TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overworld Map

I. Walkthrough

II. Experience Chart

III. Gaining Experience Points

IV. Cheat Methods

V. Does It Really Take This Long?

VI. Frequently Asked Questions

VII. Game Genie Codes

VIII. Acknowledgements

Introduction
As the game begins you are shown talking to the king of Tantegel. He says that you are the descendent of the great Erdrick, who fought again evil demons with the Ball of Light. After defeating them, a new evil leader called the Dragonlord emerged and stole the ball. The king asks you to recover the Ball of Light and defeat the Dragonlord to restore peace to the land.

Tantegel Castle
When the king is done talking, take the three treasure chests in the chamber before starting your journey. The guards give you some good information about the princess, as well as general information about how to play the game. The people in town don't say much, so you might as well leave the castle and head to the neighboring town of Brecconary.

Brecconary
Here you should buy the Leather Armor first and talk to the townspeople. They will tell you where the Dragonlord lives, and the location of another town to visit. You will also learn that there is another town outside of Brecconary that sells magic keys.

Level Up #1
At this point you should spend some time gaining experience points around Tantegel Castle. As soon as you reach level 3, it is safer to travel farther away because you will have learned the Heal spell. Until you get to the next town, be sure to take advantage of the old man in Tantegel that restores you MP for free. At this point you might as well travel farther away from the castle and start fighting Ghosts and Drakees. A good place to explore is the small mountain range northwest of the castle. When you reach level 4 you'll learn the Hurt spell. By this time you should also have 16 MP maximum, which allows you to cast the Heal spell 4 times. As far as equipment is concerned, I usually buy armor before a weapon but most people buy the Club to start. I just skip the Club and buy the Copper Sword after I've gotten the Leather Armor and Small Shield. At this point you should also be strong enough to traverse Erdrick's Cave, which is located strait north of Tantegel in a small desert. On the second basement level you'll find a tablet in a treasure chest. When you read it you'll learn about the three items that are needed to reach the island of the Dragonlord. Erdrick has written that each item is being guarded, and when evil rises again you will need to seek them out and fight.

Garinham
The only dangerous enemy around this town is the Magician, but you should still visit to gather any information you can. Some of the people talk about the princess of Tantegel. According to what they say, she was taken to the eastern lands and hidden away in a cave.

Level Up #2
You will probably not be powerful enough to travel to Kol until you upgrade your equipment in Garinham. After you get either the Chain Mail or the Hand Axe, you can probably start fighting the enemies in the mountain range west of Tantegel across the bridge.

Kol
When you get to this village make sure to talk to everyone. You will gather some valuable information about Rimuldar, Hauksness and Cantlin. They'll also tell you about the Golem and how to defeat him. Finally, you learn that there is a magic key shop in Rimuldar.

Level Up #3
Before you are strong enough for Rimuldar, build up your experience to level 10. By this time you'll have learned the spell Stopspell. This will help you fight against the Warlocks that are on the island of Rimuldar.

Rimuldar
When you get to this town make sure and talk to everyone. There is a soldier here that will tell you about the Stones of Sunlight. There is also an old man at the inn that has some valuable information about the Fairy Flute. Make sure to find the magic key shop too. If you travel outside the town along it's border, you'll find the shop in the northwest corner.

Level Up #4
This is one of the most mundane parts of the game but you have to do it! This level-up period is the longest of the game (at least when I play it is). Make sure to use this time to gain enough gold for the Broad Sword and Magic Armor. You'll need it before you travel south of the Mountain Cave. I typically won't even try to venture down near the town of Hauksness until level 17, at which point the Hero has learned the Healmore spell. Usually I'll stay on the island of Rimuldar until to level up here, but sometimes I start fighting enemies in the desert surrounding Hauksness as early as level 15. The toughest enemies outside of the dungeons are located south of Hauksness. When you first start fighting them you'll need the Healmore spell to survive.

