Cyclops Cavern Walkthrough

Corak's Notes on Cyclops Cavern:

This cavern is littered with the bones of unfortunate adventurers eaten by the Cyclops. There are many pools filled with the drained life-juices of these fallen warriors, and legend says the pools harbor strange powers. The Cyclops King lives in the deepest and darkest chamber of the cavern.

Monsters in this area: Bugaboos, Wild Fungi, Cyclopes. Boss: Cyclops King.

Map of the Cyclops Cavern:

Entrance/Exit.

Green Eyeball Key.

Red Warrior Key.

Cyclops King.

This dungeon is completely optional, as the keys you need to enter two important dungeons can also be obtained from certain hirelings. But you wouldn't be an adventurer if you didn't explore each and every area where there is fame and glory, not to mention wealth, to be found, right?

The entrance area of the cavern is not too tough, even low-level adventurers should be able to take care of the Wild Fungi easily. The Bugaboos have the nasty habit of beating up the physically weak Sorcerers, if there's any in your party, but if you're fast enough or if you can take them out from a distance, they shouldn't pose a huge threat either.

The first chamber contains nothing but a single Wild Fungus and a pile of bones.You can search the bones, but you'll find nothing. Proceed through the closed door you can see on the other side of the room, and open it. Note that some doors/walls in this cavern are pretty tough to unlock/break down. If you find that you can't get them out of the way no matter what you do, you'll have to come back when you have gained more experience and your leading two characters have gained more Might. Alternatively, you can visit some fountains in the area near the cavern to temporarily boost your Might and levels if you're impatient.

Anyway, behind this particular door is nothing but a bunch of Wild Fungi and a pool of blood. Whoever searches it will be hit by a pretty severe electric shock (resistance to electricity applies), and will emerge with six random items, which tend to only be of use to the beginning adventurer. That's not all in this room though. You can bash down the wall on the far side of the room to discover a secret passage, leading to... a pile of bones. Nothing in there... but proceed around the corner and there will be a treasure chest, containing 50000 Gold and 50 Gems.

Return to the entrance area and go through the other door, the one that was already open. After getting rid of the Wild Fungus that gets in your way, you'll notice there are doors to the left and right of you. Behind the left door are two Bugaboos and two piles of bones, among which you'll find a Jump and an Acid Stream spell scroll. The door on the right leads to another room filled with Wild Fungi and more bones, among which you'll find a scroll of Power Shield.

If you proceed further east through the passage, you'll end up fighting a Bugaboo. There will be two door doors, one straight ahead and one to your right. Take the door on the right, clear out the Fungi, and search the bones for three random items, before proceeding through the other door. More weak Fungi to kill. Among the bones in this room there's a set of Ancient Jewelry, which you can sell at a Blacksmith's for 2000 Gold. There's also another pool here. This one will also give the one who searches it an electric shock, but it has the interesting side effect of raising that person's resistance to electricity by 20. That will help for searching all those other pools you're going to come across soon enough.

Now proceed further through the hallway (you'll see a message on the wall stating that the Ogres buried their treasure in the Valley of the Trolls along the way), and you'll end up at a room full of Bugaboos. The bones in this room hold nothing valuable, by the way.

As your approach the gate at the end of the room, note the message on the wall stating that 'The green key is close at hand', and bash through the gate ahead. There's a bunch of Wild Fungi and Bugaboos scattered around, nothing much to worry about. As you can see on the map, this room's pretty big, and there's bones and pools everywhere. Searching all the bones will yield a Detect Monster scroll, a Fireball scroll, and, if you search the one at point 2 on the map, you'll find the Green Eyeball Eye, with which you can enter the Halls of Insanity. In one of the three pools you'll find 10000 Gold, in another 500 Gems, and in the third four random items.

If you proceed further you'll see some holes in the floor which rapidly fire spears upwards. There's no way to pass that without taking damage, unless you use the Ethealize spell when you're right in front of them, then sidestep past them. If you just walk over, all party members will take 25 damage. Either way you'll end up in a tiny room that, as you can see on the map, holds the Red Warrior Key, laying around in a pile of bones. This will allow you entrance into Dark Warrior Keep. Congratulations, that's all you really need from this area. You can leave now if you wish, without having even seen why they call this place the Cyclops Cavern. And if you had any trouble in the cavern so far, then turning back now is exactly what you should do.

