Right, I'm going to finally beat this bloody game!

[Twiggy]

I've decided I'm going to finally finish this game. It's probably the thing that's been on my "To-do-list" for the longest... going on over 10 years at least lol.

After a few opinions though. I really don't know who I want to take with me. I generally always have this issue starting a new game. I've got a Dm save game that has Daroou, Leif, Mophus and Gothmog. Should I take them or make a new csb group. If so any opinions on who. I'm not necissarily after the most impressive stats wise party, I'm just too indecisive lol. Oh and I'm going a 4 party group...to finish it the first time, I'll do it as "god" intended it to be done

[Paul Stevens]

Makes little difference, IMHO. I always take
TOADROT and, if I want additional party members,
I take his close friends.

[Ameena]

I tend to prefer to take my old DM party through CSB, for the same of completeness, plus I'd rather keep to the party I've come to know over the course of the DM dungeon - my characters, who I want to continue playing with . Like Paul says though, I don't imagine it makes a huge amount of difference - whatever party you take, they will have no equipment when you start, only their stats and skills. If you take your DM party, these will be whatever they were when you finished DM .

[beowuuf]

Depending on how you've played, your DM party might be slightly more powerful. Good luck wharever you do

[Twiggy]

I think off the top of my head my DM party are around expert levels. Front 2 had around 500 health and the back two had around 180 mana

[beowuuf]

Yeah, probably a good party to be using then

[Ameena]

Yeah, finishign DM with everyone roughly at Expert/Lo-Master in their preferred skills is pretty average, I think - go for it .
And don't worry, expect to Die A Lot .

[Twiggy]

Makes that decision easy then lol. I always wished you could do two things in this game.

1) import your DM party, but reincarnate them. 500 hp would be a massive base to start your levels off of.
2) Make a hybrid party. Like have 2 DM characters with 2 new CSB ones or something.

[Ameena]

Trouble is with that first option, you can't really afford to have crap/no skills in CSB - it's at a higher difficulty level all over, so to be pretty low-level is rather a serious handicap . I mean, look at how you start off in the very first room - not really the best place for a bunch of level-zeroes .

[beowuuf]

You can't ressurect or reincarcnate an imported party, and CSB is set up to actually lower your starting skills if you reincarnate the CSB champions (unlike DM). And CSB won't let you have a half and half party, you need to take your DM guys or your CSB guys I'm afraid.

The prison where you select the CSB guys is not where the game starts. As Ameena has hinted, in both cases you then start...well, somewhere 'interesting'

[Twiggy]

oh i know you can't do it, was just something i wanted to be able to in years gone past.

Yeah i know about the start room - have played it before, just never finished it ... Or close to it for that matter :/

[Ameena]

Twiggy wasn't asking if it was possible to reincarnate an imported party or mix characters from both games, just saying that was something he wished you could do .
Have you ever tried CSB before, Twiggy? I'm curious as to how much you know of the game so far, whether you've tried it before but failed, etc...?

[Twiggy]

Oh I failed...and failed...and a few more times lol. Big rubber stamps on my parties

Well I've seen the game finished before, via the method of mum/dad/neighbour playing it when I was younger and doing the vcr recording thing. From my own attempts, I think I generally get either 1 or 2 corbums before I get massively stuck and/or lost...or perished heh. It's usually around the DDD that things start getting bad for me.

[Twiggy]

Actually one of my more frustrating aspects was usually lack of full armour/weapons. Like i'd have a bow with 2 arrows, a rock and a dagger. The front two would have armour and the back have blue tunics on. Bah

[beowuuf]

Ah, I missed some of the words

[Ameena]

Supplies for the Quick is a good area to get some halfway decent gear - you can get a Vorpal Blade around there, and some reasonable armour and stuff too, I think.
It's probably a good idea to get all four keys (from each of the four Ways) before you actually try to get through the DDD for the first time - if you don't know your way around and end up at a door to which you don't have the key, that would be a bit of a bugger, I think, especially if you've fought your way past a load of Demons and stuff in order to get there .
Anyway, if you want any more info, you know where to come in order to get it .

