A Walk Through Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown

A walk through of a Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown

Introduction

Welcome to a Bard's Tale: Tales of The Unknown, perhaps the first if not one of the first computer games and definitively an inspiration for all fantasy RPG's to follow.

This game is surprisingly complex, very interesting, highly amusing and considerably difficult to say the least, if not entirely frustrating and completely punishing.

Check out the YouTube Playlist that I made for video walk throughs!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5N_1XcxNP7ehvCZdmGW0C5b8lFafQ5Fk

It's my first video series and there are some things I didn't anticipate so it needs re-doing but if you watch the videos at .5x speed, the footage should be slowed down enough to follow.

The Bard's Tale Trilogy Remastered

Coincidentally after starting this guide I looked in the Steam store for more Bard's Tale game's and found this trilogy as a standalone remastered edition.

Check for it in the Steam Store if you haven't already, I purchased the a sale copy for a whopping $3.74 + tax.

While the Remastered edition may be a similar game, it is also entirely different in terms of the combat experience and many other features such as the loot system being adjusted and spells unbroken. There are Legacy options that can be ticked and un-ticked to change the game-play experience, however the classic edition maintains a much grittier feel.

Fixing the Game Save Function

In order to properly save your game files, first open the local file location for The Bard's Tale via the Steam game management interface, minimize the window and open a second file management window:

Enter the following into the file search function:

%AppData%

This should take you to the AppData Folder, enter the AppData folder labeled Local, you may need to go up one folder level to find the local folder:

You should now be here:
AppData\Local

Then find the folder labeled inXile Entertainment and enter the next folder labeled The Bards Tale:

It should look like this
AppData\Local\inXileEntertainment\TheBardsTale

Find the file labeled:

iib1

Cut this file, return to the local file location opened via Steam, paste the file iib1 into this file location.

Now open The Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown, select the available character management disk, create a custom character, return the party to the adventure guild and select Leave then press Enter to close the game out.

Re-Open The Bard's Tale, select Start Game and then check to make sure that the custom character has been saved.

If the custom character saved, pat yourself on the back and tell yourself congratulations, you can now successfully save a game state. Now you can officially begin your Bard's Tale adventure.

Basic Controls

As a game released in 1985, the control functions are rudimentary at best, the game can be played with the keyboard alone and does support some basic mousing point and click functions.

Command entries are performed by selecting the bold letter of the related actions that appear in the text box, for example:

Start game means select S to start the game.

Attack means press A to attack an enemy.

To Save progress always end a game session in the Adventure Guild and select Remove all members to store the party, Leave the game and then press Enter to confirm. This will then take you back to the main menu.

Outside the Adventure Guild use the arrow keys to move around, alternatively the player can also mouse in directions by clicking around the sides of the game image box:

Up Arrow to move forward
Back Arrow to 180
Left/Right Arrow to turn in the respective direction

To open a character menu simply mouse click the character name or enter #1-6 to select the respective character.

To view a mages spell book press C to Cast outside of combat and then mouse click the mages name, their spell book will open for a review of their full spell names. Once available, always remember to Cast either MYSH or YMCA with the party Magician once learned for an ambient buff that will lower the party AC score by -2.

To make the party Bard sing a song press B for Bard Song and select from one of the six songs available. Outside of combat, the Travelers tune, or song #5 should always be maintained to lower the party AC Score.

While in dungeons, press K to Kick doors in.

To maneuver through portals, cast LEVI with a Conjurer or use MALE at higher levels for an indefinite spell. Stand on top or directly under the portal then push D to Decend or E to Elevate. Just remember that D is for Down and E is for Elevate.

Inside of combat, follow the command prompts to either:

Fight
Run

Attack
Defend
Use Item
Cast Spell

Left/Right Arrow keys to slow or speed the combat text.

Attempts at Running from battle are less successful the more enemies are being encountered. In the case of low health and strong enemy situations, it is more often than not a better option to stand and fight in order to reduce the enemy count before making an attempt at Running.

Sacrificing one or two party members will always be more noble than simply selecting Defend and trying to run which will get the entire party killed.

The A-Team

Checking the Add Character section will reveal the a pre-made set of characters known as the A-Team.

Ironically enough, the A-Team should be known as the B-Team because any well rolled custom character at level 1 is inherently stronger and will scale better per level increase than any member of the A-Team.

What the A-Team is however, is a generic team building format that the player should utilize to better understand the game. The A-Team consists of:

Brian the Fist: Level 2 Human Paladin
Samson: Level 2 Dwarven Warrior
El Cid: Level 2 Half-Elf Bard
Markus: Level 2 Hobbit
Merlin: Level 2 Conjurer
Omar: Level 2 Magician

Upon starting the game, it is recommended to gold mine temporary characters for a massive pool of gold, this is described later, which will be used to purchase Plate Armor for Brian the Fist and Samson, a Halberd for Samson, a Mace for El Cid and a Staff for Merlin. Brian and Samson start with Chainmail armor which should be replaced by Plate Armor. Samson, El Cid and Merlin start with a Broadsword, War Axe and Dagger, respectively, these should be replaced by the Halberd, Mace and Staff. At this point the party will be as "strong" as possible and the farming can begin. Be extremely careful not to sell El Cid's Fire Horn.

The penultimate benefit provided by this team is the fact that Merlin and Omar start at level 2, which means that they only need a single level up in order to acquire the first tier of spells which will allow Merlin to heal a single member of the team at a time and grant Omar a stronger attack buff. The tier two spells will come two levels later and grant Merlin the ability to deal group damage and Omar the ability to cast a long lasting party buff that lowers their AC score.

The ultimate benefit and single redeeming factor is that El Cid is equipped with a Fire Horn which can be Used as an Item in battle do deal group damage of 30-50 per unit, thus giving him the ability to clear mobs of units that would potential kill the entire party such as when attacked by a group of 8 Barbarians while the party is still level 2 and only has roughly 20 hp a piece.

