Magician Lord Developed by: ADK Published by: SNK Year: 1990 Walkthrough Created by: Vc Viper Contact me @: battlecruiser2004@hotmail.com Copyright Info This "Magician Lord" FAQ is copyrighted by the author, Kevin He. If you wish to use this FAQ on your site, distribute it or display it for any reason, the author's permission is required. This FAQ should not be used for profit or gain of any kind. Violation will be reported if one fails to do so. This FAQ is only authorized to be displayed on the GameFAQ site (www.Gamefaqs.com) Please e-mail me for permission if you need to reprint it. CONTENTS 1. Update 2. Introduction 3. Controls 4. Game Mechanic 5. Power-ups/Items 6. Enemies/Hazards 7. Walkthrough 8. Credits 1. Update V 1.0 5/06/12 First Version. 2. Introduction Magician Lord is a side-scrolling platform game made in 1990 by ADK and published by SNK for the Neo Geo . In the game you control a young wizard named Elta, the last descendant of the Magician Lord, on a quest to retrieve the 8 Magic Books stolen by the forces of evil lead by Az Atorse. 3. Controls The joystick moves Elta left or right. A button is attack, and B button is jump. Tap B slightly to do a hop, or press it down to jump the full height. You can attack upward by holding the direction Up while pressing A, or downward by jumping then hold Down and press A. Certain forms of Elta allows you to attack diagonally upward by holding the desired direction and pressing A, and downward by jumping and holding the desired direction. 4. Game Mechanic HUD The top shows your current score, the high score, your remaining lives, and the current orb combination you have. The bottom shows your current HP (Blue is Elta, pink is transformed) the current power level, and the timer (may or may not appear depending on system setting) Difficulty The game has a difficulty of 8 different levels that can be adjusted by the Operator. The increased difficulty will affect the enemy's health and movement speed, guardians will be quicker, more resistant, and some even have new moves. Also determines your starting HP. HP This is your health. The amount you have depends on the difficulty level, 3 bars for 1-3, 2 bars for 4-6, and 1 bar for 7-8. You also have 2 bars for your transformed state (1 bar in difficulty 7-8) When you lose these 2 bars you revert back to Elta, and lose a life when the remaining HP is lost. Invincibility In a strict sense, there isn't any. The moment you are hit Elta begins to flash and rear in pain off the ground, this is the only time when no other attacks can hurt him. As soon as he lands on the ground however, the invincibility ends even when he is still flashing for a moment. So if you land right into another enemy/bullet/hazard, you'll take damage again, and again, until you are dead. Time You start with 2:30 which is the normal time, there are also 2 other settings which can deduct either 30 seconds or 60 seconds on top of the normal time, this applies to everything from stage to guardian battle and boss battle. Each stage has its own time limit, for example the 1st stage has 2:30, while the 4th stage has 4:00. Both outer and inner stage share the same time. If you die during the stage the timer is reset to the stage limit. Guardian battle has a normal time of 1:30, and if you die 1 minute is added, every subsequent death will reset the timer with 1 minute added. Boss battle starts at 3:00, if you die 2 minutes will be added, subsequent death will reset the timer with 2 minutes added. If the timer hits zero, a large tentacle monster will descent on you, and quickly drains your HP until you die. When you start on a new life, the timer is reset to the stage limit and the monster disappears. However, should you time out during a guardian battle the monster will also appear and will not leave even on a new life, heck it won't leave even on a continue. So you either have to use the few seconds of invincibility at the start of each life to damage and destroy the guardian, or start the game anew. The normal time setting gives you enough freedom to roam around and take side trips to pick up treasures and power-ups. But if the time deduction setting is on, there will be only enough time to get to the guardian, so don't stand around. 5. Power-ups/Items Throughout Elta's quest, he will come across treasure chests, these chests can hold either treasures that gives you different amount of points, or power-up that transforms Elta and power-up his attacks. Some chest however, carries enemies within. The Change Orb This is the fundamental power-up in Magician Lord. With the right combination Elta can transforms into various forms with different powers that may aid his quest. There are 3 colored orbs: Red, Blue, and Green. Grabbing an orb refills your entire HP to max, so keep that in mind when you are low on HP. You always begin the game with a red orb in the right box and the left box empty(also applies if you lose a life) If you get another orb, the new one pushes the old one to the left box while it remains in the right. Now whichever colored orb is in the left box will never be in any treasure chests containing a change orb. For example if you have red orb in the left box, any other treasure chest that contains an orb will either be green or blue, but never red. With this in mind, you can know ahead of time what your next form could be. Let's say you are using a Dragonwarrior, your next 2 possible transformations is Shinobi or Waterman, if you are Shinobi and lost the transformation, your next possible transformations are Samurai, Raijin, or Shinobi again. Elta Your default form, Elta attacks with a blue crescent wave that flies straight forward. He can have up to 2 on the screen. He can attack in the 4 basic directions but can't attack diagonally. His walking speed is average but on the slow side, and his jump height is kind of short. The wave gets bigger and stronger with each power level, at level 3 it is quite powerful and can defeat even some of the stronger monsters in one hit. Usage: If you are good, you should never see this form again after picking up the first change orb, otherwise you'll spend a lot of time with him, and that's usually after taking 2 hits and losing your transformation and 2 power level. Find a change orb and power up quickly, or death is just moments away when you are using Elta. DragonWarrior 2 Red DragonWarrior is arguably the best form in the game. Shooting out a jet of flame that can toast even the strongest enemies in seconds. His advantage comes from the high rate of fire and damage per second. It is also the only form that can attack diagonally and 1 of 2 forms that has automatic trigger instead of manually hitting attack. The flames can also go through walls and surfaces, but not though shields and barriers. It is not without weakness. The initial length of the flame is quite short, even fully powered it is only average. The flame cannot hit ground based enemies even on crouch, so you need to do a small hob and aim diagonally to hit them, which is quite hard when not powered up. The Dragonwarrior is also the 2nd slowest form when it comes to walking, and has a short jump. Use it well and this form can utterly destroy everything in sight. Usage: Fully powered, it can kill anything with ease, and mob the floors with guardians and bosses alike. Jump while moving can increase his slow walking speed somewhat, but don't jump haphazardly and land onto an enemy or hazard. Waterman 1 Red 1 Blue This form is tricky to use but it does have some special traits. Waterman throws out a water droplet in an arc, when it lands on the ground it creates a water pillar that shoots upward, to the same height as the Waterman standing. He can throw only 1 droplet initially, but every power-up lets him throw an extra one, for a maximum of 3 at a time. The droplet has the unique property of bypassing shields and protective barriers that certain guardians/bosses possess. Giving you an opportunity to strike them at anytime without waiting for an opening. The droplets are quite weak, the only way to increase its damage output is prolonged contact, which is best done with the water pillar. Since the pillar only appears on the ground, this makes it unsuitable for air battle, the droplet falls to the ground way too quickly. Although faster than Dragonwarrior, it has the same jump height as Elta. Usage: Although the droplet can go through barriers, the water pillar which does the most damage cannot be formed in midair, and most bosses have weak point above ground level, severely limiting its usage. It is quite useful on the stage 2 boss but that's about it. Other time its best used to restore full HP if you're about to die. But change out of this form as soon as you can. Poseidon 2 Blue Easily the hardest form to use. Poseidon is basically a powered up version of Waterman. Instead of throwing water droplet, he throws a big water bubble that creates a wave of water pillars. The wave is initially short, but gets longer with each power-up. Much more powerful than the