General FAQ/Guide for Nightmare of Druaga : Mysterious Dungeon
for the Sony Playstation 2
by Zhou Tai An (kamenriderkirby@yahoo.com.sg)

This work is copyright Zhou Tai An. Any use anywhere requires my permission.

******

Well, this isn't intended to be a really detailed guide or anything, since
I'm not sure how many people actually bought this game. ^_^ But I for 
one was pleasantly surprised by it...I've always liked dungeon hacks
(I can remember the HOURS I spent playing Hack, and Diablo, while
simplistic, was certainly fun) and this one is unpretentious and
well-executed. Hard to find good games like that these days. Anyway,
on with the FAQ.

Some of the information here is taken from Dungeon Banzai! 
(http://dungeon.jp/nod/), an excellent NoD site. If you can read
Japanese, be sure to check it out. 

This document is still incomplete, I have a lot more Dungeon Strategy
and Chest Locations to add...

******

System Explanation : 

Basically, this is just like most other dungeon hacks...go down into
the dungeon, kill enemies, get more items, progress the story, get
a new dungeon etc...here are the things that you'll encounter in the game.

Dying in the dungeon - You lose half your gold and all your weapons.
Everything in storage remain intact though. Generally not an attractive 
proposition, so don't do it. ^_^

Exiting the dungeon - Either go through a Warp Gate, use a Feather, or
complete it. You get another Feather everytime you enter the dungeon.

Seals - The priestess next to where you start will place Seals on your
items for a price. An item with a Seal on it will not be lost when you
die in the dungeon. You start with one Seal and can gain more as you
progress.

Item Identification and Storage - Both are in the same room, to the
right of the throne room. Quite self-explanatory, items are ????
until identified and you can't use them. Storage is well, storage.

Item Combining - Two ways you can do this, you can ask the student
or master (master is the one on top...wait...that sounds so wrong...
^_^) The master is more reliable and gives better items, the students
makes more mistakes, but will sometimes come up with a great item.
Basically you get special combining items (Leafs, Roots, Petals etc)
and then bring them back to combine them with other items. Not all
items can be combined with each other, experiment and find out. 
Lastly, some items can ONLY be made through combination, so keep that
in mind. All this costs money, so bring some along.

Armor Combination - The smith will upgrade any piece of armor or
weapon for you if you bring him another. Armor can only be combined
with like armor (shield with shield, glove with glove etc) and 
weapons can only be combined with each other. After combination, the
main item will grow in strength (exactly how much depends on the
sub item used) and have a +1 next to it - after it reaches +15, 
you can't combine anymore.

Gems - You can slot items with gems (find an armor/weapon, go to Equip and 
place your cursor on the slot and press O) and that piece of equipment
will gain some stats depending on what the gem was. You can also throw
gems and use them as spells.

Protection of the Goddess - You start with a 100, it goes down once
every 8 turns. When it reaches 20, the light around you will dim, and
when it reaches 0 you won't be able to see anything. Offer items
to the Goddess to increase it.

Will 'o' the Wisps - Hang around for too long on a floor and these
will come after you. They are invulnerable to everything and will
do massive damage if they so much as touch you, so either make a 
beeline for the exit or use a Feather.

Shopkeeper - A shopkeeper, he sells you stuff. ^_^ He only has 
a limited selection of wares, though, so keep rare stuff in
storage. Sell your unwanted stuff to this guy.

Another Dungeon - Once you complete a floor, you can go to the door
and bash it in instead of using the key. This will bring you to
Another Dungeon, which has the following charisteristics :

1. You can't use a Feather here. You can only leave by finding the
key and going to the door, or dying.

2. You can keep going until Another Dungeon level 4, then you
must proceed to the next floor (each floor in each dungeon has
an Another Dungeon)

3. The dungeons here, unlike the normal game, are randomly 
generated.

4. Protection goes down a LOT faster, once every 3 steps.

5. Enemies here are a LOT tougher, and you do not get experience
for killing them. However, they will have a much higher chance to
drop items, and those items will usually be good.

6. There are no Silver or Golden Chests.

The Another Dungeon is not to be taken lightly...it's LOADED with
powerful enemies and dangerous traps. If you decide to venture
within, be careful. Of course, the rewards can be great...

Abilties - Abilities are sorta like spells, they come on each
piece of equipment and they take AP to use. So when selecting
a piece of gear, don't just look at the stats, think about what
Abilities it has too. When an Ability is used, you go into Ability
Boost mode, which makes the Ability cost more to use again, but
powers it up as well.

Breaking Walls - You can break walls with any weapon, it just
costs about 5% of your HP each time.

Quests - Later in the game you'll be able to go on Quests. This is
what happens :

1. You start in a predetermined location at Level 1, with your
initial gear.

2. The stuff you find during the Quest does NOT get kept.

3. Neither does the experience.

Upon completing the quest, (or dying) you'll be back where you began,
with the Quest reward.