Make sure to use the Fire Horn sparingly as it has a limited number of casts, it has maybe 10 uses and then it will disappear with no warning after these casts have been used. However, make sure to utilize this item to clear large mobs of tough enemies that the party cannot and it will make the early game leveling much easier since the party will not need to be afraid to wander the streets until it is gone.

I.E. Do use the Firehorn on large groups of Wolves, Barbarians, Half-Orcs, Swordsmen, Nomads etc. These should be the toughest enemies to fight right of the bat.

Don't use the Firehorn on large groups of Kobolds, Gnomes, Hobgoblins, Dwarves, Hobbits, etc... as they tend to die in a single physical hit anyways and are not a clear and present danger to the party.

While this party may feel strong at the start, that feeling of strength will quickly diminish as they have a very difficult time traveling further than the Sewers Level 1 at a party level of 10 due to low HP gains, low AC score gains, a low mana pool between both mages and just generally not being able to survive very long.

It is highly recommended to clone this party configuration at the start of the game to use as a B-Team which will quickly become an actual A-Team.

Creating Party Members

To create a custom party simply, Select Create a Member in the Adventure Guild and just roll for stats until the player has found a stat range that suits their needs.

Irregardless of whether it is Paladin, Warrior, Hunter, or Monk, the player should generally be looking for a point spread between 15-18 in strength and dexterity, with a constitution of 12+ and the highest starting HP possible

For Bard's, the player should look for generally all around decent stats. Preferably a high dexterity, constitution and luck score, strength really doesn't matter since Bard's are purposefully nerfed and only deal the raw damage of the weapon they have equipped which is why a Mace is recommended over the War Axe because the Mace rolls for 1d8 and the War Axe rolls for 2d6. There is really no difference between the weapons except that the Mace has a higher damage potential while a War Axe is potentially more consistent in the damage range that it deals at a maximum of 6 instead of 8.

For example, my El Cid has 12 strength and my custom Bard has 17 strength and only deals average deals +2 more damage than El Cid does with the same Mithril Sword equipped, which rolls for 2d6 like the War Axe. In the end El Cid is arguably better since his fully buffed AC score is -4 and the custom Bard's is -2, so even though El Cid hit's for less, they are still a better character because they can dungeon trawl for longer.

For Mages, the player is simply looking for a high intelligence score of 16-18 with the largest mana pool possible, the mana pool is hidden, so creating a well stocked mana character can be annoying since it requires the added step of creating the character, hoping it turns out okay then checking the character page and if necessary, deleting and re-making the character.

Conjurer's seem to have an inherently higher mana pool than Magician's do. I'm unsure if this is a due to passive class abilities, or if this is simply a coincidence, but the Conjurer seems to scale mana at a faster rate than the Magician does. Conversely, the Magician seems to build more HP per level.

For a Rogue, the player is looking for a high Dexterity score and a high Luck score of 12-15, if possible. Rogues may make for better combat classes than a Bard but they can also be kept in reserve since their health will decrease overtime due to triggering traps while attempting to disarm treasure chests.

The player can choose to Create A Member and select from these races:

Human: Generally good stats all around

Elf: Magic oriented warrior class

Dwarf: Stout, healthy people that make good warriors and are less inclined to magic

Hobbit: Lucky rogue types

Half-Elf: Still magic oriented but slightly stronger physically than an Elf

Half-Orc: Stronger than a human, could probably out-compete with a Dwarf

Gnome: The most magically inclined of all, relatively slow even though they are described as "nimble"

The starting classes to choose from are:

Paladin: Magically resistant warriors that gain access to special Paladin only equipment

Warrior: The classic combat class, can equip the heaviest of armor and weapons

Bard: Has the ability to cast ambient buffs on party via Bard Songs, but has nerfed combat abilities

Hunter: Close range critical attacks, tends to generate the lowest starting armor class, over time they gain the ability to occasionally one-shot enemies

Rogue: Has the ability to "Hide in the Shadows" for increased critical hit chance

Monk: Monks benefit from a weapon until level 4 after which they should be unarmed and will have a naturally lowering AC score as they level up, they are said to be the best combat class, but for the purpose of this guide, we will be focusing on cloning the "A-Team for the moment".

Conjurer: A white and black mage all in one, this magic casting class starts with the ability to deal damage and gains healing magic after purchasing the next tier of spells

Magician: A utility mage class that can initially buff the attack of a single character and eventually begins to deal damage and heal but not until after purchasing the third tier of spells

Stats to Consider

Strength, the higher the strength the higher the attack damage and the lower the damage spread

Constitution, the higher the constitution the more health points the character will gain over time

Dexterity, the higher the dexterity, the lower the AC score and the greater the evade chance

Intelligence, is only important for mages and dictates the gain of mana points over time

Luck, is a general random number modifier, the higher the luck the better the loot

Equipping Characters
Exiting the guild, turning left once to face north and moving forward about 3 to 4 paces then turning right once to face the building in the middle of the plaza directly north of the guild will reveal Garth's Equipment Shoppe, here equipment can be bought and sold for all characters.

It is recommended to purchase the heaviest armor available for all units, a Halberd for all who can equip one since it rolls for 1d16, which is the highest damage roll of all the weapons available and purchase a Mace for anyone else who can't equip the Halberd since it rolls for 1d8 which is the second highest available damage roll, this way all attacking characters are now as strong as possible.

Even though Monks benefit from being unarmed, they benefit more from a Halberd until like level 10 simply because they are capable of dealing +30 damage using one. Do the math on the scaling passive unarmed damage and armor abilities and it should reveal that a Monk isn't actually strong until something like level 12 or 16 maybe as opposed to any other fully equipped character. They should however have a very low AC score by then which may offset any physical attack weaknesses, so experiment.

