Corum III for BeOS

Howdy. This is far from complete. Feel free to add better screenshots, more tips, etc. if you have them. Thanks.

Unorganized Tips

• Here's the map. You can buy pieces in each town.
• Play enough in the forests and a red guy'll come around. Hit him and you get some kind of item. Some of the items may not be available in shops IIRC. (At least, this was true in the demo. :) ) I think he comes around every two levels (i.e., character strength levels) or so.
• Interestingly, magic chili peppers (double your speed) work in towns.
• The herb you look for in one of the guild jobs is in the lower-right of the left (2nd) swamp screen.
• Strategy for later levels: Use Ishuria to see where the exit is, then use Kaien and a magic carpet to run there.

Spoiler Speed Walkthrough

This seems to be the shortest path to winning allowed. Feel free to modify if you can beat it a shorter way.

When you start out, I recommend putting the game speed to slow for the first battle, just because it's annoying to go through the start sequence again if you die. Or, go buy some powerups in the northwest shop before you go into the inn, and practise to the west of town a little, maybe gain a level. Start practising your spells right away.

You can technically ignore all the town sub-plots that have to do with the Adventurer's Guilds--just take the jobs and then immediately cancel them--but they are a good way to make a quick buck at low risk.

From the start, you can make it to Fordrone and the Temple at Aryssis, but you can't do anything beyond those until you beat the Brikin Master in the Naisse Forest. Head there and keep going west until you are in the cave.

The cave has a few levels without a save point after the beginning (until right before the boss), so you need to beef up your character enough to make it through there without dying, even if you run past most of the monsters rather than fighting them. The boss himself isn't too tough, he just keeps summoning other monsters that you have to kill before he becomes vulnerable for a few seconds. So if you can handle a few dozen monsters and can get to him quickly enough, you can beat him. Don't worry about making it back through the cave, since when you beat him, you're transported back to the save point at the entrance.

Note you might need around now: Mastering Shadow Square is tedious, because it takes a long time for the shadow to wear off so you can cast it again, and the shadow's pretty useless in battle--more distracting than anything. See if you can get the stirrup to increase your max SP, then sit at the border between the forests to the west of Ray'radon. Then cast, switch forests, and keep repeating, recharging your SP as needed.

After you beat him, go back to Ray'radon, then head to Fordrone to the southeast. When you get there, hit the tavern in the middle of town. Then go to Lance's at the north of the town. Now head west of the city, practise your spells on the way, and you'll get the next storypiece, and Ishuria as a character.

You'll want to practise spells a lot with Ishuria until she's advanced a few levels, because her melee sucks at first. Something cool, though, is that you get four spells to try right off. You progress down a separate spell advancement for each elemental you can summon. Another cool thing with Ishuria is that her special slide move (like jump for Kaien, but not) lets you into secret areas in the caves. In particular you can go back to the Brikin cave and there are areas with treasure chests on level 3 to the left and right of the big main area (and possibly elsewhere) containing cool stuff you can't buy in stores (or at least until later). Look for walls that have skinny rock passages jutting out from them that you can't normally traverse--just walk up and slide through them with Ishuria's special move.

Head west of the city again, then to the northwest corner, into the cave. Again, you'll need to make it through all the levels from the start, until the save point before the boss (Trakyrie).

In the cave itself is where the healing herb is (you get it for free as part of the narrative sequences--don't bother looking through the swamp areas for it.) Getting to level 2 is easy enough, but then there are multiple staircases (feel free to explore), but here is how to get to the end. At level 2 you come from the right, go up immediately, there's a big ball and chain, go up from there, and there's a staircase, but don't take it, go left all the way and take the one there instead. On level 3, go along until you come to the moving spike brick things, then after that, go right instead of down. On the tram, you'll need to run-jump off the little square you're on onto the big area at the right. Take the next tram right off the junction (the one that curves up right away). You need not run-jump off the junction, you'll probably fall. Then proceed down to the staircase. On level 4, there's no puzzle, just proceed. On level 5, go left at the first fork. When you hit the left end, go up, and take the staircase back up (I know it seems counter-productive, but this is what you do.) At the ball and chain, go down, then take the staircase, there's the save point, at you're at the end.

