14 Tips to being an Expert Explorer

Knowing the secrets of the game by solving all of the puzzles, finding the hidden rooms and items is a big part of the Realms of Despair game. Some knowledge is guarded and only told to trusted players so as to give their group an edge. With the following news item came this gold nugget of information:

As a side note, we will be trying to put in a number of new and previously
enjoyed Smaug areas (updated to modern standards) over the coming months.
Stay Tuned!

In this post I've written about some of the tips and tricks to exploring I've seen through out various areas of the Realms of Despair. While some puzzles are well known others I've been asking a few players about that they have not seen around. As a result I'm posting my tips and tricks in order of most commonly known to more hidden tricks.

 

Tip 1 - Have detect invis, hidden and traps

One of the most basic bits of advice is have these spells or the equivalent on when exploring. Gith characters start with detect invis imbued in them so make a good race for exploring lower level areas. Most people know this but it is always worth checking they haven't worn off or you never know what you will miss.

 

Tip 2 - Look/examine everything

Another obvious bit of advice but check everything when exploring. I think the first place I ever saw a use for this was when as a newer player I first explored Tullfuhrzky Manor and came across the following:

A Luxurious Living Room
You find yourself in a comfortable living room.  Beautiful artwork adorns
the walls, and you take a second to look at it all.  A crackling fire burns
in the fireplace.  A large, sturdy oak chair and a nice couch makes this
place feel like home.  Turning around, you see the curtains which prevented
you from looking through the windows.  There are also a few potted plants
sitting next to the windows, soaking up sunlight.  A beautiful grandfather
clock sits against the west wall.  A staircase leads up from here.
Exits: north east south up

>exam clock
You place your hands on the clock, and...it moves!  There's a secret passage
behind here!

>op secret
You open the passage.

I felt like a real player when I found that around level 10 on my first character. What was even better is the secret passage led to some nice equipment that I could use to maximise my constitution stat for the first time. Just be careful to type in the full word for the item you are looking it. Also don't forget that you can look under some items as well.

Tip 3 - Bump
Bumping is the trick to finding hidden rooms by just entering directions that are not mentioned as exits and seeing if you bump into a new room or get a message about some door blocking your way. This works well with the scry spell. I have a scryall alias set up so that I can quickly scry in all of the main directions when I walk into a new room. An example of it's uses are here in the Tower of Despair.

The Library
The denizen that resides here has a great love of books and scrolls.  The
shelves overflow with tomes, maps, scrolls and treatises.  The width and
breadth of subjects is astounding.  The shelves throw long shadows across
the candlelit chamber.  A slight breeze cools your skin.
Exits: west
(Red Aura) A shadow from the bookcase metamorphs into a human form.

>l north
The bookshelf is closed.

The above shows that there is a secret exit hidden to the north behind a bookshelf.

Tip 4 - Search and dig everywhere
Sometimes there are pretty obvious clues to dig or search in a particular room. Often there will be a message about disturbed soil or something similar. Other times there will be no clues at all but something useful hidden away such as:

A Wind Torn Beach
Twisted, stunted trees line the beach, their tortured roots extending into
the waves as if seeking relief in the cool waters of the sea. Fluttering in
the gusts of wind that blow in from the ocean, grey spanish moss dangles from
the branches, enveloping the almost barren limbs in a funeral shroud.
Exits: west down northeast

>search
You begin your search...

Your search reveals a coral monkey!

Also with that make sure you have a shovel item in your inventory to help with digging. I should also mention about searching containers. If you ever examine a chest and find it is empty but the description of it does not match up then there is something hidden inside it such as the following chest in Bartok Grove.

>exam chest
You take a closer look at a leather bound chest on the ground...
You see nothing special.
A leather bound chest appears to be nearly full.
A leather bound chest contains:
     Nothing.

>search chest
You begin your search...

Your search reveals a pair of rose tinted eyeglasses!

Tip 5 - Break things
One of the newer commands and tricks is the break command. Try it out on anything you can your hands on because you never know when it will work such as the following in Winterlight Island.