Waterman's pillar since the wave can sweep over multiple enemies while constantly damaging them. Like the droplet the water bubble can bypass shields and barriers. He has the same weakness as Waterman, plus being the slowest form in the game. Also unlike the droplet, if you throw the bubble directly up or down on an enemy, it will just disappear and do very little damage, make sure the bubble is traveling in an arc to hit enemies normally. Usage: Same as the Waterman, only it's even more useless with its slow attack and movement. Shinobi 1 Red 1 Green A good all-around form. Shinobi throws a crescent shaped fireball forward at medium speed. Power-up stacks an additional fireball on top of the previous one, for a total of 3 fireballs that counts as one projectile. He is also the fastest walker and highest jumper. While he doesn't have an automatic trigger like Dragonwarrior, his fireball when fully powered is fairly strong and can decimate most enemies quickly. However only 2 fireballs are allowed on screen at a time, so he might be left defenseless if the current fireballs haven't left the screen and enemies are approaching. Getting close to an enemy will allow him to attack repeatedly without the limit, increasing his damage output but also puts him at greater risk of injury. His fireball, though big in size, has a bit of a hit detection problem when it comes to hitting some of the smaller targets on bosses, especially on the 2nd part of the final battle. Usage: Very strong form if you like to take risks and get up close and personal with bosses, close range rapid fire with power level 3 can kill most bosses even faster than the Dragonwarrior. Precision is the key with Shinobi, missing a fireball will leave you defenseless against the oncoming enemy hoard. Samurai 1 Blue 1 Green One of Elta's best forms with good range and damage. The Samurai creates a crescent shaped energy blade with a slash of his sword, the blade starts from behind the samurai and circles around the samurai before disappearing. Power-up will increase the range of the blade. The blade, like the water droplet can bypass shields and barriers, but is significantly stronger. One sweep can destroy a group of weak enemies. For stronger enemies, it is best to distance yourself so that the blade can come into contact with the enemy for a longer period when it is at its farthest point. While not a very fast walker, it does have a high jump. Usage: Great for crowd control, especially with his long reaching, barrier ignoring blade. Good with bosses that have barriers so you can attack as if they weren't there, and bosses with bigger weak point to keep the blade on them for more damage. He has the same hit detection issue like Shinobi when it comes to the 2nd part of the final battle, and some guardians will give him trouble with their small size. Raijin 2 Green Quite possibly the most underestimated form. Raijin creates an electrical field in the shape of an 8 point star. The field gets bigger with each power-up. Raijin is the other form along with Dragonwarrior with an automatic trigger. Because the field covers all direction, no aiming is needed. Attack while jumping turns Raijin into a spinning ball of doom. Having multiple points touching the enemy doesn't increase the damage, just one point is enough. His only weakness is the field's damage per second is lower than the Dragonwarrior, but the tradeoff to attack all directions is well worth it. Average walking speed, but jumping is equal to Shinobi. Usage: Use it carefully and nothing can get close, much less touch you. Aside from the stage 2 boss whom needs a bit of risky jumping to defeat at power level 3, it works well with most bosses. Destructible projectiles can't harm him with the field on. Power orb These increase your power level by 1, to a maximum of 3. You start every life with power level 1. If you are hit, you will lose 1 level of power. Increased power level will make attacks stronger and longer reaching. Stay safe and hold onto these for as long as possible. 6. Enemies/Hazards There is a good amount of enemies in Magician Lord. The later stage enemies are usually palette swapped version of the original, but may have increased resistance to damage. Skelton: A basic enemy that teleports into a predetermined point on the ground, pauses for a second and runs after you. It runs very quickly, so fast that even with Shinobi you cannot outrun it. If you jump over it, it will not turn out to chase you, rather spins in place a few times then teleports out. Later versions run even faster. Very weak in defense, any attacks can kill them easily. Trilobite: Usually placed in either raised platform or flat on the ground. They shoot 2 bullets out of their eyes periodically at a fixed angle. They cannot turn around nor shoot backward. Not very difficult, but annoying. Arm demon A humanoid creature with an extendable claw that slowly launches and retracts. When launched, the claw itself acts as a shield and absorbs projectiles. You can safely duck under the claw, the extending arm itself is harmless to the touch. More resistant than Skelton but still easy. Mosquito A large bug that flies in a wave pattern from the side of the screen, periodically firing a precise shot aimed at your current location. They usually come in pairs, either one on each side of the screen or both from the same side. Very annoying, often appears when you are taking too long to proceed throughout the stage. Prioritize them first against other enemies. Electro Bird Appears as a hole in the ground at first, when you get close it rises from the whole and shoots 2 blast of electricity from its forehead, then quickly cover itself with both wings becoming impervious to damage. After a brief moment it opens up and resumes the attack pattern. Simply duck to avoid the attack and they are easily taken out. Wandering Skelton A bit taller than the regular kind, these skeletons are usually found sitting around. When you approach them, they will stand up and march slowly towards you. Like the regular Skelton, these guys don't put up a fight and are just cannon fodder. Face shooter A small button like creature stuck on the floor. Periodically they change into a face that spits out a bullet in a fixed trajectory. Similar to Trilobite, only they can shoot one bullet at a time and there is a greater pause between each shot. They can change the direction they're facing, making them a bit more dangerous than Trilobite, plus they are even smaller and harder to hit. Winged demon A green demon with wings. It teleports in from behind you (or whichever direction you're not facing) and throws a blue ball that travels straight with medium speed. It does a little dance afterwards and teleports out, and teleports back in a split second later and resume the pattern. If you have a fast walker, you can try to outrun it, but they usually come in groups, and might throw enough balls to form a wall that's impossible to dodge. The position they teleport are in relation to your position, if you jump they'll appear in midair, they can even teleport into walls. Quite damage resistant, but easy if you take them on one at a time and jump or duck their ball. Floating Trilobite While physically weak, they make it up with sheer numbers. Typically comes in a swarm, they slowly float towards you, while occasionally shoot out a bullet. Like Mosquito, they will also appear when you are taking too long. They can pass through walls and surfaces, and approaches from multiple angles can easily overwhelm you. Attack fast and kill them before too many appears on screen. Alien Cannon A cannon that glows red at the tip before firing a single bullet. Has a long reload time and can only shoot to the left. The cannon itself is safe to touch. Can be ignored to save time. Alien Spider It moves back and forth, occasionally launches 3 mini version of itself that crawls quickly towards you. Not really a threat by itself, but the mini spiders is quite small and difficult to hit with some attacks. Destroy them while they're in midair for best result. Eyeball Skelton A skeleton that teleports in at a predetermined point on the ground and stays there, while shooting eyeballs from the mouth. The eyeballs will follow Elta until they time out and disappear by themselves. Although they have a lifespan, they move too quickly to outrun and wait it out, plus the Skelton will keep firing more eyeballs nonstop until it is destroyed. You can shoot the eyeballs to destroy them. Usually appears on ledges. Skull These guys appear from the background in front of you, wrap itself in flame and quickly fire a bullet before flying away diagonally upward in an arc. They too are an enemy that appears if you take too long. Be careful when climbing ladders, since sometimes they can hit you when they are leaving. If you're on a ladder when they appear, they will move with you until you finish climbing before firing their shot. They too can appear and move through walls and surfaces. Gargoyle This gargoyle fires a 3 bullet spread aimed