Tower of Doom Tips

[+wongojack]

I need some tips to help me enjoy this game more. It has just never really clicked for me. I just went back and played it a bunch this week, and I'm getting frustrated by dying from lack of food (life force runs out). How does one maintain their life force? Is there a way besides food? Any other general tips to enjoy this? I'd like to play the grail quest but I can't even get through the "challenge" right now.

[The Eyeball Mural]

Here's some tips:

 

 

► Play the Warlord or another of the stronger characters. Avoid playing the Waif or other weaker characters.

 

► Move briskly through the dungeon. Health degrades over time, like sand running out of an hourglass. Don't dawdle. Sure, you're exploring, but explore with a sense of purpose and urgency.

 

► Use magic items. Some have healing properties. The ring and the cloak can actually offer protection in battle, so you can fight and lose less health from injuries. Some items curse you, though, so there is risk involved.

 

► Keep food on hand, and don't feed until your health is low. That way you don't squander the benefit of food. Keeping food in your pack is important, even though it can make managing your inventory tricky.

 

► Use long-range combat instead of up-close melee. This will protect you from injury. Tower of Doom offers two combat modes; one is like AD&D Cloudy Mountain, the other is like AD&D Treasure of Tarmin.

 

► Avoid combat by bribing monsters with items from your pack, or by avoiding monsters altogether. If you're having trouble staying strong, route your path around or away from monsters until you have more strength.

 

 

Good luck!

[+wongojack]

Good tips. The food is my main problem. I only eat when lifeforce is critical, and I have plenty of health, but then my lifeforce runs out and I'm racing through the maze looking for food. I guess tip #2 is the one I need to incorporate in my gameplay most.

[+thegoldenband]

Are you walking through red rings a lot? Those are Life Eaters, and can drain your life force fast. I always wait until my life force is critical before eating; if you're really low on food, you can even wait until your health starts to drain (the heartbeat/tick starts making a different, more leaden sound), to get maximum benefit from the food. Food really is the biggest threat for most of the game, unless you're starting out as the Waif.

 

I've been working on a strategy guide of sorts here, but it's only in the earliest stages and is still very rough. Still, I've figured out a few things, including many of the item functions. Even with a randomized color scheme -- i.e. if you're using the Waif or Barbarian, or if you're playing a dungeon that randomizes the colors -- you can predict what items will do, since all of the item colors are randomized in the same way. BTW if you don't know what an item does, use it right before going down the stairs; that will almost always remove the effect of a cursed item immediately.

 

The Eyeball Mural's tips are very sound. I personally find that the Novice is the easiest character to play.

[The Eyeball Mural]

That's very good advice about experimenting right before going down the stairs. The strategy guide work-in-progress is great, BTW! I've always used AD&D names for the monsters, so it's fun to see them listed as such. I always called the axe beak a clubnek (from the Fiend Folio) but now I think axe beak is more appropriate.

Edited May 19, 2014 by The Eyeball Mural

[atari5200dude82]

My biggest problem, is that monsters attack you and you can't escape and you have no weapons left. What would be the best way to escape or avoid that?

[+wongojack]

My biggest problem, is that monsters attack you and you can't escape and you have no weapons left. What would be the best way to escape or avoid that?

 

Hmm, I almost never run out of weapons. In fact, I don't know if it has ever happened to me. I'm going to assume that you know how to choose a new weapon from your inventory - move pointer over it and press lower right side button. If you are really out of weapons, you can select an item from your inventory and "drop" it to try and bribe the monster with it. if you are completely out of items then yer screwed.

 

Try playing as the Warlord or as goldenband suggests - the Novice. Those characters come with a bunch of weapons choices. Usually my inventory is so full of them that I can't pick up other items.

 

Edit - To drop a weapon, use the lower LEFT side button

[atari5200dude82]

 

Hmm, I almost never run out of weapons. In fact, I don't know if it has ever happened to me. I'm going to assume that you know how to choose a new weapon from your inventory - move pointer over it and press lower right side button. If you are really out of weapons, you can select an item from your inventory and "drop" it to try and bribe the monster with it. if you are completely out of items then yer screwed.

 

Try playing as the Warlord or as goldenband suggests - the Novice. Those characters come with a bunch of weapons choices. Usually my inventory is so full of them that I can't pick up other items.

Thanks i will try that. Haven't really fully explored and put much time in to learning an playing it . But i will take all this good advice and try and put more time in to playing it.

[+thegoldenband]

Also keep in mind that the color of a weapon tells you how strong it is in close combat and, if it's a projectile weapon, how many shots are left. I suspect that weapons that can be used both ways -- axes, spears, and hammers -- become weaker in melee as you use them up, but I'm not sure.

