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New City | Orkogre Castle | Nyctalinth | Munkharama | The Hidden Temple | Land of Dreams | Rattkin Ruins | The Funhouse | Giant Cave | Witch Mountain | Ukpyr | Sphynx Cave | Dionysceus | Return to Nyctalinth | Return to New City | Dragon Cave | City of Sky | Hall of the Dead | Hall of Gorrors | Hall of the Past | Tomb of the Astral Dominae |
TOMB OF THE ASTRAL DOMINAE
Tomb of the Astral Dominae
The ultimate goal is the square marked 'J'. The gate at 'J' will not open until you have literally been to every square in the Tomb leading up to 'J'. I am speaking from personal experience. Squares marked 'A' to 'H' represent places that carry names corresponding to the maps that you've found. 'I' is a secret button needed to open the wall to the west.
Note that two kinds of monsters are quite frequent.
Battle Droids - These robots use two attacks. Any of the two attacks may be either a phaser bolt that hits a single character for damage, or a laser canon that can inflict fire damage on the whole party.
Mega-Bot - These robots take even more damage than Battle Droids before going down. They are higher level, so spells or special attacks from weapons (e.g., critical hit) are far less likely to work. Like Battle Droids, they can use two attacks. Any of the two may be either a phaser bolt or a plasma cannon. Unlike the laser canon of the Battle Druid, a Fire Shield spell won't reduce the damage from a Mega-Bot's plasma canon, but a Magic Screen will.
Everyone in the party advances multiple levels, with everyone reaching at least their 31st level. By this point I'm emphasizing lower level spells in anticipation of Wizardry 8.
Waiting just one square south of 'J' is a boss robot, a Cosmo-Bot. I put up Armorplate, Enchanted Blade and Magic Screen beforehand. It is very similar to a Mega-Bot, and may sometimes appear with a few Mega-Bots to help it out. It has also four attacks per round, any of which may be a phaser bolt, a physical attack, a phasma cannon blast, or a spectral ray attack. Ryu casting Create Life to summon a Godzylli has the effect I wanted, as the Cosmo-Bot spent all of its attacks on the impervious Godzylli. That buys the party time to kill it off, after killing a Mega-Bot during the previous round.
Once I arrive at 'J', the gate opens. I casting healing and Stamina spells, as I want to keep my long lasting buffs in place for the next battle.
The Dark Savant
Now I head to 'K'. Make sure you have Vitalia's Device, the Locket of the Tomb, and the Ring of the Globe before you proceed.
Now I use Vitalia's Device to summon her, and she'll ask if I have the keys to the Astral Dominae (i.e., the Locket and the Ring). I reply that I do.
She then asks if I know where a Spaceship can be found. Here, the party is presented with a roleplaying choice. There are in fact four alternative endings available for Wizardry 7. If you lie and tell her you haven't found a spaceship, this will make endings #3 and #4 available. But I choose to tell her that I have found a spaceship, and this makes endings #1 and #2 available.
Now she uses the Locket and the Globe to unlock the Astral Dominae. But then the Dark Savant shows up, and he'll attack the party with the help of several Savant Kui-Sa' Kas.
The Dark Savant favours the use of spells like Mind Flay and Psionic Blast. He can shoot projectiles from his glove that can critically hit their targets. He can make use of his chroma glove so as to paralyze multiple party members. The Savant Kui-Sa' Kas can attack with spears that can paralyze or drain stamina. They can also critically hit, and cast Psionic Blast. This battle reveals the benefits of maxing out my Mind Control skills for all party members while I had the chance. Mind Control, plus Magic Screen, means that I pretty much always resist Psionic Blast when cast by any of the Kui-Sa' Kas. The Dark Savant, however, casts Mind Flay and Psionic Blast at a much higher level. So once in a while, his spells will end up turning a party member insane or his chroma glove will paralyze a party member or two. As long as I have characters who can cast Sane Mind and Cure Paralysis and keep the party in the fight without getting overwhelmed, I should be fine and eventually prevail. Everyone advances to their 32nd level.
Vi Domina then plays around with the Astral Dominae some more after the battle. Now, IF I had lied and told Vi Domina that I had not found a ship, she would tell me to rendesvous with her to New City (you'll need to hold onto the Control Card and Vitalia's Device if you want to go this route). You could then go back to the Forbidden Zone in New City. But now a furious fight breaks out between the elite forces of both the Umpani and T'Rang Empires, and you get to choose whose side you'll fight on. Siding with the Umpani leads to one possible ending, while siding with the T'Rang leads to another.
However, I chose to tell Vi that I found a spaceship, so then she tells me to rendesvous with her there.
I return to S and go back up the stairs to return to the Hall of the Past.
Beast of a Thousand Eyes
The most straightforward way to leave the Hall of the Past now is to go from 63^ to the teleporter at 43^, go from 43_ to the teleporter at 33^, go from 33_ to the teleporter at 9^, and go from 9_ to the stairs at S. That brings me to the Hall of Gorrors.
I am now at #6 on the map of the Hall of Gorrors. Rothgar had held onto his Potion of Invisibility, for whatever reason. I go near #2, and Zarax picks up a Potion of Invisibility that I had left there.