downward and it swoops down in an arc and repeats. Destroy it quickly before it can fire the shots. Leap demon A skinny red demon that appears from the background leaps diagonally into the air, before shooting a bullet aimed diagonally downward as it falls to the ground and disappears into the background. May catch you by surprise, but easy to defeat. Fish A group of fish that moves either left or right. After moving a short distance, it shoots out a smaller fish from its mouth as projectile. The smaller fish cannot be destroyed. Typically comes in large groups covering a good amount of the screen, destroy them quickly to prevent them flooding the screen with their projectiles. They can move through walls and surfaces. Gargoyle Knight A mini boss. The knight appears in the background and comes to the foreground, dashing across the ground before returning to the background and comes back for another pass. Other than being damage resistant, its attack pattern is simple to avoid. Minion A red colored demon that walks around quickly and occasionally jump high into the air. They will do a quick bow sometime and stop momentarily. Summoned by the Stage 4 guardian. They are not tough to defeat, but if you don't kill them as they appear, the guardian will just summon more until there are too many on screen. Frog A regular frog. Although most are harmless, some will grow into frogmen which are not. Armed with trident, they repeatedly jump at you. Highly damage resistant, they are very dangerous by themselves or in groups. You can find out which frog will grow by attacking it in its frog form, if it takes a lot of hits and still doesn't die then it will change. With enough attack it is possible to destroy the frog before it changes. Armor Dog A dog dressed in armor, they run very quickly and can leap into the air for aerial attack. Not very resistant. Cat girl Usually found sitting around, when you approach they quickly move close to you and unleash their claw swipe. If you are far away they will leap to close in the distance. Quite resistant, they too are dangerous in groups. Chariot Just like the Gargoyle Knight (minus appearing from the background). It moves back and forth, trying to impale you with the lance. The lance itself acts as a shield and absorbs projectiles. Floating Eye Just like the Floating Trilobite, these eyeballs will slowly float towards you and shoot out a fireball. They can move through walls and surfaces. Their fireballs are a bit faster than the standard bullet. Sword Master A girl armed with a sword. She can leap great distance to close in and slashes with her sword, but for some reason are always slightly out of range of you. She can use her sword to put up a guard that will reduce the damage she takes, making her the most damage resistant normal enemy in the game. Hazards Monsters aren't your only enemies; there are many traps and environmental hazards that can harm you. All of them have either a set pattern or ways to avoid it. Bottomless pit Like its name suggest, a pit without a bottom (or just a very big drop), fall in and its instant death. Fire pit A pit with fire burning. While it doesn't kill you instantly, the injured animation and the lack of invincibility might as well equal an instant death. Some of the fire pits are much larger, and impossible to jump out in time should you fall in. Usually there is an alternate route that goes around the pit, or floating platforms to help you across. Ball and Chain A spiky ball attached to a chain that drops down from the ceiling before retracting. These usually come in a row, and they either drop one at a time or in pairs. Watch the timing when it retracts and move forward. Alternatively you can also jump through the chain part which is harmless. Ceiling Spike Stuck on ceiling, these individual spikes drops straight down when you pass under them. Because the speed they drop down is quite fast, walking ahead of them is difficult. Instead get under it and quickly retreat, the spike should fall down and miss you completely. Aerial Spike Appears only in one stage, a mass of flesh with spikes protruding from it. Simply avoid it. Wall Spear A spear attached to the side of a wall that periodically thrusts out. The spear usually comes in groups, and with either thrust out by itself or in pair. They appear around ladder. Time your movement carefully to get past each one. There is usually enough space in between spears as safe spots. Spear Bed The classic spike on ground. A bunch of spears in rows placed in the ground. They don't move. Usually appears in areas where precise jump to narrow platform is needed. 7. Walkthrough The walkthrough covers all the paths, including the side areas. It is played through the Dragonwarrior form. I will mention the chests with the change orb, but the color of the orb depends on your current combination (Refer to the game mechanic section to see how the orb is determined to appear) Stage 1: Dale of evil gods Time: 2:29 As you appear in this strange land, proceed right and take out 2 skeletons. Entering a broken temple, 2 trilobites are perched on raised platform while an arm demon walks on the ground below. Further ahead is another trilobite on the ground and another arm demon, followed by 2 electro bird and 2 more skeleton teleporting behind you. You'll arrive at a ladder to climb down with 2 electro bird guarding the first treasure chest which contains a red orb. Grab the orb and change into the mighty Dragonwarrior. Down another ladder is a group of 6 wandering skeleton waiting around, and another 6 on the next ladder down. By this time Mosquitoes are probably showing up from both side of the screen; take care not to get hit. Take the final ladder down and defeat an arm demon, then get off the platform and face off with 6 wandering skeleton waiting around a door; this door takes you to the inner stage. Don't be stupid and jump off the bottomless pit to the right of the door. Enter the door. Inner stage Immediately greeted by 3 wandering skeletons. There is a fire pit that's impossible to jump across, so take the series of ladder to the left all the way to the very top. Be careful, as 2 ball and chain are positioned irectly above the ladder. An arm demon on the right with another chest containing a change orb. This next part is a bit hard if you are the dragon. A 2nd chest contains treasure, followed by a trilobite, a 3rd chest and an arm demon. At power level 1, the dragon's flame is too short to hit the trilobite (you have to do a small hop and aim diagonally downward to hit it) and if you waste too much time the mosquitoes will just keep coming and give you even more trouble. Don't destroy the 2nd chest, jump on top of it like a platform and jump over the trilobite (make sure it's not firing first) and you'll land right on the 3rd chest. Take out the arm demon and the 3rd chest, which contains a power orb. Now your flame is a bit longer, you can use the hop technique to take out the trilobite and get the treasure in the 2nd chest. To the right is a ladder going down, which also has 2 ball and chain directly above it. Climb down and take out the 6 wandering skeleton. Don't climb down the 2nd ladder. Instead walk off and hold right. The reason for that is as you are climbing down 2 mosquitoes flies in from the left and will surely hit you. Take out the wandering skeleton group and advance forward. The music will suddenly change, this means you have reached the stage guardian. Get ready. Sword Skelton Time: 1:30 Armed with a sword and shield. The guardian can jump away at will and advance towards you and slash with its sword. There is a very easy tactic to beating it. Simply stand at the far left and wait till the guardian advances right next to you, as you see it about to swing the sword jump straight up and attack, the sword slash will miss and the guardian jumps backward, right into your attack and takes damage. Repeat. Difficulty 7-8: Same pattern, only it advances towards you twice as fast. Now you are teleported away, as Az Atorse mocks you with some witty comment on your progress, you then face off with the boss of the stage. Face Time: 2:59 You arrive at the boss chamber, which consist of a bridge covering 3/4th of the screen, a small gap and a face on the opposite wall. In case the bones bubbling in the hot lava below you doesn't give you a clue, don't fall in or its instant death. Right from the start the room shakes and rock spikes drops from the roof, you can see where they will drop as they appear on the ceiling for a moment before dropping. Navigate safely through them and the room stops shaking. The face on the wall will shatter, reveling a giant pincer that opens up and a purple alien face pops out. This is the weak point. The boss has 2 attacks; it either shoots out a single fireball that travels straight, or a 5 fireball spread. It can also attack 2 or 3 times before retracting into the pincer, using the same attack or alternating between the 2. The fireball themselves can be ducked, they start out small but grows larger as