[+wongojack]

In general, what do the scrolls do? I can't figure out when I can use them and when I can't. They don't seem to work like the other magical items. (haven't checked out the link yet with the guide).

[+thegoldenband]

In general, what do the scrolls do? I can't figure out when I can use them and when I can't. They don't seem to work like the other magical items. (haven't checked out the link yet with the guide).

 

I've only been able to identify about half of them, and they do seem to follow different rules -- IIRC, some work like regular items, some have to be used while they're in the weapon slot, and some I wasn't able to use at all. I suspect you have to be a Warlock to use some of them, or find the Magenta Ring which seems to confer magical ability on the user.

 

Of the ones I have ID'ed, the effects range widely. There are cursed ones that make it impossible to see enemies coming, speed up the enemy in the room, teleport you, or instantly throw you into a battle. And there are beneficial ones, including one that removes all traps in a level -- pretty handy! -- and another one that removes any curses that are on the player.

[+wongojack]

Thanks to thegoldenband because this game desperately needs a guide. Without adequate instructions, there is just too much to remember to really enjoy it. I think it might be too deep.

 

With just some additional explanations about the colors in the instruction manual it would have been much better. The lack of keypad implementation is also a mystery.

 

Still an amazing game and easily the deepest RPG on the system, but probably too deep to really enjoy (without tgb's guide).

[+thegoldenband]

Hey, thanks!

 

BTW my fiancée and I recently confirmed that when the colors are swapped around (on hard dungeons or when you're the Barbarian or Waif), the order stays the same -- the colors are rotated, but not randomized. In other words, the normal sequence of colors is $08 through $0F in the Intellivision palette, or:

 

Gray, Cyan, Orange, Brown, Pink, Lavender, Bright green, Magenta

 

Thus, gray weapons are normally the weakest, and magenta ones are the strongest. (Magic items don't follow the same power structure, though magenta items tend to be powerful and cyan items are usually harmful.)

 

But if the colors are "randomized", the Inty just rotates the sequence, so that on a given playthrough you might end up with:

 

Lavender, Bright green, Magenta, Gray, Cyan, Orange, Brown, Pink

 

Ergo, on that playthrough, every lavender item would act like a gray item, a bright green item would act like an orange item, and so on.

 

The great part is that, if you know what color your character's starting items are "supposed" to be, you can figure out in advance what every item in the game will do. This even works with the Waif: we figured out through induction that the Waif starts out with a magenta boot, even though he can't (usually) see its true color. So if the Waif starts out with a boot that appears to be gray, then you already know that the color order has been rotated to:

 

Cyan, Orange, Brown, Pink, Lavender, Bright green, Magenta, Gray

 

My fiancée actually made a kind of slide rule to help with this -- just set it up at the start of the game, and from that point on you can instantly see what's what. I'm sure you could do the same thing with a Javascript page in no time.

[+wongojack]

BTW

 

Lavender Cloak - "Magic Protects You"

 

Gray Flask "That Feels Good." This healed me (Gain HP)

 

It seems a good way to tell where the "scale" is for a given game is to cash in a treasure. The treasure values vary quite a bit but I believe they are the same from game to game. If you check your treasure total after you cash in it will give you the scale, or just throw a weapon, or use the character in a game mode where the colors aren't random and note what color the items are "supposed" to be.

[+thegoldenband]

BTW

 

Lavender Cloak - "Magic Protects You"

 

Gray Flask "That Feels Good." This healed me (Gain HP)

Cool, thanks! I've added the effects to the page at Strategywiki.

 

It seems a good way to tell where the "scale" is for a given game is to cash in a treasure. The treasure values vary quite a bit but I believe they are the same from game to game. If you check your treasure total after you cash in it will give you the scale, or just throw a weapon, or use the character in a game mode where the colors aren't random and note what color the items are "supposed" to be.

That could work too, definitely. But as long as you know what color your character's starting items normally are -- or, in the case of the Barbarian or Waif, the "hidden" item color -- you can really know the game's color system right from the beginning.

[+wongojack]

Here are some "raw" notes I took of the treasure values. These should be validated, but there are some patterns developing. These were taken while playing "The Challenge"

 

I'm too lazy to actually pause, so the best way for me to track the treasure values is to write down my treasure total then cash in, then write down the new total. I go back later and do the math, but I was trying to do the math while fighting monsters too so some of these must be off "Brown Crown" for instance (I dunno maybe it is right).

