Zanzarah General Guide

In this guide I will be explaining everything from deck managment, battle tactics, spells and just giving out some of my favorite deck setups. as well as how to run the game flawlessly on a modern system. I will also explain the effectiveness system, faery specific traits, where to find them and much more. I've played Zanzarah since it came out, so you are bound to pickup some helpful stuff.

Introduction

In this guide I will cover everything you need to know about Zanzarah. How to build your deck, faery combinations, spells, combat tactics, leveling, and a bunch of tips and secrets.

I've been playing Zanzarah on and off since it came out in 2002, so I've certainly put a lot of hours in this game since then and have finished it many times, collecting all the faeries too.

Please note that several chapters here will include indirect spoilers. While some contain very minor spoilers or mentions of certain characters or events, the chapters "Notable Battles" and "Secrets" contain walkthrough-like material and are heavy in spoilers.

Also make sure to read the final chapter to find out how to make the game run perfectly on modern systems and resolutions.

I am also replaying the game (again) and writing down every detail I find useful, so some parts are not yet finished.

Faery Types and Effectiveness

FAERY TYPES

In Zanzarah there are 12 faery categories, containing a total of 77 faeries. They are:
Nature (16), Air (8), Water (7), Light (3), Energy (5), Psi (6), Stone (8), Ice (4), Fire (6), Dark (3), Chaos (8) and Metal (3).

Each type has certain advanatages and disadvantages against some other types. These are mostly noticed in the amount of damage you will deal and take. There are three types of effectiveness stats:

• EFFECTIVE
  If a faery type is effective against a different type this means they will deal extra damage and receive minimal.
  
• INEFFECTIVE
  If a faery type is ineffective against a different type this means they will deal minimal damage and receive extra.
  
• NONE
  If a faery type is neither of above, this means they both have equal chances for damage and defense. The upper hand will be the fairy with a higher level and faery masters skill.

This image below shows the in-game effectiveness table.
You can call upon the Effectiveness Screen any time in-game by pressing F1. This menu also has several more information screens which you can go through with the arrow keys. It is also useful as a fast pause button, battles included.

FAERY TRAITS

Each faery type also has specific type based traits.

• Nature
  Nature faeries are the most balanced between damage, defense and mobility. They are very useful in many combats and can be built to fit any role. Skill charge is medium.
  
  
• Air
  Air faeries have naturally high mobility but their defense and damage only shines at later levels. Skill charge is slow.
  
  
• Water
  Water faeries have medium mobility and low defense, but have very high damage. Skill charge is slow.
  
  
• Light
  These faeries have high mobility and damage, but can't take any damage. Skill charge is medium.
  
  
• Energy
  Very low stats at start, but great stats at later levels. Skill charge is fast.
  
  
  
• Psi
  Low on defense but very mobile and high damage. Skill charge is very fast.
  
  
  
• Stone
  High defense and mobility, but medium damage at start. Very slow skill charge.
  
  
  
• Ice
  Low mobility but high defense and damage. Very slow skill charge.
  
  
  
• Fire
  Medium mobility with high damage and low defenses. Medium skill charge.
  
  
  
• Dark
  Medium mobility, high defense and damage. Medium skill charge.
  
  
  
• Chaos
  High mobility, low defense and high damage. Slow skill charge.
  
  
  
• Metal
  Very high damage and mobility, but no defense. Very fast skill charge.

NOTE: These are basic "just-captured-the-faery" stats. Every faery is different and you can also build them differently. Also most of them are pretty strong at later levels.

Capturing Faeries

The main aspect of Zanzarah is capturing Faeries. This is done by using Faery spheres which can be found or bought. There are three types of faery spheres, each one used to capture a faery of a certain level range or lower.

• SILVER SPHERE
  The silver sphere is used to capture faeries up to level 20. They are cheap and commonly found.
  
  
• GOLDEN SPHERE
  The golden sphere is used to capture faeries up to level 40. They are less rarely found and are expensive.
  
  
• CRYSTAL SPHERE
  Used to capture faeries above level 41, this sphere is very expensive and only a dozen can be found in the wilderness.

FIRST FAERY

You will get a free faery a few minutes in the game by talking to Rufus inside the Endeva inn. His house is just opposite of it and you will get to pick one of three free faeries. They are:

• Sillia
  Sillia is a nature faery. She has low hit-points, medium dexterity and jump power and normal special power. She is a very good first choice, apart from having the lowest stats between the first three faeries.
  
  
• Grem
  Grem is a stone faery. He has low hit points, medium dexterity and jump, and high special. Statistically he is the best first choice, however slow skill charge will put you on a careful gameplay and you'll have a hard time at first. Grem is a bit rarer to find then Silia/Tadana, but that shouldn't influence your decision.
  
  
• Tadana
  Tadana is a water faery. She has low hit-points, medium dexterity, jump power and special. She is a bad choice only because you can trade her for a silver sphere minutes later.

TACTIC

You will rarely find faery merchants in Zanzarah, and they often ask a price too big for a faery. Apart from Segbuzz and Fugaery, you can find or level up every other faery.

In order to capture a wild faery you must initiate combat with it and have a correct sphere for its level. Calculate how "hard" can you hit the other faery, especially if you're doing this with a high level one. It is advisable to keep some faeries at lower levels just for faery catching, since a high level faery can kill a lower level instantly.
Fire small charges and get the faery down to 15-20% of its HP until you get a notice that you can capture it. Stop firing and run into it. If the escape is available the wild faery can try and reach it, so you might have to be quick. Being near the wild faery will result in a instant match-end and once back in control of Amy you will have the final choice of capturing the faery or not.

LOCATIONS

Not all faeries can be found at all places. They are commonly found within their element. This means nature faeries will spawn in nature areas, fire in fire caves, ice faeries on the mountains etc. This is a list of where faeries spawn. Specific faery spawns will be in faery specific descriptions. Somewhere you will need to use the Fairy Conch or Horn.