After the boss, you get back to the second level. Just head out of the swamp, back to the city. Stay the night if you want. Then head east of the city, and take the boat over to the temple. Go north to the fountain. Now you can switch to Zipy too. Cross the water and go east, then south to Qui'lin. From there head east to Rhudyross.

When you arrive, go into the Adventurer's Guild in the northeast. Then go to the temple court. Then head east into the inn. Then hit the harbour and watch Zipy's amazing negotiation skills at play.

Once on the ship, there's a staircase to the right of the first junction. Beat the annoying pirate boss (you have to go on the docks, onto the ship, onto the docks again, and back onto dry land before you fight him--I recommend Zipy with Cruel Clearance for attacks since you can use the LL spell to heal really easily for cheap) and then head back west to Qui'lin, to the inn. Then go to Stiaross, to the inn. (If you go to Mt. Berronto, Mt. Kerrel, or the mine, there's nothing interesting there (they are guild jobs). Mt. Royont is closed off "until you're more experienced." Even if you go to the summit, the bridge is blocked, and you can't even take a flying carpet across it. So you have to follow this part.) Go to the guild in Stiaross and follow the whole storyline. Before you leave, hit the guild again (you go into the guild and come out of the inn, don't ask me...) and cancel all the jobs. Then head south of the city into the forest a bit for the next sequence. Then back into the city and go east to Rhudyross.

Here's something you can skip: Hit the south-west tavern in Qui'lin (there are two). Go into the Adventurer's Guild and cancel everything if you want (north of the tavern). Find a guy named Sulan dressed in brown, he'll say to go to "the big general store." That's Super Wholesalers in the east. The traveler in blue will tell you to try the other general store. The woman in darker clothes there will hint towards the tavern. This time it's the northeast one. Emily (in white) will tell you to go to the town square, where that substory ends.

Once you make it to the harbour, go through the sequence, then enter the sewer. There's a save point in there. Once you make it to Ground Level, go to the far lower left, back down to level 1. That gets you to level 2. Go along to the right until you can't go any further, then backtrack a bit and go up, there's level 3. There's a save point between the flames there. Go to the left and up, back to level 2. Now, if you take a look around with Ishuria, you'll see four ways back to level 3. You want the rightmost one, at the top. (The middle two just get you the save point, the left one gets you down to level 5 but then you get stuck in a loop.) From here you can get to level 4 in the lower right. Head left and snake upwards to the door to level 5. Head right and down, and take the left at the junction, follow it to level 6. Head across, up to 5. Then go left and up to find 6 again. Use Zipy to place the rocks on the third pair of buttons from the left. Find the save point, we're going in. Zipy's Nuke and Ancient Blue Whale work fairly well on him if you have lots of SP gems to use, but you have to have it on-screen and not attack while it's attacking. Brute force with Kaien is probably the quickest, just with your sword.

Done? Head out, you're transported to the exit. You have to talk to the old man in his house, just go left into the room for the sequence. (If you don't do this, there will be no dragon to fight.) Then you can hit the Temple via Phondia via Qui'lin. In the forest there's another sequence with Marssen. Go to the inn in Phondia. From Phondia, you have to go in this sequence: LUURULU. I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure you have to go to the right at the top of the massive staircases, otherwise you can only get to level 5 or so and then you get stuck. After level 5 and the cutscene, the easy way is to buy a bunch of magic carpets and use Ishuria to find the next door, then just run there across the blackness. If you don't have those, Ishuria can still find the path really easily using Air Swift. Once you're on level 6, you want the middle exit at the bottom, unless you don't have a carpet, in which case you want the left exit so you can actually get to the next exit. From 7, just run straight down. On 8, run straight to the top. Don't forget the save point! As for the dragon, Zipy can take him with nukes or Cruel Clearance, or Ishuria with Blaze Tornados, if you can take the beating long enough. Or use Kaien because he can actually jump on the platforms and stab the dragon. If you get caught on the bottom during danger, do the Radience Blossom to avoid being hit by the boulders.

