Dragon Quest Guide

Just found this, hope it helps any new players.

Dragon Quest,[a] previously published as Dragon Warrior in North America until 2005,[b] is a franchise of Japanese role-playing video games created by Yuji Horii. The games are published by Square Enix (formerly Enix), with localized remakes and ports of later installments for the Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch being published by Nintendo outside of Japan. With its first game published in 1986, there are eleven main-series games, along with numerous spin-off games. In addition, there have been numerous manga, anime and novels published under the franchise, with nearly every game in the main series having a related adaptation.

After fiddling with the sign-in screens, you find yourself in
King Lorik's throne room. After a brief explanation of the ball
of light and your quest to get it back, you are in control of the
game. Get the treasure chests for 120 gold, a torch and a magic
key. Use the magic key to open the throne room door. Head out of
the castle. Head straight to Brecconary (the town to the east)
and buy a club. Go to the item shop (in the bottom right corner)
and sell your torch. You will now have 64 gold. We need 70 gold
to buy the leather armor at the equipment shop, so you need to
head out and fight. Stay in the forest north of Brecconary and
kill Slimes and Red Slimes with your club. When you accumulate 70
gold, buy your leather armor. Save immediately, and earn some
more gold to rest at the inn. Keep fighting Slimes and Red Slimes
staying very close to the castle until you reach level 3.

At level 3, you earn the spell of HEAL. Now, instead of visiting
the inn when your HP and MP get low, talk to the old man in the
southeast corner of Tantagel Castle (behind the desk) to refill
your MP. Heal until you are at max HP, then talk to him again.
You no longer need to use inns now. If you do not have 20 gold
yet, earn it. Then go to the tool shop in Brecconary. Buy a
dragon's scale and use it (use the item command) to get +2
defense. Sell it for 10 gold back. Don't ask me how you can sell
something and regain its properties; just do it.

Now head into the hills southwest of Tantagel Castle, where
you'll fight Slimes, Red Slimes and occasionally Drakees. DO NOT
touch the bottom row of hills! Due to a bug in the monster
mapping, it has enemies from the southern continent who will more
than likely whip you good. So stay away from there. build up to
level 5 with the Slimes, Red Slimes and Drakees, saving and
healing at Tantagel when necessary (I don't think it's necessary
to tell you to heal and save any more). Buy a small shield at
Brecconary for 90 gold. Once at level 5, head northwest from
Tantagel Castle. Keep going until you come to the ocean, and see
a town. This is Garinham. Don't enter it yet, and fight in the
hills outside the village. Smash away at the Red Slimes, Drakees
and Ghosts, and HURT the Magicians before they can hit you bad
with HURT. Oh, I forgot to mention it - you got the HURT spell at
level 4.

Accumulate a lot of gold, and fight in this spot for a long, long
time. Buy from Garinham a copper sword and chain mail, and get up
to level 7. Heal when you fall below 20 HP because HURT from a
Magician can do up to 10 damage to you. Once you get the copper
sword, you can handle Magicians without HURT (and can knock out
Drakees and maybe Ghosts in one hit). The chain mail will give a
very nice 6 defense increase. At level 7, you get the SLEEP
spell. This really isn't that useful; monsters annoyingly often
wake up when put to sleep, and unlike the future games in the
series, monsters get to attack the same turn they wake up. So,
use it sparingly, if at all. Now, remember that row of hills
southwest of Tantagel Castle I told you NEVER to enter? Well, now
you can. Go there and walk back and forth. You will battle
Magicians, Magidrakees (cast HURT) Ghosts and Scorpions. You can
take them all down with 2-3 attacks. Heal a lot, outside battle
if at all possible (healing in battle wastes a turn). Go back
home when you get down to one heal (you need to be able to heal
several times in a pinch).

