Xanadu: Full plate and packing steel

The lower-right shows the Strider monster's stats.

A trip to level 5 reveals some trends. Monsters here favor melee over magic, but they hit much harder than they ever have before, with a 11,500 strength Snowman being middle of the road here. However, their HP levels are not that high at all!

I also took an opportunity to play around with magic, using a save point to restore after experimenting. Seems there's really only two kinds of spells - projectiles, which can be steered mid-flight and hit one enemy, and area-of-effect spells which hit everything on screen for much less damage per-hit but can be spammed by holding the space bar down. Projectiles can accidentally (or purposefully, i.e. against poison) destroy treasures, AOE spells do not. Beyond that, the only differences are in power and elemental alignment.

As for what's available, the most expensive spell I could buy, deg-corrosion, is freakishly powerful, doing over 8000 points per cast, and that's without any training! Bear in mind it is an AOE spell and it is no problem at all to spam six casts of an AOE spell in the time it takes for a monster to cross two tiles' widths. However, it would cost most of the cash in my bank. The next-most powerful AOE spell cost half as much and isn't half as powerful, though I'm sure it gets better with repeat use.

That said, my well-trained deg-fire is doing a good 3000 points per cast. For a point of comparison, it was originally doing less than 600 per cast. I'm not sure if all spells scale with experience the same, and deg-fire isn't likely to get much better, but I figure I can rely on it for this level, at least, and save my escudos for something bigger.

What I do buy is the best weapon and armor for sale - a halberd and full plate. Not so much because I expect to need them here, but so I can get a head's start in training them. Though a quick look at the experience charts tells me that I'm not even close to the end of the weapon and armor upgrade paths.

It's not the most user-friendly layout, but my short sword and deluge magic experience are maxed out.

 

The halberd is indeed powerful - out of the gate it is doing 8,000+ damage per hit which kills most things here, and I expect that with experience the damage will quadruple. When it doesn't, the armor absorbs about 4,000 damage, which isn't nearly enough for what I'm facing here, so I have to rely on magic a lot. Weaker monsters, when I find them, are allowed to beat me up for some armor experience. But I eventually run into two enemies, Storopers and Myconids, who are much too scary to fight in melee but are also immune to deg-fire (and deluge), so I purchase a weak deg-mittar spell which does work on them... almost unbearably slowly.

  

I find in level 5 that I am required to use a strange double-jumping technique to traverse certain places. It isn't in the manual, and it feels weird to execute, as if you're exploiting a bug that requires frame-perfect timing, but this is definitely intentional. Earlier levels had passages that suggested the possibility of double-jumping, but here it's required.

 

Fighting Storopers in dungeons suuuuucks.

 

But my halberd training pays off!

As I prepare to enter level 6, I now have $122,742 saved up, but there's not much I can buy. Deg-corrosion is still the best magic under this price point; apart from that there's just keys, which will cost $750/each at my current level.

I also review my current inventory:

• 76 keys
• 2 crowns - I need 4 to find the Dragon Slayer sword and win the game
• 3 elixirs, which automatically restore 100% of your HP on death
• 55 spectacles, which partially reveal enemy stats
• 50 red potions, which restore 24% of your HP
• 33 lamps, which illuminate a tower for the duration of your trip
• 6 black onyxes, which warp you up a level (e.g. 5->6)
• 5 fire crystals, which warp you down a level
• 8 mattocks, which destroy a single brick tile
• 12 hourglasses, which freeze enemies in place for a short duration
• 2 winged boots, which let you fly for a short duration
• 3 mantles, which, for a short duration, let you pass through brick walls and doors in the overworld, and through tiled walls in towers
• 14 demon's rings, which grant invincibility for a short duration
• 19 balances, which instantly open all treasure chests on the screen
• 20 pendants, which open cave doors in the overworld, or locked doors in towers
• 29 candles, which turn you into a skeleton for a short duration
• 6 rubies, which double your strength for a short duration
• 5 brown potions, which double your intelligence for a short duration
• 8 mirrors, which double your agility for a short duration
• 2 bottles, which double your charisma for a short duration

 

Notably, the "short duration" items, whose durations are determined largely by your wisdom stat, last indefinitely while in battle mode! And if you're in a tower, there are ways to ensure battle mode doesn't end.

I have a cunning plan.