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The Saga of Depierrelles (1)
Re: The Saga of Depierrelles (1)
If like me you're really liking Heroes of Might and Magic 4 and tried the custom campaign "Saga of Depierrelles" by Ururam Tururam, which is often mentioned among the best one, you've likely found yourself stuck in the maze of the third scenario "Twelve Labors of Depierrelles".
I loved the campaign, but this one maze is crazy difficult, and I wished I could have found the solution online when searching for it after pulling hairs for too long. I had even reached out to Ururam Tururam some times ago, but he doesn't remember the right path himself, just that you better make a map of it.
And so I did one, and resolved it. Since I would really have loved for someone to share how it's done, I'm doing it now. Hopefully it will be helpful to some other nostalgic players of this old gem of a game. :]
The maze is made of tiles with one portal up and one down. The portals have a fixed list of others portal they lead to, as destination. It seem impossibly tricky to navigate if you go through randomly, but there's actually only five different lists. Basically, almost every tile has one of three basic list. One has for its first destination the tile just upright to the entrance, let's call it A. Another the tile just lower right to the entrance, B. And another C tile all the way on the other side of the maze, on the upleft side of the tile with earth elemental.
There's two special tiles with a different list of portal, D : it's the tile left to the wind tile, and the one with sand ground on the right lower side of the big treasure tile. You can only reach it through the sixth portal of the A list.
Then, the sixth portal of this D set lead to the final X tile : it's the one just above the fire elemental tile. Its lower portal allow access to all the other you can't reach, and the very last portal of that list lead to the treasure room.
So basically, when you enter the maze, there's only a few things of real interest you may wan't to get, considering you probably have lots of better items, and will reach level 30 before the end of the scenario considering the crazy amount of big armies.
To reach the treasure : when you enter the maze, fight the gardian, then take the up portal. You will be on the tile C. Take the first destination of the lower portal. You will be on the tile A, right next to the entrance. If you're lost, go through first or random destination repeatedly until you get back to this one. Then take the sixth destination of the up portal, you will be on D, then the sixth of the lower portal, you will be on tile X. Then the last portal.
TLDR: behind the guardian, first up, first below, sixth up, sixth below, last.
If you also wan't the golden oracle, on tile X, choose the eight destination, then go back to A with the first destination of portal up.
If you also wan't the permanent magic boost, same as above, but the eleven destination, then first up, first below.
If you also wan't the permanent scouting skill : same above, but the first destination, then first up, first below.
And voilà ! This should allow you to go through it and continue the scenario. I highly recommend going through the maze once you've beaten the other two ennemies, so that you don't have to worry about invading armies while you're still occupied in the maze. By the way, to make the scenario way easier : deny the enemies any access to ships. The barbarian orange will never be able to produce one, so if you disembark on his shores, make sure to leave one creature to remain in the ship and keep it slightly out of reach from land. Better : have with you a hero with life magic and the summon ship magic, so you can use the creature to make the ship out of reach then delete the creature, leaving the ship impossible for the ennemy to get or destroy, and summon it once you need it.
As for the undead purple, he's able to get access to several islands with neutral ships left alone : from the start of the game, produce several ships with a few level 1 creatures to send as scout everywhere in the map. As soon as you spot the idle ships ashores, take them away. Purple should only be left with one single ship production facility, which should make him easier to contain (leave alone the neutral creatures guarding that facility!) while you win over all the cities in the islands. He also has only one of his three cities that can be updated to castles with towers. If you can get it sneakily, it's easy to defend against his armies, so he will be occupied while you get stronger. All four life castles automatically produce a unit every day, so even though there's no angel available, with four castles productions boosted by some Nobility, plus one Order and one Nature castle, you should be able to beat him. You you control nearly all the map, beating orange who can only defend should be a piece of cake.
I hope this will help !
I loved the campaign, but this one maze is crazy difficult, and I wished I could have found the solution online when searching for it after pulling hairs for too long. I had even reached out to Ururam Tururam some times ago, but he doesn't remember the right path himself, just that you better make a map of it.
And so I did one, and resolved it. Since I would really have loved for someone to share how it's done, I'm doing it now. Hopefully it will be helpful to some other nostalgic players of this old gem of a game. :]
The maze is made of tiles with one portal up and one down. The portals have a fixed list of others portal they lead to, as destination. It seem impossibly tricky to navigate if you go through randomly, but there's actually only five different lists. Basically, almost every tile has one of three basic list. One has for its first destination the tile just upright to the entrance, let's call it A. Another the tile just lower right to the entrance, B. And another C tile all the way on the other side of the maze, on the upleft side of the tile with earth elemental.
There's two special tiles with a different list of portal, D : it's the tile left to the wind tile, and the one with sand ground on the right lower side of the big treasure tile. You can only reach it through the sixth portal of the A list.
Then, the sixth portal of this D set lead to the final X tile : it's the one just above the fire elemental tile. Its lower portal allow access to all the other you can't reach, and the very last portal of that list lead to the treasure room.
So basically, when you enter the maze, there's only a few things of real interest you may wan't to get, considering you probably have lots of better items, and will reach level 30 before the end of the scenario considering the crazy amount of big armies.
To reach the treasure : when you enter the maze, fight the gardian, then take the up portal. You will be on the tile C. Take the first destination of the lower portal. You will be on the tile A, right next to the entrance. If you're lost, go through first or random destination repeatedly until you get back to this one. Then take the sixth destination of the up portal, you will be on D, then the sixth of the lower portal, you will be on tile X. Then the last portal.
TLDR: behind the guardian, first up, first below, sixth up, sixth below, last.
If you also wan't the golden oracle, on tile X, choose the eight destination, then go back to A with the first destination of portal up.
If you also wan't the permanent magic boost, same as above, but the eleven destination, then first up, first below.
If you also wan't the permanent scouting skill : same above, but the first destination, then first up, first below.
And voilà ! This should allow you to go through it and continue the scenario. I highly recommend going through the maze once you've beaten the other two ennemies, so that you don't have to worry about invading armies while you're still occupied in the maze. By the way, to make the scenario way easier : deny the enemies any access to ships. The barbarian orange will never be able to produce one, so if you disembark on his shores, make sure to leave one creature to remain in the ship and keep it slightly out of reach from land. Better : have with you a hero with life magic and the summon ship magic, so you can use the creature to make the ship out of reach then delete the creature, leaving the ship impossible for the ennemy to get or destroy, and summon it once you need it.
As for the undead purple, he's able to get access to several islands with neutral ships left alone : from the start of the game, produce several ships with a few level 1 creatures to send as scout everywhere in the map. As soon as you spot the idle ships ashores, take them away. Purple should only be left with one single ship production facility, which should make him easier to contain (leave alone the neutral creatures guarding that facility!) while you win over all the cities in the islands. He also has only one of his three cities that can be updated to castles with towers. If you can get it sneakily, it's easy to defend against his armies, so he will be occupied while you get stronger. All four life castles automatically produce a unit every day, so even though there's no angel available, with four castles productions boosted by some Nobility, plus one Order and one Nature castle, you should be able to beat him. You you control nearly all the map, beating orange who can only defend should be a piece of cake.
I hope this will help !
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