TGDB.net - Game news, cheats, solutions, walkthroughs, trainers, saved games and much more!

Ancient Domains of Mystery

ADOM version 9.4
In any ADOM game, you will want to start by going to the training
caves. These are a good place to find out whether your character is
worth continuing or whether you'd be better off starting over. The
training caves are just about 15 or so spaces to the left of the NE
corner where you start out. Keep killing monsters until you get to
experience level 6, then leave, because after level 6 the monsters
get
too deadly.

Once you've left those caves, go to the Terinyo village. Buy a
couple
of large rations if you want. (It doesn't matter that much because
you'll find them all over the place in one of the upcoming
dungeons.)
Make sure to talk to the old mystic who lives in a square building
to
the left of the water area of the village. He will tell you about a
Mad Carpenter who needs to be saved. His telling you about it will
allow you to find a location you could not have found otherwise.

Now you'll want to visit the caves where the Mad Carpeneter lives.
They are on the far East side of the kingdom, very close to Terinyo.
They show up as an orange symbol next to the mountains. Once you've
entered, start killing monsters and picking stuff up until you get
to
level 4. Here you'll want to pay closer attention to make sure you
don't start hacking away at the Healer, who will appear as a white @
sign. Chat with him and he'll tell you you need to learn tolerance.
What this means is that when you get to level 7 (which is the last
level), you will find the Mad Carpenter and he'll keep attacking
you.
Just ignore his attacks and get him to follow you down all the
levels
until he is at level 4. His attacks never seem to do any damage.
Then
make him walk adjacent to the Healer. The Healer will give him his
sanity back and the Carpenter will disappear. He'll leave you a book
of bridge building, a blessed hatchet, and something else I forget.
Pick all this up. Also chat with the Healer and get him to teach you
the Healing skill if you don't already have it. If your hit points
are
low, ask him to heal you too. Then leave this dungeon.

Now you are probably moderately tough with a fair amount of money
and
enough food to do some decent exploring. You can go back to Terinyo
and buy some rations, talk to the Old Mystic (who will tell you
about
another dungeon, but this isn't necessary the way it was before), or
get training from the Carpenter (who should be around somewhere).
You
can also go to the Thieves' Village just SW of Terinyo. There you
can
buy more advanced items (potions, scrolls, blessed weapons, rings,
etc.), talk to a Crime Lord or a Master Thief, or talk to a Mad
Scientist type guy on the far right side of the screen (where a lot
of
people probably never explore). I am not sure what the Mad Scientist
is good for, but apparently you don't need to talk to him to finish
the game. The same is the case with the Crime Lord and the Master
Thief. If you chat with the Crime Lord he'll ask you to kill the
Terinyo sheriff and the Old Mystic -=-- you can come back and get a
gift (a Chaos amulet). I don't think this is a very useful course of
action, and you don't really want the Terinyo village people pissed
off at you. In my opinion, it's a much better bet to eventually kill
the citizens of the Theives' Village, but this isn't necessary
either.

Okay, so now what? It's time for you to cross the kingdom. You'll
have
to veer far south because a large body of water splits the right
side
of the screen off from the larger left side. When you're traveling
south, you can stop in the "Endless Dungeons" if you want and build
up
your inventory/experience points. As far as I know there are no
interesting artifacts or beings in the Endless Dungeons, but I
haven't
explored it much. It isn't necessary to complete the game. It also
apparently goes on, deeper and depper, to infinity. Not my idea of a
good time. (I could be wrong about its being infinite.)

