Castle of the Winds/Cheats and Exploits

While fairly strong, and without the system of cheat codes deliberately added to today’s games, CoTW has glitches that can be exploited.

Free store items
Go into a store and cast Phase Door or Teleport. Exit the screen. The pile of items will be sitting in the door to the shop. There are a few ways to get the items.
 * 1) Reenter the shop and if you haven't entered the dungeon yet, use Rune of Return and move your items around to different slots until you get pulled away.
 * 2) Reenter the shop and cast Summon Monster or Undead from a cursed wand or staff, exit the screen, go into the inventory screen and pick it all up.
 * 3) Keep using Phase Door or Teleport until you land on the space with the items and go into the inventory screen. If in the inventory screen you cast Phase Door or Teleport, you can still access the floor of the space you were once in. This will be fixed once you leave the inventory screen.
 * Cautions
 * Using the Get command to pick up the store dropped items will cause a crash.
 * The game will crash if you don't leave at least one item at the store.
 * Don't save the game while there are inventory piles in the shop doors. Leave the town and reenter first.
 * If the Rune of Return activates right after you cast it, you will have to enter the shop and try again.

Regenerate a floor
Using the parenthesis keys — ) to go down and ( to go up — instead of the usual angle bracket keys or menu command will cause the game to regenerate the destination floor, including bosses that have already been killed.

Negative number overflows

 * Extreme mana glitch: Get down to -2 mana then step onto a glyph of warding that causes you to lose mana. Your mana will be either very, very high or very, very low.
 * Maximize Constitution: When starting a new game, choose Magic Arrow as your starting skill and start casting it. Eventually, it will ask you if you are sure you want to cast it because your mana will be very low. Continue casting until you are around -16 or so mana, and your max health will jump quite high. Make sure if you do this to put your starting stats into something besides Constitution so as they are not wasted.
 * Attribute Overflow: Usually, using the stat-increasing potions is a good thing. But overuse of them on any particular attribute will RESET that attribute to zero. It's advisable to stop using potions to increase a specific status when it first reaches the top.

Disappearing items
Go into the inventory and follow these steps. The item will be gone, but its effects will stay with you. This works best with lighter weight items, such as rings and pendants, because the weight and bulk also stays with you.
 * 1) Equip the item.
 * 2) With your right mouse button, click the item and hold the mouse button down without removing the item.
 * 3) Press Enter to pick up the item. Then release the right mouse button (you should still have the item as your mouse pointer).
 * 4) Drag the item to your Free Hand slot. Click the left mouse button to drop the item into your Free Hand slot.

Super level up
When level 25, drink a Draught of Gain Level and go up 5 levels.

Frozen monsters
If there are too many monsters on a dungeon map (150+), they will all stop moving. You can use wands of Clone Monster to achieve this.

Hacking From The Original CowHacker
This section:
 * Hack into Castle Of The Winds, stealing from the bank, and creating a wand out of a Wool Cloak.

Requirements:
 * Castle Of The Winds plays well under XP within Oracle Virtual Machine.
 * Hex Editor program installed in VM where Castle resides. The author recommends XVI32.
 * If using Oracle VM, ensure Clipboard is Bidirectional.

Saved Name Conventions:
 * Filenames are limited to the old 8.3 dos format.
 * Use a separate directory / folder for each character or player.
 * Use the first 4 characters for the character name, eg "FRED", "DIAN" (For Diane).
 * Use the next character for the phase of the game: 0=Mine (Part 1); 1=Fortress (Part 1); 2=Castle (Part 2).
 * Use the next two characters for the maximum level you have descended to: 00=Surface, 01=Level 1, 02=Level2, etc.
 * Use the final character for a version, eg A, B, C. Reserve Y for the final sequence, and Z the character to be transported to Castle 2.

Example saved games for Fred:
 * FRED000A.CWG = Fred on surface, in the Hamlet.
 * FRED001A.CWG = Fred on Mine Level 1. 1st version.
 * FRED001B.CWG = Fred on Mine Level 1. Later version.
 * FRED002A.CWG = Fred on Mine Level 2.
 * FRED004Y.CWG = Fred has reached level 4, is back still inside the Mine on level 0. Has parchment in pack, and is ready for the end sequence.
 * FRED004Z.CWG = End sequence mid term.
 * FRED100A.CWG = Fred on surface. In the town of Bjarnarhaven.
 * FRED200A.CWG = Fred on surface. Start of Part 2, outside the Castle.

