Deadly Towers/The Castle

Raising health
From your start position in the lower left corner of the lowest layer in the castle (refer to the castle map above), your first objective will be to collect three Circle Hearts and raise your maximum health stat to 130. If this is your very first time playing, you may wish to take it slowly, and get a feel for how both you and the enemies move about.
 * To start, walk right and enter the first door that you come to.
 * When you arrive in the second layer, you will see a door immediately above you. Enter through that door to the third layer.
 * Walk left until you see a door. Enter this door to the fourth layer, collect your first Heart Circle, and return through the path that you came to the third layer.
 * Continue left on the third layer until you reach the end, and see a path below and a door above. Take the path below to the second layer.
 * Collect the second Heart Circle, and return through the door to the third layer. Then immediately pass through the next door to the fourth layer.
 * You will have to fight the Serpent to get past this door. To accomplish this safely, walk right up to the Serpent and begin throwing your sword at him repeatedly at point blank range.  This should freeze the Serpent until he is destroyed.  Pass through the door.
 * Walk to the right until you see the third Heart Circle. Collect it and return to the upper left corner of the fifth layer.  You will enter Dungeon 5.

1st shopping trip
Your goal here is to collect the Hyper Boots, a Shield and a Chain Helmet. They can each be found in a different shop between the start and the exit. You begin on the light blue square. After you are done with this dungeon, your status screen should resemble the screen shown to the right.
 * You begin in a room with 4 bounder. Walk up to the room above which contains a Bounder Tower.
 * Defeat the Bounder Tower, and walk to the room on the right. Then immediately double back to the Bounder Tower room.
 * The Tower will not grow as long as you don't walk close to it, and it is easier to kill. Attack it four times, and collect the money and hearts that it drops.
 * Do this repeatedly until you have collected at least 232 Ludder. Then walk into the room on the right.
 * Carefully approach the circle in the room, so as not to get hit by the slimes. Enter the shop (7) and purchase the Hyper Boots.  Remember to equip them.
 * Climb back out of the shop, and return to the Bounder Tower room. Continue to accumulate money until you have at least 180 Ludder.
 * Walk five rooms to the left, past a second Bounder Tower room, until you reach another shop (1). Enter the shop and purchase the Shield for 100 Ludder (and equip it).
 * Exit the shop and return to the Bounder Tower room to the right, then walk down four rooms until your reach another shop (6). Purchase the Chain Helmet for 80 Ludder (and equip it).
 * Exit the shop and walk one room south to the dungeon exit.

More health
When you exit the dungeon, you will arrive in the middle of the sixth layer (the Gate Keepers will be to your right.) From here, you're going to walk left.
 * Walk to the left end of the sixth layer, and pass through the door to the seventh layer.
 * Collect the Heart Circle that you find there, but be careful not to walk too high and wind up in Dungeon 7.
 * From the Heart Circle, walk right to the next door. Pass through the door to the 8th layer, walk right to the next path down, and return to the seventh layer.
 * You will notice a Pixie trapped behind bars here. Don't shoot it (or any other) or you will lose all of your money.  Keep walking right to the next door, and enter it.
 * You will have to fight the Black Box here. Avoid the bats in the room and use the same strategy of rapidly shooting him at point blank range as you used on the Serpent until he is defeated.
 * Pass through the door that was blocked and enter the 9th layer. Walk left until you reach the wide open area, and walk into the upper right corner of this area to enter Dungeon 9.

2nd shopping trip
This time through the dungeon, you will purchase the remainder of the basic equipment necessary to give you a fighting chance while exploring the Towers; Leather Armor and Gloves. Additionally, you may choose to purchase helpful provisions such as Orange Scrolls which instantly warp you back to the holy flame, and Red Drinks which restore 50 lost hit points. After you are done with this dungeon, your status screen should resemble the screen shown to the right. You will find yourself at the Cliff Wall by the holy flame. You are ready to begin exploring the Towers and collecting the golden defense items.
 * From your starting position (the light blue square), walk one room to the right. There is a shop (4) here that will eventually sell the Green Scroll, which you should purchase and use after all seven bells are burned.
 * From this room, you must move south to a Bounder Tower room. If you pass directly through the center of the door, you will get hit, and possibly killed.  Instead, pass through the far right edge of the door, and push down and right to arrive safely in the Bounder Tower room.
 * Stock up on money fighting the Bounder Tower. From the Bounder Tower room, move right twice, and up once.  The shop (7) here sells Orange Scrolls for 100 Ludder.  Puchasing them is optional.
 * From that shop move right, down, and right twice. This is the exit room.  Don't step on the circle or you will exit the dungeon.
 * From the exit room, walk right once and up once. The shop (3) you encounter will sell Red Drinks which you may choose to stock up on.
 * Move right one room and enter the shop (8) to purchase Leather Armor for 100 Ludder.
 * Exit the shop and move right two rooms to find another shop (2). Enter the shop and purchase the Gloves for 100 Ludder.  If it turns out that you need more money, there is a Bounder Tower room below the room between shop 8 and shop 2.
 * When you are finished shopping, return to the exit and leave the dungeon.