The funny thing is you needn't follow the storyline at all. If you want to go back to Phondia you can do that even though you're wanted there, and actually, there's work at the Guild if you so desire.

Then head to Stiaross--you have to hit the inn for the story, to continue the game--and then south to Mt. Royant.

(In apparently a cruel joke by the game's designers, if you go into the cave with the red-on-grey writing strip to the right of the hole, up and to the left of the first part of the first level of Mt. Roh'yant (or Royont), you can't seem to get out again. It's possible I didn't persevere enough, but after level 32 and no save point and seeing as the levels repeated themselves after the first nine, I gave up and went back and reloaded. If you stuck it out longer and something interesting happens, please post it here.)

Take the following paths at each junction from the starting screen of the mountain, after the path to there: right, down, up. In the Lower Rear Region go left. In the Upper Region, go down, upper-left, left past the first cave entrance to the upper-left one with the light. In the Upper Rear Region, go and use Kaien to jump or magic carpet across to the left. At the Summit, go left and then down. (There should now be a cut scene, otherwise you missed a cutscene at an inn somewhere, in which case you need to go back or there's no way to finish the game.) At the Cave Underground L1, go right if you need a save point, otherwise down, right, and down. At L2, go down, right, up. At L3, go down and right. At L4, go down and right. (Pattern?) At L5, go down to the save point, then down, the use Kaien to jump or magic carpet to the right teleporter. (There should be a cut-scene before and after this.) All other paths are recursive or throw you in one of the treasure caves you've probably already been in. Melee's probably your best bet for the mirrors (Rising Sword for Kaien, rather). Ishuria will heal herself if you're not offensive enough. Karavan can be beat in one hit with Cruel Clearence. Balos is easier with the attack doubler, as are his second self and Jumarion. Then you're done. :)

Guild Jobs

You don't at all need to do these to finish the game, but they are a quick and relatively risk-free way to make a lot of money (which gives you experience and more levels in a hurry.) They might give you something to do while you gain experience.

It seems like there's a pattern of there being new work at all the towns whenever you beat a boss. So you can run around to all the towns you can doing jobs until they're done, then beat the next boss in the storyline, then repeat. That way you're actually training along the way and picking up extra money for free, rather than just going back into the forest repeatedly to train. This applies even to Ray'radon after beating the dragon, so I do mean *all* the towns.

Ray'radon

Irene is at the house to the right. After beating the dragon, her wedding ring is in the upper-right corner (or maybe it's random, but it was there when I played.)

Phalen is in Res 1 at the left, just south of the store. Head to Lance.

Kerl is in the lower-right house. You have to go all the way through the cave again, but it's a lot less tedious than the first time. By this point in the game you're probably past level 70, so you're practically invincible with these guys and can smack them down with one hit.

Siar's in the upper-right mansion in the lower-right room. You get $5000 for killing a giant weed-monster, but you have to go to Fordrone first. Back to Lance, then Mr. Shoghi in the res to the right (in Fordrone). Then you have to go to Qui'lin to Telon. That's as far as you need, then kill the thing.

Berrin's at the Inn, in the lower-right room downstairs. You need not talk to anyone, just go to the second forest screen, run into the middle of it. You have three choices when you talk to him, so save first if you want to see what each does. Option 2 works fine, he goes with you. Dunno about the others.

Fordrone

The herb-hunting contest (you get the opportunity if you enter the Guild just at the right time, without even checking the signup sheet) is as easy as going to the second swamp screen and running to the lower-right corner, then heading back to the village cheif's rez.

