It's old school dungeon crawling in the vein of Dungeon Master or Eye of the Beholder. It has a selector on game start up for which dungeon you want to enter! Think of the re-playability!
A superb engine for endless dungeon crawling fun!
Here's a strategy guide for surviving in the depths of the realms. This Strategy guide for the Legend of Grimrock will be updated over the coming weeks. Expect non-spoiler clues to tough puzzles. And if you like Legend of Grimrock and this FAQ/Spoiler light walkthrough, take a look around the blog - it's a bit of the old school dungeon crawl and how to do it right at the tabletop.
If you have any advice yourself, comment!
General advice:
- Your party formation is a 2x2 square; 1 and 2, in the front left and right respectively, and 3 and 4 in the back left and right. When you turn to the left, your party members 2 and 4 are now facing the direction 1 and 2 were. Remember this when you're turning away from monsters. The 1-4 keys also open up the character sheet for the respective party member.
- 2x2 rooms are great for fighting single enemies in, you can strike and move away before they can turn and retaliate.
- Enemies are tough. If possible, you should attempt to pull them in order to take them on one at a time.
- There are only a limited number of tile-sets. This is by design, not because their wonderful art team couldn't create more tile-sets. Many of the secrets are noticeable because of small differences in the walls. (Real player agency secret detection! Imagine that!!)
- It can be pretty easy to miss things. Remember that you can resurrect at resurrection stones on each level.
- The magic system is rune based, which means you can discover new spells by playing around with the runes! The runes are, in order:
Fire, Life, Air,
Spirituality, Balance, Physicality,
Earth, Death, and Ice.
You don't have to wait to discover the runes to learn new spells, but you may need to get your skill mastery high enough!
Shock: Air (Air Magic 4)
Lightning Bolt: Air + Spirituality (Air Magic 14)
Fire Burst: Fire (Fire Magic 3)
Fireball: Fire+Air+Physicality (Fire Magic 13)
Freeze Bolt: Air+Ice (Ice Magic 13)
Poison Cloud: Earth (Earth Magic 3)
Poison Bolt: Air+Earth (Earth Magic 7)
Ice Shards: Earth+Ice (Ice Magic 3)
Light: Balance + Life (Spellcraft 5)
Darkness: Balance + Death (Spellcraft 5) - Remember that the back row needs either magic, a ranged weapon, a thrown weapon, or a weapon with reach. Don't handicap yourself by arming them with weapons that they can't attack with.
- You can change your party formation by dragging the portraits of your party.
- Don't forget about your other character sheet tabs!
- If an item slot is red, that means you don't have enough skill points to use the items.
- The characters that damage the monster most receive the most experience! Use this to control your development.
- You'll be eating the flesh of monsters to sate your hunger.
- Just get into the dungeon? Look behind you!
- In the small cell where you find the eye, triggering the plate before finding the hidden stone will help you escape.
- IRON DOOR: To open the large Iron Doors on the first level, there are hidden switches right in the room the door is located in. Take the opportunity to open it before descending.
- Torches are the key to the "shelter left/cells right" room in the south east corner.
- You will find a teleporter to some cells in the northwest corner. Inside these locked cells are a skeleton, and a bag. Some switches on the wall will teleport items between cells and down to the end of the corridor. Playing with them will allow you to access both the bag and the skeleton.
- The section with the crows requires a bit of a button loop to find the first key.
- The second key involves a bit of lateral thinking. Find the hidden switch and perform a feat of speed to bypass the teleporter (walking backwards mightmake it easier), and then send something over the pit before traveling over yourself.
- Late in the level is when you first get the mortar & pestle to produce alchemical items.
- There is a room where when you hit a switch, you are ambushed by some mushroom men. Don't miss the nearby sling.
- IRON DOOR: This is as it appears. You must be patient for the door to open. Just step on the pressure plate and wait. I would be ready for a surprise.
- TREASURE: In the spider area, in the room before you find the note, you'll find a switch on a pillar. . .
- You are probably becoming near encumbered at this point. Take a moment to find a safe place to stash some items.
- The first room has the clue by the door. The entrance room has a pillar in the center. It should be easy to figure out what to do from there.
- The room with the skeletons can seem overwhelming, but you can lure them onto the pit and drop them down. You may have to fight them later if you want to access another skull.
- You'll notice two pits in an early room blocking access to a gate with a pressure plateIt appears there's no way to trigger it. There's a secret in the bypass around this room, and another secret inside that secret. Then facing the correct direction will allow you to throw a stone that will trigger that hard to reach plate, for your second missile weapon.
- The rotating transporters can be a bit imposing. There's a pressure plate to the left of the room that will close the center pit. Move to the right, and face that pressure plate and throw something to have it trigger. Then, once the pit is closed, you can stand on it to manipulate the room. Duck over and drop a rock to open up the gate. Run through quickly before the teleporters drop the rock at the entrance.
- Secret: Sacrificing more often than you need to never hurt anyone.
- IRON DOOR: This is your first one that's not given to you on a platter. You'll find a second chamber with a pillar that has no torches in it. If you put torches in the wall sconce, and not the pillars, you'll open up the iron door for a very nice cloak.
- The spiders are deadly and numerous. Ice magic to freeze them is helpful. Watch out for being trapped and cornered, and use antivenom only after taking out a group of spiders.
- Seriously, the spiders are dangerous.
- For all your trouble with the spiders, don't forget to grab the gold key after they are all dealt with. I found it in the middle of a hallway.