they travel (but still duckable) The spread can easily be dodged by ducking farther away, but the bare minimum distance to duck is just a bit left to the 2nd bridge struts. At this point if you are the dragon and haven't lost your Level 2 power, your flame is just barely able to reach the face if you stand on the space of the 2nd bridge struts. Hit it a few times and quickly move to the safe spot on the left to dodge any incoming fireballs. From time to time the room will start shaking again and you'll have to content with rock spike as well as the fireballs. Move to the left side of the bridge so you can dodge the fireball easily while avoiding the spikes. Repeat this pattern and soon the boss is defeated. Stage 2: To the evil mine Time: 2:59 As you start to exit the mine tunnel to the right, a series of ball and chain will drop from the ceiling as well as 2 advancing mosquitoes. Get pass them and 2 trilobites and an arm demon awaits you. Climb up the ladder, you'll be right under a group of wandering skeleton, a trilobite on the far left, and a barely visible mosquito flying in from the right. You can eliminate the skeletons by shooting up, just move to the right to avoid the bullets from the trilobite and watch for the ones fired by the mosquito. Climb up the 2nd ladder and a door appear right beside it. This door leads to an optional area, it is not necessary to go in, but there are good rewards inside. Optional room You land on a platform with a ladder going down. You can see 2 more ladders but you can't reach those yet. Walk off and hold left to fall down the next floor, 4 face shooters are on the ground. Quickly use the small hop method to destroy them before they fire their shots and climb down the next level. 2 more shooters are waiting by the ladder. Moving to the left, the ceiling in this long hallway is lined with ceiling spikes that drops down when you get under it. Take it slow and wait for them to drop one at a time. A few skeletons will teleport in, there is also an arm demon patrolling the area as well as 3 face shooters guarding a ladder going up, with 3 more shooters on the floor above. The next floor up has a wing demon teleporting in. Climbing one more ladder takes you to the top floor, where the real action is. An arm demon guards near the ladder you climbed up, further to the right is a series of ball and chain, as well as 3 winged demon teleporting in, when you get to the ladder on the right there is another arm demon and a few skeletons that teleports in from behind. Climb down the ladder and you'll be on the platform that you saw in the beginning when you entered the area. Walk off the platform to the right, there will be 2 more winged demons before receiving your reward, 10 treasure chests stacked together. Among the various treasures, one of them has a power orb, while another one has a change orb. If you were careful and didn't take a hit, your power level should be at 3 now. The flames will be even longer and stronger. Exit through the door on the right. If you went in the optional room, the wandering skeletons will have regenerated, as well as the mosquitoes. Move left to where the trilobite was and climb the ladder, 2 arm demon are walking back and forth above you. From there you can see another door, this leads to the inner stage. There are some wandering skeleton on the right if you want to destroy them, but going there will also send 3 mosquitoes flying in from the right. Whatever you do don't climb the ladder, jump on platform instead. If you want, the platform directly above the door has a ladder leading to a chest that contains a change orb. Go through the door. Inner stage You appear on a small platform, there is no visible path but a giant drop. So walk off the platform and hold right, you'll fall right past the 1st of the 5 aerial spikes, and then move left a bit so you're in the center, then 2nd spike will pass by the right. Immediately hold right again, you'll fall into an alcove with 3 chests, one with change orb and 2 with treasure. Walk off again and hold right, you'll fall on a small platform. Repeat the last step and you'll fall into a fake wall. Move right and take out 3 wandering skeleton and claim the treasure from the chest beside the ladder. Climb down and there is another chest with treasure to the left. Go back (you'll most likely encounter mosquitoes on your way back) and fall down the shaft again while holding right. The 3rd spike passes you on the left, as well as the 4th just as you land in another fake wall. Climb the ladder and the chest here has not only treasure but a power orb too, in case you taken a hit earlier and lost some power. Fall down the shaft again and this time hold left, the final spike will pass you on the right as you land on the ground. Proceed right, you'll see 3 chests stacked, but a winged demon will teleport in, in fact there are 3 of them near the chest. Take them out first (remember you can make them appear in the air by jumping before they teleport in, allowing you to stay safe from their ball attack) the chests contains treasures. Once you got everything move right and get on the elevator, it will propel you up at great speed. Make sure you walk on the elevator and not jump to the far right, since when you reach the top the elevator propels you up in the air, if you don't hold left and land on the ground the elevator will drop back down and you will slowly fall back down and must try again, wasting a lot of time. Once you are on solid ground, move to the left and the guardian music plays. Moon Demon Time: 1:30 The guardian comes in from the left. It has 2 attacks; it creates a crescent shaped energy field and runs across the screen, or does an arcing leap with the field on. It will use one of those attacks to make its entrance. The leap covers the whole screen length, while it can be ducked, only if you stay relatively close to it, so jumping over it when its falling is safer. Its biggest advantage is its unpredictable. There is no way to tell which of the 2 attack it will use next. Although it will use the leap attack more often if you are on the opposite end. The energy field may look like a barrier but it's actually not, so attacks can still get through. With careful timing this guardian is easy win. Onto the boss. Difficulty 7-8: Same pattern, but charges across the ground at great speed. The Arcing leap however is still the same speed as lower difficulties. Giant Eye Time: 2:59 Remember the setup for the first boss, this one is very similar. Only the tree branch platform you stand on is only 1/3rd the length of the bridge and the lava is replaced by a bottomless void. The eye enters from the right and hover in midair, 11 small balls linked together rotates clockwise constantly. They act as a barrier and block projectiles, so your flame won't get through. There is a gap that you can get your attack to go through. You do however, have to stand near the edge of the platform in order to hit (assuming your power level is 3) Once the barrier rotates 3 times, it will move away from the eye on the 4th revolution and rotate around the platform. As soon as you see this is about to happen, stand to the very left and move into the gap when part of the barrier moves under the platform so you don't get hit. The barrier continues to rotate clockwise, during this time I don't recommend attacking since the window of opportunity is very small and the risk is great. When it rotates 3 times, it will leave the platform and return to the eye, make sure you jump out through the gap to avoid getting hit. During all this time, the eye will periodically send out spikes that shoot out straight. They can shoot out from various different heights. The hard part when facing this boss is when the barrier is rotating around you, the longer the boss remains alive, the more chance it has to shoot spikes at you. High ones you can just duck, but if they are low, you have to do a small hop, a high jump will only get you hit by the barrier, this is made even harder when sometime 2 spikes shoots low one after another, or one low and one medium height, making it impossible to dodge. Do as much damage as you can when the battle starts and just pray that you don't have to hop any low spikes. Alternatively if you are samurai or waterman your attack can ignore the barrier all together, giving you plenty of time to attack the boss as it makes its entrance. Stage 3: Highway leading to a foreign space Time: 2:29 You begin standing on a platform of a giant dead monster. Move to the right and encounters the flying trilobite, these guys are twice as bad as mosquitoes; they slowly float towards you while shooting. The last platform you step on begins to move to the right across a giant chasm. Be aware that the platform is always moving, so if you jump, the platform will still move ahead and it will appear as you have moved back a few steps don't be careless and jump off the platform this way. The trilobites will appear en masses in this section. Finally jump off when the platform reaches