A Wizard's Lizard Walkthrough: The Cemetery
Raga's off to find his master, and his journey will take him, first, to the Cemetery. An unfriendly place populated by the least of Death's minions, the Cemetery is a three-floor pulp factory that will teach you the rudiments of survival in A Wizard's Lizard. Three floors may sound pretty shrimpy, but the difficulty scales sharply with each new floor. Be cautious.
Below are some tips for getting through the Cemetery. The recommendations provided may vary based on how you fight.
The Cemetery
General Navigation
- As far as traps and enemies go, the Cemetery is the least-populated of the game's three main areas. Many of the rooms will be fairly sparse, giving you lots of space to move around and dodge incoming enemy attacks. Take advantage of the overflowing greenery.
- The Cemetery is also the first place where you'll learn about floor demarcations. More specifically, keep an eye on the doorways. If a doorway is unlit, it leads to another room. If it's lit, it leads to the next floor. If there's a big sign with a Skull next to the door, it leads to the boss room. Mind these telltale signs as you explore.
- Given its relatively small size and typical excess of wealth, the Cemetery is a fairly good place to farm Blueprints (only 5,000 gold apiece). Be sure to search every room before leaving the floor. It's also a good place to farm villagers to increase your budget, though you'll always have to descend to the third floor to find one.
- Comparative to the amount of money you make, the restorative items sold by some of the vendors are quite expensive and barely restore any health. You're better off attempting to farm enemies for resorative items. Only buy food items if absolutely necessary.
- Most of the Cemetery's rooms are well-lit by fireflies. Every now and then, though, you'll find a room lit only by torches. Do your best not to destroy the torches unless you have no other choice. Fighting with only a Lantern on hand is not fun.
- On the second floor you may come across a room with a key in the middle of a wall of blocks. This is the Slime Key, and the only way to get it is to enter the room while dead. You can then pass right through the blocks. (I don't yet know what the Slime Key does, so I'll update this when I learn.)
Enemies and Traps
(For a complete listing of enemies and traps found in the Cemetery, consult this article.)
- More than any other area, the Cemetery is populated by Zombies. They appear in extremely large numbers, but you have the advantage of not fighting them if you don't feel like it. Zombies will only appear in this dungeon if you first step on their graves. Consequently, if you don't want to fight Zombies (which you shouldn't, as they're a minor nuisance at most), stay away from the graves.
- On the flip side, the Cemetery is home to both Angry Owls and Great Owls. These avians comprise perhaps the strongest enemies in the Cemetery outside the boss, and they often appear in large groups. This isn't such a big deal when you're facing just Angry Owls, but if you fight Great Owls you'll wind up facing down an entire squadron of beasts when you attack just one of 'em. Always try to eliminate them with Exploding Barrels, your totem, a few Soul Orbs, or veeeery careful hit-and-run tactics. Don't just attack them willy-nilly, they will murder you.
- The Cemetery is absolutely lousey with Explosive Barrels. They can be used to great effect to bring down enemies in large numbers. (Be careful in rooms only filled with Explosive Barrels, mind. Hit the wrong one and you might blow yourself up instead.)
- Try to kill ranged enemies first. It's tempting to attack the legions of Zombies and Werewolves and whatnot, but ranged foes are more accurate and are easy to lose in the crowd. Kill them before they secret themselves in a mob and open fire on you.
- Occasionally you'll find rooms with fans in the corners. The fans will do their level best to blow you into spikes, typically located in the center of the room. Stick to the edges to avoid the effects of the fans and use ranged attacks. (Or force the baddies to come to you.) If you do get caught in the wind, sprint to get out again.
- It's possible to attack and kill the bald merchants in this part of the dungeon, as well as others. That said, they're very powerful for new players, and you're better off not attacking them until you have more experience (and better weapons) under your belt.
- Watch Moving Spikes veeeeery carefully. It's way too easy to forget that Moving Spikes slide vertically as well as horizontally. Give them a wide berth when you can, and sprint past when you can't. Avoid them altogether if you have to fight enemies.
(Got your own tips for getting through the Cemetery? Feel free to provide 'em in the comments. I'll stick them in here and give you a nice little credit for your help.)
Proceed far enough into the Cemetery and you'll inevitably run into the area boss, the mighty Zombie Warlord. Your first big meanie! Best you rip him apart!