• NATURE
  Dunmore, Endeva, On the Peaks, The Cottage, The Enchanted Forest, The Fairy Garden, The Forest Hut, The Misty Swamp, The Mountain World, The Realm of Clouds, The Tower of the Dwarves, Tiralin
  
• AIR
  Catacombs of Tiralin (lower), On the Peaks, The Mountain World, The Realm of Clouds
  
• WATER
  Catacombs of Tiralin (lower), Dark Caves, Dunmore, Endeva, Ice Caves, The Cottage, The Fairy Garden, The Forest Hut, The Misty Swamp, The Mountain World, The Realm of Clouds, Tiralin
  
• LIGHT
  The Enchanted Forest (Ruins in the Forest)
  
• ENERGY
  Catacombs of Tiralin (lower), Monagham, The Enchanted Forest, The Fairy Garden, The Dark Cathedral, The Shadow Realm
  
• PSI
  Catacombs of Tiralin, Dark Caves, The Enchanted Forest, The Misty Swamp, The Mountain World, The Tower of the Dwarves
  
• STONE
  Dark Caves, Dunmore, Endeva, Monagham, The Cottage, The Enchanted Forest, The Fairy Garden, The Forest Hut, The Misty Swamp, The Mountain World, The Realm of Clouds, The Tower of the Dwarves, Tiralin
  
• ICE
  Ice Caves, On the Peaks
  
• FIRE
  Fire Caves, The Dark Cathedral, The Shadow Realm
  
• DARK
  Catacombs of Tiralin, Lava Caves, The Dark Cathedral, The Enchanted Forest, The Mountain World, The Shadow Realm
  
• CHAOS
  Catacombs of Tiralin, Monagham, The Dark Cathedral, The Enchanted Forest, The Realm of Clouds, The Shadow Realm
  
• METAL
  Catacombs of Tiralin, Monagham, The Dark Cathedral, The Realm of Clouds, The Shadow Realm

Coverage map, includes horn/conch (click to zoom):

Deck

Your deck in Zanzarah can hold five faeries at the same time, and you can go back to London and swap them anytime while playing as Amy. There is no limit of London faeries. You swap them by drag and dropping the faery portrait from the faery list onto the slot in your inventory.

The deck is the faeries you will take into battle. If all of your faeries in your deck are defeated you will lose the battle and the game will load to the last checkpoint.

A good deck can counter any other deck. This means that ideally you should have the combination of faery types which can face any other faery type and win. Since there are twelve types and you can only carry five, it is ideal for them to be of different types and each one countering two separate and one in common. Sometimes one faery will do all the job, and sometimes you will need to use all of them and swap regularly.

You should pick your own deck based on your play style and preference, but you should have in mind that having a single element deck will get you wrecked like Seamus.

FAERY ORDER

While not leveling, you should put the faeries in the order you want to use them. It is preferable to put your main faery in the first slot and then later swap between. It is faster to swap using the 1 to 5 numbers rather then Page Up/Down or the mouse wheel, however this doesn't let you preview faery stats and order.

Sometimes the enemy will attack very early so don't put the most glassy faery on the top.

Leveling

Leveling your faeries for a stronger deck is what any "Collect-them-all" game is about and Zanzarah is no different. A higher level means your faery is stronger and that any faery with a level lower then you is a gonner, unless the effectiveness come into play, in which case a low level faery can easily defeat a high level one.

Faeries can level up only after a battle when they receive xp. Leveling up means they gain extra HP, MP, Jump and can also gain access to new skill slots or evolve. The maximum level is 70, and the experience needed increases with each level. Some faeries level faster then others. For example Light, Dark and Chaos faeries need a lot of XP even early on, but are very strong.

There are several tactics to level a faery

1. GRINDING
   Grinding, or repeatedly killing wild faeries is the general way of leveling up your faeries. You will be doing it most of the time.
   The best way to do it is find a area where your desired faery is very effective against wild faeries and just run around provoking them. This is a good way to train mid-level faeries.
   
2. TRAINERS
   Trainers are a excellent way of leveling low level faeries, however trainers cost money. The best way, where you can also get your money back is going to the Dunmore trainer. Fire only before the spell backfires to preserve mana and get enough damage (6+) in order to receive a coin from the fairy. Collect all the coins they drop and you can get about half of the coins back for a training which costs 60. He has two nature faeries, one with 100 HP the other with 150.
   The trainer in Endeva should only be used at the start of the game, after the Dunmore trainer is unlocked he is useless for anything.
   
3. GOLDEN CARROTS
   This is the most expensive way to level your faeries and should only be used on faeries that are high level or require lots of xp. The Golden Carrot can be bought in Tiralin for 250 coins (after you save the salesman from the demon in his cellar), or sometimes found in chests. The Golden Carrot gives the faery just enough XP for them to need one more to level up. After the faery has consumed the carrot, either use the Endeva trainer or kill a low-level wild faery to level up. You can also put this faery on the first slot in your deck and instantly change to another if you are doing this while leveling a second faery in Dunmore or the wild.
   
4. SWITCH TRAINING
   Put the designated faery on the first slot in your deck and when the battle starts quickly swap to a different faery. Each faery active will receive small amounts of XP just for spawning, and this can be enough to level up.

Note that when you "capture" and not defeat the oponent faery, you will receive small amounts of XP, so it's best to avoid contact with them if you are trying to level your faeries faster.

Faeries

This section will cover describing each one of 77 faeries in-game, where to catch them, ideal builds, combinations and more. Since the section was too long, it is included in a second guide, acessible through the link below.

FAERY STATS

Each faery has four main stats:

• Damage
  This stat determines the DPS, or damage per second. It takes base damage and spell charge time into consideration.
  