Silver and Golden Chests - On each floor, there is a Silver and
Golden Chest, both of which only appear when certain conditions are
met. You must get the Silver one to get the Golden one, which will
only appear the next time you visit the floor. You can get them
as many times as you want, but after the first 2 times you will
most likely get Fine (Silver) or Quality (Golden) healing 
potions. If you are lucky you might get some other rare items
though.

The Goddess's Sermon - If you reset or turn off the game without
saving in either the dungeon or town, you'll get a sermon when you
restart it. This is highly irritating...I won't detail all the
possible responses here, after the long string of questions in which
one just keeps repeating, answer the first option until you get to 
the 6th one, then answer the second option. Resetting also has the
following effects :

1. Reset in town and she takes away half your gold.

2. Reset in the dungeon and she takes away half your gold and all
your items. It's basically the same as dying.

******

General Hints and Tips 

1. Be very careful while playing this game...you CANNOT save and reset!
(see above) And you can't copy the data to another memory card. (Don't
believe me? Go ahead and try...) And the game saves after each level
in the dungeon...it also saves at the beginning of the dungeon...

So you'll have to play things safe. Place Seals on your best weapons,
put anything unique, special or really strong in storage, always
bring plenty of healing, and above all, use a Feather when it
looks dangerous.

2. The best way to gain Protection is to offer useless items or 
Iron Spikes...they make for 20 Protection and only costs like 50 GP.
Offer anything that you don't need and can't sell for money in
town.

3. If you want to store money, buy Ingots and store them - they have
the exact same buy/sell value.

4. Always bring some long-range weapons into the dungeon (Gems and/or
Spikes) since they can come in handy in many situations. Striking
from afar is always good.

5. Two-handed weapons do much more damage but you can't equip a shield
with them, and shields can have good Abilities as well as adding
defense. Your call on which to use.

6. Know when you're going to level up because when you do so, you
regain all your HP/AP. This is useful for saving on healing items,
especially AP recovery ones since you can't buy them.

7. There are basically two kinds of setups...offensive and defensive.
In offensive, you go for full speed and power, doing so much damage
enemies die before they can hit you. With full defense, enemies will
hit you often and before you can move, but you'll take very little damage.
I'm personally a fan of the former...^_^ Of course there are many
variations in between.

8. If you can move faster than the enemy and you can lure them to you,
you can get in two strikes for one. Just stand in a location and skip
turns until their next move will bring them into your striking radius.
That's one hit. After that, when they actually attack, you'll strike
before them - if you can kill your enemy in 2 hits (3 with a spear or
whip) you won't take any damage! This is why I prefer the speed and
power approach, BTW.

9. Know how the enemy moves. Once they have targeted you, they will
always take the shortest route to attack you, moving diagonally if
possible. Use this to your advantage and position yourself in an
advantageous location. Of course, this does not apply to enemies
who attack from range...though those more or less move in the same way
(when they target you they move to attack) 

10. This is so simple as to be obvious, but try to use heights and
walls to your advantage. You do more damage when striking from
higher ground, and walls serve to guard your sides and back.

11. I find the bonus provided by Gems to not really be worth it -
I either sell them (they're good to sell actually) or use them as
items. Your mileage may vary.

12. Status ailments can be killer - always bring along some potions
to stop them. Especially in the early game, Poison and Confuse
can really do a lot of harm.

13. When struck from behind (or worse still, diagonally from 
behind) you will take a lot more damage (or in the case of
diagonally behind, A LOT LOT LOT more damage) This also
applies to enemies.

14. Blue below the enemy means you will attack first, red means
they will.

15. Certain types of weapons are a lot more effective on certain
enemies...skeletons, for instance, don't take much damage from
thrusting weapons like rapiers. Keep a few different weapons
around just in case.

16. When moving on to a new dungeon, if there is a good Silver/
Gold Chest on an early floor, I recommend only getting it once,
so it you get really screwed and lose your gear, you can still
get a good item. This saved my butt once. ^_^

17. You can still get the first strike (but not the second one)
against enemies who are faster than you if you can predict where
they will move to - just attack and they will move into your
attack if you've guessed right (since they move first, they will
be moving INTO your strike, which comes later) Yet another reason
to adopt an offense-heavy build. :)

******

Dungeon/Strategy + Silver and Golden Chest Locations :

---

Ruins of Darkness -

B1F

Silver - Defeat 3 Light Violent Vampires. (Clay Earring)
Gold - Defeat a Bat, Vampire and Slime in order. (Aqua Shoes)

B2F

Silver - Defeat 3 Green Snakes. (Sulphur Shard)
Gold - Reach the exit without defeating any Green Slimes. (Aqua Helm)

B3F

Silver - Defeat 3 enemies quickly - exact no. of turns unknown (Fleuret)
Gold - Don't break any walls, defeat a Dark Spirit and then the turn
immediately after that, break a wall. (Aqua Gauntlets)

