DUNGEON QUEST

An N64 dungeon crawler: four levels, three classes, and a black dragon at the end.

DUNGEON QUEST All games

DUNGEON QUEST

An N64 dungeon crawler: four levels, three classes, and a black dragon at the end.

A forest between the cliffs, a mine shaft, a frozen mountain that actually climbs, and a ledge on a black cliff - then the dragon that took the kingdom. Knight, archer or wizard, told in cutscenes, with every enemy wind-up telegraphed on the ground before it lands. Plug in an N64 controller and that works too.

What is in it: Fantasy combat with swords, bows and magic against monsters and a dragon, in a blocky retro style. More for parents

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Controls

  • W A S Dmove
  • Arrowsjump · block · attack · special
  • Shift / Crun · crouch
  • Spacepick up · open · talk
  • 1 2 3potion · throw · eat
  • E / M / Tabsatchel · map · target
The dragon tells you which way to move: an orange tail sweep is jumped, green breath is dodged sideways.

Tags

How to play

Dungeon Quest is a campaign of four levels, each ending in a dragon. You pick a knight, a wizard or an archer, walk the level, clear it, and fight the dragon at the far end. A gate holds you short of each dragon's arena until every enemy in the level is dead, so you cannot simply run past the fighting.

The levels are the forest between the cliffs (the green dragon), the mine shaft (the red dragon), the frozen mountain (the ice dragon) and the black cliff (the black dragon). Clearing a level unlocks the next. Boss fights come in waves: at each quarter of a dragon's health more enemies join it, and the dragon keeps attacking while you deal with them.

Shrines along the road light up as you pass them. When you die you choose to restart the level from the top or resume at the last shrine. Resuming is not a shortcut: everything you killed since that shrine stands up again, and everything still alive walks back to where it started. Coin, upgrades, artifacts and maps are kept through every death.

Plug in a second controller and the screen splits for two players. Player two gets a different class from player one.

Tips and strategy

  • Learn the dodge first. Double-tapping A or D darts you sideways with any class. It is the main answer to dragon breath.
  • The knight's shield cuts a blow to one eighth of its damage, against roughly half for the wizard and archer. It does nothing against being frozen: ice sets around you, costs a point of health a second, and you have to struggle out.
  • Physical wind-ups last 45% longer when you play the knight, because he has to fight inside reach. Arrows and dragonfire are not slowed for anyone.
  • The archer starts with a 12-arrow quiver and arrows only come back from bodies and the ground. Stand over a body and hold ← and → together for three seconds to pull them out. Throwing a potion with 2 dips the next five arrows instead: a firebomb makes flame arrows, poison makes poison arrows.
  • The wizard's orb costs 15 mana from a pool of 100 that refills slowly. Holding both arrow keys adds 3 mana a second; do it between fights.
  • Crouch with C in tall grass to stay hidden. The forest splits twice into a guarded camp and a quiet grassy route, and camps raise the alarm together if one guard sees you.
  • Buy the map in the mine. It costs 300 coin from that level's merchant and marks shrines, taverns, unopened chests and the dragon's chamber, which nothing else points to.

What's in it

Four levels and four dragons, a story told in cutscenes, and three classes with their own upgrade trees. Five upgrades are shared by every class (Vitality, Might, Swiftness, Fortune and Shadow), and each class has three of its own plus a 420-coin mastery: the knight's Execution, which finishes any ordinary enemy outright, the wizard's Firestorm, and the archer's Volley of three homing arrows.

  • Six hidden artifacts with permanent bonuses, which taverns will also sell if you missed them.
  • Taverns where 20 coin buys a full rest: health, mana and arrows all refilled.
  • A mirror in each tavern, where armour, hats, robes and boots cost 10 coin a piece.
  • A spell book for the wizard at 185 coin, then five spells bought separately: Creeping Rot, Seeker, Rime, Ember Brand and Mending Light.

Questions

Does my progress save?

Yes. Coin, upgrades, artifacts, maps, outfits, spells and unlocked levels are saved in your browser and survive a reload. The sidebar has a button to reset everything.

What happens after the black dragon?

The kingdom reopens with its people back in it and nothing hostile left, so you can walk the levels in peace. A dragon outfit piece unlocks for every class, and the black dragon drops a golden key.

What is the golden key for?

There is a secret at the start of the first valley. Look for rock you can walk through. What the key opens lets you play the whole campaign again from the air.

Can I use a controller?

Yes. An N64 controller works alongside the keyboard: the C buttons are jump, block, attack and special, Z runs and R crouches. A second pad turns on split-screen two-player.

Does it work on a phone?

There are no touch controls, so you need a keyboard or a gamepad.

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