Tips for Exploring?

[Castor Troy]

I just started the game and got to the first tower. There are many different branching paths and I'm not sure which way to go. There are paths that go down, up, and some that are on the same level.

I will explore them all, but are there any general tips on which way to go if I'm not sure? I had read that the objectives are usually on the higher levels, rather than down in lower levels. I'm not sure if that's true for the whole game. This is my first Dragon Quest game.

[atmasabr]

I'm a believer in always trying to go the wrong way in RPG dungeons, so that you get all the treasure. Which way to go is just something you'll have to learn from experience. You have to start somewhere. This game is where I started. The NES version of this game was maybe my third top-down RPG, and definitely the first one with lots of chests in dungeons instead of you're just trying to find the goal like a needle in a haystack.

To answer your question, in this version of the game checking the map with the press of a button will show you all the doors and stairs. In general, the way forward is the furthest door or stairway, and the nearer ones are either dead ends or treasure, but this game does NOT follow this rule 100% of the time. Also you usually want to do seemingly dumb things at least once. "Wrong way" floors usually have treasure, too.

Oh, and you should generally expect that you might want to make more than one trip in case you need healing. Don't sell your Chimera Wings.

In towers you climb up. In caves you usually go down. Sometimes the dungeon is such a maze you're going both up and down.

[alex010300]

Exploring is good, to farm xp, gold and treasure chest hunting.

[El Nasr]

Just open your map at thé entrance of each floor and prepare a circuit depending of each dead end you ses ans let the closest exit as your next destination...
Dragon Qu'est have a big battle frequency but its not hard at all to find your way like this...

[Inspector Gesicht]

You will need a thief to find all the collectibles.