Mages can equip a dagger or a staff, but the staff is recommended since they are mages and shouldn't be melee attacking, even then the dagger is the weakest of the melee weapons and a staff rolls for 1d8 which is the same potential as a Mace or Broadsword. In either case, Mages are nerfed like Bard's and Rogues, so it doesn't actually matter unless the Staff somehow buffs spell power.

Bards will require an instrument in order to play songs, the Mandolin and Harp are the least annoying of the three, the Flute is incredibly annoying to listen to, unless you're into ASMR masochism then by all means enjoy.

Afterwards, the only noteworthy piece of equipment that I have picked up is a Mithril Sword, which is a rare drop on the street level primarily found after defeating Sorcerers. The sword becomes a more common drop in the Sewers Level 1 and 2, rolls for 2d8 consistently higher than the lesser weapons, but is still considerably weak since this is equivalent to a War Axe. A level 10 Paladin with the Mithril Sword attacks for roughly 18 damage in 3 swings, compared to 30+ with a Halberd.

There is special equipment that can be found in the Sewers Level 3 such as the Bardsword which rolls for 2d16 and gives Bard's unlimited song potential.

A Side Note on Healing
A lvl 10 character costs something like 8100 gold to revive and if they have a status impairment, that will need to be cured for something like 4000 gold before they can be healed and on a character with 100+ health that is a minimum of 1000 gold for a total restoration cost of 13,100+

This is why the following section is labeled Gold Mining, since maintaining a deep pool of gold is highly recommended, otherwise the player will find themselves in an endless pursuit for gold with a bunch of dead, nearly dead or impaired units.

At the start of the game, mobs of 6+ enemies can surround the party and prevent escape, in the instance of Barbarians or Half-Orcs potentially killing the entire party in all of 2 turns, so be careful.

Creating a Custom Party

Using the Recommended A-Team and Creating a B-Team
By all accounts, a Dwarf Monk is supposed to be the strongest possible character in the game because of the passive abilities they are granted which lower their AC score and increase their unarmed attack bonuses as they level up.

However, starting the game with three custom made Dwarf Monks with high Strength, Dexterity, Constitution and starting HP, can be very difficult since they don't immediately gain any of these passive bonuses, even if they are backed up by a Bard, Conjurer and Magician.

Instead, I would recommend cloning the A Team and creating a two sets of custom mages each set respectively as a Conjurer and Magician. Doing so will give the player an A-Team, a B-Team and an extra set of mages to swap out between the A and B team mage sets.

In total this will give the player:

2x Paladins
2x Warriors
2x Bards
2x Rogues
6x Conjurers
6x Magicians

They can then add all the mages into a full team, save it as Mana Regen and then all one needs to do to restore mana is return to the guild, equip the part, wait and let all the mage's regenerate their mana which will allow the player to cycle the mage teams in and out of which ever party they choose to use.

This team formation would look like:

Conjurer
Magician
Conjurer
Magician
Conjurer
Magician

This tactic allows the player to more frequently adventure without needing to sit and wait for a single set of mages to constantly regenerate their magic, or spend obnoxious amounts of money restoring the mana pool at the mage shop. While this might not feel great due to splitting experience pools 6 ways instead of funneling all those points into a single unit, however over time as they level up, gain access to spells and build mana points the extra pool of mages will allow the player to dungeon dive for three times as long.

Afterwards, the player can create characters at will, substitute them in the 4th character slot which is primarily filled with a Rogue Hobbit using the A/B Team format with something like a Monk or Hunter which will allow them to boost that character's level by carrying them through dungeons without needing to level an entire party of level 1 characters that are constantly being murdered.

General Party Building Tips

Always have a Bard in the party, upon exiting the adventure guild hit B, the #key associated with your Bard's party position, I use #3 for a Melee Bard per the A/B Team formula, then hit key #5 for a song that lowers the parties AC Score. This is especially mandatory for the beginning of the game since the party needs every advantage it can get.

Bards are purposefully nerfed because they can cast ambient buffs, Magician's have the ability to buff attacks at level 1. Use the Magician attack buff spell VOPL to buff the attack of a Bard to ensure they deal regular amounts of damage.

This same combination applies to Rogues as well, a Rogue in an active combat slot benefits from the VOPL attack buff to deal normal and consistent amounts of damage.

Rogues can be easily substituted in the party for a Conjurer since Conjurers have the ability to disarm trapped treasure chests at level 1 through their TRZP spell which costs little mana. In general a party with three strong melee characters and at least two conjurers will consistently be able to travel further than any other since one conjurer can be used for dealing damage with WAST and disarming treasure with TRZP and the other can be kept in reserve to heal with WOHL or FLRE or to summon a 7th party member through INWO or INOG.

Simply because everyone recommends a party of 3 dwarven monks doesn't necessarily mean that is how everyone else should play the game. In theory just about any intelligent combination of characters should be able to proceed through the game, just because developers integrate and leave themselves back doors doesn't mean everyone should take them.

Farming Gold

Custom characters start out with roughly 250 gold to spend on new equipment. When first starting the game, it's helpful to create a string of temporary characters to pool their starting gold into one character for between 800-1000+ gold per cycle and then delete the drained characters to repeat the cycle to pool up 5000+ gold to start with. This is very boring to do over and over again, which is why I went through this process to only have to do it once at the very beginning of the game before starting anything, instead of needing to return to the guild periodically to farm Temp's for gold because my entire party was dead and required many thousands of gold to revive.