 

Lavender Small Gem 1050 "Increases total HP as Novice starting item"
Hot Pink Amulet 600
Hot Pink Coins 140
Brown Small Gem 650
Hot Pink Bracelet 60
Brown Rosary 400 "Prayers Protect You"
Magenta Coins 170
Brown Crown 1570
Gray Candle 40 ( worth more than the Cyan bracelet doesn't make sense, maybe it was Brown?)
Brown Bracelet 50
Green Coins 160
Hot Pink Coins 140
Cyan Crown 700
Cyan Bracelet 30
Cyan Coins 110

 

 

 

also

Pink Cloak "Strong Magic Protects You"

 

Edit - it seems the treasure gives you the equivalent amount of experience which is why the novice instantly gains Max HP if you cash in the small gem in the base inventory.

[+thegoldenband]

Man, if you're up for cataloging all the treasure values, that'd be fantastic. I don't have the patience to do it systematically because of the interface, but if I notice I've grabbed an item that's not on the list, I can certainly check it.

 

BTW I'm guessing that Candles, or Candlesticks, are simply worth more than Bracelets on the whole?

[JoeM_Intellivision]

Just wanted to post real quick that "The Challenge" was the one I played most and beat because it allowed you to see all 12 monsters I believe over 14 levels. Also very challenging;-) Thanks for starting this thread - I haven't looked at Tower of Doom manual in a while and didn't realize that it was so vague. This was a great game and for it to finish dead last in semifinals of best game pool again shows the breadth of our beloved inty:-)

[+thegoldenband]

Just wanted to post real quick that "The Challenge" was the one I played most and beat because it allowed you to see all 12 monsters I believe over 14 levels.

Do you see any monsters missing from this list? The manual makes it sound like The Challenge should introduce one monster per level, but the basic trio (Giant Rat, Stirge, Serpent) are present from the start, and I only was able to spot 13 different monsters. It'd be great if there's a 14th one I haven't seen.

 

BTW I agree that The Challenge is a fun one. I beat it a few weeks back with the Novice or Warlock (don't remember which); I should try it soon with the Waif!

[JoeM_Intellivision]

thegoldenband,

Oops yeah 13 monsters not 12. I'm going on memory but 95% sure that these are the only 13 monsters - I don't believe you are missing any. Anyone please correct if you know different but my memory doesn't recall any others.

[+wongojack]

BTW I'm guessing that Candles, or Candlesticks, are simply worth more than Bracelets on the whole?

 

The reason I was questioning myself is because the manual indicates that the candlestick is the least valuable treasure in the game. I probably got the value wrong, but sometimes manuals are wrong too.

[+wongojack]

My Memorial Day weekend task was to beat The Challenge - not doing so great. I think this is my highest score

 

Tower Lvl 12

Experience 127,630

Treasure 17,560

 

I usually play as the Novice.

 

Some other notes I took:

 

Brown Rosary gives the message "Prayers Protect You"

Green Rosary gives the message "Read a Book"

Pink Grail gives the message "Diplomacy"
Pink L Scroll gives the message "Stamina"

[+wongojack]

I DID IT! I completed "The Challenge" as the Novice

 

Strength 18

Stamina 12

Diplomacy 3

Tower Lvl 15

 

Experience 190,530

Treasure 21,390

 

By far the most useful item is/was the white gray ring which boosts your healing. That let me fight dragons and wizards and recover quickly. I had saved a green ring and a magenta flask for level 14. It was the first time that I made it to 14, but those items combined made that particular floor pretty easy. IMO the hardest floors of The Challenge are 9 & 11 where the dragons are numerous.

 

Unlinke most other items in the game, It seems that ring effects last even after descending to a new floor. Also, the effects of the rings appears to stack as my accelerated healing was maintained even after I put on the green ring.

[JoeM_Intellivision]

Congrats - it has been a while for me so forget how I did - Maybe a lot of running & fighting from distance:-) I'm pretty sure I never beat the grail quest with 32 levels I believe. One day.

[+thegoldenband]

Terrific, wongojack -- congratulations! Now try it with the Waif. BTW magenta flasks are great to have in reserve -- they're how I made it through the last two levels of the Catacombs/12 Levels adventure comfortably.

 

In other news, I just discovered a major error in my post #13 and the Wiki: I reversed the order of cyan and orange in the rotation sequence. (I've edited both to fix the error.)

 

That would've completely messed things up if you were playing a character or adventure with scrambled colors. Indeed, it confused the hell out of me and my other half when I was playing through the Catacombs/20 Levels adventure just now with the Waif (unsuccessfully, alas).

 

The cause? I was using Snafu-1982's post here as a reference for the Intellivision colors, and while his first image has them in the right order, his second image reverses the order for orange and cyan.