Xanadu: Tickling the dragon

In contrast to level 7, level 8's layout is... kind of fun? Or maybe I'm just conflating fun with easy at this point. The world map layout is a gimmick, but at least it's a gimmick that doesn't make getting around a horrible time. I guess it's a little bit tricky to navigate if you're relying purely on the standard zoomed-in view, but with a map to reference, it's pretty straightforward.

Two things are a bit alarming, though. One, enemies just aren't dropping gold like they used to. I entered with $30k, and finished the overworld section with $50k. A full heal at this point will cost $20k, so I'd better hope my potion supply holds up. Two, I am chowing down on food at a truly stupid rate, at over 3,000 units per minute, which means I need to spend $18k for enough food to sustain each hour of gameplay.

The dungeon, which requires winged boots to reach one of its entrances, isn't quite the nigh-unmappable void that its predecessor was, but it does have some one-way walls, and one of its corners contains, cruelly, an endless loop that forces me to expend one of my wall-passing mantle items to escape from. I've only got one left now! But after selling the loot found within - my sequence-breaking gear is better, I have just over $160k, which is great because the food is starting to run low.

I wish I could buy more than 990 units at once.

 

So now that levels 1-8 are done, can I beat the Silver Dragon on level 9?

Yes, I can. But not with my puny Murasame blade. At melee range, it will just eat you. Thankfully, I've been training my Death spell throughout the level, and now it has 135 points of experience, and my rank of Necromancer gives me an intelligence of 145.

This is basically just enough to kill it.

With a strategic use of a single Black Onyx to warp close to the tower entrance, a single Demon's Ring for invulnerability, and two Hourglasses to freeze the minor enemies (as I would rather not kill them with anything but the Dragon Slayer), I locate the dragon, and Death it to, well, death.

Sure enough, its lair holds the last elemental crown, and all I need to use to escape with it is one more hourglass.

So, now that I have all four, can I snatch the Dragon Slayer and start training it?

Well, first, I visit the temple to see if I can level up. I do - my new Fighter rank is "Super-hero," and I also get a cryptic map.

Google translates this as a colloquialism roughly meaning "what's done is done." No idea if that's accurate, or if that kanji is even legible.

 

I don't get how the map is supposed to help me, and it's not clear at all how/if its corridors would map to a Xanadu dungeon layout, but I use another Black Onyx to warp to level 10, make my way to the tower while avoiding combat, and enter.

It takes me a few suicidal runs to explore, but level 10's tower is indeed full of top-end gear, including the Dragon Slayer. It's also full of bosses - nothing I haven't seen before, and most of them just die the moment I prick them with my Murasame, but all of the best stuff is guarded by silver dragons.

Such as this cache of eight battle suits.

 

The regular monsters can easily kill me in one hit, but hourglasses freeze them in place, letting me just walk past them. I have no shortage of them at this point. I just have to be quick to re-activate after killing any boss, because boss mode ends the power of any durationed item, and the boss lairs here often have normal enemies that attack immediately after killing their master.

Such as with this penultimate room

I take the most efficient path to the Dragon Slayer, killing quite a few Silver Dragons along the way, and pick up some other good things on this path - a Small Shield +7, several Battle Suits, and a "Vorpal Weapon" which may in fact be much more powerful than the Dragon Slayer.

But one prize must remain unclaimed. The Large Shield+7 is stashed in an enclosed Silver Dragon room, and you'd need one mantle to get in, and another mantle to get out. And I've only got one!

Take it and I'll be trapped with it forever.

 

If I can survive long enough to get my battle suit experience high enough to protect me worth a damn, then I should be golden! I hope.

Xanadu: Sea of squares

What a miserable experience level 7 is. You've got endless repetitive terrain. You've got invisible, silent teleporters that give you little clue you've been teleported because they just warp you into more corridors that look exactly like the ones you just left. You've got inescapable monster pits that you can only get out of by using flying boots or teleportation items. You've got cursed enemies that inflict karma when you kill them. You've got invisible teleporters that drop you right into the inescapable monster pits. You've got a nasty, Amidar-style maze occupying a big slice of the map, which has dead-ends you can't escape from without using a teleporting item.

And when you find the dungeon, it's curiously abandoned!

 

Instead of monsters, you've got a maze of one-way passages and non-euclidean wrapping. Starvation is a legitimate threat here as you wander around in circles! Thankfully, I've got the non-euclidean wrapping figured out already, and I'm able to make a quasi-sensible map.

Wrapping left shifts you up one row, wrapping right shifts you down one row.

A few fire drakes guard a handful of rooms with minor treasures toward the end of the maze, but the real prize here is the third crown guarded by a Hindu god.

Kartikeya gave up and died so as not to insult Murasame. I think.

 

Crown #3 plus some assorted goodies

 

Few enemies means not much gold for healing, but I'm not too worried for now - I've got enough red potions for 16 full heals, plus the three elixirs.

If you've been following how I approach Xanadu, then you may be wondering - do I stand a chance against the Silver Dragon in level 9, who I assume guards the final crown? Could I possibly grab it, and with it learn the whereabouts of the Dragon Slayer while there are still monsters weaker than the Red Dragon himself to practice on?

Nope!