• Dexterity
  This stat shows how maneuverable and fast your faery is.
  
• Jump
  This stat shows the faery's jump power and how much jumps can it make.
  
• Special
  Special determines critical hits, damage, chance to catch a state, et cetera.

FAERY GUIDE

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=572137671

Spells

Each faery can have up to four spells. These are unlocked as the faery levels up and evolves. Spells are divided into offensive and defensive spells. Each faery has two offensive and two defensive slots.
The type of spell a faery can have is determined by the spell slot icons. Offensive spells use circles and defensive squares. The slots are colour coded to faery type, however it is possible that a faery can have a different element slot or a joker slot, in which case any spell can be placed there.
Spells also have requirements, and these go from one to three, represented by the number or slot icons. You cannot equip a faery who has only one slot with a level three spell, but you can put a level one spell in a level three slot.
Since sometimes your faery will get a different element slot, you will be able to equip them with a spell from a different element. This can prove useful in managing more complex and versatile builds. The same rules apply here as before, only this time you will also have access to mixed-element spells.
Joker spells are marked by a hue spectrum and can fit any spell element as long as it's level fits.

Spells use Mana, which can be replenished with a Mana Potion which will always replenish all the mana for that faery. You can also make use of the Scarecrow at the Cottage for free refills. Leveling up will also restore a portion of the faeries mana.

OFFENSIVE SPELLS

Offensive spells are used to deal damage to opponent faeries. They also usually carry passive traits such as increased critical chance or state changers. Mana is consumed for every shot you make.

Offensive spell list (WIP)

DEFENSIVE SPELLS

Defensive spells provide certain bonuses or defenses such as increased movement speed or reflect damage. Not all defensive spells have mana, however if they do, it is consumed when you are hit.

Defensive spell list (WIP)

MAGIC MERCHANTS

Magic Merchants are those ugly pink female fat parrots. They can provide you with spells, however each page costs 10 coins and will give you a choice of five spells, from which you can only buy one. Obtaining the Lucky Clover will decrease the chance of getting empty slots, so you waste less money. The merchants don't sell all the spell types, most are just confined to two types. This is the list of their locations and which spells they sell:

O = offensive; D = defensive; * = any type

• COTTAGE — Nature: O.OO.OOO.D.DD; Rock: OO.D.DD; Water: O.OO.D.DD;
  
• FAIRY GARDEN (Storm Dwarf) — Energy: O.O*.OO.D.DDD;
  
• TIRALIN (Flower Inn) — Nature: O*.OO; Rock: DD.DDD; Water: O.O*.D.DD;
  
• TIRALIN (Catacombs) — Chaos: O.O*.OO.D.DD; Ice: O.D;
  
• DUNMORE (Store) — Psi: OO.D.DD; Water: O*.DD;
  
• REALM OF CLOUDS (Pagoda) — Air: O*.OO.OOO.D.D*; Light: OO.D.DD;
  
• REALM OF CLOUDS (White Cathedral) — Light: OO.OOO.D.DD;
  
• MONAGHAM (Smithy) — Metal: O.O*.OO.OOO.D.DD.DDD;
  
• MONAGHAM (Store) — Psi: O*.OO.OOO.D.DDD; Fire: OO;
  
• SHADOW REALM (Catacombs) — Dark: OO.OO*.OOO.D.DD; Ice: O*.OOO.D.DDD;
  Fire: O*.OOO.DD.DDD; Chaos: OOO.O*.D.D;

Items

During your travels through Zanzarah you will come across a lot of items. Some of them can be used on your faeries, some of them are for Amy and some of them are useless.
Here is a short description about a bunch of them, what they're for and where to find them.

HEALING

• Small Healing Potion
  Restores 20HP
  
• Medium Healing Potion
  Restores 50HP
  
• Big Healing Potion
  Restores 100HP.
  
• Healing Herbs
  Revives a faery with 50% HP.
  
• Medicine
  Cures status effects.
  
• Mana Potion
  Restores mana.

SPECIAL

• Golden Carrot
  Increases the XP of a faery so that it needs only 1 more to level up. You can only buy it in Tiralin for 250 coins. Fun fact: Lucius seems to grow Golden Carrots at his Cottage.
  
• Garlic Atomizer
  Chases away wild faeries.
  
• Moulding Magic
  Let's you rename your faery.
  
  
• Evolutionary Magic of Nature
  
• Evolutionary Magic of Fire
  
• Evolutionary Magic of Air
  
• Tools of the Dwarves

RUNES

• Rune of Return
  Teleports you back to London. You can find it in Rufus' house in Endeva.
  
• Rune of the Fairy Garden
  Teleports you to Rafi's cave. You obtain it in the London house cellar.
  
• Rune of Tiralin
  Teleports you to Tiralin. You can find it in the main house in Dunmore.
  
• Rune of Dunmore
  Teleports you to Dunmore. You can buy it in Tiralin for 5 crystals.
  
• Rune to the Cottage
  Teleports you to the Cottage, next to the Scarecrow. You can find it just past the Cottage.
  
• Rune of the Dwarf Tower
  Teleports you near the elevator next to the Tower of the Dwarves. It is found inside the tower on the bottom floor.
  
• Rune of the Ice World
  Teleports you to the snowy peaks. You find it in the Ice Caves near where Lasse is.
  
• Rune of the Realm of Clouds
  You can find this ???
  
• Rune of the Cave World
  Teleports you to Monagham. You can find this in the city hall.
  
• Rune of the Shadow Realm
  Teleports you to the crossroads in the Shadow Realm.

MAGIC ITEMS

• Fairy Card of Nature
  Removes prickly bushes. Found in the Misty Swamp (10).
  
• Fairy Card of Air
  Let's you jump on air eddies. Given to you by the White Druid after finishing the Great Tree tournament.
  