After you have passed by the Endless Dungeons, veer west until you
are
past the water. Then head NW until you are in the middle/left upper
area of the screen. There is a location that is just diagonal from a
corner of mountains. It is marked by an asterisk. Enter it. This is
the Dwarven Caves and it's where most of the action occurs.
The Dwarven Caves are extremely deep, but you won't find out how
deep until much later in the game. They go all the way to level 50,
but for now we're just concerned with the first 20 or so. The levels
get progressively more difficult, with tougher, more vicious
monsters
as you go down further. That means that the first several levels are
pretty easy.
The first interesting (not completely random) level is the
Arena level. Here you'll find that a wide area fills the entire
right
side of the screen. The wide area has a rectangle in it, and on the
north side of that rectangle sits an "@" sign who you can chat with.
This is the Arena Master. Don't try to fight him (you can do this
much
later, if you want). Just chat. He will offer to let you fight in
arena matches. Try some if you want, but remember, you probably
aren't
going to be tough enough to win many of them in a row. You might
want
to fight several battles, then come back later when you've recovered
hit points or gotten toughter. Each time you win an arena match you
get a good sum of money from the Arena Master. The 20th won battle
(which is always at least twice as hard as the previous 19) will win
you an artifact --- a pretty good blessed sword. Again, you may have
to come back after you've gotten to a decent level in order to win
this 20th match. The 20th win makes you the Champion.
Other interesting levels in the early part of the Dwarven Caves
include the "no walls" level, where you can find most types of
lower-level monsters. It's also a good place to practice your
herbalism skill (stomafillia herbs are quite useful for hunter,
alrunia antidotes for poison, and I forget what the other ones do.)
Eventually you'll get to the Dwarven City. I forget what level
this is, but it's probably somewhere between 15 and 20. It's a very
important spot in ADOM because you will be returning to it many
times
for a variety of reasons. First of all, there's the shop. Then
there's
the church where you can give sacrifices to your deity. There's also
(in version 9.4 anyway) a place where you can do Smithing, and a
home
where an elderly warrior lives. Most important are the Training room
and the Dwarven Leader room (which stands out because it always has
two dwarven guards guarding the door, who are the origin of the
quote
"Axes high!").
One other room that is important to mention is the tiny room with
no doors. You can't dig your way in here -- you need to teleport in.
If you don't have the teleport skill, I don't know how you can get
in
there, but eventually everybody gets the teleport skill when they
become corrupted by chaos. Inside the small room lives a mystic who
will happily give you a really excellent blessed battle axe that
does
a ton of damage.
Okay, back to the previously mentioned rooms in the Dwarven
City. In the Elderly Warrior room, talk to him repeatedly. If you
have
the weapon from winning the 20th Arena fight, the Elderly Warrior
will
notice it and ask you if he can have it. I forget what he gives you
in
return but it's worth giving him the weapon if you already have
something better.
The Training Room is a great place to build up your skill
points. I find that giving the trainer 1000 gold coins each time you
pass through is a great policy. (Usually you don't have much else to
do with your money.) 1000 is a number I made up -- It could be that
you need less, or possibly more -- I don't know. Anyway, I've seen
characters gain dozens of strength, dexterity and other points by
regularly consulting the trainer. And building up your attributes is
extremely important if you want to get anywhere in ADOM.
Where the church is concerned, I don't really understand how
worshipping works and it never played a large role in my playing of
the game -- but it might for you. The main thing is, experiment with
sacrificing stuff and try to make your god happy so you can "wish"
later on. Again, I personally don't find this all that important in
the grander scheme of things.
The Dwarven Leader is a very important character to talk to
because he will send you on quests (you have to say "quest" to him)
and also he will send you on a "portal" quest (you have to say
"portal") which will take you to the other side of the kingdom. I
don't recommend doing the portal quest until you have done a
significant number of regular quests for the Dwarven Leader. Each
time
you complete a quest, go to the Dwarven Leader and he will give you
something useful (the rewards get better during the later quests --
one of them is an excellent shield).

The levels that go lower than the Dwarven City are pretty tough, and
you will want to play them carefully. Among the many tough levels
are
the "living trees" level and the Undead level. There is also a level
somewhere down there that is full of bees. Remember to kill all the
bees until the queen bee comes out. Kill her, then go to the hive
and
try to pick stuff up. You will need the bee wax for later.
The "Living Trees" level is also important. For one thing, you
will need to cross it during one of the quests. For another thing,
it
is a good place to get logs with which to build a bridge. This is
not
the only place to get logs, but if you have acquired the "Strength
of
Atlas" or an equivalent spell, this is as good a place as any.
(You'll
need the "Strength of Atlas" spell to carry more than a couple sets
of
logs at a time). If you have access to a lot of stomafillia herbs or
a
ton of rations and other food, then you can ignore the "living
trees"
level as a source of wood, because you can do all your wood chopping
out in the general kingdom where otherwise your hunger would
progress
very rapidly. Anyway, the "living trees" level is an interesting
place to visit. To cross it, keep moving. Don't get sucked in to the
concept of standing and fighting because you will never be able to
kill all those trees. Don't try to burn them, they'll just get
pissed
off and all attack at once.
The Undead level I mentioned earlier is a big pain in the butt
unless you're pretty powerful. You have to run a gauntlet of zombies
and so on. If you have a pickaxe for digging, this is a great level
to
use it so you can avoid a lot of monsters. You'll probably want to
kill them all eventually, though.
Below the Undead level, somewhere around level 25 I guess, is a
level with a blocked portal. You can go no further than this until
you
have completed the Portal Quest that the Dwarven Leader will tell
you
about if you ask.
The thing to remember about the first 25 or so levels of the
Dwarven Caves is that you will have to do a lot of running back and
forth (or up and down) in order to get things done. You will
basically
live in these areas for a while. Get used to it. Your character
needs
to build up strength here before he/she can really kick butt. But
there are other things to move on to.....

THE RING OF THE HIGH KINGS AREA

Before discussing this area I should say that bridge building is
important here. Always keep your book of bridge building in your
possession because if you don't have it, you can't add points to the
bridge building skill each time you go up a level.
Whether you get logs from the "living trees" level of the
Dwarven Caves or from the general outside area, you'll need at least
3
logs and probably many more in order to build an adequate bridge.
(This depends on your skill level in bridge building.)
Okay....let me back up. The Ring of the High Kings area is in
the far upper left corner of the kingdom. You can't get there unless
you have a Climbing Set or a really good Climbing skill level, or
maybe both, I'm not sure. The Climbing Sets are not too hard to find
after a while.
Basically, when you go to the Ring of High Kings area you will
be in a one-level (no stairs) room with an island that is surrounded