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FW - Burning Cavern
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TO GET 100% Creatures = 33
You enter this level facing West.
Welcome to the Hothouse. This place has flames in practically EVERY room and trying to dodge the flames and opponents, without taking any damage is a real trick, babe. It is in reality virtually impossible. Or is that impassable? Whatever. So once again, getting to the save point is your best bet. And it is fortunately very close by the entrance.
Head W and then turn N.
>Entry Chamber contains:
>5 Mystic Towers (Drop Fire World Stone, Lamps, Keenest Long Sword)
>Find: nothing
The save point is in the room that is due North. Try to avoid the Mystic Towers, the laser shooting creatures, and the flame spouts and get to that save point. Save your game, use the other headstone to trade for Mpotions if you need them.
Now go back into the Entry chamber to engage the Towers. Your best bet is to choose one of them that is away from the other and 'dance' around it using the strafe (L1,R1) keys and the d-pad, darting in and hitting then back off and move to the side of your target. Try to watch out for the other Towers shooting at you and when possible dodge them, especially if they are closing
in on you. You do not need to kill a Tower if it means getting hit by 2-3 lasers from the other Towers. Keep moving around if you wish to minimize the damage you take. Good spells to use are Ice and Acid based. The Fire World Stones do help, but try not to use them yet. You will need them to finish out the other levels, especially the Ashen Realm.
Ok, finish them off and then save again.
Move to the W wall and the Corridor of Flames. Get ready to be crisped a bit. Here's a hint for you. This is a good place to use your shield, especially if you have obtained one with flame resistance. Hold your shield up as you pass through this corridor to add extra protection from damage!
Now if you have access to the maps, you will see there is a secret room off the N wall of this corridor. Leave it for later and come back when it is cooler in here.
>Wide Stair Room contains:
>3 Mystic Towers (Drop Lamp)
>1 Berserker (Drop Lethal Rapier)
>Find: Guardian Amulet, Gothic Shield
In this room you can maneuver behind the flame spouts but often the creatures you encounter are positioned to block that path making it harder to attack them. If you encounter the Berserker before you shut off the flames, then take a Fire World Stone and wade into the flame spouts. These creatures MUST be taken down quickly. They are very fast and do hefty physical and fire damage with almost no let up. Berserkers look like the upper part of a Knight and the axle of a racecar. And they match that combination very well. Use the Frozen Hornet then hit with a good Slash attack then the Frozen Hornet again, etc. Speed is essential with these guys. And there are many of these you will have to take down.
After finishing here, move W and enter another room, this time with fire shooting up from the floor in quick, random bursts in many spots.
>Flame Bursts Room
>3 Mystic Towers (Drop Bastard Sword, Tower Shield)
>Find: nothing
Take out the Towers one at a time, the same as the Entry Chamber.
You now have 3 ways to go, N, W, & S. Go to the W wall first and take that corridor to a room with a Cune exchange stone. This room also has an Hpotion in it. Return to the Flame Bursts room and go to the N room.
>Iron Crusher Room
>4 Iron Crushers (Drop Magical Plate Mail, Crushing Axe)
>Find: Fiery Plate Mail (on raised platform with archway)
The Iron Crushers like to shoot iron rivets at you. Isn't that nice of them? And each one of these critters is located in a corner of the room, where they stay. So even when you fight one there is at least one other shooting at you. Constant movement is again mandatory. I recommend a smashing weapon and acid based attacks to quickly dispatch them, as well as keep circling them.
The one in the SW corner dropped the Magical Plate in my game. I was never able to get any of the others to drop anything. Finish these 4 off before you go up on the platform. Avoid entering the archway and collect the Fiery Plate mail lying on the floor here.
Now head out of this room saving the archway for later. Head S to the corridor out of the Flame Bursts Room. The next room you will come to is full of Berserkers, so get ready to take some damage. Stop after you enter this corridor and equip your best fire resistant and damage reducing equipment (as if you hadn't already) and magic like Frozen Hornet and Bubble Magic which can hit multiple times. These are necessary to make the Berserkers pause in their attacks giving you an opportunity for a mighty hit that will pause them again, followed by another magic attack, etc.
>Berserker Room
>3 Berserkers (Drop Steel Boots of Curing)
>1 Iron Crusher (Drop nothing)
>Find: nothing
(Kinda depressing for all the pain you are about to experience.)
The same tactics explained in the Wide Stair room and just above are what you need to employ to take these guys out. The only good thing about this room is that they only come at you one at a time. There will be another realm where you encounter these guys en masse.
When you finish with them, move into the room to the N and you will find yourself between 2 furnaces, which supply the flames to this level. And on the N wall there is a switch you can flip to turn off all the flames on the level. You cannot open the door to the E yet; that will come later. Now it would now be a good idea to go back to a smithy and repair all your items. Or you can wait until after you have emptied the secret room back in the Corridor of Flames.
>Secret Tower Room
>4 Mystic Towers (Drop Lamps)
>Find: nothing
Nothing really special about this room, it is just there. If you have difficulty trying to get out of the room, just tilt your view up or down and hit the X key until the door opens. I had this bug a few times. If nothing seems to work, then use a Sacred Feather to 'port to your last save point (hmmm, that is just around the corner, isn't it?).
You DEFINITELY want to go to a smithy and save your game before attacking the Molten Cavern.
After you ready to proceed, go back to the room with the archway and walk through it.