A Snowy Pathway
The road is thickly packed with snow, drifts on either side encroaching each footstep, making the pathway little more than a railing-width of clearing for travelers to step upon. A nearly buried hovel has been left untended to the northwest, a possible shelter...but apparently not a popular one, as the rickety doorway is piled high with unswept snow. Thick icicles droop from the rooftop, melding into the drifts to create a cagelike sculpture of ice.
Exits: south northeast [northwest]

>exam icicle
The icicles are insanely long. You might be able to break one off, if you wanted to.

>break icicle
You easily snap off a long, deadly icicle.

>i
You are carrying 8 items and have room for 12 more:
     the sigil of Vl'aresch
     a brown leather satchel
     a fate banshee's pouch
     a small birch chest (2)
     (Glowing) a rune-covered bag
     a small pick axe
     a long, deadly icicle

>c id icicle
Object 'a long, deadly icicle' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 50 thrusting weapon, weight 1.
Locations it can be worn:  wield
Special properties:  two-handed
Classes allowed:  Warrior Paladin
This weapon has a gold value of 0.
Damage is 6 to 54 (average 30).
Causes elemental damage: 'icy' 50%.
Affects damage roll by 6.
Affects resistant:cold by 5%.
Affects dexterity by -1.

>You take a closer look at a long, deadly icicle in inventory...
This monstrous icicle is nearly your own height, almost too large to consider using as a weapon... but with two hands, it might be possible to jab the pointy end into someone.
This seems to be a thrusting weapon.
It appears to be within or below your level range.
As you look more closely, you notice that it is in superb condition. 

Tip 6 - Eat things
There are a few cases in the game where you can eat an item to create another. One place where this works is in the area of Nevermore.

DYING>
Jeanne's deathrattle fills the air as you drain her life...
Your suspiric grasp thrashes Jeanne!
Jeanne is DEAD!!
Jeanne hits the ground ... DEAD.
You get 215600 gold coins from the corpse of Jeanne.
The corpse of Jeanne holds:
     a floral printed apron
     a tray of freshly made buns
     a copper pot

>g buns corpse
You get a tray of freshly made buns from the corpse of Jeanne.

>exam buns
You take a closer look at a tray of freshly made buns in inventory...
The perfectly browned buns have been enhanced with a light apricot glaze.
As you examine it carefully you notice that it is fresh.

>c id buns
Object 'a tray of freshly made buns' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 37 food, weight 1.
Special properties:  none
This food has a gold value of 0.

>i
You are carrying 10 items and have room for 10 more:
     a burlap sack
     the sigil of Vl'aresch
     a brown leather satchel
     a fate banshee's pouch
     a small birch chest (2)
     (Glowing) a rune-covered bag (2)
     a small pick axe
     a tray of freshly made buns

>eat buns
As you eagerly gobble up the warm buns, several crumbs lie unnoticed at the corners of your mouth.

>i
You are carrying 10 items and have room for 10 more:
     a burlap sack
     the sigil of Vl'aresch
     a brown leather satchel
     a fate banshee's pouch
     a small birch chest (2)
     (Glowing) a rune-covered bag (2)
     a small pick axe
     a small tray

>exam tray
You take a closer look at a small tray in inventory...
The granular items lurking in the corners of the tray are crumbs.
As you look more closely, you notice that it is in superb condition.
It appears to be within or below your level range.

>c id tray
Object 'a small tray' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 2 armor, weight 1.
Locations it can be worn:  shield
Special properties:  none
This armor has a gold value of 0.
Armor class is 6 of 6.
Affects damage roll by 1.

Tip 7 - Sit, stand, sleep...
There are places in the game that are only accessible by first standing on items or sitting in a particular room. For example in the Barren Wastes there is a part of the area only accessible by first standing on a stone.

Behind a Small Shack
The back of the shack, much like the front and side, is void of any kind of entrance or exit.  The support struts seen at the side and front are constructed here as well, though a few large blocks seem to have fallen from the temple and landed on the ground near the shack.  The temple above provides a cool, dry atmosphere for this area, protecting it from the elements.
Exits: northwest
A large block of stone lies here near the shack, roughly square in shape.

>stand stone
You carefully climb atop the large block of stone.

