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Wizardry 7 FAQ

Index:
1. Choosing a Party
2. Changing Professions
3. General Playing Tips
4. Places
5. Other Questions
6. Patches, cheats & cracks
7. The items in the game
8. Monster list
9. Credits


1. Choosing a Party

During character creation, you get a number of bonus points, randomly
generated. Keep rolling until you get a reasonably high set of bonus
points -- there's no sense in starting off with a weak character.

You want all your characters to be magic-users of some kind, even if
they're primarily fighters. For example, don't settle for a fighter;
wait till you get enough bonus points to get a valkyrie, a ninja, a
monk, or some other magic-using class. You may have to try again and
again before you get a decent number of bonus points; the average
seems to be about 10, but if you try often enough you can get twice
that. I wouldn't settle for anything less than 15. You want your
characters to start as powerfully as possible, so they aren't always
dying in the early stages of the game.

Note: Some people on the net have pointed out that in the later stages
of the game, your front-line fighters have such great weapons, you
don't want them to waste their time casting spells. I would say that
it depends on the spells. First of all, the more people who have Heal
Wounds, the better. Second, spells like Silence, Dispel Undead, and
Astral Gate can quickly neutralize groups of magic-using attackers,
and this is sometimes crucial to winning a combat. It's true that
your front line usually just bashes away with their Light Sabers,
Excalibur, and all the rest...but from time to time, it's tremendously
helpful to have them cast spells instead.

I have observed that different races recover magic points at different
speeds. Since you can't change races, pick races that can recover
magic quickly -- you don't want to be stuck with slow-recovering
characters later in the game. Good races: elf, gnome, faerie, rawulf,
mook, and maybe felpurr. Other races are slower to get back magic
points.

Beginning parties should contain a mage and priest. These "pure"
classes learn spells faster than classes that mix magic with better
fighting ability (e.g. bards, rangers, etc.). They can change later
on, once they've acquired a good mix of spells. Even if you have
enough points to become one of the advanced characters (Bishop,
Samurai, etc.) pick simple characters (Mage, Priest, etc.) to start
out with, because they advance faster than the advanced classes.

Spells you want ASAP:
Pr: Heal Wounds, Bless, Cure Poison, Silence, Hold Monster
M: Energy Blast, Direction, Knock-knock, Magic Missile,
Sleep, Blinding Flash, Wizard's Eye, Fireball, Iceball
Ps: Heal Wounds, Identify, Divine Trap, Silence
Al: Heal Wounds, Acid Splash, Cure Poison, Fire Bomb

Many other spells are useful to have (three cheers for Nuclear Blast!)
but the above are the ones you should aim for first.

Just for the sake of interest, my party started as:
Rawulf Valkyrie (F)
Felpurr Monk (M)
Dracon Ninja (M)
Gnome Priest (F)
Human Bard (F)
Elf Mage (F)

I found that the human just couldn't keep up with the others. I
wanted to use her as a spellcaster most of the time, but she just
didn't recover magic fast enough. Instead of a human, pick a
Faerie...but don't start the Faerie as a bard, because a Faerie
Bard doesn't get the Lute of Sleep that other bards start with.


2. Changing Professions

When you change professions, you go back to experience level 1 in the
new profession. Your stats drop sharply, but your skills remain the
same. Furthermore, you retain all the spells and spell points your
character had already acquired.

In order to consider the good and bad points of changing professions,
let's look at a level 10 mage who is considering a switch to a
samurai. If the mage has just turned level 10, he needs 300,000
experience points to reach level 11. If he switches to a samurai,
those same 300,000 experience points will get him back to about
experience level 8 as a samurai. Thus, if the character stays a mage,
those 300,000 points give him only one skill improvement (from level
10 to 11); if the character changes to a samurai, the character gets
*seven* skill improvements.

The moral is clear: if you want to improve skills quickly, switch
professions somewhere around level 10. The price is that your stats
go back down to pretty pathetic levels, but they increase fairly
quickly again.

Other things to consider: low level characters can only cast spells at
low levels. Thus your level 10 mage may be able to cast a 7-dice
fireball, but your level 1 samurai will only be able to cast a 1-die
fireball, even if he has plenty of spell points available. Don't
switch professions just before you go into a major fight, and don't
switch professions for all your characters at once. Stagger your
switches so that you always have a few reasonably high level
characters, so they can cast high level spells.

Certain other skills also depend on experience level. For example,
the ninja and monk natural armor class advantage is based on a
combination of ninjutsu skill and experience level. For every
experience level you increase, your AC can go down -1 if you have a
high ninjutsu rating. Therefore switching classes (temporarily)
negates a huge AC advantage if you're a monk or a ninja.