[Twiggy]

How do you get back to the ways? That's usually where I come unhinged Ithink. Don't have the correct key to progress and so on and I just wind up wandering. Oh and back to Supplies For the Quick once the random objects have generated too

Word to the wise...don't try playing drunk, like I did tonight. Stupid characters and their mumbling of meaningless spells ><

[Ameena]

Getting back to the Junction of the Ways isn't usually too difficult, since most paths link back there eventually if you don't find your way to the DDD instead. You can certainly get there easily from the area below Supplies for the Quick. As for getting to either of those places in the first place, it's probably just a matter of wandering around for a bit, getting to know the layout and so on - the four Ways interlink with each other as well, which probably doesn't help navigation, not to mention all the invisible teleporters which move you elsewhere in the dungeon without you even realising it...
Things like Worms aren't too difficult to find (ie so you have access to a food source, even if it is the crappiest food type in the game ), since there is of course the starting room (to stock up before you set forth), and also on the bottom (tenth) level of the dungeon, there's an area or two which is also populated and respawnable. Plus certain other food sources...particularly in the Ros area. It may also be helpful to know that the starting room (and therefore Supplies for the Quick) is on the middle level of the dungeon. Not that that probably helps much, but, you know...

If you want to know, the four unique keys for each Way are as follows...

Spoiler

Solid

in Ku, found

Spoiler

on the bottom level of the dungeon - it drops off the Dragon down there (who's also the strongest Dragon in the game, but really, any Dragon is a pushover if you use the right technique .

Spoiler

Ruby

in Dain, found

Spoiler

after the whole "Bridge" area, in the big, confusing room with the pits and the Flying Snakes.

Spoiler

Emerald

in Ros, found

Spoiler

in the Dragon Maze (the area of many illusionary walls, populated by a bunch of weak Dragons, many of whom only need one or two Mon Fireballs to destroy

Spoiler

Turqoise (I think...)

in Neta...umm, though I can't actually remember, off the top of my head, where you actually get this one. Bah .

I'm sure some other people will post up some info (like the location of that last key...), if I haven't already simul-posted this with someone else . Hope this helps, anyway .

[beowuuf]

One short cut back to the junction is to go as low down as possible (big caverns with worms) and look for an illusionary wall with a teleporter behind. Each of the four paths has them. I forget how to explicitly get back to the supplies for the quick. If you have an iron key, and use it in one of the two key holes on the stairs just before the junction of the ways, you can escape back out and get back to the supplies area. I think!

[Ameena]

Lol, yeah, lots of "I think"s here...that's the trouble with CSB though, I suppose - if you want to know, for example, "How do I get back to the Junction", we could probably give you directions from multiple locations...however, getting to those locations in the first place might be a total arse in itself if you don't know how to get there either .

[Trantor]

Getting back to the Junction is also rather easy from the DDD. Drop into the pit with the inscription "Fighter charge" next to it to a small area with a tough dragon. From there, there is a one-way door with a staircase leading down. Voilá, back at Supplies for the Quick!

Oh, and the key from NETA:

Spoiler

It's the turquoise key that can be found flying in mid-air just before the purgatory.

[Ameena]

Ohhhh yeah, damn, that's where it is...it's one of the things that you get by

Spoiler

having it clonk into your head in that big room, isn't it, along with, I think, a chest and a scroll or something...

Heh, I remembered the key type, just not where you got it .

[Twiggy]

What's fighers charge all about? I've raided the supplies for the quick and started on Ku. Didn't get transported anywhere, and I bypassed the Knights/Executioner for now and went upwards through the Spiders and Antmen instead. Went past the Scorpion and came up on Lvl 7 just beflow the DDD. There was a scroll there saying Fighter Charge...but I certainly didn't have to charge anything.