It looks something like this:

Step 1
Create Character, select option 1, select option 3, name GTemp
Create Character, select option 1, select option 3, name Temp1
Create Character, select option 1, select option 3, name Temp2
Create Character, select option 1, select option 3, name Temp3
Create Character, select option 1, select option 3, name Temp4
Create Character, select option 1, select option 3, name Temp5

Step 2
Add Characters, GTemp
Add Characters, Temp1
Add Characters, Temp2
Add Characters, Temp3
Add Characters, Temp4
Add Characters, Temp5

Step 3
Save Team, name Gold Mining

Step 4
Hit the 1 Key to open the player menu for GTemp, hit P to Pool the gold

Step 5
Remove All

Step 6
Delete Character, Temp 1, Y
Delete Character, Temp 2, Y
Delete Character, Temp 3, Y
Delete Character, Temp 4, Y
Delete Character, Temp 5, Y

Repeat Step 1-6 just renaming the new GTemp Character and Mining Team 1-5

Step 7
Add Characters, GTemp
Add Characters, GTemp1
Add Characters, GTemp2
Add Characters, GTemp3
Add Characters, GTemp4
Add Characters, GTemp5

Step 8
Save Team, name Gold Harvest (Feel Free to repeat the process on on the GTemp Characters)

Step 9
Repeat the pooling process for all the GTemp Characters 1-4

Step 10
Add Brian The Fist
Add Characters, GTemp
Add Characters, GTemp1
Add Characters, GTemp2
Add Characters, GTemp3
Add Characters, GTemp4

Step 11
Hit the 1 Key to open the player menu for Brian The Fist, hit P to Pool the gold

This is tedious and a lot, but doing it at least once in the beginning of the game will create an incredibly deep gold pool for the player to pull from which will enable them to revive, cure, restore and heal characters at will instead of having to continuously scrounge for money because of how costly temple runs start to become.

Each GTemp character should end the first Temp cycle with roughly 1,000 gold then a full pooling of GTemp members that have been Temp cycled will yield about 6,000. After a third string of pooling so that each GTemp character has about 6,000 gold will yield roughly 24,000 which is a ludicrous amount of money to start the game with, it is just tedious to acquire.

Spell Casting and Bard Song's

The special ability of Bard can be used outside of combat by pressing B, selecting the bard's associated party number and selecting a song.

The only beneficial song to cast outside of combat, or at least that I know of is #5 the Traveler's Tune, which lowers the party AC score by -1. Maintain this song at all times, when the Bard runs out of song usages, a message will read that their "...throat is dry". When this message reads, return to a tavern and purchase some alcohol for the Bard. This will restore their song usages which increase with every level and the effects of which will last for one round in combat.

Song #1 will increase damage dealt for a single combat round
Song #4 will restore a single point of health per cast in combat or outside of combat.

The other songs appear to be bugged or largely useless, but research and experiment to see what happens. Primarily just always make sure that song #5 is always playing outside of combat to ensure that the party is defended as best as possible. The song strength will also change depending on the difficulty of the dungeon that the party occupies, i.e. songs are weakest at the street level but significantly stronger in places like the Crypts or Sewers Level 3.

To check mage spells, in the field, press C to cast then use the mouse cursor to hover over the selected mage. Click the mage and their spell book will open in the text box revealing their spell names but not the name shortcut which in most cases is the first two letters of the two words that comprise the spell name.

I.E. Vorpal Plating = VOPL, Flesh Restore = FLRE, Lesser Revelation = LERE, Greater Revelation = GRRE, etc...

Below is a link to the official Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown - Library of Spells:

https://bardstaleonline.com/bt1/library/spells

Familiarize yourself with the relative tiers of magic associated with the Conjurer and Magician for now and use this to set early game farming goals for yourself, since it takes a long time to get to level 13 and purchase all 6 tiers of spells for full access to all 7 tiers of spells.

After which the player can change the class of their mages to a different class to learn new spells while retaining access to their previously purchased spell books.

For quick reference here are the spells that I typically cast:

Conjurer:
Tier 1
ARFI - Single enemy damge
TRZP - Disarm trapped treasure (unused until the player enters the Wine Cellar)

Tier 2
WOHL - Heal a single character or NPC ally for a small amount of HP
BASK - Enhance ally combat prowess
MACO - generate a magic compass

Tier 3
WAST - Deal a small amount of damage to a single group of enemies
LERE - Lesser reveal, more effective than tier 1 MAFL spell
LEVI - Press D to ascenD or Descend - Required to enter and exit the Sewers Level 3

Tier 4
INWO - Summon an NPC Wolf ally to fight in battle
FLRE - Cures Poison status and heals for a medium amount of health

Tier 5
GRRE - Greater form of LERE, lasts longer, provides better site, reveals hidden doors
WROV - Greater form of BASK
SHSP - Greater form of WAST, deals Electric type damage which is ineffective on stone enemies

Tier 6
INOG - Summon an NPC Ogre ally to fight in battle
MALE - Greater from of Levitation, lasts indefinitely

Tier 7
FLAN - Greatest heal, removes debuff status for a single character
APAR - Teleport to major dungeon locations

Magician

Tier 1
VOPL - Weak single character attack buff

Tier 2
MAGA - Slightly strong buff than VOPL
HOW - Deal holy damage to a single enemy, bonus damage granted on undead enemies

Tier 3
MYSH - Long lasting party buff that provides a -2 AC reduction.
OGST - A stonger attack buff than MAGA or VOPL
MIMI - Increases party defense during combat
STFL - Deals greater damage than the Conjurer WAST spell and will routinely one shot all but the strongest enemies, bonus damage to the undead

An important note on MYSH
In the open world, press C to select for casting, select the Magician and enter MYSH to cast the spell at the ambient level, or cast the spell mid-combat and it will be retained upon exiting combat. Combine this spell with the #5 Bard Song for an overall ambient AC reduction of -3 which is helpful and necessary to survive at all times during the early game stages

Tier 4
SPTO - Deals unholy damage to a single unit, bonus damage to the living
DRBR - Deals significant Fire based damage to a group of enemies, equivalent to a Firehorn
STSI - A greater form of LERE but lesser than GRRE

Tier 5
ANMA - Summon a magic shield to buff select ally
ANSW - Summon an NPC Floating Sword Ally to fight with the party in combat
STTO - Turns a single enemy to stone, may turn stone enemies into dead stone.