>climb roof
You climb atop the roof with the help of the added height from the large stone block.

Tip 8 - Don't believe everything on Rodpedia
I use rodpedia a lot. It is the best publicly accessible site full of information about the game out there at the moment. It is made by contributions from the public which does mean that there are a few bits of information missing and just because there is a map of an area with a green completed status on it does not mean the map is complete. For example there is a room in the Desert of Despair that can be only accessed by sitting. I've marked it on the map below:

Inside a large tent
Wooden slats lain across sturdy woven baskets operate as tables in what appears to be a makeshift bar. On one side of the tent, a large burly woman stands serving liquids to the few folks that have made time to come in here. Each liquid is scooped from woven casks with a ladle and poured into small ceramic bowls. The patrons don't seem very rowdy. No doubt they have been working hard.
Exits: north
A thin woven cask sits against the wall.
The heavy, lonely barkeep stands behind her casks.

>sit
You sit down.
Pulling a small cask to a table, you make yourself at home.
A makeshift table
The large casks tied together form what some would call a table. Others would call them... well... large casks tied together.  The casks were long ago emptied and have since had knives, axes and swords driven into the wood.
Exits: none

Tip 9 - Talk to and bribe mobs
Some area have mobs that will interact with you when you mention the correct words or even better give them some gold coins as a bribe. It is often worth just saying every word you can think of to do with the area and see if they respond to any of them. On top of that it can be worth just giving them some gold coins to see if that will make them talk. For example again in the Desert of Despair:

>give woman 50000 coins
You give 5,000 coins to A rich woman.
A rich woman says 'You can throw away the pink stone from that wretched cook.'

Tip 10 - wait
In some areas you need to wait around for something to happen. At the right time of day a certain mob may pop up on a sneaky mission or a travelling merchant may pass on by.

Tip 11 - Use the where command
Whenever I go to a new area one thing I do is use the where command with an argument after it to try and find names of mobs that may be hidden in it. I always use the obvious words like dragon, guard, soldier, ogre, vampire, thief... I also use the names of anything I can think of that may be related to the area which can even show up the odd mob you're not supposed to see. Such as in Transylvania:

>Entrance Gate to Transylvania
You approach a large, rotting gate that stands about 15 feet in height. It seems that what was once a beautiful monument to a beautiful city, has decayed to the point of collapse.  Adjusting your eyes to the dim light, you can barely read the words, "Welcome to Transylvania".
You notice a bright golden plaque suspended in mid-air, and can't help but want to look at it.
Exits: north south

>where lestat
| Lestat is currently at Mao's Coffin

Using this to find mobs in the area gives you an idea of things you can try to track or portal to.

Tip 12 - Try killing with different classes, races, aligns or items
This one can be a nuisance. Some mobs in the game only pop items if killed by particular races, classes, aligns or if the person getting the killing blow is carrying a particular item. For example to make the Dragon's Bane sword in The Village of Edo you need to pop the hides from various dragons. These hides will not pop at all unless the person getting the killing blow is carrying a directive from the grandmaster in Edo. Without a directive the killing blow on Shimmergloom is:

Shimmergloom is DEAD!!
The huge black dragon's neck buckles, and its huge head crashes against the pile of treasure upon which it once slept.
Shimmergloom gasps its last breath and blood spurts out of its mouth and ears.
You get 1081600 gold coins from the corpse of Shimmergloom.
You split 1081600 gold coins.  Your share is 540800 gold coins.
The corpse of Shimmergloom holds:
     a shadowy pair of dragonscale leggings
     a shadowy pair of dragonscale arm guards
     a shadowy pair of dragonscale gloves

However with a directive there is no guarantees but you will get an extra line of text:

Shimmergloom is DEAD!!
The huge black dragon's neck buckles, and its huge head crashes against the pile of treasure upon which it once slept.
A piece of Shimmergloom's hide breaks off and shatters into thousands of pieces.
Shimmergloom screams furiously as it falls to the ground in a heap!
You get 1081600 gold coins from the corpse of Shimmergloom.
The corpse of Shimmergloom holds:
     a shadowy pair of dragonscale leggings
     a shadowy pair of dragonscale arm guards
     a shadowy pair of dragonscale gloves

