Karnov/Stage 9

Not only is stage 9 the last and largest of all the stages, it is by far the most complex, a veritable maze that you must navigate in order to reach your destination far to the right. There are too many pathways to describe, most of which are not worth taking. For the purposes of this walkthrough, only the highest pathway will be described since the highest pathway also happens to be the safest. It is not populated with powerful enemies like Spider Women, mummies, or Tyrannosauruses like many of the other paths.

One other thing to consider while you travel through this stage is your time. Because of the length and complexity of this stage, this is possibly the only stage where you may find yourself in danger of running out of time. There are no mid-points in this stage, so if you die, you will be returned all the way back to the beginning of the stage. Avoid this fate by making careful but steady progress to the right so that you have plenty of time to defeat the boss.

• As soon as you begin, the game is nice enough to provide you with a variety of useful power-up tiles (shown right). Take a moment to set up a ladder, climb to the top, and collect them all. Then approach the mouth of the cave that leads to the final boss. As you do, knights will appear in front of, and behind you.
• When you reach the cave, bats will fly down from the ceiling, and a red flame riding demon will appear to quickly shoot a projectile at you. More will continue to appear as you approach the first ladder. It is important that you don't travel too far beyond the first ladder, or you will not be able to scroll back to the left to reach the highest level.

• Climb the first ladder, and return to the left to climb the next ladder. As you do, a bunch of rock monsters will be bouncing on the platform above. This may appear to prevent you from climbing, but you can in fact safely shoot at the monsters from the ladder and remove them before you reach the top (shown left). Once you clear them out of the way, finish your climb and go left to a third ladder.
• As you walk across the highest platform, you will be attacked by a variety of enemies, including pairs of swordsmen that warp in front of and behind you, bats dropping down from the ceiling, and three golden robots that attempt to stop your progress. You will see rock monsters bouncing along the platform below, but they won't be a threat to you.
• When you reach the end of the platform, be sure to leap over to the left rather than stepping on the gray platform which will bottom out and force you to fall to the ledges below. When you land, climb up the ladder and carefully leap up the steps. As you do, brown stone throwers will appear, coupled with bats dropping from the ceiling. The third and final stone thrower is the most dangerous and should not be fired upon until you are up close to it.

• When you drop down to the ledge below, it will appear that you have to double back to the left and drop down again. However, you will not have to do this if you place a bomb at the foot of the wall (shown right). The bomb will explode and create an opening, allowing you to continue to remain along the highest route of the stage.
• After blasting the wall open, climb up the ladder once again. A bat and a golden robot will greet you at the top. Be careful when approaching the next step, as a brown stone thrower will appear. If you have shots flying forward, they may hit him and he may throw a stone at you before you are ready for him.

• Behind the stone thrower, you will find a number of large rock-disguised enemies (shown left). While attacking the ones on the top ledge, you not only have to watch out for the projectiles that they fire at you, but the projectiles from the enemies on the ledge below as well.This can be especially tricky if you don't watch the entire screen while you fight.
• When you reach the end, drop down and a flame tile will appear. It will do you little good, but you'll have to drop down to the ledge below and collect it in order to make a hole appear in the wall to your right. Beyond that hole is the final boss of the game. You will be stripped of all of your power-ups, both active and sitting in your inventory. Your standard fire breath weapon will also be reduced to it's lowest level.

Boss: Dark Wizard

The boss of the game is a powerful wizard who holds the final piece of the treasure map that you are collecting. He will only appear in one of three alcoves along the back wall, either low to the ground on the left or right, or high above the ground in the center. He may even teleport from one location to the same location. When he appears, he fires a large ring of sparks that expand from his location in a circle. Most of the sparks he fires travels slowly, but one spark in particular will travel more quickly to Karnov's location. He may do this one time, two times, or even three times in a row before warping.

While you are awaiting the opportunity to attack the wizard, you must maneuver Karnov into a position that helps him avoid getting touched by any of the sparks. Since the sparks radiate outward, the gaps between them grow as they travel farther from where they originated.

Attacking the wizard is simple; jump up and fire rapidly when the wizard is to your left or right. However, every time the wizard warp (even to the same location), the wizard gets all of his health back. This means that for Karnov to have any hope of defeating the wizard, he must attack him frequently enough in one location before the wizard warps away.

It is actually possible to defeat the wizard before his second warp. He begins by appearing in the top center alcove and fires off one ring. Then he warps to the right alcove and will fire off two rings before warping away. You can defeat him here if you attack him rapidly enough from the moment he appears to the moment he fires off a second ring of sparks (before the first ring reaches you) but you must press the fire button as rapidly as possible to do this. If you succeed in destroying him, it won't matter if the first ring touches you.

If you defeat the wizard, you will earn the final piece of the map and be presented with a short ending of Karnov finding the treasure he so desperately sought. Congratulations.

NES Differences

• The column of power-ups does not appear immediately in the beginning of the stage, but rather after a short walk to the right (shown left). You will encounter a few knights along the way, so be prepared to fight them off until you reach the column. The flame riding demons which appear in the cave entrance are green and not red, and thus do not shoot at you.
• The layout of this stage is fairly faithful to the arcade version, only slightly shorter. You won't have to worry about time as much in this version. Despite the fact that some of the enemies are weaker, taking the highest path possible is still the most desirable method through the stage as it presents the least dangers.
• Only one rock monster will likely appear above the ladder that you must climb to reach the top. You can use the same method of clearing it by climbing partway up the ladder and hitting it with your high fireball, but you can also use a Clapper to clear it out of the way if you prefer.
• A mummy will be waiting for you on the other side of the wall that you must bomb a hole in, but you can safely ignore the mummy and continue on without engaging it.

Boss: Alakatai

Although the room in which you fight the final boss is the same as in the arcade version, the boss itself is entirely different. In this version, you fight what appears to be a type of dragon referred throughout the game as Alakatai. Alakati appears through one of the three doors first by flashing his eyes. Then his neck extends through a door, stretching his head out in your direction. If you are within reach of Alakatai and do not move, he will hit you. After extending his head out for a second, he will launch a fireball in your direction which you must avoid. Unlike the arcade version, you are not expected to kill Alakatai by hitting him enough times in one appearance. The damage you do to it is stored. After you hit it enough times, Alakatai changes very slightly. He will appear red when coming out of two of the three doors. When he is red, he will take no damage from your attack. It is only when he appears in his normal colors through the third door that you can harm him. At this point, he will have very little health left, and you should be able to finish him off in one or two more appearances.