• Fairy Card of Earth
  Removes large boulders. Given to you by the White Druid at the Pagoda (25) in the Realm of Clouds.
  
• Fairy Card of Fire
  Let's you travel to fiery places. Awarded after defeating Blumella in the Secret Garde (8).
  
• Fairy Card of Psi
  Orientates your active Psi faery towards nearby wild faery spawns. Found in the Ruins in the Forest (6).
  
• Fairy Horn
  Awakens sleeping fairies. Found in the lower catacombs of Tiralin. You will need the Heavy Iron Key given to you by Quinlin after saving him in the Monagham factory.
  
• Ocean Conch
  Summons fairies from bodies of water. Awarded to you by the Shadow Elf General after defeating him the first time in Dunmore.

KEYS

• Catacomb key
  Found in the house of the Golden Carrot trader
  
• Key of the Pixie Guardian
  Awarded to you by Lucius after bringing him 10 pixies.
  
• Rufus' house key
  Given to you by Rufus after talking to him.
  
• Key to the Town Hall
  Given to you by the elf with ice faeries at the Waterfall (4). Unlocks the door on the left in the Tiralin town hall.
  
• Key to the Dwarf Factory
  Given to you by Lasse after freeing him in the Realm of Clouds. Opens the factory door in Monagham.
  
• Heavy Iron Key
  Opens the gate to the Secret Garden (8), the second Tiralin gate leading towards the Ruins, and the Lower Tiralin catacombs. Given to you by Quinlin after saving him in the Monagham factory.
  
• Red Bone Key
  
• Green Bone Key
  
• Blue Bone Key
  
  
• Elemental Key of Nature
  Given to you by the female elf at the Forest Hut (7) after saving her home from the prickly bushes.
  
• Elemental Key of Air
  Given to you by Lasse after saving him in the Ice Caves (21).
  
• Elemental Key of Earth
  Found in the chest on top of the Tower of the Dwarves (14).
  
• Elemental Key of Fire
  Found in the area behind the Tower of the Dwarves. Complete the platforming puzzle to get it.

OTHER

• Fairie Bag
  Given to you by Rafi at the beginning of the game.
  
• Book of Fairies
  Given to you by Lasse when first arriving to Tiralin
  
• Pixie Bag
  Given to you by Lucius when first arriving to the Cottage.
  
• Cloverleaf
  Reduces blanks from spell merchants. After defeating the elf with ice faeries at the Waterfall (4), he will give you the Key to the Town Hall. Go to the Tiralin town hall and unlock the door on the left. The Cloverleaf is in a chest inside.
  
• Quinlin's Staff of Rule
  Given to you buy Suane after freeing her from the Shadow Elf General at the Arena (23) during the main questline.
  
  
• Map of the Fairy Garden
  Given to you by Lucius when exiting Endeva.
  
• Map of the Enchanted Forest
  Found in the Tiralin City Hall
  
• Map of the Dark Swamp
  Found in the house of the Dunmore goblin who's sweeping his house.
  
• Map of the Mountain World
  Found on the third floor of the Tower of the Dwarves.
  
• Map of the Realm of Clouds
  
• Map of the Shadow Realm

LOREBOOKS

Book 1: In front of Rafi's cave.
Book 2: Tiralin Town Hall, second floor.
Book 3: Tower of Dwarves, second floor.

STORES

Cheapest price indicated with a $ sign.

Endeva Store:

• Small Healing Potion 5 $
  
• Medium Healing Potion 10 $
  
• Big Healing Potion 20
  
• Healing Herbs 15
  
• Mana Potion 30

Tiralin Carrot Salesman

• Golden Carrot 250 $
  
• Moulding Magic 40 $
  
• Garlic Atomizer 40
  
• Mana Potion 20 $

Tiralin Barkeep

• Golden Sphere = 3 Silver Spheres (180)
  
• Crystal Sphere = 5 Silver Spheres (300)
  
• Garlic Atomizer = 1 Silver Sphere (60)
  
• Moulding Magic = 1 Silver Sphere (60)
  Prices indicated using the Store Sphere Merchant's prices.

Store Elf

• Small Healing Potion 5 $
  
• Medium Healing Potion 10 $
  
• Big Healing Potion 20
  
• Healing Herbs 20
  
• Medicine 25

Store Sphere Merchant

• Silver Sphere 60 $
  
• Golden Sphere 150 $
  
• Crystal Sphere 300 $

Dunmore Store

• Small Healing Potion 5 $
  
• Medium Healing Potion 10 $
  
• Big Healing Potion 15 $
  
• Healing Herbs 15
  
• Garlic Atomizer 30 $

$ The Goblin infront of the Dunmore rowhouse will sell you a healing herb for 8 coins, making it the cheapest in game.

Monagham Store

• Medium Healing Potion = 3 Crystals (30 coins)
  
• Big Healing Potion = 4 Crystals (40 coins)
  
• Mana Potion = 3 Crystals (30 coins)
  
• Medicine = 5 Crystals (50 coins)
  
• Moulding Magic = 4 Crystals (40 coins) $

$ Once you finish the quests at the Forest Hut (7), the elf lady there will exchange two Small Healing Potions into one Big Healing Potion, making it the cheapest at 10 coins.

Buying Crytals

The dwarf infront of the Tiralin City Hall will sell you 3 crystals for a total of 20 coins, after which he will run out of crystals.
After that go to the door between the two Tiralin stores, and a dwarf there will sell you infinite crystals for 10 coins, or buy for 5.
NOTE: The Monagham crystal prices are converted to coins using his price (1 crystal = 10 coins)

Battle Tactics

In this section I will be explaining how to prepare for battle, faery choice and order, spell usage and faery countering.

Faery Battles

Combat in Zanzarah is in the form of a first person shooter. You take control of your faery and you are required to defeat the oponents faeries. At any time you can switch to other faeries in your deck and switch spell slots. You cannot use any potions or herbs while in combat. Once your faery is down, it cannot be revived without the use of healing herbs in the inventory.

