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''Mirrored from http://www.thecomputershow.com/computershow/walkthroughs/adomwalk.htm on 10th Feb '08 by [[User:Terry|Terry]].''

Subject: Massive ADOM Walkthrough! (spoilers galore)

From: zak at azstarnet dot com (z)

Newsgroups: rec.games.roguelike.misc

I am writing this message to get major loads of information out of my
cranium. I played ADOM waaaay too long and thought I could finish it
sooner. If I had realized it would take so long to finish, I probably
wouldn't have started. But it was fun anyway.
 
Here is a very long-winded walkthrough for ADOM version 9.4. Please
don't read it if you want the satisfaction of solving the game via
your own puzzle-solving and exploration skills.

<ol>

<li>In any ADOM game, you will want to start by going to the training
caves. These are a good place to find out whether your character is
worth continuing or whether you'd be better off starting over. The
training caves are just about 15 or so spaces to the left of the NE
corner where you start out. Keep killing monsters until you get to
experience level 6, then leave, because after level 6 the monsters get
too deadly.

</li><li>Once you've left those caves, go to the Terinyo village. Buy a couple
of large rations if you want. (It doesn't matter that much because
you'll find them all over the place in one of the upcoming dungeons.)
Make sure to talk to the old mystic who lives in a square building to
the left of the water area of the village. He will tell you about a
Mad Carpenter who needs to be saved. His telling you about it will
allow you to find a location you could not have found otherwise.
 
</li><li>Now you'll want to visit the caves where the Mad Carpeneter lives.
They are on the far East side of the kingdom, very close to Terinyo.
They show up as an orange symbol next to the mountains. Once you've
entered, start killing monsters and picking stuff up until you get to
level 4. Here you'll want to pay closer attention to make sure you
don't start hacking away at the Healer, who will appear as a white @
sign. Chat with him and he'll tell you you need to learn tolerance.
What this means is that when you get to level 7 (which is the last
level), you will find the Mad Carpenter and he'll keep attacking you.
Just ignore his attacks and get him to follow you down all the levels
until he is at level 4. His attacks never seem to do any damage. Then
make him walk adjacent to the Healer. The Healer will give him his
sanity back and the Carpenter will disappear. He'll leave you a book
of bridge building, a blessed hatchet, and something else I forget.
Pick all this up. Also chat with the Healer and get him to teach you
the Healing skill if you don't already have it. If your hit points are
low, ask him to heal you too. Then leave this dungeon.
 
</li><li>Now you are probably moderately tough with a fair amount of money and
enough food to do some decent exploring. You can go back to Terinyo
and buy some rations, talk to the Old Mystic (who will tell you about
another dungeon, but this isn't necessary the way it was before), or
get training from the Carpenter (who should be around somewhere). You
can also go to the Thieves' Village just SW of Terinyo. There you can
buy more advanced items (potions, scrolls, blessed weapons, rings,
etc.), talk to a Crime Lord or a Master Thief, or talk to a Mad
Scientist type guy on the far right side of the screen (where a lot of
people probably never explore). I am not sure what the Mad Scientist
is good for, but apparently you don't need to talk to him to finish
the game. The same is the case with the Crime Lord and the Master
Thief. If you chat with the Crime Lord he'll ask you to kill the
Terinyo sheriff and the Old Mystic -=-- you can come back and get a
gift (a Chaos amulet). I don't think this is a very useful course of
action, and you don't really want the Terinyo village people pissed
off at you. In my opinion, it's a much better bet to eventually kill
the citizens of the Theives' Village, but this isn't necessary either.
 
</li><li>Okay, so now what? It's time for you to cross the kingdom. You'll have
to veer far south because a large body of water splits the right side
of the screen off from the larger left side. When you're traveling
south, you can stop in the "Endless Dungeons" if you want and build up
your inventory/experience points. As far as I know there are no
interesting artifacts or beings in the Endless Dungeons, but I haven't
explored it much. It isn't necessary to complete the game. It also
apparently goes on, deeper and depper, to infinity. Not my idea of a
good time. (I could be wrong about its being infinite.)
 