Finally, after much aggravation you should be at level 9 and have
accumulated quite a tidy sum of gold. Stock up on herbs, make
sure you have full HP and MP, and save. Make sure you have at
least 1500 gold on hand for this trip. Head out from Tantagel,
only this time head northeast. Cut south through the swamp for a
shortcut. At the southeast end of this continent is a bridge.
Cross it and head south, through the swamp, to a cave. Once
inside the cave, cast HEAL at least twice to nullify the damage
you took from the swamp. Now, you're in the Swamp Cave, but you
aren't alone. Besides the cheesy cave monsters (monsters from the
overworld plus Druins, not a threat to you) there is a Green
Dragon, who is guarding Princess Gwaelin. If you encounter this
fellow, save your energy for another time and reset. The key to
avoiding him is to not explore the cave, just head straight south
from the entrance (you don't even need a light source) until you
hear a bumping noise. Now follow these directions (until you hear
the bumping noise): east, south, east, south, west - ah ha! The
stairs. Climb this staircase and you've made it through the cave!

You are now on the South Island. You are also in big trouble.
This place is inhabited by very strong monsters. Warlocks have
the HURT and SLEEP spells at their command, and the other enemies
here can hit very, very hard. Your best bet is to cast SLEEP on
these foes, then run. (Just running away annoyingly often fails).
Head straight to the town of Rimuldar. From the exit of the cave,
head south to the east of the mountain barrier. Keep heading
south and eventually you'll see a lake to your west. Hook around
the mountains to the south and check it out. There's town on an
island in the lake; this is Rimuldar.

In town, head to the weapon shop and get the prize you came for:
the broad sword, which gives an amazing +10 attack power. Now
head to the entrance of the town. From the entrance, head north
and west, outside the moat. In the far northeast corner is a shop
where you can buy magic keys. Buy at least 2 of these. Unlock the
two doors in the bottom part of town and get the treasure chest -
yes! Wings! Now just use them and you'll teleport right back to
Tantagel Castle!

The yawning expanse of your next purchase makes one's mind spin.
You must accumulate 3800 gold before continuing to buy the large
shield in Garinham and the full plate armor in Kol. For future
reference, to get to Kol, go to the continent with the Swamp
Cave, and head north. You'll come upon a large forest eventually;
inside this forest is the town of Kol. Instead of going here yet,
go to the hills south of the big desert south of Kol. There
you'll battle mostly Scorpions and Skeletons. No matter. They can
both be disposed of by your wicked broad sword. Purchase the
large shield when you get the money. If you absolutely need a
faster place, after reaching level 10 and getting STOPSPELL, head
back to the area around Rimuldar and fight there. warlocks are
very easy to defeat now, since you have STOPSPELL. Just be
cautious; the other enemies around here don't mess around, and
hit hard.

Okay, you've finally gotten to level 11 and are equipped with the
broad sword, full plate and large shield (and dragon's scale).
Now we get to move on to a much better fighting location. Head
back to Rimuldar but head south from it, past two ranges of
hills. In the south part of the second range, you can fight
Wolflords, Wraiths, Metal Scorpions and Goldmen. Wolflords hit
quite hard, but are cursed with STOPSPELL, which they'll waste
turns using and it won't do anything harmful to you. Wraiths are
slightly weaker than Wolfords, but cast HEAL very rarely. Metal
Scorpions are very weak, with low HP and attack. Goldmen have a
very high HP and hit hard, but have mo magic. Defeating one
yields only 6 experience but up to 200 gold. This will take a
very long time, so you must be patient. While doing this, use the
Rimuldar inn when MP runs low, keep some wings on hand to save
after every level-up, and don't cross the bridge nearby or head
too far west. If you do, you can encounter a Wyvern. They can't
do anything but attack, but they're annoyingly good at that. They
can smash you for double-digit damage at your level, and have
quite bit of HP. By level 13, though, you should be able to chop
them up.