Before every battle you will be able to review your and the opponents deck. In the middle you can preview the faery. Top left is the faery icon and name, as well as its level. At the bottom is the list of the faery's spells. In more difficult battles read these so you know how to counter that faery. Learning which spell is what is also useful.

The main goal is to shoot the other faery and deal as much damage as you can, while evading enemy attacks. Spells can be "charged" by holding down left mouse button. The charge power is represented by the spining dots around the reticule and with audio signals. Holding it down too long will result in a backfire, which can severely dent your faery's health. Practice charging your spells for best results. The reticule has a slightly larger area then indicated so your shots don't have to be spot-on.

Movement

It is best to try and strafe around corners. Keep the opposing faery in front of you at all times, but try to hide behind walls and pop out just before firing. Practice makes perfect and you can win most battles like this without taking any damage. Sometimes you will have a faery location indicator on your HUD showing you the direction of the opposing faery.

Pay attention to your jump meter and never go far beyound or below the ground limits. The arena has bounds and your faery will be defeated if it goes outside them.

I would also reccomend changing the controls to WSAD for movement and space for jumping, as it makes everything more easier.

Spell Usage

Learning to switch between your spells is also important. If your spell is already charged and you don't have a target lock on the opponent, switch to your other spell. This will cancel the first without spending precious mana.

Faery Choice

When the opponent switches his faery, there will be a bright white flash in it's place, and another where the other faery appears. This is a good time to check out the HUD and see which faery the opponent has selected so that you can attempt to counter it. You should always try and counter the opponents faeries, as it makes every battle so much easier.

Deck Order

Unless if you are leveling a faery, your deck should be in a certain order.
Since the first faery is usually the strongest one, either in defense or attacks, you should keep it there. Sometimes the opposing faery will fire really quickly and you don't want a glass cannon taking all the damage. Pick a faery that can sustain damage as well as deal some.

The rest of the slots don't matter if you can remember what faery is on which slot, but I usually order them having their strenghts in mind, with the strongest being first, and weakest or most rarely used last.

Sometimes if you are using card powers, you will get attacked by a faery while a weaker faery is at the first slot. Just switch to another faery while the camera is still moving into the first one and you should be OK.

Countering

Countering has all to do with the effectivenesses. Try and learn which type counters which, and you will have a more enjoyable experience. There isn't a universal faery, and you will need at least 20 stronger ones in order to finish the entire game. Some defensive spells also help countering.

Notable Battles (Spoilers)

In this section I will give out tactics for specific difficult battles.

CONTAINS SPOILERS, SKIP TO NEXT CHAPTER

THE SCARECROW

This is your first encounter with being attacked by multiple faeries at once. The fight is pretty easy, especially if you have a nature faery.

Faery	Level	Type
Rasrow	4	Chaos
Maulrow	4	Chaos
Maulrow	4	Chaos

Once you spawn find the nearest faery and just keep firing at him until you kill him. Try to save your mana and charge up your shots. Repeat the process until all the faeries are defeated.

TOWER OF THE DWARVES

You are required to defeat four dwarves midgets in order to obtain the Elemental key of Nature. They aren't that difficult, so you shouldn't have any issues defeating them. Make sure to heal/restore mana between battles.
Dwarf 1:

Faery	Level	Type
Mentaur	23	Psi
Mentaur	??	Psi
Clum	26	Psi

Dwarf 2:

Faery	Level	Type
Grem	19	Stone
Grem	??	Stone
Gremrock	29	Stone

Dwarf 3:

Faery	Level	Type
Gremor	27	Stone
Grem	??	Stone
Mentaur	??	Psi
Clum	8	Psi

Dwarf 4:

Faery	Level	Type
Grem	19	Stone
Gremrock	24	Stone
Pix	31	Fire
JumRock	29	Stone

THE GREAT TREE

This fun quest is a four part battle. You partake in a tournament against some of the "best" faery masters in Zanzarah. You don't have to worry about being attacked by several faeries at once, this is old school one-on-one. There are four combatants you need to defeat and they're all fairly easy. This is also a very good switch training spot, as you will rarely need a full set and you can always go back to London between fights. The XP is very nice.

First off is that irritating kid Seamus (the Great, the Invincible), with a full set of stone faeries. He is pretty easy to defeat, considering you should have a Psi faery by now. His Gremor has a reflect spell spell.

Faery	Level	Type
Grem	30	Stone
Gremor	35	Stone
Stobat	33	Stone
Garbat	40	Stone

After him is Eirik, the dwarf from Tiralin. He's rocking a set of water faeries with one ice faery, so just use something like chaos, energy or ice against them, and finish off Feez with your Psi faery.

Faery	Level	Type
Tadana	35	Water
Aquana	41	Water
Tadana	29	Water
Feez	31	Water

Janus, the guy you had to give Segbuzz back to is next up. He is pretty easy to defeat and is probably the fastest leveler ever. The level 0 Segbuzz you gave him is now 38, and after his demise you will get him back at level 2. Great!

Faery	Level	Type
Blumella	30	Nature
Symgot	37	Nature
Stobat	33	Stone
Segbuzz	38	Chaos

Last up is a female Swamp Goblin with low level faeries and poison on Tinefol.

Faery	Level	Type
Lana	24	Nature
Fathrael	29	Air
Tinefol	19	Nature
Tinerog	14	Nature
Cera	26	Water

BLUMELLA

Faery Arena Map: Blumella's Realm
Certainly the most difficult battle and part in the entire game, this battle will test you to the limits. You are attacked by several (5?) nature faeries, most of them level 60, and they are very aggressive. I reccomend that you have five very effective faeries above level 45 before even attempting this battle. Fire, metal, ice do well, but I usually take my Garbat there too, as he can use a great metal spell.