</li><li>After you have passed by the Endless Dungeons, veer west until you are
past the water. Then head NW until you are in the middle/left upper
area of the screen. There is a location that is just diagonal from a
corner of mountains. It is marked by an asterisk. Enter it. This is
the Dwarven Caves and it's where most of the action occurs.
</li><li>      The Dwarven Caves are extremely deep, but you won't find out how
deep until much later in the game. They go all the way to level 50,
but for now we're just concerned with the first 20 or so. The levels
get progressively more difficult, with tougher, more vicious monsters
as you go down further. That means that the first several levels are
pretty easy.

</li><li>       The first interesting (not completely random) level is the
Arena level. Here you'll find that a wide area fills the entire right
side of the screen. The wide area has a rectangle in it, and on the
north side of that rectangle sits an "@" sign who you can chat with.
This is the Arena Master. Don't try to fight him (you can do this much
later, if you want). Just chat. He will offer to let you fight in
arena matches. Try some if you want, but remember, you probably aren't
going to be tough enough to win many of them in a row. You might want
to fight several battles, then come back later when you've recovered
hit points or gotten toughter. Each time you win an arena match you
get a good sum of money from the Arena Master. The 20th won battle
(which is always at least twice as hard as the previous 19) will win
you an artifact --- a pretty good blessed sword. Again, you may have
to come back after you've gotten to a decent level in order to win
this 20th match. The 20th win makes you the Champion.
</li><li>       Other interesting levels in the early part of the Dwarven Caves
include the "no walls" level, where you can find most types of
lower-level monsters. It's also a good place to practice your
herbalism skill (stomafillia herbs are quite useful for hunter,
alrunia antidotes for poison, and I forget what the other ones do.)
</li><li>      Eventually you'll get to the Dwarven City. I forget what level
this is, but it's probably somewhere between 15 and 20. It's a very
important spot in ADOM because you will be returning to it many times
for a variety of reasons. First of all, there's the shop. Then there's
the church where you can give sacrifices to your deity. There's also
(in version 9.4 anyway) a place where you can do Smithing, and a home
where an elderly warrior lives. Most important are the Training room
and the Dwarven Leader room (which stands out because it always has
two dwarven guards guarding the door, who are the origin of the quote
"Axes high!"). 
</li><li>     One other room that is important to mention is the tiny room with
no doors. You can't dig your way in here -- you need to teleport in.
If you don't have the teleport skill, I don't know how you can get in
there, but eventually everybody gets the teleport skill when they
become corrupted by chaos. Inside the small room lives a mystic who
will happily give you a really excellent blessed battle axe that does
a ton of damage.
</li><li>       Okay, back to the previously mentioned rooms in the Dwarven
City. In the Elderly Warrior room, talk to him repeatedly. If you have
the weapon from winning the 20th Arena fight, the Elderly Warrior will
notice it and ask you if he can have it. I forget what he gives you in
return but it's worth giving him the weapon if you already have
something better. 
</li><li>      The Training Room is a great place to build up your skill
points. I find that giving the trainer 1000 gold coins each time you
pass through is a great policy. (Usually you don't have much else to
do with your money.) 1000 is a number I made up -- It could be that
you need less, or possibly more -- I don't know. Anyway, I've seen
characters gain dozens of strength, dexterity and other points by
regularly consulting the trainer. And building up your attributes is
extremely important if you want to get anywhere in ADOM.
</li><li>     Where the church is concerned, I don't really understand how
worshipping works and it never played a large role in my playing of
the game -- but it might for you. The main thing is, experiment with
sacrificing stuff and try to make your god happy so you can "wish"
later on. Again, I personally don't find this all that important in
the grander scheme of things.
</li><li>     The Dwarven Leader is a very important character to talk to
because he will send you on quests (you have to say "quest" to him)
and also he will send you on a "portal" quest (you have to say
"portal") which will take you to the other side of the kingdom. I
don't recommend doing the portal quest until you have done a
significant number of regular quests for the Dwarven Leader. Each time
you complete a quest, go to the Dwarven Leader and he will give you
something useful (the rewards get better during the later quests --
one of them is an excellent shield).
      