OK, you'll get 10000 gold eventually. It really doesn't take that
long. Buy 2 magic keys at Rimuldar and stop by Brecconary. Open
the door in the top right corner and buy at least one bottles of
fairy water. IMPORTANT: Go to Kol. If you noticed, there's a pool
there which is supposed to cure rheumatism. Search the ground
four steps below it and you'll discover the fairy flute. Save,
restock on herbs, and heal to max HP and MP. The trip to Cantlin
will take a few tries. From Tantagel, head up to Garinham, only
head south of it instead. You'll see a bridge at the bottom of
the continent. Cross it, activate fairy water, and head straight
south. When the ocean forces you east, head east. Eventually
you'll see another bridge. Cross it and head south. You'll see
the huge Domdora Desert before you. The monsters from here on out
are very, very strong, so run from everything (except the
occasional Metal Slime) and heal between fights if you get
attacked. Use an herb instead of running if your HP gets within
one strike of death. Head south through the desert, ignoring the
town in the north. When you get through, you'll see a bank of
hills. Cross them and at the southern tip of this continent,
you'll see a bridge. Cross it and you'll be in a forest. Head
northwest, and IGNORE the first bridge you come across! It just
leads to a huge, uninviting swamp. Continue following the only
path until you see a bridge with a small swamp south of it; this
is the correct one. Cross and head south. You'll see a wall
surrounding... a town! You made it!!

Or have you? When you step into the hole in the wall, there's a
"spiked square" (not quite like those in Final Fantasy) with
Golem. This fellow was put there to prevent you from entering
Cantlin, and will succeed unless you play the fairy flute. This
will put him to sleep, automatically. Then break out your armory
and spank him with the broad sword. If he awakes, though, beware
- getting hit by him causes an Excedrin headache. Immediately put
him back to sleep, use an herb, and continue. Heal to max HP with
the HEAL spell before the battle as well. After Golem is reduced
to rubble, enter the town. Head straight to the northeast corner
where you'll see two people behind desks. Use your remaining key
to enter this area and talk to the bottom one. He is a salesman
who sells you the two best pieces of equipment that you can buy:
the flame sword and silver shield! Buy the flame sword
immediately, and head out of here.

Before continuing, a few notes on spells I did not mention. You
get RADIANT at level 9 (lets you see inside a dungeon) OUTSIDE at
level 12 (exit a dungeon) and RETURN at level 13 (return to
Tantagel Castle from the overworld). Use the latter to escape the
Cantlin region.

Now, get ready for (surprise!) some more leveling up! The best
place to level up now is the island south of Rimuldar. Wyverns
should be easy to defeat with the flame sword, as will their
little pals. You'll see a stairway on this island but ignore it.
Level up to 14-15 and get 15000 gold (WHOA NELLIE!) To buy the
silver shield. It'll give you a fine defense boost of +15. Get
ready to head back to Cantlin. Use fairy water for the first half
of this trip again. This is slightly easier than before, since
you do not need to battle Golem and are a level higher. Don't get
cocky and fight, though. Just run. Back in Cantlin, buy the
silver shield, the best. Leave, save and restock herbs. It's time
to get Erdrick's armor. If you remember, there was a town in the
Domdora Desert you skipped. It is called Hauksness, and enter it
now and you'll find this place is, uh, nuked. Fried. Mutilated.
Destroyed. The Dragonlord was certainly ruthless. His little
friends are still here, so get ready to run from every battle.
Head to the southwest corner of this town (to use generous
wording) and you'll see a swamp with a forest square behind it.
Step on the forest square, but heal to max HP (using HEAL)
beforehand.

On this square you'll meet an Axe Knight. This overweight cousin
of Sir Lancelot will give you battery back up feature a good
workin'. Your only real way of dealing with him is to STOPSPELL
him before he casts SLEEP. Then attack, and use an herb when you
fall below 30 HP. If all goes well, the moron will attempt to
cast SLEEP and fail, giving you free turns to slam him. If you
win, DON'T MOVE! Stepping on that square will always result in a
battle with an Axe Knight. So, immediately use the search command
to find Erdrick's armor. This thing protects you only 4 better
than the full plate, but that's the lousy part. This wonder suit
will give you 1 HP back per step. And make you immune to swamps
and barriers. Make straight for RETURN and get out of this dump.