I go to where there had been the chest that was guarded by the Fiend of 9 Worlds, near 'B'. Terra picks up her Potion of Invisibility where I had left it. All of Zarax, Chun-Li, Ryu, Errol and Terra pick up and equip a Bat Necklace from the same spot. The resistance to Light spells that they provide will be needed for the next battle. Rothgar already has his Necromantic Helm.
I approach the gate at 'D' and open it with my remaining Key of Gorrors. Waiting for me on the other side is the Beast of a Thousand Eyes. I postponed this fight until I had gone up several more levels.
The reason for this requires some explanation of the game mechanics. Monsters, like your player characters, have levels. Now for example, notice that Glow Mothras might put your parties to sleep during the early parts of the game with their 'glowing aura'. But as you acquire more levels, your characters start to shrug if off, and other such spell attacks, with greater frequency. You should be able to figure out from this that being able to resist spell-like attacks involves a dice roll, but one that also involves a direct comparison of the level of your party members to the level of the monsters. Higher level party members are more likely to resist spells from lower level monsters, and are more likely to affect those monsters with their own spells. The reverse is also true. Higher level monsters more frequently resist spells from lower-level player characters, and more frequently affect lower level characters with their own spells. The same mechanic is true of critical hits, poison attacks, etc.
The Beast of a Thousand Eyes can use poisonous tentacle attacks, as well as a scream attack that resembles the Psionic Blast. The real danger of the Beast is that it can without limit use the Dazzling Lights spell as a 99th level monster. What this means is that the odds are far greater than average that party members will get poisoned, rendered insane, blinded, nauseated, severely damaged, petrified, or just plain killed outright. Oh and, the Beast has 9,900+ hit points.
Ok, so I have prepared by having everyone wear either a Bat Necklaces or the Necromantic Helm that provide significant bonuses to light resistance (e.g., +50%). This also requires explanation. That bonus does not mean that half the Beast's Dazzling Light spells will be resisted automatically. What the resistance bonus means is that for a character wearing such an item, his effective level for purposes of resisting the Beast's spell will receive an upwards adjustment.
Zarax loans his *Light Sword* to Ryu, who has maxed out his Sword skill, for this fight. Rotghar casts Remove Curse on himself and then lends his Staff of Doom to Chun-Li, who has maxed out her Pole & Staff skill. The reasons for this arrangement will be explained shortly.
I put up Magic Screen, Armorplate and Enchanting Blade, and then step through. Ryu casts Create Life to summon a Godzylli. A Godzylli provides an alternative target that can take some of the heat from the party during some of the combat rounds, which will be valuable. The Godzylli itself has insane Hit Points, and is itself very high-level and thus able to resist the Beast's screams and Dazzling Lights spells. The Beast will still sometimes target the party instead of Godzylli. But any round that it targets Godzylli instead is immensely valuable.
Chun-Li goes into hiding. Zarax, Errol and Terra each use a Potion of Invisibility. And they all avoid actions that will lose their invisibility, as with the battle against the Fiend of Nine Worlds. The Beast often will not use Dazzling Lights if it can't see any party members, but sometimes it still will. But the point of going into Hiding or going Invisibile is that it both lessens the number of times the Beast will use its Dazzling Lights on the party, and will increase the party members' resistances when the Beast does use Dazzling Lights on the party.
Ryu goes into hiding, and he and Chun-Li stay hidden for the moment. Errol takes the time to put an Armor Shield on each individual character. The defensive bonuses from Armor Shield will stack with the other defensive bonuses as well.
Now as for bringing down the Beast itself, it's still a rather involved process. The Beast has +125% resistance to almost every form of attack there is, except for two. Its two weaknesses are Fire and Cold, to which it has only +25% Resistance. Fire spells won't do me much good, since they only do damage. And that's not especially helpful against a monster that has almost 10,000 Hit Points.
The two water spells that act as effective cards are the Slow spell and the Weaken spell. Rothgar starts to cast Slow on the Beast every chance that it gets, with the result that the Beast sometimes only attacks once or even not at all on a given round.
Weaken will reduce damage caused by a monster in a given round, which usually isn't a big deal. But it has another effect worth noting. The *Light Sword* that Ryu is using has a 10% chance of making a Critical Hit attack, and Ryu himself has Critical Hit ability as a Ninja. The Staff of Doom that Chun-Li is borrowing has a 25% chance of Paralysis, 10% chance of causing Petrification, and 10% chance of a Critical Hit, in addition to Chun-Li's own Critical Hit ability as a Monk. The problem is that the Beast at least to begin with is far more likely to resist being affected. But the Weaken spell reduces the target's ability to resist those on-hit effects from weapons. And each successive casting of Weaken will stack. So Terra keeps pumping the Beast with a Weaken spell every chance she gets.
Ryu and Chun-Li begin a cycle of sneak attacking the Beast with their weapons, and then going back into hiding, once Terra has connected enough Weaken spells on the Beast.