After the dragon is dead, there's a job with Ruth in the store.

Rhudyross

Bianne is supposedly in Fordrone (ask the people by the harbour). When you get there, the guy near the tavern says to ask in there, and someone in there says he's near the bridge. But between the bridge, Fordrone, and Ray'radon, I couldn't find him, so I gave up. Maybe you'll have better luck.

Neil two residences just south of the Inn. Head to Fordrone, and Gardner is in the Inn.

Lenne is in Res 3, in the middle of the houses at the left. The white guy with the tan top and white hat in the town square will tell you something. Go to the bookstore and talk to the person not behind the counter. Go northwest of the temple.

The jeweler at the inn is upstairs in the far left bottom room. The rest is straightforward.

You can't get Judde without having done the pirate thing first, once you've been to the Inn. Judde is in the building north of the harbour with the sign that's tough to read because of how it's placed. You can go back to the harbour after the storyline forces you to go a few towns away, and complete the mission.

After the dragon, Calvin is at the casino in the upper left. Go get the botox from the swamp off of Fordrone.

For the Captain of the Knights hit the temple. Go out the exit toward Qui'lin. You get a magical stone, MAP+15 for Zipy.

The mayor's mansion is behind the temple. Go get Gus. The mayor's in the upper-right room.

The traveller's in the inn, upstairs in the lower-middle room. This is the one that sends you to Mt. Berronto. At the top, choose to move the egg, you get the spirit stone, MAP+3 like the other one from earlier.

Qui'lin

Sirac has you go to the cave that you otherwise needn't enter. He's in Res 5 down in the bottom right corner of the city. The braclet is in the area you find if you go down at the first fork in the cave path, right on the first level. Return to him later, and he gives you the bracelet for free (+20 MAP).

Kanf is in Res 2 middle-left in the town, in the lower-right room.

Gus is just north of Res 2. Go to Lance the Village Chief. You need not investigate any further, just report to Gus. Gus job #2 is identical as far as where you go to que the storyline. So is the third Gus job.

The mayor lives in the lower-left. He's upstairs in the upper-right room. The sewer entrance you want is at the bottom. For the statue head, go to the statue. Then go to the inn, to the upstairs upper-left room.

For Klein, hit Hashid's megastore to the right.

Later, after the temple hand boss, there's more work here. For the mayor's wife, hit the mansion, then the town square to talk to Lanno, and Schult in green north of there, but then I couldn't figure it out after this, even looking in the sewer near the tavern.

Ramia's at the postal service, north, but you have to go all over, even back to the start. Hit Ed's Tavern, then head northwest to the harbour bakery (just north of Neil's res, to the right in the town). The fruit is on the second screen and it comes up in later adventures. It's this big tree with green leaves in the middle of a clearing, with two boulders nearby. It doesn't look like it has fruit on it but approach it from the bottom.

Sophie is in the upper-left. Lanno's on the second level. You get the ring of defense.

Bayal is in Res 2 to the left, in the upper-right room. Telon is in the variety store to the lower right. She sends you back to the slime in the sewer (third level), to the cave again (same place as the boy's herb), and for more of that forest fruit near the beginning. Then back to Telon and then Bayal.

The mayor's pretty straightforward.

Milina's in the general store next door. 50 jam, 90 soap, 50 flour, 50 salt...Ray'radon (general store), Rhudyross (bakery, general store), Stiaross (general store). Interestingly they buy the wrong amounts of some things. Oh well.

Later there's even more work, after beating the dragon, and possibly you also need to finish working in Phondia. Lianne is in Gus' res. Siar's mansion is upper-right in Ray'radon, he's in the upstairs lower-right room.

Raelian is at Gus' house in the upper-right room. The bookstore is just to the right of the guardhouse when you enter the city. It's "Diet for Healthy Life".

The mayor is where he's always been...you get a spirit stone from saving his daughter, but it's just MAP+3.