Hauksness
As people have already said, some towns in the world have been completely destroyed by the Dragonlord. Hauksness is one of these towns. Powerful monsters are lurking all around and the only thing to do here is obtain Erdrick's Armor. It is located in the backroom of one of the weapon shops. There's a small grassy patch of land inside a swampy area on the east side of town. The armor is hidden in this patch but it's being guarded by an Axe Knight. Beware of his Sleep spell! After you defeat him, search the ground to find the Erdrick's Armor. The armor is very important to get because it replentishes one HP for every step you take. This will help save time when you're trying to gain experience points because you won't necessarily have to travel to a town all the time to restore your MP.

Rescue the Princess
Once you have Erdrick's Armor, travel back to the cave that connects Kol and Rimular (also known as the Swamp Cave). On the east side of the cave there is an area that is accessible by a small entranceway. There is a room in this part of the cave where the princess is being held. The entrance is being guarded by a Green Dragon. Once you defeat him you'll be able to rescue the princess if you have a magic key. Take her back to Tantegel and she'll give you her love as a gift (as an item in your inventory).

Cantlin
You can reach this town after you've learned the Healmore spell, but I recommend that you wait a while after this to build up some gold and gain additional experience. The Golem is guarding the entrance to the town so you'll have to defeat him first. The best way to do it is to use the Fairy Flute. This is guaranteed to put him to sleep but the length of his slumber is random. If he does happen to wake up, play the flute again and he'll fall back to sleep immediately. In town there is an elite shop on the east side where you can buy the Flame Sword and Silver Shield. You'll also find an old man in the southern part of town that gives you some valuable information about the Erdrick's Token. After talking to him, use the information to find the location of the token and search the spot for it.

Level Up #5
This is by far the most mundane part of the game. By the time you get to this point every level earned will probably take an additional 4,000 points. During this time you'll prepare to fight the Dragonlord so if you don't have the best possible equipment by now, make sure to buy it in Cantlin before heading to Charlock Castle. You shouldn't even attempt to fight the Dragonlord until at least level 26. By this time you're power will be high enough to inflict at least 20 damage points per round to him. Attacks with any less power than this are virtually effortless because of the Dragonlord's ability to quickly reduce your HP.

Get the Rainbow Drop
When you read the Tablet of Erdrick it said that three items were needed to beat the Dragonlord. They are the Stones of Sunlight, Staff of Rain and the Rainbow Drop. The Stones of Sunlight are hidden in Tantegel Castle and they're a little tricky to find. There is one soldier though that gives you a hint and that should lead you to the eastern edge of the castle where there's an unmarked grassy trail leading to the basement. Grab the treasure chest and then head on back to the town of Garinham. Make sure you have a few magic keys and use one of them to get into the building in town. The path to the Grave of Garinham is through an open secret passage in the north wall. On the third basement level in the grave you will find the Silver Harp (make sure you have a magic key before you enter the grave). Take this to the old man living in the shrine west of Kol. If you explored this area earlier he told you what you'll get in return for bringing him the harp. After he gives you the Staff of Rain, take these and the Stones of Sunlight to the old man in the temple south of Rimuldar. Give him the stones and staff for the Rainbow Drop. Note that if you don't have the Erdrick's Token to prove that you're a descendent of Erdrick, the old man will not give you what you need.

Charlock Castle
To get to the castle you need to build a bridge with the Rainbow Drop. Head to the northwest part of Rimuldar's island and use it to make the bridge. As soon as you enter the castle, find the secret passage to the Dragonlord by searching behind the throne. When you get to the third basement level of the castle the path splits. Before you battle the Dragonlord, you need to obtain the Erdrick's Sword for more power so take the staircase next to the west wall. The next basement level has staircases that lead to both the sword and the Dragonlord. First take the staircase in the southeast corner of the room back up. The path will lead you directly to the sword from here. Once you have it travel back to the point at which there is a choice between paths to the Sword of Erdrick or to the Dragonlord. This time take the staircase near the northwest corner of the room and you will end up in the Dragonlord's lair. If you can manage to fend off the extreme enemies (such as the Red Dragon) and reach the Dragonlord's throne, talk to him and he will offer you the chance to join him and rule the evil world. If you accept the game will end right there. If not, you'll end up fighting him to save the world from his rule.

