Castle of the Winds/Strategy

Attributes

Attributes anywhere near average make no difference until very high levels. An advised strategy is to maximize two and balance the other two. Strength and Dexterity are considered better value, because of their multiple effects. For more about attributes, see character attributes.

Useful magic

Early

• As the player is initially very weak in hand-to-hand combat, the first spell learned should be Magic Arrow.
• If Heal Minor Wounds is not the second spell, the player is very likely to die in the mine before running out of mana.
• Detect Objects: ensures that no treasure-laden secret areas have been missed.
• Phase Door: delays hand-to-hand combat, but leaves the monster within spell range. Often better than the unpredictable Teleport.

Later

• Detect Monsters: Allows a player to prepare for what is ahead, and often attack from a greater distance.
• Detect Traps: Greatly reduces the danger of stumbling into a trap, and provides an opportunity to disarm some one-time traps.
• Healing: Important to be able to heal quickly and completely. Other spells may be counterproductive during battle because they give monsters time to attack.
• Clairvoyance: Reveals secret areas that might otherwise go unnoticed. Also guaranteed to find traps.
• Cold Bolt, Firebolt, Lightning Bolt: Magic Arrow quickly becomes inadequate.
• Cold Ball, Fireball, Ball Lightning: Efficient crowd control.
• Neutralize Poison: Once Green Dragons appear, this spell nearly eliminates their threat, and the mana cost becomes very reasonable.
• Identify: Only way to discover a cursed item without wearing it or paying the sage.
• Rune of Return: Saves time at later levels, when frequent trips to town may be necessary. Can sometimes be used to escape a battle.
• Slow Monster: Delays hand-to-hand combat.
• Transmogrify Monster: Avoids attribute-draining undead monsters.
• Teleport: Useful for escaping fast monsters in nearly-clear levels.

Less useful magic

Early

• The value of Shield is subject to disagreement.
• Light is seen by some as nearly useless, given that Clairvoyance and Detect Monsters are available later, plus the fact that it enables other monsters to see you. However, others see it as a decent alternative at lower levels.

Later

• Heal Medium Wounds, Heal Major Wounds: may be obsoleted by the next stronger spell by the time they are needed.
• Remove Curse: Can be rendered unnecessary by Identify and saves.
• Levitation: Boots of Levitation and Detect Traps make this of little importance.
• Sleep Monster: Escapes are usually possible with other spells, such as Slow Monster and Teleport.
• Resist Cold, Resist Fire, Resist Lightning: Only decrease damage by half, so generally only worthwhile against Surtur.

Growing a character

Money should be kept on hand to purchase spellbooks and Draughts of Gain Level. (More about these may be learned in items and the inventory system). Each new level requires more than twice as much experience as the previous (see experience and levels), so levels become very sparse beyond about 12. Using these items is the only way to learn all 30 spells in a reasonable amount of time. Attribute-increasing potions should also be purchased at every opportunity, as they are the only way to permanently gain an attribute. Note that they may push an attribute to 100 and make enchanted items redundant.

Consider buying and storing Draughts of Gain Level until you manually get your experience to Level 11 or 12 (or are tired of waiting). Otherwise you are basically making it harder for you to raise your level via experience. These Draughts are best used when you no longer intend to use experience to gain levels. Other Draughts of Gain Strength/Intelligence/Constitution/Dexterity are also available. Buy them if you have enough money (hopefully you'll always have at least 21,000 CP available for purchasing at least one).

Items casting Clone Monster should be used up on bosses, if the player is sufficiently over-leveled to handle the clones. This multiplies their tremendous value in experience and loot (although it does not clone unique items), and ball spells provide an economy of scale in killing them.