While the successful pop is:

Shimmergloom is DEAD!!
The huge black dragon's neck buckles, and its huge head crashes against the pile of treasure upon which it once slept.
With a horrible tearing sound, a piece of the dragon's hide falls to the ground.
Shimmergloom catches its guts in its hands as they pour through its fatal wound!
You get 1081600 gold coins from the corpse of Shimmergloom.
The corpse of Shimmergloom holds:
     a shadowy pair of dragonscale leggings
     a shadowy pair of dragonscale arm guards
     a shadowy pair of dragonscale gloves

Tip 13 - Use socials
In some situations the trick is to use a certain social in the right room. For example in Daichaal there is a puzzle where you need to use the hshake social. There are clues to it:

Unadorned Offerings
A delicately chiselled alcove fills most of the room, edges limned by white
flames that flicker and dance. At the centre, a worn brass altar sits without
adornment. The walls are covered by velvet drapes of deep green and the floor
is of highly polished marble. No dust appears to have gathered, as if this
chamber is somehow immune to the passing ravages of time.
Exits: southwest

>exam altar
At first seeming entirely plain, the altar reveals more than expected upon
close examination. Etched into the worn surface of the top is a very faint
circle of ancient lettering...

                   Those who extend their hand in peace
                        Shall receive one in return

>hshake
You look for someone to shake hands with.
The very air itself seems to thicken with anticipation.
A slender jade hand, palm outstreched, materialises in the air above the altar.

Some people I know even have aliases set up to use every single social on every mob when they go exploring.

Tip 14 - Don't be scared to ask for help
If you get stumped on an area a fresh pair of eyes can uncover things another may have missed. Ask a friend to have a look around for you. If you have no friends join a guild/order/clan and see if they can help you out. Do a google search for what you are looking for as there may be info on another site somewhere about it. Lastly use a public channel to ask for help - what's the worst that can happen besides silence?

I'm sure everyone who plays this game will have their own advice and tips to add to this list (I'm sure I'll think of things I've left off here over the week). Again if you have any questions about anything feel free to send me a tell.



The Statue of Ha'rach

In my previous post I wrote about the entrance to the hidden tomb of Ha'rach. The challenge of Ha'rach is much deeper. Once inside the temple you are greeted with the following room: The Temple The majestic temple glows from the majestic golden statue at its center. The statue stands about two times the height of a good sized half-troll. The gold is soft and warm to the touch. The statue is surrounded on all sides by golden columns stretching to the ceiling, though falling well short of their mark. The statue looks down on its visitors with a grim face. Its eyes are a hollow darkness. Its hands extend out, palms facing the sky, shaped as cups.  Looking high above, the gigantic cavern lets the smallest amounts of light through, a small speck barely visible. Exits: east northeast southeast (Trap) A vacant space in the statue's forehead awaits its piece. (Trap) The right eye of the statue gazes with an empty stare. (Trap) The left eye of the statue gazes with an empty stare. (Trap) The right hand of the statue stretches out. (Trap) The left hand of the statue stretches out. This is the final puzzle before you can fight the Statue of Ha'rach. To start off with you need to get rid of the traps using either the detrap skill or remove traps spell. Even doing this you need to be careful as being unsuccessful results in: >detrap eye Ooops! You are sliced by a razor sharp blade! That really did HURT! You wish that your wounds would stop BLEEDING so much! Unlike most traps in the Realms of Despair which are mere nuisance these ones do some serious damage and can kill if you have low amount of hit points and no sanctuary spell. After successfully removing all five traps comes the puzzle. The five parts of the statue contain a container. They look as follows (before removing the traps): You take a closer look at the forehead on the ground... The empty spot in the statue's forehead is perfectly round.  It has a small lip around the edge that makes it look like a small compartment. The forehead appears to be nearly empty. The forehead contains:      a trap What you need to do here is place a gem in the containers. There are five different mobs throughout the area that have them when you kill them. Each mob drops five different coloured gems. The result is you need the right coloured gem from the right mob and to place it in the right statue part in the right order. One of the mobs with the gems is Kaerell - it always gives me a little laugh when I see his rodpedia entrance advising not to kill him. What this all means though is that there are (5!)³ possible combinations of gems/mobs/conatiners/orders for the gems which all up adds to 1,728,000 possibilities. Fortunately there are two things that can make this puzzle easier: When you place a gem correctly there is a message in the room to say so There is one mob in the area which gives clues to the puzzle. This mob is the rich leader's wife found in the oasis part of the area. Bribe her with some gold coins and she will give you hints like: A rich woman tells you 'A stone from a shopkeeper is affixed first, but let it not be red.'  After putting the hints together I made myself a tree diagram on four pieces of A4 paper to help narrow down the possibilities. When exploring and trying to solve puzzles in RoD I often write pages of notes. A scan of them can be seen below:

While the above shows that my handwriting is rather messy and my scanner is cheap it also shows how I go about solving some puzzles. The end result was it narrowed down the number of combinations for the first gem from 125 to 12. Luckily for me I managed to get the right gem the first time I did this. After solving the puzzle you place the final gem and this happens:

You put a red gem in the left hand.
The statue's left hand grips the gem mightily and rises up!
The statue awakens from it's slumber and let's out a mighty yell!
The Statue of Ha'rach utters the words, 'zabrahpdjatz'.
The Statue of Ha'rach makes the earth tremble and shiver.
You yell 'Help!  I am being attacked by the Statue of Ha'rach!'
The Statue of Ha'rach's slice rips you!

While there is a sense of achievement in figuring out the puzzle there is also the sudden realisation that you are fighting an end of area boss mob. There are easier ways of killing the statue but the first time I led a group to it we used 3 barbarians rending and a paladin tanking. We didn't have too much trouble and finished off the statue:

Your slash tears the Statue of Ha'rach!
Your slash tears the Statue of Ha'rach!
The Statue of Ha'rach is DEAD!!
The Statue of Ha'rach's arm is sliced from its dead body.
You see nothing like that in the corpse of the Statue of Ha'rach.
The corpse of the Statue of Ha'rach holds:
     (Flaming White) (Magical) (Glowing) (Humming) sword of magic
     a pair of golden bracers
     (Flaming White) (Magical) a pair of golden leggings

The sword of magic and golden leggings are kind of junky items but the golden bracers are some of the nicest wrist equipment in the game.

Overall figuring out all the puzzles in the Desert of Despair and leading a group to successfully kill the Statue of Ha'rach is one of my proudest achievements in the game and gives an amazing buzz.

Cheers,
V.

No Stone Unturned!

When I completed the Bartle test and had my results say that the motto I live by in the Realms of Despair is "No stone unturned!" it straight away made me think of the Desert of Despair, in particular the fifth marker stone. I have briefly mentioned it in passing before but this stone is important to the whole area for three different reasons. You need to have a character with 25 strength and a lot of free weight to lift it up. If you're lucky you'll find a golden dagger underneath. It's a weird once per reboot area pop item. The dagger identifies as follows:

Object 'a golden dagger' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 50 treasure, weight 1.
Locations it can be worn:  wield
Special properties:  none
This treasure has a gold value of 100000.

This dagger is the key to the whole desert area, not to be confused with the golden dagger from Dragon Tower. Within the Desert of Despair there is a "Travelling the Sands" maze. Besides being lots of crap buried in this maze it also leads to the Barren Wastes area, a small oasis and hidden away (without being mentioned on the Rodpedia map) is the tomb of Ha'rach. To find this tomb the entrance is near the Barren Wastes and is nw from a room that starts its description with "Clear and cold". The entrance to the nw opens and closes on a timer. Be patient until it opens up and you find yourself here:

A bold monument
Here, in the center of the desert, a large monolith stands tall. Reaching for
the sky, the monolith reaches above a large troll and his steed. Set slightly
off to the south of the monolith, a half-circled rock has managed to remain
clear of the sand that has piled on everything else around. It is undoubtedly a
door that makes up the carved square that marks the center of the rock.
However, there doesn't appear to be any way to open it.
Exits: southeast

 Dig down and you will sucked into this room:

>dig d
You begin digging...
You dig open a passageway!
You are sucked into a swirling vortex of colors! 