Tier 6
TBD

Tier 7
TBD

Leaving the Adventure Guild and Exploring Skara Brae

This game can be very confusing and navigating difficult to keep track of. Getting lost is very easy and intentionally so, since being able to successfully navigate is a key part of the game play.

Don't let this intimidate you, once you've explored a space and built a mental map of the areas, navigating gets significantly easier.

Below is a link to the official Bard's Tale map website which has links that will drill down to the next map level and is most certainly required to navigate through the game:

https://bardstaleonline.com/bt1/maps/skara-brae

Utilize this resource to familiarize oneself with the map and current location.

That being said, upon exiting the Adventure Guild, always remember to hit B for Bard Song's, the number key associated with your Bard's party position and select #5 for an ambient buff that will lower the party AC score by -1. It's not much but it is an edge, whenever the music stops, refresh the buff and make sure to frequent taverns to give the Bard a drink of alcohol to restore their voice.

Personally, I would recommend moving north to Garth's Equipment Shoppe to exchange equipment for the best items available.

Afterwards travel north again, take a left at the intersection to move west, ignore the next turn and move forward 3 paces to the end of the street, turn left again to face south, move forward 2 paces and turn left again, enter this building by moving forward or pressing K to Kick in the door. The player should find themselves at the Review Board which is where they can select Advancement to level characters up when they have stored enough XP, Spell Acquirement for mages to learn new spells or Change class to change a character class which is for promoting mages to a different mage class to learn the spells for that class while retaining the spells learned from their previous class.

A Note on Class Changes and Mages

Ideally, if the player is so inclined to grind they should push their mage characters through all the classes to learn all the spells. Only mages can change their classes and once they switch to another class, then cannot revert back to the previous class. Their current "level" will also reset however they will still retain all previous stats gains, spells and overall experience, they will simply level at a considerably lower level than the rest of the party. I.E. The entire party is level 13, the party mages decide to prestige to the next class whose level up experience will now be reset to level 1 of the chosen prestige class.

Conjurer to Magician: From white/black mage to utility mage so the single unit can deal damage, heal, and buff the party or vice versa. In the original game, Conjurers gain more mana than Magicians overall.

Conjurer to Sorcerer: Increased damage dealing potential, after switching to Sorcerer, the mage will gain more health and few mana points than as a Conjurer.

Magician to Sorcerer: A buff mage that can now deal increased magic damage

Sorcerer to Wizard: Maxed buffing abilities that can now buff and summon stronger monsters

Back to Adventuring

Exit the Review Board turn left to face south, move forward one pace, turn left again and move forward. The player should find themselves inside the Sinister Tavern where they can Order the Bard a drink to restore their song count or tip the bartender for useless information.

Exit the tavern, travel south and take the first right, follow this winding path until it opens up into a large open area with a line of "houses" to the players right. This area is the Grand Plaz which has a string of temples on all sides which can be used for healing except the Temple of the Mad God, a mid-game dungeon that we will be training to enter. Stick to the current path facing west and travel to the end to make a right turn, travel north to find a four-way intersection. Do not travel into the intersection, it is very easy to get spun around here. Do travel north one pace, turn right and enter the house that is located on the southeast corner of the intersection.

The player should find themselves in Roscoe's Energy Emporium, which is where money can be spent to restore mana points to moneys for exorbitant amounts of money. This is not highly recommended but can be used to fast track dungeon crawls since the player doesn't have to wait on their mana to regenerate which turns into a significant amount of waiting. It takes something like 15-20 minutes to regenerate 60 many points just standing outside in the sun.

Exit Roscoe's Energy Emporium. Turn right to face the four-way intersection and travel immediately north and do not turn. Travel to the end of the street and at the next intersection turn right again to face east, travel to the end of this street and turn right into the winding path which will end in another intersection. At the far end there will appear to be an open area with a single building. Feel free to attempt to advance forward and be stopped by a gate. Turn around to face west and then turn left to face south and continue traveling down the street. At the end turn left to face east, move forward one pace and turn right to face south, continue forward and the area should look familiar since we are now on the street we started with Garth's Equipment Shoppe, traveling 3 paces south and the Adventure Guild will be the stone building to the players right.

Chances are the party is probably exhausted from traveling the city, enter the Adventure Guild, regenerate mana and pat yourself on the back because now you know where to find all of the most important landmarks in the city and you have officially explored the greater majority of the city.

Rinse and repeat the same path a few times, farm up some XP, Gold and items to sell. I would highly suggest using the official map site for the map of Skara Brae to explore more, check out the foot notes on the side since they highlight locations and reveal additional information such as Tavern Keeper dialogue, enemy statue locations and many other map features. Feel free to explore the off-shoots, just watch out for the enemy statues and don't get lost.

Don't go too haywire on the route farming either, as the next section details preparing for the first dungeon and cites a location to XP farm which is south of the Adventure Guild and directly adjacent to the Temple of the Thief for immediate healing in the event of an emergency.

The current route described is simply to familiarize players with the Skara Brae map itself and all the important locations that can be difficult to find for the uninitiated.

A Note on Dungeon Crawling

Firstly, never enter a dungeon or dark area without a back up torch or lamp, just don't. You will inevitably get lost and the entire party will have to die in order to resurface and restart the dungeon crawl, so just don't do it. There are trapped areas which will expunge light spells and extinguish torches and lamps, these should be avoided at all times except when absolutely necessary. This is why spare light providing items are necessary for back up, because it's possible to run out of mana and be unable to cast a light spell where the party will then be trapped in the dark because the only way out of the dungeon was through a forcibly dark room.

Secondly, while dungeon crawling always maintain a minimum mana pool of 10 on each mage, once the mages have depleted their mana down to 10, turn around and run for the surface. You can be calm about it, but running is generally best. Turning around at 10 mana points and returning is to make sure that the party has access to a healing or light spell at a minimum which will hopefully allow them to surface unscathed.