the other side. There are 3 optional rooms in this stage. Optional room 1 You appear standing on a chest, which has a change orb. The bridge spanning across the lava shrinks down when you stand on it, so keep jumping and moving to the right. Take out and trilobites and exit the door on the right. Jump to the right a few steps to reach the 2nd door. Optional room 2 You stand on a platform, 3 other platform ahead has an alien cannon on each of them. You can ignore the cannon or destroy them, just watch out when they're about to fire. Pass the cannons is a clearing and the alien spider makes its entrance as a mini boss. Stand at medium distance and attack, if the spider shoots it mini version in the air take those down too. Do not let them land on the ground, they can't be hit by crouch attack and must use the hop technique, giving the spider more time to shoot even more spawns. After the spider is history, grab the treasure in the chest right in front of the exit. Back outside, the 3rd door is on a high ledge that requires a high jump, but before you do that attack upwards, trilobites usually comes down through the ceiling, and their presence can be hidden by the backdrop. Make sure it's safe before making the jump. Optional room 3 You start at a lower level, a chest in front of you with treasures and a change orb inside, as well as 3 trilobites bearing down on you. Keep moving upward, as you reach the 3rd level 2 eyeball skeleton will teleport in; take them out as well as the two stationary trilobites above you. The exit is at the top left. The remainder of the stage is straightforward, keep moving right, take out trilobite that gets in your way. You'll see the door to the inner stage at the far right. Inner stage Very short, you stand on a platform. There is a lava pool to your left, a stone bridge hovers above it. The bridge is made up of individual block. When you step on a block, they fall down, so you have to advance quickly to prevent falling into the pool below when you run out of bridge. Don't walk across the bridge normally, instead advance by jumping, taking out any trilobite that comes in your way. On the other side is another platform, but a stationary trilobite is sitting on it. If you have a high jump character like shinobi, you can try to stand on the last block then high jump over it, or you can attempt a risky maneuver by standing on the last block and attack while the block is falling down, destroying the trilobite and jump on the platform just before you fall in the lava pool. Needless to say, for Dragonwarrior this part is quite hard if you want to keep your form and power level. When that's done move left and its guardian time. Alien fish Time: 1:30 Remember the 2nd stage guardian; this guardian shares the same unpredictable nature. However it doesn't make its entrance by attacking, instead it just walks in. It has 2 attacks. It jumps high into the air and dives down diagonally at extreme speed, or it does the dive at a much lower height. The unpredictable part is you don't know which attack it will use, but you can exploit the one weakness it has. Until you attack it, it will not attack and instead just walks around. You can land several attacks in, wait for it to attack and get out of the way, and repeat. Easy. The boss however, is not. Difficulty 7-8: Walking speed doubled, diving speed is unchanged. Alien dragon Time: 4:59 (the only boss that has 5 minute timer limit by default) The setup is a bit more complicated this time. You're on a piece of land with two small platforms attached, while on the ceiling there is a mirrored version. The dragon is on the right side of the wall. As soon as the battle starts, two teeth comes out from the platform on the ceiling and both land closes in together. Stand on either of the platform to dodge it (this is also the best time to attack the dragon) Once the land moves back to their original position, the dragon uses 1 of 2 attacks, either shooting a laser from its nose, or extend its neck and moves the head forward, pauses and fires a spread of 5 rings from a hole near the back of the head. After the dragon made its attack, the 2 teeth appear again on the ceiling, but this time through the land instead of the platform. Do the exact opposite as the last time and stand on the land to avoid the teeth. Afterwards the dragon gets to attack again and the whole process just repeats itself. This is where the Dragonwarrior shines, the rings it fires are very hard to destroy with individual attacks such as the shinobi, but Dragonwarrior can just use the flame to sweep all the rings the moment they are launched. The laser attack can be easily jumped. The nose of the dragon acts as a shield to absorb projectile. This is one of the tougher bosses in the game, but with some luck you can beat it without too much effort. Stage 4: Castle of devils Time: 3:59 The stage with the best music in the game. Right from the start you see a door not too far from you, but it's not the one leading to the inner stage, that door is directly above you. There are 3 optional rooms in this stage and this is one of them. Optional room 1 A series of small platform moving up and down, on the bottom is a fire pit. There is a lone chest on one of the solid platform that contains a power orb. The exit is on the ledge to the left. Skulls will function as mosquitoes in this stage; they'll appear from time to time but only one at a time. Moving right, 2 eyeball skeleton will teleport onto the raised platforms. Skeletons as well as a gargoyle will appear more to the right. The 2nd door is here. Optional room 2 You appear under a ladder, with wall spears ready to poke you. Note the chest on the other side of the wall on a platform just above the rows of spear bed. Carefully climb the ladder while avoiding the spears. At the top is the exit as well as a chest with treasure in it. You can attempt to go down to the right by stepping on the platforms that retract when stepped on. But the chest there only contains a mimic, and if you're not careful it could knock you into the spears below. Now you know. Exit. Move a bit more to the right and meet up with another gargoyle and the 3rd door. Optional room 3 You can climb down the ladder, but there is nothing down there except an arm demon, plus you could be hit while climbing down the ladder by a fleeing skull. To the right is a collapsing bridge and fishes will suddenly appear. Jump to the farthest block and hold right, you'll land in an alcove. Keep moving right. Leap demons will appear in front or behind you. The ladder here will take you to the lowest level where a bunch of wandering skeletons is sitting around. The exit is also here, but goes back up and jump on the bridge. Once again stand on the farthest block and hold right to fall in another alcove. A stack of 6 chests is here, containing treasures, a power orb and a change orb. Jump out the alcove and exit from below. Still moving right, the last gargoyle appears and a constant stream of skeleton teleporting in. When you reach a series of raised platforms, use them to jump up to the highest level. At the right corner there are 3 chests with treasures, a power orb and change orb. Now it's time to head back to the door leading to the inner stage. As you jump off the high platform, just after the 3rd door is 2 high platforms beside each other. If you would like to fight a mini boss, or just skip the entire skeleton fighting you can jump up here and jump to the platform above the 3rd door. Only Shinobi, Samurai, Raijin, and Dragonwarrior can jump high enough to reach it (Dragonwarrior has to jump straight up instead of a directional jump) Waterman, Poseidon, and Elta will have to use to much shorter platform located near the 2nd door to get up to the higher level. As you move across the higher level, the screen will stop scrolling at one point and you'll see the Gargoyle Knight in the background. A simple jump over then attack strategy is enough to defeat it. Using the series of platforms jump to the left until you are directly above your starting point, the last door here leads to the inner stage. Inner stage There are 2 paths that lead to the guardian; one of them also splits into 2 more paths. One of them is quicker, while the other one yields a few rewards. Quick path Take the ladder from your starting position down, and down another ladder. The path now splits into 2. You can go left, pass all the ceiling spikes, go down 2 more ladders and keep moving right to reach the guardian, but this path is dangerous and yields no rewards. Or you can move right and come up to a collapsing bridge, only the blocks will not fall when you step on it. They will only fall when you jump on the center block and walk in either directionmore than. Do high jumps to the center, then immediately hold left and as the blocks fall it will drop you in an alcove with a stack of 10 chests containing treasures. Reward path Ignore the first ladder and climb up the second one. A total of 16 chests are stacked here. But only the bottom 4 has