For the valiant treasure hunters who feel ready to take on some of them Cyclopes, get ready for action. Up ahead are a gate followed by a spear trap, followed by yet another gate/spear trap combo. You're going to take a lot of damage if you simply bash through the gates and walk past the spear traps. If you want to avoid damage from the traps completely, you'll have to bash through the first gate, then cast Ethealize twice. You'll end up in another pretty large room. It looks empty for now, but there are three Cyclopes hidden there. If you're careful enough, you can take them out one at a time though.

After getting rid of the three one-eyed freaks, you're free to explore this room. Search all the bone piles to find some Ancient Jewelry, a Lightning Bolt scroll, a Time Distortion scroll, a Finger of Death scroll, a Fantastic Freeze scroll, and two Sacred Silver Skulls. For most people, these are the last Sacred Silver Skulls they find. If you bring those to Kranion in Fountain Head, he'll tell you: "Explore the pyramids to find the secret of restoring Narayah's fountain of YOUTH." Hm, youth is capitalized... could that mean something? Well, don't worry that for now, right now go open the treasure chest that's in this place as well to get 50000 Gold and 100 Gems. You probably only won't be too surprised to learn that there's another pool in this room. This one deals a ton of Magic damage to the one who steps inside. This person will receive 25000 experience for doing so, but there's nothing hidden in the pool. This only works for the first person entering the pool.

As you will note on the map, there are three exits from this room aside from the one you came in through. There are gates you can bash through in the north and southeast part of the room, and a secret passage in the southwest of the room. Proceed north, and you'll see a spear trap in front of a gate, behind which a Cyclops is already waiting for you. Choose your favorite way of getting past the trap (you should already know what the safest way is by now, Etherealize; however you can bash in the game from the other side and use Jump instead when you have to go back) and take care of the Cyclops. Search the pool here for six random items. There's a secret passage to the west, but don't bother going there. There's nothing there but a pool, and you do not want to search that one. Whoever does so will be Eradicated, and you'll get an Ancient Fizbin of Misfortune, that will only bring down more calamity on your party when you least expect it.

Instead, proceed north and fight your way through the rooms there. You'll have to take out four more Cyclopes. In the northeastern-most room you'll have to take out two at a time, so be prepared for that. The spoils you'll receive for this: In the northeastern-most room, a chest with 25000 Gold and 50 Gems, and a pool that deals Magic damage and gets the person who enters 25000 exp, in the small western room, a pool that deals Electric damage with 10000 Gold in it, and in the room further north of this last room, a chest with 8888 Gold and 88 Gems, and two pools; one of which deals Electric damage, the other deals Energy damage, both give the first person who enters 25000 exp.

After getting all the goodies, go back to the large room you came from and proceed to the southeastern gate this time. Pass it and the trap, and you'll find a message on the wall: "Those who have donated to the five Temples will find the shrine in Cripple Creek most generous." This is about the Insect Shrine in area B2; see the walkthrough for that area for more information. Proceeding past this message you'll encounter two Cyclopes who'll come out to greet you. After disposing of them, you'll enter another very large room. There's three more Cyclopes there, but you can take them out one by one. There are also three chests here, which contain a total of 6856 Gold, 66 Gems, an Ancient Artifact of Good and an Ancient Artifact of Neutrality. And finally there's three pools, which all deal a lot of magic damage to the one who searches them, in exchange for 25000 experience.

Before your leave, there's a secret passage in the northeast part of the room. Behind it is a message that lets you know that "The Cathedral of Carnage holds riches beyond compare for spellcasters." There's also a chest, which contains 225 Gold and five random items, which will be of much better quality than the items you found in this dungeon so far.

Now all that's left is to return to the room you first saw Cyclopes in, and break through the wall in the southwest part of the room. You'll need to take care of three Cyclopes at first, and there's another at the back of this new room, where you'll also find two chests. These contain a total of 262 Gold, an Ancient Artifact of Good and an Ancient Artifact of Neutrality.

But wait, what about the Cyclops King? Oh, he's around... in fact, he's right around the corner. You can bash through the eastern wall in this room. First you'll have to get past a bunch of spear traps, and you'll see a message on the wall which let's you know that you can "Master all skills in the Halls of Insanity". Soon after you will enter this cavern's final chamber, where you'll have to beat the Cyclops King. He has an extra attack and twice as many HP as a regular Cyclops, but other than that there's nothing special about him. If you got this far, you shouldn't have much trouble defeating him. When you do, you'll get 100000 Gold.

With the Cyclops King out of the way, you can loot his stash of treasure. There's three chests, containing a total of 500290 Gold, 5000 Gems and 5 random items that should be of excellent quality. And that's all there is to this cavern. Onward ho!

Click here to return to area B1.