Thirdly, never travel further than two thirds of a Conjurers mana pool and half of your fighters HP. This is to ensure that the party can safely turn around and walk to the dungeon exit without needing to enter emergency dungeon exit mode.

Fourthly, in situations involving enemy Magicians, always focus the Magicians first, they cast a debuff that causes melee characters to WITHer which reduces the parties long-term dungeon crawling effectiveness over time and leads to temple runs. Always kill the Magician's first whenever possible instead of giving them an opportunity to de-buff and ruin the current run.

Follow these rules of thumb and death should be relatively preventable.

The Southeastern corner of Skara Brae and Preparing for the Wine Cellar

Exit the Adventure Guild, crowd buff with the #5 Bard song, if you have the third tier of Magician spells unlocked, cast MYSH on the party.

Turn right to face south, travel 3-4 paces to the end of the street, ignore the turn areas, it's just an L-shaped area with a line of houses in the long line of the L and the turns on the right facing south making up the short line of the L. This spot is easy to get confused in so try confusing yourself and re-orienting some time if you haven't had that happen yet.

Irregardless, from the end of the street facing south, turn left to face east, travel forward two more paces and turn right down the intersection to face south again. Travel forward two more paces, turn right and face the Temple of the Thief which is the one immediately closest to the Adventure Guild. For orientation purposes, enter the temple and exit to now face east.

Across from the temple entrance is really the best early game farming location, since it's directly across the street from the temple, simple enter move two paces east, turn left or right to face north or south and just travel forward or mash K to repeatedly to enter buildings for enemy spawn chances. When necessary simply turn until you face the intersect then move forward two paces to enter the temple and heal.

It is highly suggested to farm the streets of Skara Brae until the Conjurer and Magician are at a minimum level of 5 and have unlocked their third spell tier, which the Review Board will refer to as Spellbook Lvl 2.

In order to effectively dungeon crawl the Conjurer and Magician require these spells:

Conjurer:

Tier 2
WOHL - Heals for a small amount of HP

Tier 3
WAST - Lesser group enemy damage (will generally one shot groups of low hp enemies)
LERE - Provides light and reveals hidden doors for an extended period of time

Magician

Tier 2
HOWA - Throws holy water on a single enemy with bonus damage to the Undead

Tier 3
MYSH - Provides a long lasting AC bonus of -2 to the whole party
STFL - Medium group enemy damage (will effectively one shot all but the strongest of the early game opponents)

After these spells have been learned, the party can safely navigate the wine cellars accompanied by the #5 Bard song buff without needing to immediately exit or worry about the party being wiped in a single battle.

To enter the Wine Cellar, travel south down the street that the Temple of the Thief is located on. Remember what the street looks like after having exited the Temple for orientation purposes?

From the Temple exit facing east, turn right to face south and travel forward 3 paces. The party will be stopped by a Statue that can be attacked to reveal a Samurai, simply attack the Samurai and don't worry about damage, it has maybe 20 hp which a level 5 melee class should easily deal in the first hit.

This enemy re-spawns upon exiting the game and in one thread was recommended to farm using a single character party member configuration for an easy 1000+ XP farm. Which is an interesting and novel idea, but farming the Wine Cellar and subsequent Sewer levels will yield many more experience points.

Travel south one pace after defeating the Samurai statue and turn left to face east, the party should be faced with an tavern known as the Scarlet Bard which serves as the entrance to the Wine Cellar, if not, turn either north or south and try the next building. For reference, the Scarlet Bard is the second building on to the left facing south from the second intersection on the street that the player turned down to get to this area.

So, from the northern most end of the street facing south, travel to the second intersection and the tavern will be the second building entrance on the left facing south. If that is confusing, check the map and you'll figure it out.

First re-buff, re-cast and regenerate mana, enter the Tavern, Order some Ale for the Bard, then Order some Wine. Upon ordering the Wine, the Tavern Keeper will tell you to go get a bottle of the "the good stuff" and the player will transition into the first dungeon known as the Wine Cellar

Here is where the party will be faced with their first significant fights, since the enemies will now spawn in multiple attacking groups, instead of in singular clusters.

I.E. An example combination might look like
A) 8 Barbarians
B) 7 Wolves
D) 1 Magician

This is where needing the group damage spells WAST and STFL are required since STFL can effectively one shot either the group of wolves or the barbarians, while the melee characters attack the other group which should have WAST casted on it. This will effectively one shot the majority of the enemies in both group A and B in a single attack round and the remainders can now be safely mopped up.

The Wine Cellar - Part 1

Two side notes on the Wine Cellar, the party may now infrequently encounter NPC monsters that wish to be allies, choose A to Accept their offer to gain a 7th person in combat that can do damage and shield attacks for the party.

Also, after winning battles, chests will begin to appear. For now, simply choose the Disarm option and in the Disarm window enter:

Poison Needle

This is the only trap type that occurs in the Wine Cellar, on further floors, always examine the chest using the entire party and hopefully they will come back with a message that says:

"Looks Like Poison Needle" or something similar. These messages are not always accurate.

From the entrance of the Wine Cellar, hit N for No, the party does not wish to travel back up the stairs.

Move forward one pace, turn right, move forward one more pace, turn left and continue forward until you see two red doors to the players right. If you were to check the official map, this would place the player along the northern most path of the dungeon traveling east.

Like entering buildings outside, step up to the doors until they are one pace head, continue one pace ahead, then turn right. Now press K to Kick the door open, pressing forward just makes a noise like the character tried to walk through the door instead of opening it.

Kicking dungeon doors open has a much higher enemy spawn rate that is almost guaranteed, as opposed to exploring Skara Brae and the empty houses above. From here on out, the entirety of the game will be comprised of determining just how many doors the party can kick open, before they need to resurface for mana, health and status ailments curing.

If you're following this guild, you will have just kicked in the first door located nearest to the entrance to the Wine Cellar , a turn to the players right will reveal an L-shaped passageway with a dead end, turn right again to face the door once more and Kick it open. Turn right yet again, travel a few paces down to the next door and Kick that one in. The player will now be in a closeted room with nowhere to go but perform a 180 to Kick the door in again and leave.