treasure in it, the rest are all mimic. Climb down the ladder behind the chests and you'll come up with a collapsing bridge with blocks missing in between. Stand on the first block and hold left, it will drop you into an alcove with 6 chests containing treasures, but is also guarded with 4 ceiling spikes. To get back to the floor above you fall out of the alcove and go left, use quick jumps across the bridge so it won't collapse. Climb up the first ladder you see here and another one above it and you'll be back at the starting point. From there just go back to the bridge. With the first block gone, you'll have to do a short jump on the next closest one (miss and you'll have to go back all over again) once you get on the block simply hold right to walk across, you won't fall down the gap and will keep walking to the next block, except the last block, which you must jump off and into the alcove or you'll fall through the gap. Since the blocks don't regenerate, if you mess up you won't be able to come back to try again. There are 7 chests in total; one holds a change orb while the other holds treasures. Jump out the alcove and hold left, because if you fall down straight 2 passing fish will hit you, this way you can stay clear of them. Climb down 2 more ladders and you'll be at the guardian. I recommend you take the reward path first, after jumping out of the alcove, you can proceed left and use the collapsing bridge to get into the 2nd alcove for the treasure chests, then simply jump out and you'll be at the bottom level where the guardian is. Once you're at the bottom level, keep moving right to reach the guardian. Wizard Time: 1:30 A wizard that flies above you, it can move around at will. Occasionally shoots out a blue fireball, but its main attack is throwing out 3 minions on the ground. It will keep throwing more minions until there is too many on the screen for you to handle. Take out the minions as soon as they land, then focus on the guardian. Not very hard. The boss is a bit more challenging though. Difficulty 7-8: Instead of hovering above you in midair, the wizard can now fly randomly all over the screen at incredible speed, greatly increasing the chance of colliding with you. It also uses it's fireball attack more often. Hellhound Time: 2:59 This time, the setup is quite simple. No platforms, no pits, just flat ground. Hellhound stands initially on the right side of the screen, it can choose to jump to the left or right at any time. When it lands it will either jump away to the other side again, or use its only attack, 3 bullets fired from its back. It can shoot these bullets up to 3 times in a row if it chooses to. You can easily dodge them by ducking right in front of its head; the bullets will miss you completely. From here it's just simple routine until hellhound explodes. Stage 5: Underground passage of terror Time: 3:59 This stage notorious for the frog enemy, which is what you see the moment you start the stage. A group of frogs lands on the ground, while most are harmless, some will grow into frogmen and they will chase you. Its best to keep moving right, take out any electro bird along the way. Soon you'll enter a narrow corridor; skeletons will teleport in from both sides. At the end is a ladder, with 2 chests sitting on the level below, both carrying a change orb. Down another ladder, there is 9 chests piled in a corner to the left, some contains treasures (including a very valuable gem) but most contains frogs that will grow into frogmen. Only the first 3 chests on the bottom counting from right to left contains treasures, but unless you're Elta it's impossible to break only those 3 chest without opening the others. The 1st door leading to optional room is to the right of the ladder. Optional room 1 Very simple, 3 arm demons walks on the bottom floor, while ceiling spikes are planted facing down on sections of platform. As you walk under the platforms the spikes falls down and the platforms shields you from the spike, perfectly safe. To the right are 8 chests all with treasure and the exit. Go down another 2 sets of ladder and 2 electro birds appear on both sides. The 2nd door is on the right. Optional room 2 Possibly the most dangerous optional room in the game. You stand on a platform over a giant fire pit, there are additional platforms to help you across, but they sink when you step on them, just like the 3rd stage bridge. Jump from platform to platform until you reach the stairs and witness the horror. 7 frogs, all turns into frogmen, attacks at the same time. Because of its strong damage resistance, even 1 frog will take a while to defeat, let alone 7. What's even worst is that there are 5 chests on the stairs, 2 of them has a power orb each, one has a change orb and the other 2 has treasures. If you get the power-ups, you'll most likely lose it from the onslaught of attacks. You can try luring them one at a time by jumping back towards your starting point, attacking on each sinking platform to do some damage. This is very risky but also the only safe way you can claim all those chest content. After all the frogs are defeated, you can grab the treasure from the 2 chest closest to the fire (the closest chest has a high valued wand that will land in the fire and becomes unobtainable unless you sacrifice your HP for it), the 3rd chest contains the change orb, and the remaining 2 has the power orb. Exit through the door. The 2 electro birds have regenerated, past them is another electro bird guarding a ladder going up, the 3rd door is to the left. Optional room 3 Immediately you'll see the exit is directly above you, along with a chest. 2 sets of spear bed can be seen and a small collapsible bridge in between them. Jump on the last block to the right, and when the block is falling down immediately hold right and do a small hop to land you on solid ground, barely missing the spear bed below. A ladder to the right with a chest containing a change orb. Climb up carefully pass the wall spears, a ground of frogs falls down, they all can change. Ignore them and quickly move to the left, the chest here contains treasure. Exit the room before the frogmen catches up. Climb up the 2 ladder on the left and another group of frogs that changes will appear, climb down the only ladder here and enter the final door to the inner stage. Inner stage A simple yet seemly complicated maze. The basic layout comprises of 4 floors: Top, middle, lower (starting point) lowest, and a secret room in the lowest floor. Your goal is the secret room, but how do you get to it, there is no map, no directions. And with all these ladders going up and down which one do you take? There is actually only 1 simple route that takes you there. Most of the other routes don't take you anywhere, the screen simply wraps back to the beginning, giving the illusion that there are multiple ladders leading to different areas. The correct route is as follows. From starting point move right, ignore the 1st ladder and climb up the 2nd one. Continue moving right, ignore the next ladder and you'll see 3 chests with a power orb, change orb, and treasures. Climb down the next ladder after the chests. Move right and take the 1st ladder you see down, this will take you in the secret room. Proceed right to fight the guardian. Axe warrior Time: 1:30 A blue armored knight with an axe and shield. His main attack is to throw the axe forward, that later comes back and catches it. He can also do a high jump in the air, and does a short range strike with the axe when he lands. The only time he is vulnerable is during the jump, or the spilt second when he throws out the axe and when he catches it. You have more time to attack if he chooses to jump, just don't get cornered. Jump over the axe thrown, and jump again when it comes back. You'll have to be patience when fighting this guardian. The boss, for some forms will need even more patience. Difficulty 7-8: No change. Eye tower Time: 2:59 For some forms, this battle is very hard, almost impossible, for others it's a cake walk. The setup is the same as hellhound. Flat ground. The boss is a thin tower that occupies the right side the screen, so you have a good amount of space to move around with. The tower consists of an eye on top and bottom of the tower, and a central eye (also the weak point) that opens and closes in intervals. Its only attack is to shoot out a big ring projectile. The top eye shoots diagonally downward while the bottom shoots upward. Both shoot 2 at a time. The center eye when it opens shoots a single ring straight forward. Aside from the center eye ring, the other rings will bounce off the ground and ceiling, drastically reducing your mobility. Since you have to destroy the rings to keep you from getting hurt, you will have less time to focus on the boss's weak point, and the boss will use this time to shoot even more rings, eventually overpowering you. However, if you have Raijin or Dragonwarrior with power level 3, then this battle is a joke. Simply stand 2 character length away from the boss and aim at