Dragonslayer

This page describes Dragonslayer, a computer game with a Dungeons and Dragons theme. More specifically it's a "Roguelike" game (which means based on the classic text game Rogue) but played from first person perspective. In the screenshot above you can see a dungeon corridor, with a branch off to the right and another branch leading ahead to a room, with a weapon on the ground and a few monsters nearby.

Turns: This is a turn based game (similar to computer games like Rogue and Nethack, or a board game). After you decide what move to make, all monsters quickly do so in turn. Strategy and thinking are important, so you shouldn't treat it like an video game where speed and reflexes matter.

Graphics: You play from a first person perspective, seeing through the eyes of your adventurer hero. First person means you should keep an eye out in all directions, because you can be attacked from behind. Graphics are pretty simple, with everything as block tokens (again like a board game), and icons on the ground indicating the various types of items.

Gameplay

At the top of the screen is the message list, showing things that have taken place since you made your last turn, like the results of your last action or monsters attacking you. At the bottom of the screen is the status line, which contains the following:

1. Level: Dungeon level. You start on dungeon level 1, and on each level seek the pit leading down to the next deeper level.
2. WC: Weapon class. How much damage your wielded weapon can do to monsters.
3. AC: Armor class. How much your worn armor can reduce damage monsters do when they hit you.
4. Str: Strength. Affects your carrying capacity and how much damage you can do.
5. Dex: Dexterity. Affects how likely you are to hit monsters, and also avoid being hit by them.
6. HP: Hit points. Current health (before slash), and maximum possible health (after slash). If this falls to zero you die!
7. Exp: Experience. Experience level (before slash), and total experience points (after slash). You should expect to get over experience level 10 by the end of game.
8. Kill: Kills. The number of monsters you've killed so far. If you clear out every dungeon level, this number will reach around 150 by the end of game.

The arrow keys are the main commands for movement. The up arrow key moves you forward one square, while the down arrow backs you up one square. The left and right arrows rotate 90 degrees in place, and are free actions which don't take up time or end your turn. Shift+left or right arrow sidesteps or strafes to the square to your left or right, leaving you facing the same direction. Shift+up arrow runs or automatically moves down the current passage until you reach the next passage junction, object, or monster. Moving into a square occupied by a monster attacks it with your wielded weapon. After you die (or after you win) you can still move around to see other parts of the level. Beyond movement, there are 10 main commands:

1. F1 or "?" - Help: This command redisplays the help text that appears at start of game.
2. F2 - Restart: This command restarts a new game, erasing any game in progress. Use it after you die (or after you win).
3. F3 or "c" - Close: Close a door in the square in front of you. You can't close doors if a creature is standing in the way.
4. F4 or "." - Pause: Do nothing, and let the monsters take their next action.
5. F5 or "," - Get: Pick up an item you're standing over, placing it in your first available inventory slot.
6. F6 or "d" - Drop: Drop an item from your inventory. Your inventory is shown, after which you select the letter of a slot to indicate the item to drop.
7. F7 or "i" - Inventory: Display your inventory. You start with four inventory slots, labeled "A" through "D", which start out empty. You can gain up to 20 slots, through Strength Potions and gaining levels. Checking inventory is a free action which doesn't end your turn.
8. F8 or "a" - Use: Apply or (un)wield an item. Your inventory is shown, after which you select a slot to indicate the item to use. Using a weapon wields it, or unwields the weapon (becoming barehanded) if already wielded. Using a potion or scroll destroys it and gives you its benefit.
9. F9 - Map: Displays a map of the current dungeon level, showing rooms, passages, doors, and the shafts from the previous and to the next level. The map only shows the level as it was initially created, and won't reflect later changes (such as made with a Wand of Digging).
10. F10 - Rotation: Toggles the animation speed when moving and rotating, in determining how many intermediate frames are displayed along the way to your new configuration. Fewer frames improves speed on slower computers, while many frames looks smoother on faster computers.

Dungeon

There are 20 different randomly generated dungeon levels in Dragonslayer, summarized in the following table:

• Level type: Most levels are dungeons, composed of several rooms connected by corridors. A few levels are different, such as open arenas or pure Mazes.
• Wall appearance: Most dungeon levels feature rooms with brick walls, with stone corridors between them. Stone walls are grey, while brick walls may be of different color depending on the level. Crystal walls and jungle appear on certain levels.
• Monster count: Most levels feature between 5 and 10 monsters. The exact number as well as the monsters themselves are randomly generated.
• Monsters appearing: The weakest monsters can appear on any dungeon level. However strong monsters won't appear on the earliest levels, to avoid overwhelming encounters. Each level indicates the monsters that first appear on it.