Congratulations! You are now officially a Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown Novitiate!

Give yourself one swift kick in the @$$, a slap on the cheek and we'll see you at the frat party later. Not really, but it is the thought that counts.

From this second door located in the northern passage of the Wine Cellar turning right from the previous door to face east should reveal an opening and a continuation of the passage that travels east. For orientation purposes, continue moving along the dungeon wall east into the open area which will reveal another block of cells, continue down the passage and there will be another door to the players right at the end of the hallway.

Kick this door open, fight the mobs, the player will now be facing south and one pace away will be another door and another mob of enemies. Defeat the enemies and kick open door #4. The player will still be facing south, they will be in a three-way passage and should be able to see a sliver of doorway immediately in from of them two paces down and right around a corner.

Moving south down the passage way will reveal that it is L shaped and kicking open the next door will reveal another mob fight, turning to the players left will reveal that one pace away is door #5.

Kick this door open and answer N for No, the party does not currently want to descend the stairs to the next level.

This is the route to the Sewers Level 1.

Perform a 180, kick open the previous door, move one pace forward turn right, kick open that door, turn right again and now travel north up the previous passage to the 3-way intersection where the player will see the door leading to the two chambered mob fight that they previously entered. Turn left to face west and travel forward several paces back into the open area where the player can see the northern dungeon wall and the previous hallway to their right, continue traveling forward West into the secondary passage which will reveal another door to the players right facing North and a secondary passage to the left leading south. The secondary passage is a dead end, the door is a mob closet.

Fight the enemies, exit the closet and turn right to continue down the passage to the next intersection. Turn right again and face the squared entrance chamber where the player will get a message about the "...musty smell of the wine cellar...". Travel forward one pace, turn left, move forward again and answer Y for Yes the party wishes to ascend then exit the tavern and turn north where traveling forward along the paths will lead to the Temple of the Thief, the Adventure Guild and the Review Board.

What has been described is the northern 40% of the Wine Cellar dungeon and the basic route that should be taken to descend into the Sewers Level 1-3 to resurface in the southwestern corner of Skara Brae much later on.

The Wine Cellar - Part 2

Buff, Sing the #5 Bard Song, quaff some ale, then order some Wine to descend into the Wine Cellar.

Move forward one pace, turn right and instead of moving forward one pace and turning left to follow the Northern Passage, simply keep moving forward without deviating and travel South until the player has reached the end of the now explored Western Passage.

If the player remembers from the previous section, the first left turn down the Western Passage facing South will reveal a dead end path, a door and at the far Eastern End, another door and the passage down to the Sewers Level 1. There is nothing else interesting along the Western path until the player travels to very end, turns left to face East, travels forward into the open space and then turns North. There will be two doors on either side of the open space, the door to the players left facing North will read a message that says "Rare Wine - Keep out...", kick this door open to enter another room with a series of doors in a J- configuration, something like 10 maybe?

Simply enter the room, travel forward and kick the first door open then 180, kick, turn left, move forward, turn left again and kick to fight mobs and spawn treasure. Rinse and Repeat until the area is cleared and exit the entry door. Across from the rare wine room will be another door, move across to the East side and enter the door.

Fight the mob then 180 and exit the area as there is nothing of further interest here. The room may have a higher enemy spawn rate, but there is also a trap here and it's just not really worth wasting the time in really.

Exiting the trap room will face the player West where they can see the Rare Wines room slightly down and across from them.

For orientation purposes, turn left travel south down to the Southern Passage, turn left again, travel to the end, turn left yet again. Now the player will be facing North and should travel up the Eastern Passageway to the very end. The second turn to the left from the end will reveal a door way to the players right and a passage way to the left, this intersection should look familiar since the double mob corridor is the door to the right and the passageway to the left leads to Sewers Level 1.

We have now circumnavigated the entire Wine Cellar area which is a square parameter of corridors, the Northwestern quadrant containing 3 doors, the North Eastern Quadrant containing 3 combat doors and the passage to the next dungeon. The southern hemisphere and quadrants each have their respective door sets with the Southwestern quadrant containing the treasure room and the Southeastern containing the trap room. In the middle is a section of walls that form a sort of + with the + being an open space that may spawn a "mini-boss" monster at night that can poison characters it attacks.

I would generally recommend farming this area until it is boring and then trying to descend into the Sewers Level 1, the treasure rooms can be a good source of early game income and it's a good area for boosting newly created characters in the 4th party slot.

The Sewers Level 1 - Part 1

It is always best to clear all the doors in the Wine Cellar, then descend into the Sewers Level 1 which will get consistently easier and helps serve as a party readiness litmus test while also being a good source of early game income to help with healing and restoration. After awhile this farming method will become redundant at which point it is at the players discretion to decide if they want to farm in the Wine Cellar anymore or simply skip to the Sewers Level 1.

Return to the L-shaped hallway in the Wine Cellar and kick through the two doors leading to the stairs down. Select Y for Yes then N, for No since the party wishes to descend without immediately re-ascending. The party will now be in Y shaped three-way intersection that is tilted to the left with the forks of the Y leading northwest and southwest respectively and the tail of the Y leading to the east. The entrance/exit to the Wine Cellar is located in the center of the Y.

The northwestern Path could best be described as traversing up the tail of a many headed snake. It is a dead end path that is excellent for farming, travel down the corridor and there will be doors to the right side of the passage all the way up. Simple find the first door, Kick it in, fight, don't 180, instead move forward, turn left, Kick in the next door, now 180, Kick to exit and leave the square room then turn right, move a pace, turn right, rinse and repeat. There will be 5 doors in total. The left turn options when entering the farming corridor are all dead end wall options that lead to nothing.