Storage:
 * Outside villages, towns and castles is a safe place to leave stuff, but don't forget to get it before moving on to the next portion of the game.

Preparing For Hacks From The CowHacker:
 * 1) Create a new character in Castle Part 1. Set all attributes equal. Save the game using the format above.
 * 2) Buy 2 pairs of shoes.
 * 3) Name one pair “Marker A” and the other “Marker B”.
 * 4) Go to near the entrance of the mine, and in the last bit of grass to the right, where there is a last single space of grass, drop "Marker A".
 * 5) Drop “Marker B”. It should appear to the immediate right of Marker A.
 * 6) Save the game under a new version.
 * 7) Open up the game in XVI32.
 * 8) Search for “Marker A”.
 * 9) In the hex area of XVI32, the “A” is “41”. The next value, is the item code for the next item. If your Marker B is a shoe, the item code should be 0E. Gauntlets have an item code of 0B and cloaks / capes 0C. If the item code does not match the Marker B item, go back to step 1.

Now For Your First Hack:
 * 1) Go to near the entrance of the mine, where your markers are.
 * 2) Pick up “Marker B”.
 * 3) Open up your purse and drop 200 copper pieces on the grass.
 * 4) Drop “Marker B”.
 * 5) Save the game under a new version.
 * 6) Open up the game in XVI32.
 * 7) Search for “Marker A”.
 * 8) In the hex area of XVI32, the “A” is “41”. The next value, 12, is the item code for money. The next value, 01, is the sub item code for copper pieces. Change the 01 to a 03. That is the code for gold. Save the game as a different version.
 * 9) Open up that version in Castle Of The Winds, and look at the ground. You see gold!. The sub item codes for Money (12) are 01 = Copper, 02 = Silver, 03 = Gold, 04 = Platinum. there are 4 more codes but will cause a GPF in Castle 1, as will Platinum in Castle Part 1. So Gold is the highest you can go in Castle 1.
 * 10) Grab your money and go shopping.

Turn A Wool Cloak Into A Wand:
 * 1) Buy a cloak. Return to the Markers.
 * 2) Name the cloak “123456789” (without the quotes). Ensure there are only those 9 characters. This is extremely important. Get it wrong and you cannot play the game.
 * 3) Place it on the ground, so it is between Marker A & Marker B. Move marker B if required.
 * 4) Save the game, no need to increment the version.
 * 5) Open the game in XVI32. Search for “Marker A”. Beside the A (41) you will see “0C”. That is the code for cloak. The next byte, 01, is the sub-item code for Normal Wool Cloak. Only use normal wool cloaks for this step. Shoes will also do.
 * 6) Copy this string to the clipboard (only the hex characters, not the quotes or the text): "03 05 00 30 00 00 00 00 64 03 22 00 00 00 FC 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 3A 10 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00" [Detect Traps / Map Level (191)]
 * 7) With the 0C selected, click Edit | Overwrite String | Hex String and paste the text you just copied.
 * 8) Your cursor should now be resting ON an 0E, the item code for boots. If it is not abandon all edits and go back and try again.
 * 9) If 0E is under the cursor, save file, incrementing the version.
 * 10) Open that game in Castle 1. Look at the ground. You will see “Wand of Detect Traps 191 charges”. Right-click on the wand. You will see “When activated, fills in the characters map of the entire level.”. You have just created a wand of Scroll of Map Level. Good for 191 times. You will only need 63.

Another Wand:
 * 1) If you want to be a bit more adventurous in playing then go back to the version before you pasted the string above, and copy this string to the clipboard (only the hex characters, not the quotes or the text): "03 05 00 30 00 00 00 00 64 03 22 00 00 00 FC 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 3A 10 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00" [Detect Traps / Map Quadrant (575)]
 * 2) As before, ensure the cursor is on 0E and save, incrementing the version.
 * 3) Load the game and see you have created a "Wand of Detect Traps 575 charges" that fills in the map quadrant, effectively a Wand that performs Scroll of Map Quadrant 575 times.

Welcome to the world of totally hacking Castle Of The Winds.

Next issue is Supercharge any wand, the easy way.