</li><li>The levels that go lower than the Dwarven City are pretty tough, and
you will want to play them carefully. Among the many tough levels are
the "living trees" level and the Undead level. There is also a level
somewhere down there that is full of bees. Remember to kill all the
bees until the queen bee comes out. Kill her, then go to the hive and
try to pick stuff up. You will need the bee wax for later.

</li><li>       The "Living Trees" level is also important. For one thing, you
will need to cross it during one of the quests. For another thing, it
is a good place to get logs with which to build a bridge. This is not
the only place to get logs, but if you have acquired the "Strength of
Atlas" or an equivalent spell, this is as good a place as any. (You'll
need the "Strength of Atlas" spell to carry more than a couple sets of
logs at a time). If you have access to a lot of stomafillia herbs or a
ton of rations and other food, then you can ignore the "living trees"
level as a source of wood, because you can do all your wood chopping
out in the general kingdom where otherwise your hunger would progress
very rapidly.  Anyway, the "living trees" level is an interesting
place to visit. To cross it, keep moving. Don't get sucked in to the
concept of standing and fighting because you will never be able to
kill all those trees. Don't try to burn them, they'll just get pissed
off and all attack at once.
</li><li>       The Undead level I mentioned earlier is a big pain in the butt
unless you're pretty powerful. You have to run a gauntlet of zombies
and so on. If you have a pickaxe for digging, this is a great level to
use it so you can avoid a lot of monsters. You'll probably want to
kill them all eventually, though.
</li><li>     Below the Undead level, somewhere around level 25 I guess, is a
level with a blocked portal. You can go no further than this until you
have completed the Portal Quest that the Dwarven Leader will tell you
about if you ask.
</li><li>       The thing to remember about the first 25 or so levels of the
Dwarven Caves is that you will have to do a lot of running back and
forth (or up and down) in order to get things done. You will basically
live in these areas for a while. Get used to it. Your character needs
to build up strength here before he/she can really kick butt. But
there are other things to move on to.....
 
<p>THE RING OF THE HIGH KINGS AREA
 
</p></li><li>Before discussing this area I should say that bridge building is
important here. Always keep your book of bridge building in your
possession because if you don't have it, you can't add points to the
bridge building skill each time you go up a level.
</li><li>      Whether you get logs from the "living trees" level of the
Dwarven Caves or from the general outside area, you'll need at least 3
logs and probably many more in order to build an adequate bridge.
(This depends on your skill level in bridge building.) 
      </li><li>Okay....let me back up. The Ring of the High Kings area is in
the far upper left corner of the kingdom. You can't get there unless
you have a Climbing Set or a really good Climbing skill level, or
maybe both, I'm not sure. The Climbing Sets are not too hard to find
after a while. 
</li><li>      Basically, when you go to the Ring of High Kings area you will
be in a one-level (no stairs) room with an island that is surrounded
by piranha-filled water. You can't cross this water without building a
bridge. To build a bridge, you must have both the hatchet and logs in
your possession. You will want to stand by the edge of the water on
the south side, where it only takes 3 spaces to reach the door of the
little island. Put the hatchet in your Tools inventory spot, then
"U"se it. When you have reached the door with bridges, you will have
to kill a water monster of some sort, then you can get the Ring of the
High Kings.
</li><li>     I am not sure what this ring does exactly, and I am not even 100%
sure you need it in order to win, but I think you probably do. Most
likely it's what gets you past one of the deeper portals.
     </li><li>Order-wise, this is probably the first place you should attempt
to visit after you've been in the Dwarven Caves.
 

<p>THE PORTAL QUEST
 
</p></li><li>The Portal Quest will take you to a previously-invisible graveyard in
the SE area of the kingdom. It is marked, appropriately enough, by a
cross (plus sign). Once there, you will have to fight many zombies,
wraiths, ghosts and other annoying creatures in order to get yourself
inside a tomb in the center of the screen. This tomb has a downwards
stairs, which take you to a quite deadly area.
</li><li>       The thing to remember about the lower level is that you don't
need to explore it all. It's a trap room and you'll probably die or be
in a world of pain if you try to map it all out. (I used to think you
had to step on all the "you hear a squaking sound" traps in order to
finish this quest, but I later realized those traps don't have special
significance). Basically, just go all the way south and hit the "s"
key until a secret door opens. Then travel S and then E along the
bottom area of the screen until you are as far SE as you can go.
Somewhere around there is a secret door. (It's in a vertical hallway
on the right/lower side of the screen.)
</li><li>      When you find the secret door, enter carefully. It should take
you to a large room on the right side of the screen. Then start
hacking away until you have killed the Necromancer and Griff, who the
Dwarven Leader should have told you about. Kill everything else
threatening. Then use a pick axe or wand of digging to dig up that
grave in the center of the large room. You will find a good artifact.
I think you need to pour holy water on this grave too. 
 </li><li>     Your portal quest is finished -- get the $#% out of there.
 
