Faxanadu/Dartmoor Castle

Castle of castles
Interestingly, Dartmoor Castle is more than just an ordinary castle. It is a fortress which encloses a town and two other castles. You will enter from the right side of the highest level. Among this top level, you won't find much of interest. On the left side, there is what appears to be an abandoned settlement, with each of the four doors opening up to some room with a monster occupying the interior. Since you can't use your weapons indoors, you are restricted to using magic. The only door which is worth exploring is the second from the right. Inside this empty shop is a Grimlock, and there is a 25% chance that a Red Potion will appear if you defeat it with magic.

Rather then explore the highest level, you will want to access the bottom of the middle screen and drop down through the gap in the floor. The room below is split into two sections, the left and the right. The left side contains a ladder that you can climb down to reach the level below, but the right side is where you should visit first. Access the screen to the right to enter the final town in the game, the town of Dartmoor.

Dartmoor
Dartmoor is everything you'd expect a final town to be; nothing incredible in the way of newly introduced items and information, but the clues you pick up here will be of some use to you. The first building is a cathedral, where you will obtain the mantra for the farthest starting point you can obtain. Once you reach the rank of Lord, there are no further ranks for the Guru to bestow upon you. Dried meat is getting expensive, near the price of hospital visits early in the game, but obtaining money should be the least of your worries at this point in the game. Two servings of dried meat is practically half the stay at the hospital in the next screen over, and with a Lamprey and a Yuinaru hanging around outside of town, you should only need to buy dried meat to restore magic. The key shop is down to selling only King Keys, but the truth is that you should not need any more keys from this point on. And lastly, you should already have the Giant Blade, so the only thing worth purchasing at the shop is a Red Potion. In fact, you should load up on them as much as possible since the last two boss fights are considerably difficult. When you are prepared to tackle the rest of Castle Dartmoor, exit back to the left.

Exploring the castle
When you leave Dartmoor, defeat the Lamprey and attack the Sir Gawaine through the wall. Then climb up and around to the left side of the screen and climb down the ladder. Drop down to the floor below, and proceed to the left after dealing with any Wolf Men that get in your way. Fight the Wolf Man on the lower level of the next screen and drop down the gap again.

When you land, you have a choice between heading left or right. The truth is that there is nothing of value to the left, only a house where the occupants have very little in terms of useful information to provide you. While you are free to explore it, you are better off heading to the right instead. The screen to the right contains a Fire Giant and two Hornets. Defeat them if you wish, and then climb up the ladder and leap over the gaps between the platforms to continue to the next screen. If you arrive along the lower path, not only will you be stuck, you'll also have to avoid touching a vial of Poison.

In the next room, you will see three doors, but you will not even be able to access the first one without the proper ring. Instead, you'll have to climb up the ladder above (after removing the Mask Man) and defeat the Fire Giant waiting for you. Continue to climb up the ladder on the next screen. Watch out for the Geributa that greets you on the screen above, as it can remove a surprising amount of health in very little time. Wind your way to the top platform, clearing out the other enemies, and proceed to the right. Wind your way past the two Sir Gawaines back to the bottom of the screen and defeat the Lamprey for some bread. Unfortunately, you won't be able to exploit its presence and defeat it over and over again to restore health. As soon as you climb down the ladder, you won't be able to get back up.

Once you land, you will be a short hop away from another entrance (1). This is the Castle of Fraternal, where the Dwarf King once resided. When you are ready, hop across the gap and press in front of the door.

Fraternal Castle
You begin on the top level of the castle. Fraternal Castle has an interesting quirk: the middle level wraps around on itself continuously (as indicated by the green A label on the map). There are two goals to achieve here; defeat the boss of the castle, and visit the Guru in the cathedral of the castle.

To reach the boss from the entrance, jump up to the platforms above and head to the right. Drop down through the gap to the floor and climb down the ladder to the level below. You're best off ignoring the Rokusutahn below and running to the right. Watch out for the two Snowmen in the next room, climb up the ladder and continue right. A Yareeka patrols the top level of the next screen. It is difficult, but not impossible, to exploit this Yareeka for its bread to restore your health.

From this point, you may wish to fall to the floor and head to the right. If you do, you will find a Borabohra. Every time you enter this room, there is a 25% chance that Ointment will appear behind the Borabohra. Leave and return to the room until the Ointment appears. If you collect the Ointment, and run non-stop, you can make it all the way to the boss room just before the Ointment wears off. So collect it, race back to the left, climb up the ladder and cross back over the gaps where the Yareeka flies back and forth to arrive on the platform above the Borabohra.

Climb up the ladder that you see above you, and you will enter a room with a Pakukame attached to the ceiling. The Pakukame releases up to three Liliths in the room, and will immediately replace any that you defeat. However, if you collected the Ointment, the Liliths should not be much of a concern. Climb up the ladder, and head to the right towards the door on the floor. You will probably touch the poison vial, but avoid it if possible. Enter the door, and you will come face to face with the transformed King Grieve (3), former king of the Dwarfs.