Kick the doors and return south to the Y fork, if you need to walk on the tile that asks to ascend the stairs and answer no then 180 to re-orient. The previous passage would be described as the Sewers Level 1 - Farming Path 1, it yields excellent XP and gold gains.

For the second path, go down the Southwestern fork of the intersection, there will be some zig-zags and then the player will be deposited into another intersection, turn to the right and travel forward to the intersection with a turn on the left, ignoring taking the turn. However, do turn and take note of the turn to the left which looking down will face the player south and reveal another corridor with a door to the immediate left, a door at the far end and to the right, and a yet another turn to the right.

The door to the immediate right is trapped in darkness and will extinguish the current light source. The door further down and to the right is "safe" to enter and we will shortly be coming out of the passageway that is shown as a turn to the right if we were to travel down the corridor in which we are facing.

Instead, turn back to the right, travel to the end of the corridor then turn right again and walk forward. A forked path will be revealed, take the left fork and a doorway will be revealed to the players immediate left. Kick in the door, fight the mob and travel down the revealed corridor to kick in another door and fight another mob then 180 and exit the room.

The player will now be facing the door that they previously kicked in to enter the current hallway, turn right to reveal another hallway with another door at the end, travel to the end of the corridor, but do not kick in the door unless the player wants to, as this is the previously mentioned trapped door which will extinguish the party's flame source and force them to fight some black widows which have a high chance to poison the member they attack.

Perhaps entering this door makes for good practice, if the player does, fight the fight, immediately 180 push K for Kick and listen for the door opening noise, if you get a message like you bounced off a wall...may the odds be ever in your favor.

If you successfully exit the door, either hit C and select a mage to cast a light spell or hit U to Use an Item and select a character with an illumination source. At this point you would either return to the surface or continue adventuring.

For reference purposes, we are going to rewind to the point at which the player is standing in front of the trapped door, facing the trapped door and turning left will lead the player back up to the intersection that they were previously looking down the corridor from so they will have done a loop.
Now we are going to travel back north up this corridor to the intersection, turn right, then travel three paces East, turn left back up the zig-zag path and turn right again at the junction to return to the Entrance/Exit to the Wine Cellar.

If you successfully completed the loop, pat yourself on the back, you have just completed the first portion of the Sewers Level 1 - Farming Route 2 Part 1

The Sewers Level 1 - Part 2

Return to the surface, heal, regen, do what you need to do, make a run of the Wine Cellar and complete a tour of the Sewers Level 1 - Farming Route 1 then return the middle of the entry Y junction to the Sewers Level 1

Take the Southwestern fork, turn right at the next intersection proceed to the end of the corridor, go North and take a left at the Y, Kick in the two doors and and complete the loop for the Sewers Level 1 - Farming Route 2 Part 1 and face the trapped door.

Turn left and follow the passage to the next door, turn one pace to the right, turn left and kick the door in, fight the mobs and proceed to the end of this passage way, walk into the dead end tile and a message will read with a Search option, selecting S for search will spawn a Spinner that is worth roughly 300 xp and has a chance to poison, it usually dies in one hit.

Kill the Spinner, 180 and proceed back to the door, Kick through the door and turn left, proceed one pace, turn left again. A few paces down at the tile that reads "Something strange is happening here" stop, turn right and proceed one pace, turn right again to reveal a door. Kick through this door and fight a guaranteed 5 Black Widows with a high probability to poison the members they attack for a total of 853 XP every time.

Completing the fight will face the player with another door, behind which there are a series of doors. Kick through each door without moving to the left or right, clear the mobs and find yourself in a a passage that is best described as a trident shape that has two or three dead end fingers at the northern end.

From the series of 5 doors, turn left, proceed one pace, then left again. Proceed all the way to the end of this corridor, turn right and proceed another pace before turning right again and kicking open a door.

Fight the mobs, read a funny message and exit the closet. Return to the corridor facing north and proceed one pace forward to reveal a door that is one pace forward and to the left. Kick this door open to enter a trapped room which extinguishes light sources.

This next part is very important to memorize. From the entrance without moving, turn left proceed forward two paces, now turn right and proceed two more paces, a messages should read something like:

"The party has encountered a set of stairs would you like to descend?

Go ahead and answer Y for Yes then, N for No. Cast a light spell or use an item for some light to reveal a funny S shaped corridor and pat yourself on the back for making it to the Sewers Level 2.

Now take a pace forward, 180 and return up the stairs. Answer N for No then 180 and be blinded by total darkness, now travel two paces forward, turn right, travel two more paces forward or until you get an "argh!" or something similar message, turn right and press K to Kick through the door. Hopefully you receive the door opening noise and can now refresh your light spell or use an emergency item.

Now turn left, travel into the corridor, turn left and take the right at the end of the corridor. Turn right again and Kick through the series of 5 doors which have now been refreshed with new encounters. Immediately after the 5 Black Widow fight, kick through the door and turn left and forward into the corridor for the "something strange is happening here" message, turn left again and travel north back up the corridor to the dungeon exit which should now be very familiar to the player.

At this point the player should farm the Wine Cellar and all of the Sewer Level 1 doors up to the final door in the sewers that leads to the dark room and the stairs to the second level. If the current party cannot make it to the dark room without a minimum of 2/3 of their current hp and mana pools then they cannot be expected to survive for long on the following floors without needing to make a quick exit.

Anecdotally, I made it this far then tried to speed run to the Sewers Level 3 where I encountered new classes of enemies that did significantly more damage and put the party in danger which I was able to escape only to run out of mana and light items in the dark room on the Sewers Level 1. I even made it as far as through the 5 doors and left up the northern passages but I got lost in the dark when trying to make the turn to the zig-zag corridor leading to the Y passage out, which is where my party died and cost 8100 gold each to revive for a total revival cost of $48,600 + status ailment curing from wither

Work in Progress Note

This guide is currently a work in progress, but I hope that I shed some light on some of the subjects and that other players found it helpful.

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