</li><li>At this point, there is no one order you need to do things in. You
just need to do things. Here are some areas you might want to focus
on: 
 
<p>THE GREMLIN AREA
 
</p></li><li>This is located in the SW area of the kingdom. It's all dark, so use a
torch or your amulet of protection. Do not go here if you aren't
pretty tough. I am not sure what the intended point of this area is,
but the bottom line is that you have to kill a ton of gremlins because
they keep reproducing (due to a well-placed water trap). Hack through
the gremlins and stand on the trap until they're gone. If this doesn't
work, I'm not sure what to do. Also, I don't know of any good use for
the balls of fluff. One time I had one in my inventory and when I got
soaked by a water trap much later on, the ball of fluff turned into a
gremlin in my backpack and ruined some of my stuff. Obviously the
creator was making a reference to the movie "Gremlins." In the Gremlin
area you will find a "Phial" potion which is useful for creating
blasts of light, but not anything else that I know of.
 
<p>THE TOWER
 
</p></li><li>This is a hot, hot place. You need to be pretty tough and you need at
least two objects or experiences that involve immunity to fire.
(Eating fire beetles and wearing a ring of fire resistance would
work). Otherwise you'll steadily lose hit points.This area is all red
and about 3 or 4 levels deep. You'll have to fight red dragons and the
like, so be prepared. The on the last level, you may need to dig or
use a wand to get to the other side of the screen (where the action
is). If you defeat all the really tough dragons, etc., you'll get the
first Chaos Orb -- the Chaos Orb of Elemental Fire. You definitely
need this.
 
<p>THE PYRAMID
 
</p></li><li>Another tough, tough level for more experienced players. I'm not sure
what exactly triggers your ability to get into the pyrarmid (an
ability you don't have early in the game). Maybe it's being a certain
level or character. Anyway, the pyramid has 3 levels and they're all
tough. In the first level, don't bother with the right side of the
screen unless you want to fight mummies. Go left and search for secret
doors everywhere you can. Eventually you'll find an area to the NW of
the screen where a downstairs can be seen.
</li><li>     Now you'll be in a smaller area with a few secret spots, etc.
There's another stairway. Go down. Now you will be in a huge room and
a ton of monsters will be after you. Good luck. If you complete this
battle you get an ankh amulet. Again, I'm not sure how crucial this is
to finishing the game, but I imagine it plays a role.
 

<p>THE GRASSY PARK AREA
 
</p></li><li>There's an area near the pyramid that consists solely of a
cresent-chaped body of water, a house with a back room, and many
trees. I have no idea what good this area is, but I vaguely recall a
Fool's poem about this area being good for magic (for reading tomes,
maybe?). I am not sure....in any case, this seems to be another
non-crucial area.

<p>THE BLUE UNDERWATER AREA
 
</p></li><li>This is a good place to go relatively early (though after completing
the portal quest) because it's not *that* hard. The important thing
though is that you have proper swimming ability/breathing aid. You'll
be in a big blue room that you have to explore thoroughly to get
around in. (Swim around the south, not north, to get places faster.)
In the very center of the screen is a large room with tons of items
there. The trouble is you can't pick up anything without your God
yelling at you. Oh well. You *can* talk to the blue dragon in the
middle of the screen, who will discuss her baby with you.
</li><li>      After this has happened, go to Terinyo and talk to the blue baby
dragon. It will fly off into the sunset in order to get together with
the mom dragon. Now go back to the underwater dungeon and talk to the
blue mama dragon again. She tells you she'll be sending you a great
thing later. What this turns out the be is a really tough two-handed
trident that somebody drops near you much later in the game. (By the
time I got it, I had forgotten all about that part of the game.)
</li><li>     I forgot to mention that the blue underwater area is not initiall
easy to find. You'll need to walk through the big lake in the middle
of the kingdom until a message says "You discover an underwater
passage!" or something similar. Some of your gear might rust in the
meantime. Don't say I didn't warn ye.
 