Ramia's pigeon is with Devon at the Inn.

Stiaross

These jobs are well worth it and some are zero-risk in-town ones too.

Lizel's in the upper-left mansion, in the upper-right room. Danar's in the chief's res to the right.

Hakeen's in the mansion as well, in the middle room. Go southwest like he says. You can go all the way to the mine even if the storyline says to backtrack. In the mine, go left.

Matti is in the chief's res to the right. In the cave, go right at the first junction, then go up at the junction on the second level. The outdoor area at the top of the mountain just before you beat the magician is where you'll find the Herb of Moonbeam if you take the plant job in Phondia later.

After the dragon, Mr(s). Richel is in Res 3 just below the guild. Take Chris to the Aryssis Temple.

Kimas is at the Inn, upstairs. In the mine, on the second level there's a part where you can run down to the end of the track at the bottom of the screen and it brings you up to the first level again, and this is where the crystal is.

Hakeen sends you to the mine. It's on the second level to the right of the T junction.

Palmer's at the Inn, upstairs in the right room. The stone is at the summit of Mt. Barranto.

Danar's at the village chief's res, then Lizel in the mansion is in the upper-right room. In the mine go down at the T junction on level 2.

"Kakeen" is actually Hakeem in the mansion. Hit up the mayor in Qui'lin, then back to Lance in Fordrone, then the Shoghis at the right, res 2. He's old but don't let that stop the progress of expansion. Hit Hakeem again on your way to Mt. Kerrill. There's a random comment about catching swamp frogs...if you go there, a random reference to an old lady. It's not Granny Telon. It's not Dutenherb in Phondia. Don't ask me, I have no idea what this randomness is about.

Phondia

Seine is in the general store at the top. Hit up Gus in Qui'lin. You need to remember that he has splitting headaches, spasms, blue limbs, and coughs up blood, otherwise you'll need to go back to Qui'lin because he'll get worse. Except that 'spasms' aren't an option and trembling is wrong, so...he'll get worse is the only path, I guess?

After beating the dragon, Dutenherb Kael is in the middle house, you have to go up the steps. Hit Qui'lin at Telon's place, then the swamp west of Fordrone (just get to the second screen), then Mt. Kerrill (as mentioned earlier). Don't forget to go back to Granny's before you go back to Phondia.

Parkin Bartt is in Res 4 at the bottom. The weapons are at the blacksmith's just south of the general store. After you complete this job there's more work at Qui'lin.

Spells

SP costs are split in half for each mastered spell.

Kaien's spells and their SP costs when mastered:

• Rising Sword (LR, 3): You surge forward with an uppercut with your sword.
• Blast Quake (RLL, 10): You shoot a long-range blast in whatever direction you're facing.
• Shadow Square (DR, 20): You get a twin who fights for a bit by mirroring your actions.
• Lightning Break (LDR, 30): You jump up, then land with a blast that knocks over enemies in all directions. Useful when you're surrounded, and easy to execute.
• Radiance Blossom (RDLR, 45): You jump off the screen, it rains fire all over the screen, then you return. This is Kaien's best move.

Ishuria's spells and their SP costs when mastered:

First, you must call an elemental, then you can cast that elemental's spells.

• Call Water (UU, free): Calls the Water elemental.
• God's Blessing (DR, 5): Gives you up to 80 HP. These may depend on what level you're on. Let me know.
• Lightning Recovery (DL, 5): I don't know. Maybe it makes you recover from attacks faster.
• Ice Wave (LDR, 10): Sends out ice chunkies, kind of like Kaien's Blast Quake, except it always shoots out in the cardinal directions simultaneously, and not quite as far.
• God's Glory (LDU, 50): Gives you at least 850 HP. Probably 1000.
  