It's not all smooth sailing though. Once in a while for example Terra needs to use a Watchbells spell when Chun-Li gets put to Sleep. Or both Terra and Rothgar have to use Cure Poison spells when Ryu gets hit with a tentacle attack. Or Rothgar has to use Sane Mind on Ryu when he's driven insane. Or Terra has to cast Cure Lesser Conditions after she gets blinded, helped along by Errol's Lyre of Cakes. At one point Errol got turned into Stone by the Dazzling Lights. Terra afterwards has to use a Cure Stone spell on him. He loses a point of Vitality, putting him back to 18, but I can live with that as long as I can defeat the Beast in time.
These were bumps in the road where normally the party was more or less resisting the Dazzling Light spells. Trying this battle while the party were still 24th or so level characters meant my party members frequently got stoned or killed outright by the Dazzling Light spells, even employing the same strategy that I'm describing here. It is only after I've gone up several levels that I figured I had a real chance to take it down.
And Errol, once he's revived, and puts up the last Armor Shield spell on Terra, starts pumping the Beast with Weaken spells alongside Terra.
And it eventually pays off. If my strategy was based on cutting down all 9,900+ Hit Points of the Beast, it would only have been a matter of time before my luck ran out and a Dazzling Lights spell took full and devastating effect on a party member, more more likely several party members.
But the multiple and stacked Weaken spells finally pay off when Chun-Li paralyzes the Beast with the Staff of Doom. Now I smell blood, and don't even have Ryu and Chun-Li go into hiding anymore. I have them keep attacking the Beast over and over again. Errol and Terra are still pumping it with Weaken spells. And soon thereafter Chun-Li scores a Critical Hit on it. Everyone advances to their 33rd levels.
I milk the chest for a Mitre de Sanct, which Chun-Li will import into Wizardry 8 after she becomes a Bishop.
I go up the stairs at #1 and return to the surface through the Hall of the Dead.
Preparing for Import to Wizardry 8
I make for #5 of the Sky City map. I go 4 square south, 1 square west, 1 square south, 2 squares east, 1 square north, 1 square east, 2 squares north, 1 square east, 1 square south, 2 squares east, 2 squares south, 1 square west, 1 square south, 1 square east and 1 square south to reach #2.
My party members now drop their powerful items simply for the reason they won't be able to import them to Wizardry 8.
I also do three professions changes. Ryu now becomes a Samurai, Terra now becomes a Ninja, and Chun-Li now becomes a Bishop. Ryu hands over his Ninja clothing to Terra, who now wears it.
Now I go to the entrance to the Hall of Crusaders at #5, and pick up the items I left there and had been saving up for import.
Recall that certain items in Wizardry 7 have an assigned tier value for purposes of whether an item can be imported into Wizardry 8. A character can import tier-1 items into Wizardry 8 without limit. A character can import only import 2 tier-2 items into Wizardry 8, and only 1 tier-3 item into Wizardry 8. Items that do not have an assigned tier value cannot be imported into Wizardry 8. So, the ideal is for each character at the end of Wizardry 7 to be carrying one tier-3 item, maybe one or two tier-2 items, and the rest tier-1 items prior to importation.
Flamestryke's excellent site on Wizardry 8 provides tables that list the importable tier-items. I've made .pdfs from the information, and they can be downloaded here:
Zarax imports a Hammer, a Helm & Coif, a Studded Hauberk, Studded Chausses, Copper Gloves and Chain Hosen. He imports two tier-2 items, a Zizka Star and a Stun Rod. He also imports a tier-3 item, an Ankh of Might.
Ryu imports a Katana, a Heater Shield, a Kabuto Helm, a Do-Maru (U), a Do-Maru (L) and Leather Boots. He also imports a Hayai Bo as a tier-2 item.
Rothgar imports a Heater Shield, a Helm & Coif, a Studded Hauberk, Studded Chausses, Copper Gloves and Chain Hosen. He also imports a Zizka Star as a tier-2 item.
Terra will import the Longstem Spade, a Ninja Cowl, Ninja Garb (U), Ninja Garb (L), Tabi Boots and a Diamond Ring. She'll also automatically get a Faerie stick in her inventory once she starts Wizarry 8.
Errol imports a Heater Shield, the Mystery Ray, a Phrygian Cap, a Studded Hauberk, Leather Leggings, Cuir Gauntlets, Buskins, a Poet's Lute, Angel's Tongue and the Cornu of Demonspawn. He gives Chun-Li the Chamois Gloves he had been wearing. He also imports a Midnight Cloak as a tier-2 item, and an Enchanted Broadsword +1 as a tier-3 item.
Chun-Li imports the items she had been wearing all along, Robes +1 (U), Robes +1 (L), Sandals and a Diamond Ring. She also imports a Staff of Blessing as a tier-2 item, and a Mitre de Sanct as a tier-3 item.
The End
I come to the spaceship at #9 and use Vitalia's Device. Only, it's the Dark Savant who appears, along with a wounded Vi Domina. He forces a choice between keeping the Globe (the suboptimal ending) or trading it for the Girl.
I chose the latter. Now it's time for Wizardry 8.
* THE END *