You will spawn in a large odd arena alongside five other faeries. Take cover instantly and charge up your shots. Again try and isolate one faery, and save your mana. Between shots take cover and constantly move.

GENERAL OF THE SHADOW ELVES

Battle 1: Dunmore Siege. Defeat his three soldiers and then return to battle him. You will be awarded the Ocean Conch. His deck is:

Faery	Level	Type
Rasrow	17	Chaos
Maulrow	10	Chaos
Violectra	3	Energy
Ferix	4	Fire
Maulrow	12	Chaos

Battle 2: Arena battle. You are rewarded the Quinlin's Staff of Rule and Suane.
Arena Map: Castles
This battle can be fairly difficult, but once you figure out the right tactic it is actually really easy. The shadow elf has six dark faeries and one chaos, all around level 30. I would suggest having both the nature and the water faery at level 30 or higher. If you are having a real hard time with this, get two nature faeries and the rest water.

You will be attacked by four faeries at once, so expect shots from all sides. You need to isolate and kill Segbuzz, the chaos faery, as fast as you can. He usually spawns left from where you do alongside another dark faery. Drop down the tower you spawn above and charge up your spell so you can one-hit Segbuzz as soon as you see him. Immediately upon his defeat switch to your water faery and take your time charging up to one-shot all the other dark faeries, since they deal small amounts of damage to you (6-7).

The reason for this is that chaos is very effective against water and will defeat your water faery pretty fast, in about two shots. Your nature faery has some resistance from dark and is very effective against chaos. After that its smooth sailing picking them off.

Battle 3: Dark Cathedral battle.

LEADER OF THE SHADOW ELVES

Battle 1: The prerequisite of this battle is to have at least 10 faeries in your deck.
Battle 2: White Cathedral battle.
Battle 3: Shadow Realm battle.

SHADOW ELVES

THE DRUID

Part 1
Part 2

THE GUARD

Faery Arena Map: The Guard
Final boss battle, you are attacked by a large number of metal faeries. Anything against metal works, just make sure they're all level 60 and that it is a very strong deck.

SEAMUS

Battle 1: Tiralin

Faery	Level	Type
Gremor	5	Stone
Stobat	5	Stone
Garbat	10	Stone
Grem	4	Stone

Battle 2: See Great Tree

Game Map

Location Map:

1. Rafi's Cave
2. Village of Endeva
3. Cottage
4. Waterfall
5. Tiralin
6. Ruins in the Forest
7. Forest Hut
8. Secret Garden
9. Dunmore
10. Swamp Monument
11. Great Tree
12. Entrance to the Shadow Realm
13. The Dark Cathedral
14. Tower of the Dwarves
15. Mountain World
16. Dark Caves (exits to Enchanted Forest)
17. Dark Caves II (Entrance through Waterfall)
18. Monagham
19. Lava Caves
20. On the Peaks
21. Ice Cave
22. Realm of the Clouds
23. The Arena
24. White Cathedral
25. The Pagoda
26. Tiralin Catacombs
27. Dwarven Cloud Realm

SPOILERS:

Game map with marked locations of NPC's, enemies, items, elevators, keys and cards.
Work in progress, currently marked all enemies up to the Tower of the Dwarves.

Tips and Tricks

• If you are stuck drowning in Dunmore, or are falling down in a pit somewhere, you can quickly use a teleport rune to go back to safety, or just save the game and you wont lose any progress.
  
• The poker players in the Endeva bar, the dusting swamp goblin in Dunmore, and some other NPC's will sometimes drop money when you try and talk to them. They are easily spotted as they have no dialogue other then a one-liner.
  
• After hitting an opponents faery, they will drop coins for every 6 points of damage.
  
• Explore every nook and cranny of the world, there are a lot of hidden secrets you might have missed and are worth revisiting at later levels.
  
• Rebind your controls, it makes the game easier to play.
  
• Try and keep the faeries you use similar levels.
  
• When you "capture" and not defeat the oponent faery, you will receive very small amounts of XP, so it's best to avoid contact with them if you are trying to level your faeries faster.
  
• In multi-faery battles, focus on one faery until it is defeated.
  
• Keep stocked on Garlic Atomizers. You will get attacked randomly a lot by low level faeries which just waste your time.

Secrets

AMY'S PARKOUR

Amy is a girl who can jump. And this is a nice exploit in the game. For this to work you have to be persistent.
Simply start running onto a wall and jump on it. Keep holding forwards and pressing space to make Amy jump. Occasionaly change the direction left/right a bit. If you've got it right, Amy should start climbing unreachable areas, but be careful because you can fall off the edge.

One of the most useful locations to do this is just past the cottage where there is a air eddy. There is a rock blocking the entrance to the Fairy Garden - Waterfall. The rock is normally removed using the Fairy Card of Earth however you can jump over it and explore the area which has a lot of water faeries, a elf challenging you to a duel with Ice faeries and a cave with Psi and Nature faeries. You will need the Ocean Conch to summon the water faeries.
To do this, climb on the upper part where the eddy is and move along the edge towards the Mountain Realm. Once you reach near the edge and before you fall down, jump up and keep doing it until you've climbed to the edge. Jump across some other polygons and descend behind the rock and continue towards the hidden area. If you overdo the parkour you won't be transported, in which case just head backwards towards the rock and then back towards the new area. To exit, simply use a transport rune.

The same thing can be used usefully at the island where the Fairy Card of Nature is in order to evade the difficult battle with the Shadow Elf. You can then freely pick up the card and everything rest.

You can use this on most other areas as well, but 99% of the time there is no real purporse except for laughs.

MAGICAL POND

Somewhere in the middle of the second part of the Enchanted Forest is a purple glowing pond. When you walk through it you will hear a female chorus and some visual effects will appear. This lake will heal the faeries in your deck a bit. However this will work just once and you will have to re-enter the area for it to work again.

