Wizards & Warriors/Castle Exterior

Climbing the castle
After exiting from the hut, into what appears to be an empty screen, you will reach the entrance to the castle after only a short walk to the left. In fact, the guardian knight will be standing right in front, demanding a mere 50 diamonds to let you in. If you keep walking to the left, all you'll find is two diamonds on the ground before you reach the other end of the stage. The only other way for you to explore is up.

You'll notice very early on that the castle wall is crawling with large red and pink ants. You will encounter these insects all the way up the side of the castle. In order to progress from the ground to the top, you'll have to make use of special footholds. There are two kinds.

The first kind are the square blocks that protrude from the castle wall. They can't always be relied upon since they have a tendency to slide back into the wall. If they are your next jump target, you have to wait for them to return. If you are standing on one that is retracting, jump off quickly or you will begin falling.

The second kind are the cracks in the wall from which arrows are shot. Although they are dangerous because they provide a continuous stream of arrows which you must avoid, they are actually safer to jump on than the blocks because they never go away. Jumping on top of an arrow source is a very safe way to make steady progress up the castle.

At first, the available platforms will be plentiful, and there will be more than one direction to choose from. As you get higher up the castle, the platforms will become more spaced out, with fewer options. This is where the Potion of Levitation and the Feather of Feather Fall will be especially useful. The potion can help you skip longer sequences by shortcutting to higher platforms, and the feather allows you to reach platforms that are farther away, as well as help keep you from falling too far too fast.

Once you are about halfway up the castle, you will reach the first of five turrets. The surfaces of the turrets are always safe to jump to. The two bottom turrets are simply waypoints for you to reach, but the three top turrets that contain spires each have at least one item of interest.

The first spire, found just to the left of the second turret, contains the pink key, which you will need before you reach the door at the very top. While you are there, stand on top of the third block from the left and jump straight up. A 10,000 bonus point hidden treasure should appear at A. Then proceed to the right from the second turret and make your way up to the second spire. Another hidden treasure can be found at B by standing on the second block from the left and jumping straight up.

From the second turret, you must continue your climb up the tallest tower of the castle. Once you reach the third spire at the top, you'll see the pink door. Before you step inside, be sure to stand on the second block from the left and jump straight up. This will make a final 10,000 bonus point treasure appear at C. Then step inside to continue your assault on the castle.



The tower interior
Stepping inside the tower, you will arrive in the lower right corner of a gray room. This section is loaded with small blue skulls which shoot sparks at you. These skulls are invulnerable to most every attack except for one. If you managed to collect the Boots of Force from the previous stage, you're in luck. You can kick the skulls away with the boots, and earn 1000 points for doing so. In addition to the skulls, blue drops of acid drip from the ceiling above you. You can destroy the drops as the fall, but you get no bonus for doing so.

When you arrive, you have a couple of choices. You can run along the ground to the left and make your way over the central wall to the left side, or you can use the platforms to jump up to the ceiling, where you will find a large collection of meat to restore your health. There are also two hidden chamber entrances to find, one in the upper right corner, and one to the right of the central wall.

Either way that you choose, make your way up and to the left to make it over the wall. On the left side, you'll have a choice between staying on the high path, or dropping down to the lower path. The high path dead-ends when you reach the red treasure chest at D. If you don't have the red key, you can still open this chest with the Boots of Force, and you'll find a collection of diamonds.

Drop down to the lower path, and continue running to the left beyond more blue skulls. Once you reach the left side, jump up the platforms to the pink door near the ceiling. Hop inside this door, and you'll find a small chamber, much like the ones in the ../Purple Cave/. You'll be forced to jump onto the platform occupied by a skull in order to reach the red key at the top. In addition to the other enemies, ghosts will fly into the room and attack you.

Once you collect the red key, there is nothing else to do, but to retrace your steps and make it all the way back down to the bottom where the guardian knight awaits. If you don't have 50 diamonds yet, be sure to collect the treasure chest at D before leaving. It should give you more than enough diamonds to exit the stage. Once you return outside, simply fall all the way down to the bottom of the stage. As unrealistic as it may seem, you can survive a fall all the way down to the very bottom. Then head for the red door that the knight guards and pass through. In an unusual twist, there is no boss to defeat, or damsal to rescue. You will simply advance to the next stage.