Monsters, where you can't tell which direction they're facing because they look the same from all sides). You let the mob step toward you, bash them in the face, then sidestep once. They'll step into the square you just left - thwack 'em again. When they turn to face you, sidestep again before they can hit you. Repeat until mob is dead .
If you get in trouble and need to run away, remember that most mobs can't open closed doors (you won't have met any yet that can), so shutting yourself in a small room if you need a sleep is perfectly safe unless, as I said, you're around mobs that can foil your plans by opening the door .
As Wuffy mentioned, it's probably better to keep a flask in your off-hand, so you can instantly conjure potions whenever you need to. Shields seem to be pretty much useless, even if some of them do look quite cool .
As has been mentioned, you can use the Encyclopaedia to look stuff up - you can find out pretty much anything on the game there. But you could just download the PDF of the manual and not look at anything else, so as to avoid spoilers and be in the same position the rest of us were when we first played the game, all clueless and everything. We didn't even have the Internet back then . Oh yeah, and most of us were probably still in single-figures, age-wise .

[Gambit37]

most of us were probably still in single-figures, age-wise

Ah, how I wish that were true! I was 15 when DM came out, 16 when I first got to play it.

[Ameena]

Lol yeah, well I did say most of us . I know some people on this forum are older, but I think many of us are in our late 20s/early 30s or so, I think. Omg I can't believe I was, what, 18 or something when I joined this forum. And now I'm 27 :O.

[Gambit37]

No way! I didn't realise you'd been around here for 9 years! I still think of anyone that's not me, Beo, Cows or Linflas as a newbie, LOL!
Wow, that means I've been on DM forums for nearly 13 years. Perhaps it is time I got a life!

[Jan]

One good tactic for defeating enemies, besides the door-on-the-head method (which is also good, though you do tend to get hit once or twice before the enemy retreats back through the door), is the step-dance thingy. You need a set of four squares (two-by-two) and only one enemy so taht you can't get surrounded. Also, this doesn't work too well with mobs that don't have an obvious front (like Rock Monsters, where you can't tell which direction they're facing because they look the same from all sides). You let the mob step toward you, bash them in the face, then sidestep once. They'll step into the square you just left - thwack 'em again. When they turn to face you, sidestep again before they can hit you. Repeat until mob is dead .

You can also use stairs for the same effect (because the monsters can't go up/down stairs) - you lure them to the stairs, stand on the stairs, bash, turn right or left, wait a moment, turn right or left and bash again! Also you can use the "run around the collumn" tactics that is basically an improvement of what Ameena described with a 1x1 wall creating an obstacle between you and an enemy. Generally, you can use any 2x2 or larger room for what Ameena described - your left hand on the keyboard will learn to master your step-by-step movement to perfection later - but the more enemies you face the more risky it is and suddenly you may be cornered or apper in a confused and confusing WTF!?!?! EVERYONE PANIC!!! situation.

(The

Spoiler

first room in Chaos Strikes Back

is a classical example of this)

[Ameena]

Ooh yeah, I forgot about stairs. Yes, you can use those too - I probably forgot because that's not really a tactic I use in DM, though I have done in CSB a few times in certain spots. I prefer the two-step dance to the pillar, though I used to use pillars before I actually thought of the two-step. Basically it's fine as long as you don't have the mob facing you for too long so that it can hit you (or throw something nasty at you, or whatever ). But yeah, best used on single mobs or you might end up surrounded. And remember where the exit is in case you do need to run away, or you might find yourself accidentally charging down a pit or into a dead end or something .

[linflas]

I still think of anyone that's not me, Beo, Cows or Linflas as a newbie, LOL!

Forums stats show the horrible truth. I'm Ameena's newbie
Ameena > Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2003 6:25 pm
Linflas > Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2003 9:58 pm

[Ameena]

Lol yeah, it's weird...I remember thinking that Trantor had been around for ages but actually he joined a year or two after I did, or something. I remember there was someone called PicturesintheDark (aka PitD) who was a regular poster back when I joined, but apart from, I think, one or two random visits at a later time he seems to have disappeared now. His avatar was a wolf. But that was back on the old RTC forum, which had a purple (or blue - one of the two) background, before all the DM-related forums merge into this one.
Omg I was still at school when I joined this forum :O.

[Gambit37]

I should probably move the off-topic "OMG I'm so old" stuff to a new thread. But I'm too old and can't be arsed.

[beowuuf]

The horrible truth is that 'new' Jan is 4 1/2 years old here

[linflas]

yeah, Jan is da noob ! let's ban him !

[Jan]

Yeah. Let's ban this cool fool! Oh, wait! WAIT! Wait a minute! WAIT A MINUTE! (...) W*A*I*T A M*I*N*U*T*E! (...) I forgot to pull the tea-bag from my tea!

No, really, I'm still quite young because I'm still at school. (*)

EDIT: Alright, and now discuss the topis of this thread, i.e. OPENING THE CHESTS!

EDIT 2: Hey, it's only been 3,5 years, not 4,5!!!

(*) I've spent more than 80 % of the years in my life at school, OMFG, this cannot be!

[Mikkaelson]

So I'm back playing Dungeon Master on the SNES some 11 years after my last post.

Question: How do you use Magical Boxes? I have blue and green ones but don't know what they do or how to use them.

PS - I'm on floor 7. The furthest I've ever got in the game.

[Prince of Elves]

I've rarely ever used the Boxes, but from what I remember you put them in main hand and use them like a (one-use only) weapon and they freeze whatever creature's in front of you for a short-ish time.

[Ian Clark]

They actually freeze all creatures (except for Lord Chaos who is immune). The green ones last longer than the blue ones. You may find a ring called the Eye of Time later on that can cast Freeze Life several times.

I rarely used them in DM, only really if I was surrounded and near death as it gave me time to consume a VI potion or secure an escape route. CSB, on the other hand...

[jayrshaw]

The Magical Boxes are helpful if you want a safe way to kill the Dragon. Just use four of the Green Magical Boxes on the Dragon and then cast a ton of Poison Cloud spells and/or throw a bunch of VEN bombs at it while it is frozen...


--Jay

[Ameena]

Eh, I just use the step-dance. Easy peasy .

[jayrshaw]

To be honest, I only killed the Dragon once to see how difficult it would be to do. On all subsequent runs through the Dragon's floor of the dungeon, I just ran past him....


--Jay

[Ian Clark]

Yes, the dragon is avoidable which is a shame because it is a suitably tough fight for so late in the game.

Back in the day, I tried fighting him at the stairs; I would retreat upstairs if he was about to attack. This kind of worked but if I was too slow I would be killed. The step/dance thing works better with the occasional retreat upstairs to sleep.

I also tried freezing him then throwing every single Ven/Ful bomb I had accumulated along with a load of poison clouds. He was still alive after the Eye of Time had ran out of charges but the battle wasn't as tough.

[Ameena]

Yeah I think "back in the day" I would kite him to the stairs and do the "run up and down" thing, but returning to the game in later years I got the hang of the step dance and just do that instead. Doesn't take long .