Final Battle
In his human form the Dragonlord is quite easy. You will defeat him after two or three short rounds, but the battle lasts much longer after reveals his true form. Make sure you're level is high enough when you start fighting him otherwise the power of the attacks will simply overwhelm you. The Dragonlord has 130 HP so you'll need to reduce this amount as much as possible before have to start casting the Healmore spell. If you use the spell combined with your normal attacks to finish off the rest of his HP you should prevail. Once you've beaten the Dragonlord, return to Tantegel Castle and the king will ask you to take his place and rule over the land. Eventually you'll end up continuing your journey and taking the princess with you.

Here is the progression timeline for the game:

Tantegel
You will start out by fighting Smiles and Red Slimes. This is kind of boring for awhile until you can start fighting Drakees and Ghosts.

Garinham
The best monster around here is the Magician. He doesn't give much experience but it's the first chance you have to gain double digit gold.

Rimuldar
You'll want to be looking for the Wolf in this area. He poses the least amount of danger because he doesn't use spells. The experience is good and it's well worth the battle. When you get to the southern part of the island, concentrate on Warlords because they waste plenty of turns using Stopspell. This will save you from their attacks at lower levels.

Cantlin
This is the place to build up levels before heading to Charlock Castle. You'll know when these enemies are no longer a threat because their attacks will start randomly giving you less than 10 damage points. The thrown room and entrance floor to Charlock has tougher enemies than those around Cantlin.

Charlock Castle
The entrance floor and first floor of the cave are the places to build up levels here, at least until you're strong enough to take damage from Blue Dragons on the second basement level. If I'm not mistaken, Blue Dragons and others in their strength class will be less of a threat to you once you've reached level 24-25.

 

i. Save State

Play on an emulator and use the save state button to prevent dying in tougher battles. Make sure to use it while you're searching for monsters instead of when you're actually in a battle.

ii. Mountain Cave Goldmine

The Mountain Cave is southwest of Tantegel Castle on the other side of the mountains. By the time you're strong enough to get there you won't have learned the Radiant spell yet, so you'll have to uses torches to see inside. On the second basement level there is a treasure chest on the west side that has 100+ gold pieces. If you walk out of the cave and back in again, the treasure chest will appear. You can repeat this process and get the gold as many times as you need to buy better weapons and armor.

 

This is the most redundant of all the Dragon Warrior games, simply because leveling up is almost half the game. You'll spend quite a lot of time finding enemies to fight so you can build strength for the next continent or cave.

 

What is the quickest way to earn gold?
There's a relatively easy method to build gold during the early stages of the game. After you're strong enough to fight Scorpions and Magidrakees, you might want to try and use the Mountain Cave method mentioned in this section. In the later stages of the game when you're trying to earn gold for the Flame Sword and Silver Shield, the Goldman will give you the most gold per battle, but the quick gold buildup is with the enemies that are stronger than the Wolflord. In other words, enemies that give you more than 20 experience points per battle. These monsters will never give you less than 70 gold per battle, and most of them end up giving more than 100 gold per battle.

Where is Erdrick's Sword?
See the walkthrough section on Charlock Castle for guidance.

Where is the Fairy Flute?
Four steps south of the bath in the village of Kol. The only person that will tell you this is the old man staying at Rimuldar's inn.

When should you use Gweanlin's Love?
It can be used for two things. When you use it the princess speaks to you and gives you the statistics for the next level (ie - how many experience points you need). The other thing she tells you is your distance from the castle at that moment. The only thing this is good for is when you're searching for the Erdrick's Token and using the information that the old man from Cantlin gives you.

 

I actually have none for this walkthrough. I played the game and did my own explorations for this whole thing!

Written by: Adam J. Evanovich, Iowa City, IA