There are 5 special levels in Dragonslayer:

• 1) Entry: This is the only level with no roof and open to the sky (which is randomly either daytime or night), and with an entrance leading outside the dungeon altogether. Other than that it behaves like any standard dungeon level.
• 5) Jungle: Most dungeon levels have brick walls for rooms, with stone walls for the passages in between. This level has blue crystal walls for rooms, with jungle plants for the passages in between. It behaves like any standard dungeon level (except it always contains 10 monsters) although its unique appearance hints that every 5th level is special.
• 10) Gladiator arena: This level is completely open, with no interior walls. There are always 10 monsters. With no walls to hide behind, this is a dangerous level in which you can quickly get surrounded. Below the gladiator arena, the levels get darker.
• 15) Maze: This level is a dense Maze of stone walls, with no rooms anywhere. The pit to the next level will be down a random dead end. There are always 10 monsters, at least 5 of which are Minotaurs. Below the Maze, the levels get very dark.
• 20) Dragon's lair: The final level contains the Dragon boss monster (and nothing else), which you must defeat to win the game. It's another open arena, fully lit, with the same crystal walls as the jungle level.

Items

There are 50 different items in Dragonslayer. These items fall in six different categories:

• Weapon: Wield a weapon to do more damage to monsters when attacking them. Weapons can be enchanted to increase their damage.
• Armor: Wear armor to reduce damage monsters do when they hit you. Armor can be enchanted to increase its protection.
• Amulet: Wear an amulet to give yourself some beneficial effect. An amulet can be enchanted which usually improves its magical effects.
• Potion: Drink a potion to improve your body in some manner. Drinking a potion destroys it in the process.
• Scroll: Read a scroll to bring forth some magical effect. Reading a scroll destroys it in the process.
• Wand: Zap a wand to affect objects or monsters in the direction you're facing. Wands have a limited number of charges, and each zap uses a charge.

More details about specific items:

• Twig: At weapon class 0, fighting with a Twig does no more damage than fighting barehanded. You can at least enchant a Twig, although it's better to save Enchant Weapon scrolls for when you get a high damage weapon. If you have a Wand of Polymorph, change the Twig into something with higher damage.
• Sword Named Excalibur: This is the best weapon in the game. If you find one, and don't already have a highly enchanted lesser weapon above WC 10, you can stay with Excalibur and ignore all other weapons that appear.
• Shirt: At armor class 0, wearing a Shirt gives no benefit beyond not wearing anything. You can at least enchant a Shirt, although it's better to save Enchant Armor scrolls for when you get high protection armor. Polymorph the Shirt into something with higher protection.
• Dragon Scale Mail: This is the best armor in the game. If you find one, and don't already have highly enchanted lesser armor higher than AC 10, you can stay with Dragon Scale Mail and ignore all further armor that appears.
• Pretty Amulet: Has no effect when worn. Polymorph it into a more useful amulet.
• Strength Amulet: Raises your strength by one, plus an additional one per each enchantment. Provides all benefits of higher strength, except does not increase your carrying capacity.
• Dexterity Amulet: Raises your dexterity by one, plus an additional one per each enchantment. Provides all benefits of higher dexterity.
• Toughness Amulet: Raises your maximum hitpoints by five, plus an additional five per each enchantment. Does not heal any hp when worn, so your current hp won't become the new maximum right away.
• Protection Amulet: Raises your AC by one, plus an additional one per each enchantment.
• Regeneration Amulet: Normally you automatically heal 1 hp every 5 turns. This amulet makes you heal 2 hp every 5 turns. Each enchantment increases the regeneration by one, e.g. a twice enchanted amulet regenerates 4 hp every 5 turns.
• Life Saving Amulet: If you are reduced to 0 hp when wearing this, you don't die, but instead are fully healed. The amulet however is destroyed in the process. Very useful, especially for the final Dragon fight. Enchanting has no additional benefit, as the amulet is still destroyed upon use.
• Potion of Water: Heals you for 1 hitpoint. This benefit is so minor as to be effectively worthless, making the potion the perfect candidate for polymorphing into something better.
• Potion of Healing: Heals you for 10 hitpoints. This benefit is also minor, so the potion is also a prime polymorph candidate.
• Potion of Extra Healing: Heals you for 50 hitpoints. This can be useful in the final Dragon fight, since the most damage the Dragon can do to you is 30 hp, so healing for 50 is guaranteed to put you ahead that turn.
• Potion of Gain Level: Gives you just enough experience points to raise you to the next level, giving you all benefits of gaining a level naturally through combat. Earlier levels are achieved quicker than later levels, meaning this has a bigger potential effect if used later in the game. Regardless, the best time to use the potion is right after you've gained a level naturally through combat.
• Potion of Constitution: Raises your maximum hitpoints by 5. Also heals you by 5 hp.
• Potion of Strength: Raises your strength by one. Also increases your carrying capacity by one.
• Potion of Dexterity: Raises your dexterity by one.
• Blank Scroll: Does nothing when read. Unlike other scrolls, not destroyed when read. Polymorph it into a more useful scroll.
• Scroll of Enchant Weapon: Increases the enchantment of the weapon you're wielding by one. Can't be read if you're not wielding a weapon.
• Scroll of Enchant Armor: Increases the enchantment of the armor you're wearing by one. Can't be read if you're not wearing armor.
• Scroll of Enchant Amulet: Increases the enchantment of the amulet you're wearing by one. Can't be read if you're not wearing an amulet.
• Scroll of Charge Wand: Adds 5 charges to the first wand in your inventory. Can't be read if you have no wands. If you have more than one wand, make sure the one you wanted enchanted is in an earlier inventory slot.
• Scroll of Teleportation: Teleports you to a random location of the level. This can be used to escape dangerous monsters giving you a chance to heal. Note that you may randomly appear very close to your original location, so escape isn't guaranteed.
• Scroll of Create Monster: Adds a new level appropriate monster to the space in front of you.
• Scroll of Create Door: Adds a door to the space in front of you. Can't be read if there's anything already in the space (such as a monster, item, existing door, or pit). Monsters can't open doors, so this can be used to cover your escape, especially if used to block a narrow passage.
• Wand of Nothing: Does nothing when zapped, although still wastes a charge. Polymorph it into a more useful wand.
• Wand of Probing: Displays info about all monsters along the line of fire, including their Strength, Dexterity, and current and maximum hp. It's useful to get stats for unknown monsters, although not really needed with a spoiler page like this one. Also a prime polymorph candidate.
• Wand of Striking: Does 10 damage to all monsters along the line of fire. The wand always hits, which can be useful to damage dexterous monsters you have difficulty hitting in melee. However, the wand will never kill a monster. If a zap ever does less than 10 damage, then you know the monster has been reduced to its last 1 hp, which can only be removed in combat.
• Wand of Digging: Removes walls along the line of fire. Does nothing to items or creatures, although closed doors will be opened. This can be used to create an escape route if you're cornered. Even in the completely open arena levels, you can dig one space into the wall.
• Wand of Teleportation: Teleports items and monsters along the line of fire to random locations of the level. This can be used to banish dangerous monsters giving you a chance to heal. Note that teleported monsters have a chance to randomly appear very close to you, so escape isn't guaranteed.
• Wand of Polymorph: Changes all items and monsters along the line of fire. Items turn into a random item in the same class, and polymorphed items maintain the same number of enchantments and charges. This is great to turn worthless items into things you can actually use. Line up unwanted items in a row, then zap the wand from one end and see what they turn into. Beware that polymorphed monsters may not be level appropriate. Monsters will never polymorph into a Dragon, and the Dragon will resist and stop any Polymorph zaps that hit it.

Monsters

There are 26 different monsters in Dragonslayer, one for each letter of the alphabet. Each monster has the following statistics:

• Level: The first dungeon level at which the monster can start appearing. The monster's level also determines how many experience points you gain for slaying it. You gain (level times level) for a monster. For example, a level 5 monster (regardless of where it's encountered) gives 25 XP.
• HP: Hitpoints. The number of hp the monster has when it's generated. Monsters don't heal over time like you do.
• Str: Strength. The maximum hp damage the monster can do when it hits you.
• Dex: Dexterity. How likely the monster is able to hit you and avoid your hits, higher numbers meaning more agile.
• Behavior: Most monsters chase you, however a few have other behaviors. Some flee or run away from you, some ignore you and move randomly, and others are frozen and stand still. All monsters, even those who normally run away, stop and attack you if you're next to them.
• Speed: Most monsters are as fast as you, and move whenever you do. Some monsters are slow (half speed) and only move every other turn, others are fast (double speed) and take two moves for each of yours, and others don't move at all. All monsters, regardless of their move speed, attack you once per turn if you're next to them.

Most monsters have strength and dexterity both roughly 2x their level, and hitpoints roughly 4x their level. In general, any monster with a stat lower than its level is abnormally weak in that area, and any monster with a stat more than three times its level is abnormally powerful in that area.