Beneath the monument
The small chamber beneath the monument is a roughly hewn cave. The walls are almost too hot to touch. The geologic oven is marked by two glowing orbs on the walls. Beautifully etched golden rods are strapped across the eastern wall, protecting a heavy stone door. A distant sound of heavy gears working resound through thin slots in the wall above the door.
Exits: none
A pair of orbs flank the gold-bound door.

After waiting around for a while in this room and have a golden dagger on you will see the following message:

A small keyhole catches your eye above the bars.

Then put your dagger in the keyhole...

You put a golden dagger in a keyhole.
The golden dagger slides smoothly into the keyhole, creating an audible *click*.
You get a golden dagger from a keyhole.
The golden rods are slowly pushed out of the wall, eventually dropping to the ground.
As the bars strike the ground, the vault opens slightly. 

This opens the door to the Room of Death maze - a maze where if you make one wrong move and you've hit a death trap. Do not enter this place unless you know what you're doing - even then I use naked characters. There are clues to the maze hidden around the rest of the Desert of Despair. If you manage to get through the maze you will end up at this room:

Treasure Awaits
This room is very different from the rest.  One entire wall is covered with a
golden statue. The room glows with the light from the statue, drowning out any
other light brought in.  The ceiling here stretches much further as well.  It
seems it would be taller than the surface of the ground above. With such a
large statue in such a small room, the only place to put people is to stack
them on top of each other, otherwise any more than three would be very cramped.
Exits: west
(Glowing) An enormous statue rests in front of one wall.

 This is not the Statue of Ha'rach - but it is close. When you examine it you the following:

The brilliant gold of this statue is different than any you've seen before. It
almost looks like a fluid, the way it shimmers.  The statue depicts a large
man, a ruler or god perhaps. He sits in his magnificent seat, his hands resting
on his knees, palms facing the ceiling above, as if waiting to catch something.

 Drop your golden dagger here and if you have failed to do other parts of the area correctly then the following will happen:

You drop a golden dagger.
As the dagger drops into the statue's hands, the room begins to
glow with a vibrant light.
And then, a flash...!
The entire statue begins to change shape...
The hands begin to rise up and take the form of a serpent head!
The statue arches its back and the golden serpent comes after you!
You yell 'Help!  I am being attacked by the Golden Serpent!'
The Golden Serpent _demolishes_ you!

This  serpent is impossible to kill since the room it is in a non magic room which if you flee from it back into the Room of Death maze you will either die or the Golden Serpent will disappear. If however you have done the other parts of the area correctly first then the following will happen:

You drop a golden dagger.
As the dagger drops into the statue's hands, it quickly morphs and
is absorbed by the rest of the gold.
A brilliant flash of light consumes the room!
> look
Thoth's Rune on Vertic Avenue
Walking down the cobbled roads of Vertic Avenue, you come to a section
of road which widens into a square.  A massive rune of teleportation has
been engraved deep into the ground here, symbol of the scriber's might.
Walls surrounding the castle and church are to the east and west,
while Vertic Avenue ranges to the north and south.
Exits: north south
A large man, scarred in battle, strides boldly and hefts a large axe.
Harakiem is shrouded in flowing shadow and light.
Harakiem is surrounded by a mix of ice-shards and sparking flames.

Meanwhile your other characters who were waiting Beneath the Monument will be transed through to here:

A ledge above the temple
Standing on the edge of an underground canyon, the floor drops away to the
front. Some distance below the ledge, the glow of gold illuminates the
brilliant stalactites that take careful aim at their victims below.  A small
temple is the source of the light.  From this height, the temple does not
appear to be very large.
Exits: down 

From here it's a short run past the albino goblins, through no supplicate rooms, one tricky puzzle and you'll be at the Statue of Ha'rach... More about that some other time, but to me the fun part is there is a lot to find in a big area like the Desert of Despair. There are hidden clues and secrets - much of the most important information is missing from Rodpedia. Don't be scared to explore - but be careful to avoid unnecessary risks. Most of all leave no stone unturned.