the central eye (Dragonwarrior) or hold down the attack button (Raijin) the flames will destroy any rings fired from all 3 eyes and damage the central eye, while one point of the electrical field can damage the eye and the others protects you from any rings the boss may fire. Stage 6: Corridor leading to hell Time: 4:59 With a stage name like that, you just know that the action will intensify. This stage is fairly straightforward. Moving right, you are greeted by 2 armor dog and cat girls, both of these enemies move very quickly so be on your guard. The dog also can't be hit with Dragonwarrior unless you use the hop technique. When the screen stops scrolling, another mini boss, the Chariot, shows up. It's back and forth charging attack is so simple to avoid it can hardly be considered a mini boss. Continuing right, 3 more cat girls shows up. By this time you'll probably start seeing the floating eye now, these guys may float towards you slowly, but the fireball they shoot moves faster than the regular bullet, and they come in groups and endless waves. Keep moving. Climb down the ladder and immediately 2 cat girls shows up. The path now splits into 2. Going left takes you to 2 of the 3 optional rooms, while going right takes you to the 3rd room and the correct route to the inner stage. The left side is filled with cat girls and armor dog, take them out slowly, but watch for the floating eyes, make sure they don't get too close to you. Move left until you reach the 1st door. Optional room 1 A massive fire pit spans across the room, while several floating platforms helps you to get across. The exit is directly across the pit, guarded by 2 armor dog. As you jump on the left most moving platform, you'll see an alcove above with a barely visible chest. Wait till the platform reaches its highest height before jumping to land in the alcove, which has 4 chest containing a power orb, change orb, and treasure. Exit through the bottom left door. A little to the left is the 2nd room Optional room 2 Rows of spear bed, with 3 moving platform, one of which moves faster. In between each spear bed is a small land safe to stand on. 2 of the chest are sitting in between each of the space, containing a power orb, change orb and treasure. Exit is on the right. Move the entire way right, pass the 2nd ladder and the 3rd door is beside it. Optional room 3 2 trilobites placed across each other, a breakable block in the middle of the floor. Break the block and fall to the next floor with the same setup as the last, drop down one more floor to land on 2 chests with power orb and treasure. Alternatively if you are Raijin you can just high jump up the ledge leading to the exit and climb down the ladder to claim the chest content without having to fight the trilobites (you do have to destroy one of them to jump up without getting hurt) Exit the room. Climb the ladder near you and 4 cat girls are waiting up top. Move to the right until you reach another ladder going down. The only door here leads to the inner stage. Inner stage 5 trilobites, each sitting on top of a progressively higher ledge. Destroy them one at a time. A ladder is here, climb up and move a little to the left. There is a gap you have to jump across. A single block is connected with the platform you're on, while another block is placed in mid air slight below in the middle. The idea here is to hold left and walk off the first block and land on the block in the middle, pause for a split second and high jump left to reach the other side. If you messed up and the block is gone, there is seemly no way to get across, it's not true. There is an alternate route. But before that, if you jump off the platform (without touching the connecting block) while holding left, you'll fall into an alcove with 3 chest containing 2 power orb and treasure. If you messed up the jump with the blocks, here is the alternate route to the guardian. From the base of the ladder, continue jumping to the right until you come up to a breakable block in the floor, just above you are another one. The 1st one is the correct path, while the 2nd one can net you some treasure. 1st path Destroy the block and fall down; another block is on the left. Destroy it and fall down while holding left, you'll drop in a narrow corridor, at the end is another block. Fall down here and you'll land right on the other side of the gap you needed to jump earlier. 2nd path Destroy the block and fall down while holding right, you'll fall into an alcove with 3 chest containing treasure. Another breakable block is here, but don't break this one and don't fall down it. Instead fall back down the left tunnel; you'll see a spear bed positioned directly below the above mentioned block, that's what would have happened if you went through there. Destroy the block here and fall down; you'll end up right above the entrance to the 2nd path. Once you're on the other side, move to the left and the guardian battle will start. Hell mistress Time: 1:30 As soon as you hear the battle music start up stop moving, 2 sword master from both side vault in through the floors, one would definitely run into you should you keep walking forward. A beam of light appears on the left side as the guardian descent. Use this time to deal as much damage to the sword master as you can, remember they cannot attack when they use the sword to guard, so keep attacking to prevent them from moving. They like to jump around a lot, since the battle space isn't very big; you want to take them out quickly to avoid them restricting your moment. The guardian itself has a very simple attack pattern. She puts up an energy shield and fires off a large fast moving fireball that travels straight, laughs and repeats this 3 more times before the shield disappears momentarily. It's interesting to note that whenever she takes damage, she finches for a brief moment and her attack animation is canceled. So if you keep hitting her she won't be able to fight back at all. You can actually stand on top of the shield and suffer no damage, just remember to jump off before the shield disappears so you don't land on her. Shield bypassing attack such as Raijin and Samurai will finish her in seconds. The boss will require more effort though. Difficulty 7-8: No change Hell spawn Time: 2:59 I don't even know what I'm looking at; much less give it a proper name. Anyway you're on flat ground; the boss is hanging down on the right side. It has 3 parts that can be damaged. A mouth piece that comes out and releases 1 to 4 spores before retracting inside. The spores themselves are very erratic, moving randomly left or right. They are easily destroyed but until the mouth piece is gone they will prevent you from getting closer to the boss. They will also self-destruct by themselves. But you don't want to wait that long. Once the mouth piece is destroyed, a smaller piece located near the body will begin to lob a single bullet at you. Before throwing each bullet it calculates your current position and tries to lob the bullet as close to you as possible, in other words it homes in on you. The final piece is the crystal ball held in the hand, this is the weak point of the boss. The ball shoots out a laser bolt, like the bullet piece, it also homes in on you. If you stand right under the bullet piece, both the bullet and laser will not be able to hit you, if you move too far to the right, the laser will home in again, so move a bit to the left and you'll know it's safe when the laser shoots straight down. Then simply just aim up and take out both pieces to end the fight. Stage 7: Gal Agiese Time: 4:59 Welcome to the last "real" stage of Magician Lord. The outer stage is infamous for its insane difficulty, while the inner stage is relatively easy. You start off appearing in midair, don't press any direction and let yourself land on solid ground. There is a small gap you have to jump and a ladder to climb. Ahead is the infamous "platform jumping section" Basically there are a total of 6 moving platform, all moving on the same level at the same speed. The idea is to jump off to the next platform when the one you are standing on moves close enough to it until you reach the other side, but this is made harder when floating eyes are appearing all over the place, their fireball using up even more space. What more, if you get knocked off the platform, you'll fall to your doom in the bottomless pit below. This is where a fast trigger finger and precision comes in handy, forms such as Dragonwarrior and Raijin can kill the eyes quickly before they attack, all while performing precise jump from each platform. Once you jump on the 5th platform, you can just hold left and fall into the tower on the left, you don't have to jump up to the ledge and manually climb down. A ladder on each side. The right side allows you to access the last optional room in the game. Climb down and enter the door. Optional room Climb down the long ladder, 2 cat girls are waiting below. Don't go to the very left, while there is nothing there, as you start moving right a