<p>THE RIFT
 
</p></li><li>Just south of the Ring of the High Kings Area is an area that you
can't get into unless you have a reasonable climbing ability.
Sometimes if you *do* get in, you'll fall and much of your stuff will
be damaged, as well as yourself. So you might want to make sure you're
ready before you try this area.
</li><li>      When you get in, basically you'll be in dungeons like any other
dungeons. The monsters are fairly tough, but not excruciatingly so.
When I was in here I came across a sick baby white dragon, and I
imagined I was supposed to help him, but I couldn't figure out how (I
tried to "g"ive him a number of items, including healing herbs, but he
refused). So if anybody knows what to do with the sick white baby
dragon, let me know. (I ended up killing him because I was bored and
chaotic.)
</li><li>     When you're in the rift, go as far down as you can. Eventually
there will be no more downstairs. So go up. (There are levels above
the level you start in.)  Sooner or later you will come to a room with
two upstairs symbols. One of those symbols takes you to another level.
The other one goes to an area of the Kingdom screen that is
unreachable from any other means because it's surrounded by white
(unpassable) mountains. When you get to this area, walk over to the
entrance that's on the right and you will be in the the Library. The
Library is chock full of tomes (i.e. spells) but you'll have to kill a
ton of tough monsters to get them. 
</li><li>     After that, you can continue back up the rift and get out. That's
all I know about that area.
 
<p>THE STEEL GOLEM AREA
 

</p></li><li>This is in the central south area of the kingdom. I find the steel
golems extremely difficult to kill. So you will probably want to visit
this area very late in your game. The dungeon starts out like any
other, but its first exit is guarded by the previously mentioned
golem. If you kill him and go downstairs, you'll have to kill
literally dozens of identical (and equally tough) steel golems.
Yikies, these guys are tough. Needless to say, there are some
worthwhile items in this dungeon, once you've gotten past the
monsters. There are rooms full of armor, weapons, and a room full of
pools (that do various unusual things to you). The armor and weapons
are unremarkable, mostly; presumablythey're there for you to do
smithing on.
</li><li>     The center of this level has a diamond-shaped pattern of forges
and a chaotic dwarven dude who runs the place. If you talk to him,
he'll ask you to kill the Terinyo dude (I forget what he's called but
he's represented by a green @ sign). Then, if you come back, he'll ask
you to kill the Dwarven Leader. I think he rewards you with a cool
shield or something. I don't find it much worth it, since the Dwarven
Leader already gives you a great shield when you complete all the
quests. But if you're Chaotic, maybe you'll want to go this route.
</li><li>     In the SW corner of this level is a downwards stairs. You can't
get into it ever, to my knowledge. It's blocked by a statue of a
knight and flames, or something. It seems to be a one-way door that
you can only come up through (from a deep Dwarven cave) and never go
down. I think you have to be around level 30 of the Dwarven caves to
find the stairway that comes up to this. Obviously this stairway makes
for a nice way to make a quick escape from the Dwarven caves -- but
only if you are prepared to kill all the steel golems in this dungeon
(or have already killed them).
</li><li>     One other thing. I don't remember but I think the Dwarf in this
dungeon will teach you Smithing if you don't already have this skill.
 