- The spectral relay may give you pause, but remember that you can trigger pressure plates by dropping something through a grate.
- Don't miss the secret entrance to level 4, it contains a hard fight against green slimes for a secret treasure. (There's a symbol for door, and sometimes it is on the wall).
- This floor starts with a difficult combat. Once completed, pick up the key and move on.
- There are 4 sections here, the iron door, and a gate between the stairway and you. There are also 4 cubby holes, with text clues for items that go in them.
- Trails of thought
- The first puzzle in this section is a 9x9 grid. The teleporters act as walls. The trick is to follow the pattern in an indirect sequence. A bit of trial and error will get you through this no problem. If you're having trouble with the sequence, write down the order you're going in to try different paths.
- You may see no way to both get the key and move forward, but remember, you can step on the closed pit to get the sequence of opening pits to align.
- In the side passage here, you'll find a small switch. This gives you seven seconds to walk down and hit a switch over the closed pits. This gives you only a short time to dive in the hole where the teleporter is, for an IRON DOOR key.
- Time and Tide
- Why did they give you throwing daggers instead of rocks? Because they are weapons, and should be used like them to solve the puzzle.
- Of course, now that you can cross, I wonder where that teleporter leads?
- In the long hallway where you have to step by step navigate the temporarily closed pits, there is a switch on the right hand wall. It opens a passage, giving you access to the second piece of insect armor - the Chitin Mask.
- What to do about the pit corridor? Across the two pits with no lids, there's a bit of a pressure plate in plain sight. Remember those throwing daggers?
- Beast Gardens and Menagerie
- This may seem endless, and indeed they are. No matter how many you kill, more will arrive. Will you starve to death in endless combat? Put some of them on display as centerpieces of the cells.
- The Catacomb
- Some fights that provide a bit of challenge. Nothing difficult here, just release the pressure plates to pass.
- IRON DOOR: grab the key from Time and Tide
- When you finally put the scrolls in their correct spot, be ready for a bit of the rough and tumble. This is a tough fight. I found myself crafting potions to keep up with the damage from the little skinks. Afterwards you have access to a resurrection stone and a stairway down.
- Right at the start, you must find a hidden button to progress. Don't be too hasty, check for a another button on a wall in the room right past the button for a cloak made from mysterious scales.
- Near the caged crabs, there's a switch on a wall that leads to a hidden dagger.
- The pit room follows a regular pattern. Once beyond, you have several tough fights. You eventually find a room with a key, where a major combat will take place. After the dust settles, if you're still stuck in the room, perhaps leaving a gift where the key was will grant you freedom.
- Don't miss the switch on the far wall. It raises a platform worth investigating.
- On the other side in the abandoned hallways, there's a switch and a pressure plate. The teleporter flashes on to knock items off the pressure plate. When you hit the switch, the gate opens to your left, and the teleporter flashes on. The plate opens the nearby door right past the gate. You can't reach the pressure plate in time to trigger it with your body, perhaps there's some way to trigger the plate from down the corridor so you can make it past the closed door in time.
- IRON DOOR: And the clue says to rest where the Dragon(s) gaze. There are more than one of them. Perhaps where their vision intersects will point you to the place.
- The maze of madness isn't so maddening, you just have to be on the lookout for some hidden switches. Pay close enough attention and you can gain access to a necklace that gives bonus experience.
- In the Halls of Fire you will find a mage's entrance that works like you expect, being that you find a fireball scroll nearby. If you can't cast fireball, there's a nearby hallway with a hidden switch. Hitting that switch will give you a little hidey hole which may allow you to reach the end of the hallway. There you might find a tool that will give you what you need to cross.
- The walkabout is a walkabout. Go round once (Click/Click/Click) and get a stone. Keep walking for some bones and then a sack.
- There is a lot of fighting on this level, especially against ranged fire throwers. Use ranged weapons and quick dodging to slay your opponents.
- There are secrets within secrets near the hallways with the heads that shoot fire, both of them. After three secret switches, one leads to plate (seen on a level above), the other to a challenge for fighters.
- IRON DOOR: This isn't too difficult, there are four keys, one in each section. Find them all and open the iron door.
- Lots of fighting on this level, but you should be powerful enough to handle it
- To find a dagger fit for slayers of men (Assassin's Dagger) look for five switches. Only three of them make noise. Playing with them should do the trick.
- Near the Crystal on this level is a hallway with two doors. There is a pull chain to get into a room with two pressure plates. One raises a gate, and the other fires a missile. A bit of quick stepping will get the missile in the bucket. Prepare for a difficult fight. Afterwards, don't forget to walk around, to find a powerful Earthbound Staff.
- Stuck in the room where the floor opens and shuts? There's a switch hidden on a wall inside the room, in addition to treasure in a cubby hole. Remember, your body can block the spectral ray.
- IRON DOOR: Three demon faces. Any ball makes it to the goal and you get to start over. Your reward? Chitin Boots and a Scroll teaching you the Fire Arrow Spell.
- North section of the Old Tunnels, There is a switch where you find the key in the fungus rooms. Pulling this switch opens a secret chamber nearby with a skull on the ground next to some Nomad Boots.
- This second skull is technically in the archives, but can only be reached from Level 3. Fall down into the pits, and in the back corner, you'll find this skull on the ground. You'll have to do a bit of fighting first.
- Near the 'real' entrance to Level 8, right past the room with three faces and three pits, you'll find a skull in a wall cubby hole.