Also, when are the randomly shuffled/generated items supposed to kick in? I've gone through a couple of locations so far that are of supposed to have them, but nothing there :\

[Trantor]

The level below the DDD is level 4, at least in the way I count with level 1 on top and level 10 on the bottom.

Fighter charge:

Spoiler

It's a hint about a certain pit in the DDD, the one you end up at if you go straight ahead from the stairway leading into the DDD. If you enter the DDD and run really quickly forward (as in "charge"), the pit will close for a short time so you are able to cross it. On the other side is the KU door out of the DDD. You can bypass the pit, but it's the quickest way through the DDD for a fighter.

About random items: The gigglers are transported as soon as you arrive on the Junction. Keep looking, maybe you are just unlucky.

Did you get the Solid Key?

[Twiggy]

My maps (Pat Mullen's Maps, Lists and Answers for CSB if anyone remembers that far back) has it the reverse way, with 10 being Chaos's level and 1 being Mongor. I didn't really do much of the DDD area, as I haven't gone down and killed Mongor yet, I'd kinda left that bottom half of Ku for last as I knew it'd be a lot harder than the rest. I got the Sapphire key to open the vending machine, went up to lvl 9 and killed a Golem for some Mithrail which I badly needed. My front guy had armour from the first room and the other one had on a pair of leather boots and a halter...great look for Daroou haha

Going back down to fight Ka-Niggits now

[Ameena]

Heh, I always start with Ku and go down to the Dragon first - the step dance makes any Dragon a wimp, provided you have the space in which to perform it . Then I do Ros and Neta (though I can't remember in which order...I think usually Neta first), and finish up with Dain because I find that path a right pain in the widget .
Then I head to the DDD and work my way through that section of the game, only going up to the top level once I have all four Corbums (or should that be Corba? ).

[Twiggy]

Corbi? lol

Just killed Mongor and got my Executioner too. Back to the ways we go

[beowuuf]

Woohoo!

I find KU and NETA pretty easy. There is also a sneaky cheat for part of ROS. DAIN has always been the weirdest one for me to beat. Actually, and ROS's DDD bit is a pain I always thought.

[Trantor]

I usually do them in this order: Ku, Ros, Neta, Dain. And I take each path to the Corbum. Ku is the only one where I immediately head to Chaos' level because I really want that Dragon Fang. And the battle with the respawning worms is exhausting and challenging, which makes it fun. In general, I think that Ku rewards you with a lot of experience and good equipment (Executioner, Power Towers), so it's a good idea to take it first. Neta is the easiest, Dain certainly the one I feel most uncomfortable in (especially the Couatl chamber, but the level below with the Rives and Water Elementals isn't exactly a holiday, either).

About armor, it doesn't really make that much difference. Yeah, Mithral armor looks cool and feels nice to have, but it doesn't offer much more protection than a halter. It's one of the reasons why tanking doesn't really work in DM.

[Ameena]

Oh good, people agree with me on Dain being the arsey one . I'm pretty sure I take Neta before Ros (at least during the first part of each path), since it's not really that hard. Ros can be a bit tricky here and there, I think, but overall at least it's not half as bad as bloody Dain .
As for the possible plural of "corbum", I don't think it would be "corbi", 'cause you end a word's plural in "-i" if the singular ended in "-us"...at least, that's with Latin-based words - radius/radii, focus, foci, etc. "Octopus" comes from the Greek, so its plural is definitely not "octopi" but "octopodes" (though "octopuses" is also acceptable, despite what some people might try to tell you ). Not that "Corbum" is based off either Latin or Greek, so technically its plural could be whatever the hell we want it to be...could be "Corbeez" or anything .
Anyway, this isn't the QI forum so I'll stop rambling on about language and let the subject get back to CSB - Ku is the easiest path...as long as you don't stand still for too long in certain areas (unless you have really high fire resist ).