 <p>THE UNICORN QUEST
 
</p></li><li>When you are of a sufficient level (probably 25 or 30), go to the
Terinyo village and talk to the guy whose title I forget but who is
represented by a green @ sign. That guy. Chat with him and he'll tell
you about a Unicorn that needs your help. Then and only then can you
see a location that you couldn't see earlier.
</li><li>      This location is in the middle of the Kingdom, not too far from
the calm park area and the pyramid. You'll see it if you walk around
there a little. Enter it and you'll be in a big grassy area that has a
thick forest in the center. Walk around the forest and soon you'll
meet an upper-case white "U" which is a Lawful unicorn. Chat with him
and he'll ask you to kill his foe, a black unicorn who lives in "the
forests to the east" or something like that. Exit the level and now
you'll find another new location just east of the White Unicorn spot,
and also near the pyramid. Enter there and go kill that Black Unicorn.
(If you chat with him, he'll ask you to kill the white unicorn! Which
one you kill is a personal choice depending on your alignment.)  When
you have killed one unicorn or the other, go to the unicorn for whom
you did the killing and chat with him. I forget what he awards you
with, sorry to say. BUT he does offer to relieve you of ALL your
corruption, once and only once. I strongly recommend you NOT have him
relieve you of your corruption until you are extremely corrupt (8 or
more corrupt traits). Even if it means making a special trip up 30
levels of Dwarven Dungeons much later in the game, it's worth waiting
to have the Unicorn un-corrupt you instead of squandering this
one-time miracle too early in the game.
 
</li><li>I think that sums up the non-Dwarven areas of the kingdom pretty well.
I hope I didn't miss or forget anything. If you think about it, four
of the areas nicely sum up the elemntal orbs: the steel golem area
represents Earth, the underwater area obviously represents Water, the
fire tower represents Fire, and the rift sort of represents Air. It's
nice to know the designer tried to make the game thematically
consistent.
 
<p>Now, let's get back to the Dwarven Caves.
 
</p></li><li>When you get through the first portal (the one that was opened for you
by the Dwarven Leader's hidden lever after you killed Griff and the
Necromancer), you'll soon come to a level with a very deadly creature
in it. This creature is similar to the Siren in Greek mythology,
except that her singing doesn't cause men to become slobbering
lust-filled fools, just to instantly die. I wish I knew my Homeric
literature better, but I believe it was Odysseus who was tempted by
the sirens. To get safely past the island where the sirens lived, he
had all his men put wax in their ears and tie him to a mast (where he
could hear the beautiful singing but couldn't foolishly react to it).
Well, that should be a clue as to how to defeat a certain ADOM
monster. If you EVER get to a level and hear something to the effect
of "You hear a high-pitched screech!" (or something similar), DON'T go
anywhere new. Go find some wax and "u"se it, which will cause you to
put it in your ears. (If you don't know where to get wax, read through
the earlier part of this message and you'll find out where to get it).
With wax in your ears, you can defeat the screeching monster (whose
name escapes me). Otherwise you're dead meat, no matter how tough you
are. I think this monster only shows up once, which is quite
fortunate.
 
</li><li>As you go deeper in the Dwarven Caves, you'll find increasingly tough
monsters, many of whom breathe fire or lightning or acid or frost or
garlic or whatever. Hopefully by this time you will have built up a
resistance to most forms of attack either through items (like rings of
resistance) or because you've eaten corpses of a variety of monsters
with these abilities. 
</li><li>     Whenever you are in a level that only allows you to explore half
the screen, get out your wand of digging or your pickaxe. You are in
an Orb area. The first Orb area you'll encounter is the Orb of Water
area. Be prepared to fight a LOT of monsters. After that, the Air area
is much deeper and the Earth area is the last one, at least it was in
the game I played. These are all very, very tough.

</li><li>      Also get used to fighting a ton of red dragons. They are very
deadly but the upside is that they leave lots of cool stuff behind
when they die.
 
</li><li>There's also a Casino way down there somewhere. There are plenty of
items for sale (at amazingly high prices -- you'll really need that
Haggling skill here!). Unfortunately, there don't ever seem to be
Scrolls of Un-Corrupting here, which are very useful scrolls. You can
play slot machines till your heart's content, but it's not my cup of
tea. (I remember somebody giving a hint about how you can do really
well at the slots if you have coins made of the right material, but I
have no idea how to get such coins). Whenever I get to the Casino
area, I usually just ignore everything and keep going -- unless
there's something I really, really want to buy in the big-ass store.
 
</li><li>My memory is hazy at this point because I only ever got this far once,
and I completed the game after that. But there aren't that many
interesting levels after this. Except for the end ones....
 