B4F

Silver - Use your weapon 30 times. (Snail Necklace)
Gold - Get the key without destroying any wooden boxes. (Spinel Shade)

B5F

Silver - Defeat a Blue Knight without taking any damage - or maybe 
a little, unverified. (Quartz Shade)

Gold - Use 3 Healing Potions. (Thunder Spear)

B6F

Silver - Defeat 3 Black Knights. (Thunder Sword)
Gold - In the middle of the stage, swing your weapon at the side of
the pillar at the northwest of the bridge. (Chaos Amulet)

B7F 

Silver - Defeat a Blue Knight in a certain number of (100?) turns. 
(Alabaster Shard)

Gold - Get to 15 HP. (Hammer of Trouble)

B8F

Silver - Defeat 10 enemies. (Bronze Ring)
Gold - Enter the second hollow on the way to the door. (Graphite
Shard)

B9F

Silver - Defeat a Black Knight and Mage Ghost. (Thunder Blade)
Gold - Get the key. (Aqua Armor)

B10

Just hit the boss until it splits into the nucleus and small slimes, then
hit the nucleus (use Abilities and it should go down in one turn) If it
doesn't, just repeat.

---

Underground Caverns :

B1F

Silver - Get to the door. (Thunder Hammer)
Gold - Defeat two Blue Knights without defeating an Orange Vampire. (Rough
Aquamarine)

B2F

Silver - Step on a spike trap - not the one with holes, the one with the
spike (Wood Ring)
Gold - Spend 50 turns at Protection 0. (Rough Spinel)

B3F

Silver - Kill 2 of each enemy. (Lapis Lazuli Shard)
Gold - Get the key with 50,000 or over Gold. (Ice Mail)

B4F

Silver - Appears after 30 turns after you get the Key. (Aqua Shield)
Gold - Defeat a Dust without defeating any Green Slimes. (Spike Shoes)

B5F

Silver - Move to a location along the second below the first wall. 
(Chrysoberyl Shard)

Gold - Spend a 500-800 turns without getting the key. (Rough Sulphur)

B6F

Silver - Break one box. (Granite Mail)

Gold - Defeat 6+ enemies without getting any chests or breaking any
boxes. (Sarasvati's Tear)

B7F

Silver - Stand on a trap and defeat a Blue Knight Second. (Pearl)

To get this one, find a Blue Knight Second first and lure him to
a trap. Then walk to it, drink a potion, and hit the BKS with skills
so as to kill him ASAP - since each turn you spend on the trap will
activate it.

Gold - Raise your Protection to 100 on the top of the small hill
in the middle of the stage. (Rough Quartz)

B8F

Silver - Defeat five Blue Knight Seconds. (Ice Sallet)

Gold - Defeat the Land Urchin. (Tebetje)

The Gold can be hard to get. The moment you spot the Urchin, use
as many Power and Defense ups as you have, then wait for it to
come to you and hit it with the strongest attacks you can muster.
Even with good armor, at this point in the game it will probably
do 80-100 damage. I defeated it by using wasting a bunch of
Lightning Strikes just to get myself into Ability Boost status,
and then even so it took 2 hits...

B9F

Silver - Break 8 wooden boxes. (Selenite Shard)

Gold - Remove your weapon. (Fire Claymore)

B10F

No chests, just a warp gate.

B11F

Silver - If you start in the north area, move 2 spaces west of the
key. If you start in the south area, go to the middle and the
south corner there. (Ice Glove)

Gold - Go for 100 turns without killing any enemies. (Stone of Face)

Just equip all the lightest weapons and armor you can and walk
around.

B12F

Silver - Look at the torch at the beginning of the stage. (Marble Shard)

Gold - Throw 3 spikes. (Fire Axe)

B13F

Silver - Defeat 3 Red Slimes. (Carnelian Shard)

Gold - Defeat 7 Lizardmen. (Venom Blocker)

B14F

Silver - Destroy all the boxes in the stage, then get the key. 
(Silver Necklace)

Gold - Move clockwise around the tree in the left part of the
stage. (Rough Alabaster)

B15F

Silver - Move to every square - not counting the traps. (Jagged
Saber)

Gold - Pass an unknown no. of turns at full HP. (Aqua Mace)

B16F

Silver - Move to the most northwestern point of the southeastern
section. (Ice Shield)

Gold - Stand in front all the torches without destroying any
walls. (Rough Graphite)

B17F

Silver - Defeat a number of Metal Knights. (Lord Stone Shade)

Gold - Strike downwards from 5 squares above the door. (Rose Whip)

B18F

Silver - Defeat a Hyper Knight. (Lizard Belt)

Gold - Stand in front of the door. (Rough Agate)

B19F

Silver - Defeat 3 Mages. (Thunder Rapier)

Gold - Defeat ? enemies in ? turns (Thunder Plate)

B20F 

Boss