  
• Call Fire (RR, free): Calls the Fire elemental.
• Fire Arrow (DR, 3): Throws a homing fireball, like the ones the witch-mage thingies throw.
• Circle Flame (DL, 5): For a time, makes three fireballs circle around you, so mostly you can't get hit.
• Fire Blaze (LDR, 10): Sends out Blast-Quake-like fire in a V in front of you.
• Blaze Tornado (ULDRU, 20): Puts little rings of fire around anyone on-screen, then a second later, kills them (unless you miss).
  
  
• Call Rock (DD, free): Calls the Rock elemental.
• Landing Support (DR, 3): Puts little rings around on-screen enemies, apparently slowing them down.
• Stone Crush (DL, 5): Big rocks drop from the sky on some of your enemies. Works decently as a melee on earlier levels (does 150 damage per hit) since you can keep casting it pretty quickly.
• Speed Reduction (LDU, 4): How this differs from Landing Support I'm not sure.
• Gaia's Hands (ULDRU, 20): Lightning bolts from the sky turn all on-screen enemies into stone. You can then kill them in one hit, but you don't get their gold.
  
  
• Call Wind (LL, free): Calls the Wind elemental.
• Air Swift (UDLR, 1): Pauses the action, giving you four on-screen arrows. You can now briefly fly around as the elemental to scope out the level. Only works in caves and such indoor areas.
• Invisibility (UDRL, 5): Makes you invisible. Doesn't work on monsters who have already seen you.
• Aerial Coat (LDR, 10): Encircles you with blue rings that do very rapid but little damage to enemies, so they're distracted from hitting you at close range. Even if they do hit you, it doesn't seem to do any damage. Useful!
• Silence Scream (ULDRU, 20): Sends twisters and kills everything on-screen. Unlike Gaia's Hands, leaves treasure, but in caves, may leave it in unreachable areas between walls.

Secret rooms for Ishuria

• Brikin Cave Level 3, near the end, in the northeast.
• Pirate Island Cave Level 2, the room that extends east to west, right before the eastern staircase.
• Cave of Mount Roh'yont Level 5, the rightmost cave of the right set of caves and leftmost cave of the left set of caves.

Zipy's spells and their SP costs when mastered:

• Song of Healing (RR, 5): Gives you some HP.
• Silent Guardian (DD, 5): Makes a cool ringy thing around you that appears to do nothing useful.
• Crystal Godliness (LL, 10): Makes pinkish ringy things that makes it so people hitting you actually adds to your health. Doesn't last long.
• Secret Mask Landing (UU, 10): Works just like Ishuria's Invisibility spell.
• Holy Pressure (DR, 5): Hurts everything on-screen a bit, but will not kill blobs (will take them down to 1 HP at best.)
• Crow of Darkness (DL, 10): A crow comes and attacks everyone on-screen, doing a lot of damage.
• God's Solace (LDR, 15): Sends golden rings down on you, which turn into lightning balls for each enemy on-screen. Usually kills 'em all.
• Solarize Landing (RDLR, 20): Fireballs rain down, there's an earthquake, the screen flashes white, then everything dies.
• Cruel Clearance (LUR, 30): Death flies around you and steals the lives of all on-screen. This is by far the best, quickest, and easiest spell for the points. You can't do this spell until you get the four simplest ones.
• Nuclear Tornado (UDLR, 40): Kills everything on-screen, taking its sweet old time doing so. Scatters gold off-screen usually.
• Ancient Blue Whale (UDRL, 40): The whale breathes fire over the screen. All on-screen baddies are frozen and can be killed in one hit, and you do get their gold, unlike Ishuria's Gaia's Hands. If you get them twice with this before hitting them, they become permanent statues, and you can't get your gold.
• Time Fission (ULDRU, 50): Kills everything on-screen. This took me forever to master, but it doesn't get you another spell, and it sucks. It's pretty, with fireballs, fire-rings, death stealing lives, and a residual useless ring thing that looks like Crystal Godliness but doesn't seem to do much, but it doesn't even seem to work as well as cheaper spells, and 100 SPs is a lot when you haven't mastered it yet.