• Roadblocks: High Dex and low Str makes a "roadblock" monster, like the Imp, Leprechaun, and Nymph. It takes a long time to kill them because they're so agile, but they don't do much damage to you. They do slow you down and can block escape, allowing other monsters to catch up to you.
• Dice: High Str and low HP makes a "die" monster, like the Elemental and especially the Quantum Vortex, because fighting them is like rolling dice in which a bad roll can make you "die". You can usually kill them in one hit without taking any damage, however if they get a lucky hit in they can seriously hurt you. The Quantum Vortex can do up to 50 damage, so it's risky to even be next to one if you have 50 or fewer hp. Similar are monsters with high Str & hp and low Dex, like the Pudding and Giant Worm. You can damage them easily, but it takes a while to chew through all their hp. They aren't likely to hit you during the process, but if they do connect it will do serious damage.
• Terminators: Double speed monsters that chase you are "terminator" monsters, like the Vampire and Dragon. Because they move twice your speed, there's no way to escape them without teleportation scrolls or wands, so you're forced to fight them until one of you dies. The Vampire is probably the 2nd deadliest monster in the game after the Dragon itself.

Combat

Offense: When you attack a monster, you hit if a random number from 0 to your (dexterity + experience level) is greater than a random number from 0 to the monster's (dexterity). If so, then you do damage equal to a random number from 0 to your (weapon class + strength + experience level) minus a random number from 0 to the monster's (level). In formula terms: "if Random(Dex + Level) > Random(MonsterDex) then damage = Random(WC + Str + Level) - Random(MonsterLevel) [can't be negative]."

Defense: When a monster attacks you, it hits if a random number from 0 to the monster's (dexterity) is greater than a random number from 0 to your (dexterity + experience level). If so, then it does damage equal to a random number from 0 to monster's (strength) minus a random number from 0 to your (armor class + experience level). In formula terms: "if Random(MonsterDex) > Random(Dex + Level) then damage = Random(MonsterStr) - Random(AC + Level) [can't be negative]."

Armor: Armor acts as effective damage reduction, potentially reducing damage you or monsters take by up to the AC value. Monsters have effective AC equal to their level. There's a subtle technical difference between a miss and a hit for 0 damage. A miss failed to connect in the first place, while a hit for 0 damage was a low damage value combined with a high AC value which reduced the actual damage to 0. Good armor is important to stay alive against the powerful monsters in the dungeon. For example, simple unenchanted Ring Mail (AC 4) will on average reduce the damage of every hit you take by 2.

Experience: Every time you defeat a monster, you gain experience equal to (monster level) squared. For example, a level 6 monster always gives 36 XP. When your XP reaches the next threshold, you gain an experience level. Your level factors into many formulas, effectively making gaining a level equivalent to potions of Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution, along with scrolls of Enchant Weapon and Armor, all in one! The table below indicates the experience points needed to reach each level, and the delta of how many additional points are needed to reach the next level.

Tactics (general): Fight one monster at a time, which means don't let yourself get surrounded. If you must face multiple monsters, focus on eliminating one at a time, usually starting with the most dangerous, to reduce the damage you take over time. When encountering a new monster, let it be the one to move next to you if possible, so you can make the first attack.

Tactics (fleeing): Monsters can't move or attack diagonally. If you're low on health, and a standard speed monster is next to you, instead of fighting you can run in circles (or even just move back and forth) while it chases you. You can slowly regain health in the process, as long as no other monsters appear to corner you. This does not work for fast double speed monsters, because they can move next to you and then hit you, before you get a chance to move again.

Tactics (Dragon): The Dragon at the end is the toughest monster in the dungeon, and can easily kill you if you're not careful. Useful items and tactics in the dragon fight are:

• Amulet of Life Saving: The simplest strategy is to wear one, then fight the Dragon normally until the amulet gets used. Then immediately put on another if you have one.
• Potion of Extra Healing: The most damage the Dragon can ever do to you is 30 hp, so healing for 50 is guaranteed to put you ahead that turn. You want to drink it (or have something else planned) if you have less than or equal to 30 hp, since the Dragon has the potential to kill you on its next turn.
• Wand of Striking: As the Dragon charges toward you, zap the Dragon as many times as you can to remove 10 hp at a time. Monsters like to approach you on a diagonal, so you want to sidestep to get lined up with it.
• Wand of Teleportation: Zap it at the Dragon to teleport it away from you. Then repeat the process with the Wand of Striking. You can't take damage if the Dragon never gets a chance to take a swing at you.
• Scroll of Create Door: The Dragon won't open doors, so read two while in a corner of the arena, and the Dragon can't reach you, giving you a chance to heal.
• Wand of Digging: You can dig an alcove in the arena wall, allowing you to move into it so you're only reachable from one direction. That allows just one Scroll of Create Door instead of two to be enough to create a base.

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