Just for the sake of curiosity, I kept one of my characters in his
original profession for the whole game: a Dracon Ninja. By the end of
the game, *all* of my other characters had skills of 100 in Kirijutsu
and Ninjutsu; the original Ninja didn't. Also, all my other
characters had scores of 100 in at least two magic disciplines; the
original Ninja only had about 60 in his first discipline (Alchemy, of
course). Finally, the original Ninja was only about 4 experience
levels ahead of the next closest character. Changing professions
really does make stronger, more versatile characters, more quickly.

Note: To change to a new profession, you need the minimum stats for
that profession. Suppose you have a mage who you want to turn into a
monk, but who doesn't have enough Piety. Keep clicking on the mage's
candle to find out when the mage is getting close to going up an
experience level. Save when you get close. When the mage finally
goes up a level, the game increases various stats at random. If you
don't get an increase in Piety, terminate the game, load the previous
save game, and take another shot at it. Repeat until you get the
Piety increase you want. It may take some patience, but it saves time
in the long run.


3. General Playing Tips:

Save, save, save. And save again. Before you try to open any chest,
save; that way if you set off traps, you can back up and try again.
Same thing before you try to open any locked door, and before you go
through any doorway (since many doorways have combat on the other
side).

If a character dies in combat, terminate the game and load your
previous save game. With patience, you can get through the game
without ever having to resurrect a party member. If everyone survives
a combat in reasonably good shape, save immediately.

Save before you rest. If you get through the rest period without a
battle, save before resting again. It's a "ratchet" approach to the
game; if something good happens, no matter how small, save so that you
can move forward from that good point.

Don't kill NPCs until you're absolutely sure you've wrung them dry of
all relevant information. If you happen to kill an NPC by accident
(because they got angry at you and attacked), terminate the game and
load your previous save game. If you kill the wrong NPC, you may end
up in a position where you have an extremely difficult time finishing
the game. (Note: some NPCs can show up with annoying regularity.
Hold your temper, at least until you get the *LEGEND* map. You
cannot win the game without this map.)

Take notes. Lots of notes. Also make maps when you need to. The
automapping feature is okay some of the time, but in places like the
Halls of the Past (under the Isle of Crypts) and the Temple of Aerial
Whimsey (in Dane Tower), you need to make your own maps to keep track
of teleports.

Before you get rid of anything you pick up, take it to an NPC (like
the Innkeeper in New City) and try to sell it. He'll say "YOU NEED
THAT" if it's a crucial artifact of the game.

Have your characters specialize in skills. For example, have one put
points into Searching, one into Mapping, one into Artifacts, and so
on. Never spend points on Oratory--it goes up automatically. Same
thing with mythology and combat skills.

Beginning characters should put one or two points into swimming with
each level increase, until each character gets to 10 pts. After that,
forget it. 10 points means you can survive one second in the water,
and after that, each time you go into the water, you automatically
gain a point. Thus as soon as everyone gets 10 points of swimming,
swimming practice will give you as many additional points as you want.


4. Places:

The following list looks at various places in Lost Guardia and the
most frequently asked questions about them. I present them in the
order I got around to them in the game.


4.1. Outside New City:

Suggestions: explore the outside of New City first. In particular, go
down the ladder just outside the walls of New City -- there's a little
dungeon there that seems specifically designed as a training ground:
easy monsters, a few secret doors, etc. (You won't have any spells to
find secret doors yet, so just make sure you look at every wall you
pass. The big blue buttons for secret doors are pretty obvious.)

Where do I find the mapping kit?
A short distance to the south and east of where you wake up, you
can find a treasure chest with a mapping kit inside. You'll know
you're going in the right direction when you get a message saying
the woods seem creepy; some distance further on you hear
creatures gnawing on bones, then fight a bunch of Alliphoots and
Dandiphoots. (This is a tough fight if your characters are only
level 1; better to try the little dungeon first.) Beyond the
phoots, just keep going south and east; you really can't go wrong
unless you double back on yourself. (Have your mage cast
Direction so that you know which direction is which.)

How do I get across the field of orchids?
Don't try it when you start the game. Later on, your characters
will have no trouble staying awake if they really want to cross
it, but there's nothing interesting there.

What does the flying whale mean?
Nothing much; it could be referring to a spaceship landing in
Nyctalinth.


New City:

How do I get into New City?
Mention the armorer, whose name you found in the dungeon under
the city.

How do I get into Umpani Detache?
Wait -- once you get to Ukpyr, you can teleport to Umpani Detache
with the Umpani teleport

What should I buy from the Innkeeper?
You'll need bananas later.

How do I get into the T'Rang house?
Wait -- once you get to Nyctalinth, you can teleport to the
house.

How do I get into Old City?
The librarian has the key; ask him about ARCHIVES. The entrance
to Old City is in the Condemned Area.