The VAMPIRE

Earth Cave

Since the Titan's Tunnel is blocked, your quest will take you to the Earth Cave and the VAMPIRE within. The Earth Cave is similar in some respects to the Marsh Cave, although there is only a single path and it covers more ground. You are less likely to run into monsters that seriously outclass your party here, but there are plenty of new threats to keep you on your toes. Make sure you bring along a few SOFT Potions, as you will encounter the Stone status here for the first time. A large stock of HEAL Potions is also important.

As with your quest to retrieve the CROWN, you will have to descend three levels, fight a boss, and then fight your way back up three levels without a break. You will likely want to make several trips to collect treasure before heading toward the VAMPIRE's lair.

Earth Cave B1

The first floor is the most interesting one you'll see on this trip. You'll find three treasure rooms, each with a nasty EARTH guardian that can be avoided if you're careful. The infamous GIANT's Hallway can be reached by following either western path from the entrance. The regular encounters aren't without threats, either.

The most common foe on this floor is a group of COBRAS, which you may have seen as guardians of locked treasures in the Marsh Cave. Despite the name, they are not Poisonous, and in fact are not generally very dangerous. However, they have a very high critical hit rate, which will allow them to dish out surprising amounts of damage even to a FIGHTER. You'll also find their poisonous ASP cousins in large numbers, who are a threat to inflict Poison.

GARGOYLES make their return, and are still a significant threat to lightly armored warriors. Having Silver Bracelets will help mitigate the damage of their four attacks. The same goes for the new BULLS you will meet here, who attack twice for moderate damage, but lack much in the way of defense beyond their 164 HP.

The entrance sits in the center of six branching paths. The path south is a dead end, and the direct eastern path leads to B2. The northern and southeastern paths lead to treasure rooms. The two western paths contain no loot, but they are an excellent place to earn Experience and Gold, if you have the mettle.

The western halls connect in a vertical hallway that is chock full of GIANTS and IGUANAS. Every step inside the hallway, or even one step outside of it, will result in a battle against this combination of foes. These are by no means easy battles, but the average reward is double the Experience of other encounters on this floor, and more than triple the Gold. GIANTS hit hard and have a lot of HP, but lack any special attacks. If you are up to it, see how many you can destroy. There's no reason to actually enter the hallway, since you can simply patrol the entrance for as long as you want and leave when resources get low, but it can be fun to see if you can survive a trip from end to end.

The treasure room to the north contains 1,975 G. Approaching this chest from the east will trigger a battle with an EARTH. If you choose to fight, use every resource at your disposal. EARTHS are basically boss-level monsters at this point in the game, dishing out incredible damage and featuring plenty of Absorb and resistance to most elements. They have a weakness to Fire which can be exploited, but the damage will not be very consistent. Al alternate strategy is to use FAST on your best melee combatants. Defensive buffs can help, but their Hit Rate and Damage are so high that you may not even notice.

The southeastern path splits, with either branch leading to another treasure room. To the east, you'll find 795 G and a PURE Potion. Approaching the pair of chests to the northeast side will lead to another battle with EARTH, which can be easily avoided by hooking around to the southwest instead. The western branch leads to a treasure room with 880 G and a HEAL Potion. This too is guarded by EARTH—that encounter will occur just south of the right side chest. You can safely approach the left chest, but hook around to open the right chest from the east to avoid this battle.

Note that each EARTH encounter is worth more Experience (but less Gold) than an average GIANT's Hallway encounter. I wouldn't recommend leveling against such dangerous creatures, but it is a good test to see if you can defeat the ones here.

Earth Cave B2

B2 is a strange-looking floor consisting of what appears to be a large number of interconnected rooms. You won't find any COBRAS on this floor, but you will find more GARGOYLES and OGRES. WrWOLVES also begin to appear in large packs with GrWOLVES. You may run into a GIANT or a TROLL every now and then as well. TROLLS are similar to BULLS with a third attack, which is to say they can be fairly dangerous. They are weak to Fire, but your Fire spells will be more effective in other encounters.

Navigating this floor can be tricky, but the layout isn't as complex as it seems. The southern path loops around to the middle, which can be reached more quickly by heading east and then southeast. Near the center of the floor, the path branches again. The southern path leads to a treasure room containing 5,575 G and a Wooden Shield, but beware: an EARTH guards the doorway, and you must fight it both entering and exiting this room to collect the treasures within.

There is another treasure room at the north end of the eastern part of the floor. This contains a CABIN, 330 G, and the Coral Sword, a weapon similar in function to the Dragon Sword with a higher crit rate. This treasure room is unguarded.

Once you've collected all the treasures, head toward the southeast corner to find the stairs leading to B3.

Earth Cave B3

This is where things begin to get serious. You'll see a lot more WrWOLVES, and more than a few WIZARDS as well. They are still dangerous due to their pair of powerful attacks, though they lack the HP to withstand a focused physical assault. Keep in mind that, as in the Marsh Cave, you cannot run from WIZARDS.

On B3 you'll be introduced to two more varieties of Paralyzing Undead: SPECTERS, which appear with GEISTS, and IMAGES. SPECTERS are arguably less dangerous than their GEIST brethren, since they only get one attack and are thus less likely to cause Paralysis. A simple level 1 HARM will take out the majority of them. IMAGES have more HP and very high Evade, so you may want to use FIR2 or HRM2 to deal with them.

The biggest potential threat on the floor is the COCTRICE, weak little birds that can appear in large groups. They are very easy to kill, and their attacks barely hurt, but they can turn warriors to Stone. SOFT Potions are expensive and limited, so destroy COCTRICES with extreme prejudice. They are a good target for a tier-2 attack spell. If things go south quickly, don't hesitate to run.

You may also run into MUMMIES, which inflict Sleep rather than Paralysis with their powerful attacks, and the super-rare OOZES, who hit hard but die easy.

The layout of this floor is a big counter-clockwise circle that begins and ends at the bottom. There are five rooms to be found before the VAMPIRE's lair, four of which contain treasure. The first contains a TENT and is not guarded. The second is found off a branching path in the northeast part of the floor. There you will find a HEAL Potion that has an EARTH guardian directly south of the chest. You can approach it from the sides to avoid this encounter, which is a wise move if you're running low on resources.

The third room is at the top center of the floor, and contains 3,400 G. Another EARTH guardian lies south of the chest, and can once again be avoided by approaching the chest from the sides. The northwest room contains only bats, but the tiny western treasure room contains 1,020 G and an unavoidable fight with yet another EARTH.

VAMPIRE

Once you reach the southern part of the circle, you will find the VAMPIRE. He is easy to kill, especially if you have FIR2 or HRM2 available, but he hits incredibly hard—harder than EARTH, and with a Paralysis effect to boot. 1/4 of the time he will use DAZZLE, which also causes Paralysis but doesn't deal any damage. Consider yourself lucky when he does this. Magic is your best offense against the VAMPIRE, but physical attacks will work in a pinch.

With the VAMPIRE defeated, you can pick up the RUBY from the nearby chest. If you head north, you'll find a strange stone plate you can't move. If you examine it, you sense something evil. That's odd... in any case, there's nothing left to do here for now. You'll have to fight your way back out of the dungeon, at which point you'll want to use a CABIN or similar item to save.