OBTAINING FUGAERY

Fugaery is probably one of the last faeries you will obtain. I've personally never found it a good faery, but it might be just me not liking fungi. Getting the faery is annoying, specifically because you cannot find one in the wilderness, and in order to obrain it you will have to trade for it with a elf on the upper floor of the tavern in Tiralin. He will ask for a JumRock, which cannot be caught, but only evolved from JumJum, who can be found in most Stone faery spawns, but mostly in the Enchanted Forest, the part where there are two eddies to jump on above the chasm, leading towards the caverns. JumJum evolves into JumRock at level 38, and he is quite a slow leveler. Farming the Realm of Clouds and the Dunmore trainer at low levels is the quickest way. Once you've traded for Fugaery, you will need to repeat the JumRock process to have him as well in your deck.

CARD OF PSI

Behind the locked gate in Tiralin, near the Golden Carrot vendor and the water faery dwarf, is a part of the forest leading towards the Ruins in the Forest. The path has many Stone, Nature, Chaos and Dark faeries, and the ruins themselves are the only spawn for Light faeries. In the middle you will find the Card of Psi which when used with a Psi faery will make it turn towards the nearest wild faery spawn. This can be usefull when trying to find or evade faeries.

FREE MANA

One of the most useful NPC's in Zanzarah is the Scarecrow, who will replenish all of your faeries mana for free. In order to unlock this function you need to defeat a few low level Chaos faeries. By the time you get to the Cottage, you should have a faery strong enough, so this fight shouldn't be hard.

SUMMONING WILD FAERIES

There are numerous spawns in-game where you can only summon a wild faery using special items such as The Ocean Conch and Faery Horn. They are found defeating the Shadow Goblin General in Dunmore and at the bottom of the lower catacombs in Tiralin respectively. The conch will summon faeries at specific locations in water, while the horn works at most other places. You will hear a TOCK and a small bubble will appear in top-left corner, at which time you should press the left mouse button to summon them.

LOCKED CHESTS

The locked chests are fairly easy to do. When you see the puzzle it looks like

Simply click on each one of the gems only once, going TOP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT and you will succeed.

PIXIES

Every five pixies caught will get you rewards from Lucius. You can only catch pixies once you get the Pixie bag from Lucius after meeting him at his cottage. This is the list of pixie locations and rewards:
Faery Garden (8)

• One inside the herb Shop
  
• Two at the area just past Endeva towards Cottage
  
• Two at the area before Cottage from Endeva
  
• Two behind the Cottage area
  
• One by the elevator near Rafi

Enchanted Forest (4)

• One towards Tiralin behind the large rock on the right
  
• One towards the Forest Hut
  
• One on top of a ruined archway outside the locked Tiralin gate
  
• One past the gate behind the Forest Hut, in the Blumela area

Tiralin (1)

• Golden Carrot NPC cellar

Misty Swamp (7)

• Four on various islands
  
• Two near the beginning of the swamp, coming from Tiralin
  
• One towards the Great Tree

Mountain World (4)

• One in the valley
  
• One in the tunnels towards Monagaham
  
• One on a stone island reachable by an air eddy
  
• One on the mountain top reachable by a few air eddys

Ice Cave (1)

• One inside the cavern maze

Realm of the Clouds (1)

• One on a hill near the Arena

Shadow Realm (2)

• One at the ledge off the main hallway in the first area
  
• One further into the same area

Dark Cathedral (2)

• Two at the top floor

Rewards
5 – 30 coins
10 – Cellar key
15 – 50 coins
20 – Five mana potions
25 – Five garlic atomizers
30 – A missing faery or 20 Golden Carrots

Modernizing the Game

Zanzarah can run well on modern systems provided you make some modifications. First off you will need a program called dgVoodoo2[dege.freeweb.hu] for it to run and render properly, and secondly if you wish to play it in any resolution you will need to follow the instructions from below. Make sure not to download the latest version, but use the version 2.54, since that one doesn't seem to have mouse lag issues.

1. Install Zanzarah.
2. Download and unzip dgVoodoo 2.54[dege.freeweb.hu], and copy the dgVoodooCpl.exe and all the 3 DLL files from the Ms folder into Zanzarah/System folder.
3. Setup dgVoodoo to your preferences and hit apply.
4. Install Python 2.7.10 and copy the script below into a notepad file that's in the Zanzarah system directory (Steam\SteamApps\common\ZanZarah\System) and rename it's extension from .txt to .py and run it. It will create a new .exe called something like "zanthp.1920x1080.exe".
5. Rename the newly created "zanthp.1920x1080.exe" to "zanthp.exe" (backup/rename the original before).
6. If you wan't to run the game in a windowed mode, you'll need to use Helco's windowed patch. Extract it in the ZanZarah/System directory (the WindowedZanzarah.exe and WindowedZanzarah.dll files) and edit the ZanZarah.bat file in the ZanZarah root folder to target WindowedZanzarah.exe (which will just launch zanthp.exe).
You can download it here: https://github.com/Helco/ZZSpeeds/releases/
7. Run the game normally via Steam, tick both the boxes for Windowed mode and Ignore focus loss, max out the "Extras" and enjoy the game!

Change the values in "RES_X,RES_Y = 1920,1080" to whatever resolution you want.