King Grieve swallowed the Dragon Slayer sword in a final act of desperation before he lost control of his mind in order to keep it out of the hands of the Evil One. In order to get it back, you're going to have to defeat him. He's quite powerful, like an enhanced form of a Ripasheiku. In fact, his pattern of attack is extremely similar to that of the Ripasheiku. He fires four fireball blasts before flying up to the ceiling and dropping back down to repeat the pattern. There are a couple of strategies that you can employ. For one, using an Hour Glass won't freeze him, but it will prevent him from breathing fire at you. Another strategy is to use the powerful magic of Tilte. Only a few well times blasts of this magic is enough to defeat him. Whichever way you attempt to defeat him, make sure you have a few Red Potions handy and ready to use in case your health becomes critical.

Once he is defeated, grab the Dragon Slayer that he leaves behind. With this item, you can now equip the trio of the sword and the Battle Suit and Battle Helm. You need only select the sword to equip all three. You are now at your most powerful offensively and defensively. Before you leave, you need to find the cathedral in the castle and visit the Guru to obtain the key needed to open the door you passed previously. From the bosses room, exit through the door, climb up the ladder, drop down to the floor and climb down the ladder to the level below.

Above the Borabohra, return to the left, drop down to the floor, and climb down the ladder to the room below. There you will find the cathedral (4), whose entrance is guarded by a Rokusutahn. Defeat it if you like and enter the cathedral. With the Dragon Slayer in hand, the Guru will inform you that it was King Grieve who you just defeated. He will give you the item that you need to access the final fortress of the game, the Ring of Demon. Now you are ready to escape the castle, and return to the Town of Dartmoor for supplies and receiving a mantra. There are a couple of routes out of the castle, but the safest one is to go back out exactly the way you came in.

Evil Fortress
Once you have received a mnatra from the Guru in Dartmoor and stocked up on Red Potions, you are ready for the final confrontation. Return to the lower levels of Castle Dartmoor, and visit the room with the three doors (2) that you were previously unable to access. Now that you have the Demon Ring, you will find that you can enter the left door, only to be deposited outside of the middle door. Approach the right door and push to enter the final fortress. The Evil Fortress has powerful magic cast upon it that twists and curves the space within it. Nearly all of the horizontal and vertical passages circle around or lead to other portions of the castle, making it difficult to determine what kind of progress you're making if you're not familiar with the fortress and don't have a map. You begin in the room which is depicted on the map as being to the right of the room with the final boss (in the middle of the map (5). There are a large number of ways to proceed through the fortress, but your ultimate goal is to reach the room in the upper left corner of the map, which contains the door that warps you to the closed off room in the center where the final boss resides.

What follows here is only one method of reaching the boss. It is dependent on the fact that you possess at least one Wing Boots in your inventory. Doing so will create a condition where the final boss of the game can't hurt you. From the entrance, walk to the right and jump up to the small ledge before the drop. Activate the Wing Boots now. Since you are probably at a very high rank, you will only be provided with approximately ten seconds to fly around, so you need to make the most of them. Fly up and through the passage to the right room. Without stopping to deal with the Sir Gawaine or the two Hornets in the room, drop down to the lower level and continue through the passage to the next room on the right.

Here you will see Ointment on the floor and a ladder above you. Drop down and collect the Ointment, and with what little time you have remaining for the Wing Boots, immediately fly up to the ladder above. Once you climb up the ladder, the Wing Boots should wear off, but you still have plenty of time with the Ointment. Ignore the Wolf Man and the Zoradohna guarding access to the door above, and head straight to the door.

Once you enter the door, you will come face to face with the Evil One (5). However, if you followed the walkthrough as described above, you should still be protected from damage thanks to the power of the Ointment. If this is the case, you can easily overpower the Evil One by running right up to him, jump up to his head, and stabbing him repeatedly with the Dragon Slayer until he is defeated. It will take several hits, but the Ointment will last long enough so that you don't have to worry.

If you weren't fortunate enough to get the Ointment before you encounter the Evil One, you'll have to be a little more strategic, but not by much. The Evil One simply walks across the room, firing large balls of fire from his mouth at you. He is only vulnerable in the head, so you need to jump up to stab him, but you need to do so in a manner that helps you dodge the fireballs. Whatever you do, do not get close enough to touch him. If you have to take damage, let yourself get hit by the fireballs instead, as they hurt less. Keep Red Potions handy in case your health runs low. If you have plenty of magic, consider using Tilte against him, as it is rather effective.

Once you defeat the Evil One, the story will immediately jump to the player's return to Eolis, and you will witness the ending of the game. Congratulations.