sword master will vault through the floor. To the right is a ladder and a collapsible bridge with blocks missing, you can climb down the ladder, but there is a whole bunch of wandering skeleton waiting down there, as well as 4 cat girls and the occasional sword master that comes through the floor. The exit is also down here. If you want to skip the fighting for now you can use the blocks and walk across (you'll have to jump onto the closest block first, and don't forget to jump off the last block) but if you fall you'll land right into the heart of the crowd below, so I would suggest climbing down and take them all out first. Use the ladder right of the exit and climb up. Another block bridge is here. Use the same way as before and move across and you'll come to an alcove with a stack of 10 chests containing 2 power orbs, a change orb, and treasure. Leave through the exit below. In fact, it is recommended you take the right side ladder down, not only to access the optional room, but you can just walk off the ledge and take out the 3 wandering skeleton sitting beside the ladder (sometime one of them sits too close to the ladder, and you'll have no way to climb down without getting hurt) Take the next ladder down, with another 3 skeleton waiting nearby (no choice to drop down this time) The only door here leads to the inner stage. Inner stage Just like the optional room, climb down the long ladder. Immediately 2 sword master vaults in on both sides. Go left and take another ladder down. The path splits into 2. If you want to take a safer but longer path, go left, for a quicker but harmful path go right. Quick path Moving right, there is a fire pit with 2 moving platform to help you across, a ladder at the far right. This ladder leads down a long shaft with a total of 10 wall spears, 7 of them are near the beginning. After the 7th spear there is a small alcove, passing 2 more spears further down is another alcove, this is where the guardian is, but since you cannot jump off the ladder how do you get into the alcove? You have to take a hit, and then hold left so you can fall into the alcove, but this will cost you one HP and one power level, and if you are on your last HP or last life this is just impossible to do. If you still want to get to the guardian this way, from the top, count the spears downwards, stop in front of the 7th spear, just before the first alcove. Once the spear hits you, you'll come off the ladder, you'll be knocked back against the right wall, quickly hold left so you'll pass the 8th spear and hug the left wall, falling into the 2nd alcove and into the guardian room. Safe path Moving left, a series of ball and chain drops down from an unseen location on the ceiling. Time your movement and get pass them then climb down the ladder to the left. A series of 9 moving platforms on various levels over a large fire pit. On the other side of the pit is a small gap with a chest on the other side containing a power orb and treasure. You can make a small hop to get across but it might be a little hard. Instead jump up the moving platforms and get into the alcove in the middle level. Move right and fall down the shaft while holding left to land right beside the chest instead of falling straight into the fire pit below. If you fall through the small gap, there is a whole bunch of cat girls and sword master below. The right side has the ladder that leads to the shaft with the wall spears, while the left brings you back to the left side of the large fire pit. Jump on the platforms again, this time get up all the way to the ledge on the top right and move to the right. A single chest is on the right side of a collapsing bridge containing a high valued treasure. Step on the right most block and hold right as you fall down into an alcove. The first ladder here leads to a chest with a change orb, just be careful of the 4 wall spears. A bit to the right and you'll reach the long shaft. The guardian room is just below you. Wait for the bottom spear to retract before walking off to the right, once you are clear of the spear immediately hold left and you'll drop in the alcove leading to the guardian. Sword knight Time: 1:30 The final guardian of the game. He is very aggressive. The moment he walks on the screen he'll start thrusting his sword forward twice, then takes a few steps towards you and repeat his sword thrust. In fact he is the exact opposite of the Alien guardian of stage 3, if you don't attack him; he won't stop moving/attacking. Attack him after he does 2 sword thrusts and he'll stop and guard with his sword for a moment. If you are getting cornered you can use this time to get out of it and reposition yourself away from him. Since the battle space is quite small getting cornered is really easy. He's only vulnerable when thrusting his sword. Keep attacking and distance yourself from him and it will be an easy win. Difficulty 7-8: His sword thrust now moves him forward twice as far, closing the distance between you in just one thrust. Demon giant Time: 2:59 Again I have no idea what the boss is suppose to be, but suffice to say it is big, almost twice the length and size of your character. No more flat ground, the environment again becomes hazardous. 3 platforms, 2 small ones on the left and 1 big one on the right. The boss appears on the big platform small at first and quickly grows to normal size. Its main attack is to shoot out a pink ball that splits into 6 other balls forming a hexagon. It can perform this attack repeatedly until it decides to stop, at which point it will most likely jump off screen and lands back on a different platform. Actually, which platform it jumps to depends on which one you are currently standing, if you are on one of the smaller platforms, it will only stay on the big platform, on the big platform it can switch between the 2 smaller platforms. To prevent the ball from splitting up, destroy the original ball and you won't have to worry. Dragonwarrior and Raijin once again come in handy here. Stage 8: God of destruction reincarnates Time: 9:59 (timer continues to count down after each guardian fight) Also known as the "fight all the guardians again" stage. All 7 guardians have been resurrected, and you have to beat them again. The fight is on flat land and with good amount of space to dodge. You'll fight the guardians in the same order as you did during the stages. Use the same tactics before to defeat each one, they're the same as before (the only difference is the 2 sword master accompanying the hell mistress have been upgraded to the blue version, which is a bit more damage resistant) Once you defeat the last guardian, the final battle is about to commence. Before the battle starts, your mentor appears and tells you that Az Atorse is very strong, and asks you to choose a battle form for the last battle. The best one would be Dragonwarrior, followed by Raijin and Samurai, Shinobi is ok for the first part but has trouble on the second, and both the Waterman and Poseidon are useless in this fight. Once you pick your form the battle begins. Note that the form you choose will only last on the first life, should you lose a life you'll be back as Elta. Your chosen form only has the equivalent of Elta's HP (1 to 3) Az Atorse Time: 2:59 You stand on a stage in an alternate dimension; the boss appears in the background and approaches to the foreground. It is comprised of a core carrying a spiky sac on the bottom. Once it appears in the foreground the sac will be vulnerable. The boss has 3 simple attacks. It moves to the left of the screen and fires a 2 way laser bolt diagonally, stay under it and you'll be safe. It repeats the attack on the right side, but fires 3 laser bolt instead, afterwards it moves to the centre and the sac opens and launches 4 small blue fireballs that slowly homes in on you, they can be destroyed. The patterns then repeat. Once you start doing some damage, the spikes on the sac will be destroyed and the laser attack will be gone, the fireballs can still be launched. Keep attacking until the sac falls off. The 2nd part of the battle begins now. With the sac gone, the core starts to rotate clockwise, quickly picking up speed. 8 green balls appear from within and rotate with it for a short time before pausing and shooting out in 8 directions. The pattern then repeats itself. The ball itself is the weak point. Because of how fast the core is rotating, it is very possible the green balls can appear when it rotates to the closest point to the floor, hitting you if you are standing under it. Stay on the side just to be safe. Dragonwarrior and Raijin can take them out easily, while Shinobi might have a bit of hit detection problem with his fireball. The more you destroy, the less chance the ball will hit you when it launches out. Destroy all 8 balls and the core will explode. Congratulation, you have beaten Magician Lord. 8. Credits I would like to thank: ADK for making this challenging platformer. SNK for publishing it. GameFAQs for hosting this FAQ. And all of you who reads it. End