Dungeon Magic: Sword of the Elements/Granville area

Starting town
The game starts in the town of Granville. Talk to every inhabitant. An old man gives you a compass. This is extremely important for orientation. Note that, unlike real compasses, this one points the direction you are facing.

A women dressed in yellow suggests that you become a wizard apprentice and learn magic. There are five choices: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Fairy. Of those five choice, Fairy is probably the best choice for beginners for two reasons: you only begin the game with 12 hit points and most Fairy spells cost zero points, but more importantly, Fairy spells are essential for orientation and early acquaintance with the game. The Fairy magic wizard resides in the south of town, at the end of a corridor.

Men and girls suggest that you see the king, who lives in the castle to the north. Locate the north gate of town, and exit.

King's castle


In the castle, the king gives you 100 Gold Pieces and a short sword. Equip it by pressing in order:, / (until the sword icon is highlighted), , , and then again to return to the game. In order to open the doors in the castle, the "key" icon has to be selected in the menu.

Back in Granville
With the money and short sword gifted by the king, it is time to purchase better armor in Granville. There are three shops along the west side of town. From the bottom to the top, they are: the item shop, the inn, and the armory. Head to the armory to purchase better equipment, but skip the equipment that can be found for free. Leave town and fight enemies to raise money.

In the table below, default sorting is by price.

Grinding enemies for experience and treasure
Old school games like this require a significant amount of early grinding, that is actually useful to learn and practice combat tactics.

It is also important to understand the forces which work for and against you in this game. In particular:
 * The longer you fight without resting at an inn, the more tired you become. You will lose 1 point of defense every 4 enemies killed, and 1 point of attack power every 8 kills.
 * Enemies do not respawn until you've stay at an inn. This includes those found in dungeons and caves.  So at some point, it becomes impossible to earn more experience point until you stay at an inn and cause all of the enemies to return.
 * Resting at an inn 16 times causes enemies to get stronger. Each time this happens, they get a +1 to their attack strength and defense.

As a result, you want to stay at an inn as often as possible to reset your own strength, as well as reset the enemies so that you can kill them and get stronger, but you don't want to stay at an inn so frequently that the enemies strengthen faster than you do.

Level Zero bonus
As long as you are at level 0, all enemies in the area around Granville have their power and defense halved. With minimal armor improvements, you will become impervious to their attacks. As soon as you level up (by talking again to the master wizard you chose), this bonus will be lost. You want to level up as late as possible.

There are 8 snakes and 3 scorpions in Granville area. Check the map (Fairy spell ): the weaker snakes are in the open area, or "grasslands"; the tougher scorpions are in the labyrinthine "forest".

Grinding strategy:
 * 1) Leave Granville and fight snakes only; practice dodging their attacks (see Combat for more information).
 * 2) When you defeated all 8 snakes, you can collect the southmost chest; it contains one potion.
 * 3) Whenever you defeated all 8 snakes, go back to Granville and spend a night at the inn.
 * 4) As soon as you practiced enough against the snakes, go and get the second chest to the south (by luring away the scorpion); it includes an armor +2 (equip it by pressing in order: start, left/right, select, B); sell your older armor.
 * 5) Now, after every inn stay, try and tackle the scorpions before the snakes (to avoid combat weariness against the stronger enemies). The last chest contains bracers +2; equip them and sell the older ones.
 * 6) As soon as you collected enough gold, purchase a shield.
 * 7) Now that you are well equipped (starting headgear and starting sword; free armor and free bracers; purchased boots and purchased shield), keep fighting enemies in Granville area until you have 190 experience points. This should be quite fast and easy.
 * 8) Go and visit your master wizard, and level up to level 4.

About the table below: your base attack power (Pow) equals half your current health (HP), plus your level; your base defence (def) equals twice your level.

Town of Gran
North on Granville, in the same area. It can be a good base when you want to reach the third chest in the forest.

More equipment for free
As soon as you level up, it is time to explore more.

The area just west of Granville has more equipment for free. This area can be divided into three roughly vertical parts: the forest, the coast, and the sea.
 * The forest can be accessed from the south-west of Granville area. Some scorpions and one wasp are lurking in there, but you can collect two more armor parts (just sell them), as well as a good sword. Ignore the dungeon entrance: you are too weak now.
 * The coast can be accessed from the north-west of Granville area. Some snakes and some wasps roam there. One chest contains a headgear +2. To the south is the city of Deirus.
 * The sea contains some enemies, but for the moment it is impossible to interact with them. Just ignore them.

With the equipment you sold, it should be easy to reach the 140 Gold Pieces required to purchase the last piece of equipment, that is the trousers +2.

At this point, you have all the "first tier equipment", and you can seriously start the adventure.