#!/usr/bin/python
from struct import pack, unpack

RES_X,RES_Y = 1920,1080
resX = pack("<L", RES_X).encode("hex")
resY = pack("<L", RES_Y).encode("hex")
ratios,offsets = [round(640/480.0, 2), round(1920/1080.0, 2), round(1920/1200.0, 2)],[0, 0.25, 0.17]
r = offsets[ratios.index(round(RES_X/float(RES_Y), 2))]

p1 = [0x001078, "9090"]
p2 = [0x01128c, "e90e2c1900"]
p3 = [0x0f5c43, "59595968"+resY+"68"+resX+"5233c9894c2414894c2410b820000000"]
p4 = [0x1a3e9f, "8d732c8bcec7442408"+resX+"c744240c"+resY+"e9d8d3e6ff"]
p5 = [0x1a5fcc, pack("<f", RES_Y/float(RES_X)).encode("hex")]
p6 = [0x1a6508, pack("<f", RES_Y/float(RES_X)).encode("hex")]
p7 = [0x019430, "e987aa1800" + "90"*26]
p8 = [0x1a3ebc, "c74108"+resX+"c7410c"+resY+"c7411020000000c74114000000005ec20400"]
skills,icon,gauge,bars = [0x1a60ac],[0x1a7278, 0x1a727c],[0x1a7290, 0x1a7294],[0x1a6e6c, 0x1a72ac]

with open("zanthp.exe", "rb") as f: blob = f.read()
for p in [p1, p2, p3, p4, p5, p6, p7, p8]: blob = blob[:p[0]] + p[1].decode("hex") + blob[p[0]+len(p[1].decode("hex")):]
for i in (skills+icon+gauge+bars):
  t = unpack("<f", blob[i:i+4])[0]
  blob = blob[:i] + pack("<f", t-t*r) + blob[i+4:]
with open("zanthp."+str(RES_X)+"x"+str(RES_Y)+".exe", "wb") as f: f.write(blob)

[Nick]

Using version 2.54 of dgVoodoo seems to fix the mouse lag issues. Needs further testing, but for now it looks good. Guide updated to reflect the new findings.

[D.A. Azrael]

Thanks for the .exe files, it looks alright in 1024x768 on a 55' 4K TV but I'll try the full HD and 4K ones.

[Pane Caldo]

I didn't fight the Leader of the Shadow Elves in the White Cathedral. He wasn't there at all, just a regular Shadow Elf who disliked guard duty and was grateful to be defeated. Was this changed in a patch?

[Meowish]

Alternate way For High Res:
Use HxD (it's a free app) to edit zanthp.exe and use 'Find and Replace" to replace all "640 0 0 480" to whatever resolution you like eg, "1920 0 0 1080", if you wish to keep the skill and hp bar in battle, use a 4:3 resolution, if you don't mind the missing bars, you can just go for 16:9 (eg, 1600,900). Just save and run the game as normal and you should see the resolution turned up under the video setting tab. But there might be a small ratio error in the display depending on your monitor but it can be fixed with the ratio fix i mentioned.

[Meowish]

That should fix the ratio problem especially for widescreen player and it will auto snap into widescreen mode. Amy will look much slimmer and in correct ratio. And this works for the none-hacked original version of the game too. So it's not a big deal going through the fuss of editing the exe file if you aren't sure how to do that. The only difference is the game is sharper or blur. But DGVoodoo2 files is a MUST,because that fix the glitches and bring the game driver up to date to work on your modern pc.

[Meowish]

Fixing the ratio problem:
This fix the ratio problem for both the hi-res hack and the original 1024x768 full screen on wide screen monitor. Just go to the main folder of Zanzarah, right click and edit this file "ZanZarah.bat"

Look for the line that says "Zanzarah.exe" and add this behind it "-console", save after you're done.

And start the game as usual from steam. Now inside the game after you load/start a new game, press F11 in game and a console command input will pop up.

Type in this:
fov xxxx,yyyy
(xxxx,yyyy being the resolution your pc is using right now)
eg.
fov 1600,900

[Meowish]

The Flickering happens because the old game doesn't comply to your modern graphic driver. All you need is copy and paste the DGVoodoo dll files to your "System" folder in Zanzarah will fix that. Not only Zanzarah it fixes almost all the old timer games with these problems.

The High Resolution part is optional since you can easily play the game without the glitches once you have the voodoo fix.

[Nick]

@mishkarae Make sure you are using the correct resolution, I use 1600x900 windowed, 1920x1080 fullscreen. The main menu will look weird but the in-game ones will just be a bit smaller. Here's a gallery of how it looks to me ( https://imgur.com/a/KB6sHxo )

As for the flickering, sorry to hear that. People seem to have issues with this game, I've never encountered it, vanilla or "modded" so I can't really determine the cause and attempt to fix it. dgVoodoo should help in most cases because the issue is most likely DirectX related. If you are really adamant about playing the game, perhaps the GTA3 community might be helpful because it runs on the same engine. Aside from all that, compatibility mode or a virtual XP system are the only two things that I can think off.

Good luck and have fun :)

[mishkarae]

@shadowrend Thanks again for the files!
I'm afraid it still just won't work on my PC. All my menu screens were tiny and in the centre of the screen? With the dialogue box tiny in the bottom left corner? It was challenging to navigate (for the whole two seconds I tried). But my more serious issue is that in Amy's kitchen, the polygons on the walls and floors flicker in and out continually. It's painful on the eyes, and, you know, kind of immersion-breaking? ^^; I stripped back the entire game, uninstalled and reinstalled with fresh files, and the vanilla game has the problem, not the additional downloads, so I think the whole thing just wasn't meant to be!
But thank you for taking the time to help me troubleshoot~

[Nick]

@mishkarae Here's a folder with a bunch of patched exe's for different resolutions (and the script as well). https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17kR4gSh7cfNmx2rSV99Dn4cw2xUmpv6h?usp=sharing

Just copy the one you want into your System folder and use that to launch the game from now on. If you want to run the game windowed with Helco's patch, rename the original zanthp.exe to something like "original-zanthp.exe" and the new one from "zanthp.1920x1080.exe" to just "zanthp.exe" then use WindowedZanzarah, it will launch any file thats called "zanthp.exe" so you have to make sure its the resolution patched one.

Have fun, hope this helps you :)