</li><li>When you get to about level 48, you'll find four platforms that
represent the four elements:  a bonfire, a mini-tornado, a pool of
water, and a pile of rocks (or something representing earth).
Hopefully by now you have all four orbs -- if not, go get them!
(Remember, the fire orb is in the Tower, not in the Dwarven Caves, so
make sure you have this before you go to the deepest levels of the
Dwarven Caves.)
</li><li>      You'll want to "U"se each Orb while standing on the appropriate
platform. I don't know what happens if you try to "U"se the wrong orb
at the wrong place (e.g. water orb while on the bonfire) -- does
anybody know? When you have put all four orbs in their appropriate
places, the stair that used to go up turns to a downwards stair. Now
there is no way for you to go back up. No turning back!  You'lre
almost done!
 
</li><li>Go downstairs to level 49 and you'll be in a big icy area. You can't
even move, the floor is so icy. Unless.....you throw stuff in the
opposite direction. Remember Newton's laws of physics? Remember
inertia? Wasn't high school fun?  Well okay, then. Start throwing
stuff....  I find that it's better to use the wand of digging (or a
spell of Divine Digging) beforehand so you can just go on a path to
the NW instead of all around the screen. At the center of the screen
is a downstairs. This will take you to level 50 -- the very last
level, yay.
 
</li><li>This is one tough level. You'd better be prepared to fight. This is a
very good time to have lightning bolt or death ray spells. And a great
weapon(s). And a lot of hit points. And scrolls of melee damage. And
rings of increase damage, or of protection. Or an amulet of
protection. Or boots of dexterity. You get the idea. 
</li><li>     There are tons of Chaos monsters, Ghosts and other badass,
annoying creatures here. Take a straight path to the left side of the
screen. Go the the extreme SW or NW corners of that left-most little
room (which has a swirling mass of pure chaos in it). You'll find
secret doors in the corners. Beyond those doors will be more monsters
-- kill 'em. Then you'll find levers in each secret-door room. These
two levers will stop all Chaos. You have completed your ultimate goal!
(You may want to just run past the monsters and pull the levers,
because after you pull the levers they can no longer corrupt you). 

</li><li>      Now what? Well, you can go back up now and keep fighting other
monsters. You shouldn't get any further corrupted, but I'm not 100%
sure about this since my character turned into a gooey mass of chaos
right after I "won" the game. I've heard that you can go back to the
NE corner of the kingdom, where you started, and get some special
congratulatory message. I imagine also that if you go talk to the Old
Mystic in Terinyo (if he's still alive) he might say something nice to
you, like "good job!"  
 <p>     And that's all she wrote. You're done. You can run around and
explore all you want, learn more about the game, but YOU ARE DONE. I
highly recommend quitting the game and finding something creative to
do. Because you've probably just sunk about 2-4 weeks worth of leisure
time into a game that is very hard on your eyes, fingers, and your
back (especially if you have a crummy folding chair like I do). 
      
Was it worth it? I hope so. And I hope you enjoyed reading this
walkthrough. I also hope I didn't leave out anything major. I wrote
this spoiler because I wanted people to have the option of saving
their time, hearing what it's all about through the written word, and
not playing. I kinda wished I'd had that option when I was playing
ADOM. I had an obsessive-compulsive reaction to the game, and wasn't
able to stop playing even when I should have. I told my psychologist
all about it, and I even gave him a disk with a copy of the game on it
so he could see what I was babbling about. I haven't seen him since --
he canceled all appointments. Last I heard his wife was divorcing him
because all he does is sit locked in his room in front of the computer
all day. (Alright, so I'm making this up.)

ADOM is an incredibly complex, addictive game because it's got so many
possibilities. The game has really transcended its limitations as an
all ASCII program. The creator should be proud, and it's cool that
he's made it total shareware. But boy is it a dangerous game for
obsessive personalities like mine. Whew, I'm so glad it's over.
Ahhh...
 

This spoiler message was written based on playing version 9.4 of
Ancient Domains of Mystery. Everybody is invited to repost this
message, put it in a FAQ area on a web page, edit it down, or anything
else. I don't much care whether you give me credit. :-)
 
--Z

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