Now, you need to level up to 17 to get the HEALMORE spell before
attempting Charlock Castle. The best place to level up are the
hills north of Domdora Desert. You can walk on the plains after a
battle to restore HP, and most enemies there will fall to your
new equipment. Demon Knights are a pain, afflicting you with
several hits of double digit damage before you can connect with
them. At level 15, you get the much needed REPEL spell, which is
really handy when you need to go somewhere and don't want to be
bothered with wimpy enemies. Finally, up to level 17. You'll earn
HEALMORE, which restores something like 90 HP or so. Time to
assemble the parts of the Rainbow Bridge:

Stones of Sunlight - Use a key to unlock the door at the top of
Tantagel Castle, step outside, and walk south outside of the east
wall to find a stairway leading to the chamber where the stones
are kept. There is a key shop here, as well.
Silver Harp - Go to Garinham (with at least 2 keys) and open the
door leading to the big building. Now, there is a secret passage
located along the north wall, two steps right of the west wall.
Go through and head east to Garin's Grave. Navigate the grave to
find the harp. (Directions for Garin's Grave will be done in a
future update) *note* - If you use the silver harp as an item in
the overworld, you'll enter a battle.
Staff of Rain - From Kol, head west through a forested hole in
the mountains, then head north. You'll find a stairway leading to
a chamber with the staff. The man will let you have it because
you have the harp.
Erdrick's token - Remember that bridge I told you not to cross on
the way to Cantlin? Cross it now, and enter the swamp. Go to the
one space wide gap between the halves of the swamp, and carefully
move east, without taking any steps up or down. Search every
square you come across. About six squares east of the gap, you'll
find the token (search for it).
Rainbow drop - Just enter that stairway south of Rimuldar on the
island, and the man will give you the rainbow drop if you have
all the previous items.
Rainbow bridge - From Rimuldar, head northwest, to a desert. At
the edge of the desert is a peninsula with land on the other side
of it, separated by a one space wide channel. Use the rainbow
drop at the very edge of the peninsula, and a bridge appears.
Restock, save, make sure you have six herbs and cross this
bridge. Follow the linear path to (drum roll?) Charlock Castle!!!

You aren't facing the Dragonlord yet; you just need Erdrick's
sword. Run from all the enemies in here, unless your HP is within
one strike of death. In that case, chant HEALMORE. Use herbs and
Erdrick's armor to heal between battles. From the entrance, take
the west path and head the area of barriers at the top center of
the room. Both visible stairways are dead ends, but there is a
secret passage behind the throne in the barrier area. Search the
square in the middle of the five square row there to find it.
enter, cast RADIANT, and follow these directions. On B1 and B2,
the path is very linear; you don't need directions. On B3, you'll
find a south/west fork. Go west. You'll have another opportunity
to go south; skip it and head westalong the path on the outside
of the room to reach the stairs in the southwest corner. On B4,
follow the zig-zagging path northwest. When you see a north/east
fork, head easy. Go a tad bit south, and follow the path around
the southeast corner. In the northeast corner are some stairs.
Ignore them and head south, but do so along the inner wall; from
the stairs in the NE corner, take one step west, then go straight
south. Take the stairs at the end of this corridor going UP.
Follow the linear path from here on until you see that chest you
saw on B2 but couldn't reach. It is Erdrick's Sword. Nab it, and
beat it. You now have the BEST equipment in the game. But before
we go kicking the Dragonlord around, there's the slight matter of
leveling up to take care of...

Level up to 19 in the hills north of Domdora you used before. At
level 19, you get HURTMORE, the last spell. This spell is
completely useless, IMHO. Against the enemies you need it to work
on (like Metal Slimes) it'll never work, and on the normal
enemies I just attacked. For level 20 and thereafter, fight
inside Hauksness. This will take you a LONG time, especially if
you want to get to level 30 (the max) before beating the game.
However, the strategy is very straightforward. Clobber
everything, and use Erdrick's armor and walk on grass to minimize
HEALMORE's need. The enemies in Hauksness are Starwyverns (cast
HEALMORE and breathe fire), Werewolf (hits hard), Green Dragon
(breathes fire and hits hard) and Wizard (casts HURTMORE).
HURTMORE cast on you, thankfully, is nowhere near as nasty as
when you use it. If you want to speed this up, fight the Axe
Knight over and over, but be warned that one SLEEP spell from him
could be your last. RETURN and save after every level. After
reaching a satisfactory level (I recommend at least level 21)
restock on herbs, heal and save, and head for Charlock.

But first, remember that princess you've waited so long to
rescue? Well, head to the Swamp Cave and do it now. I'd be
interested to see what would happen if you beat the game without
ever rescuing her. Anyway, pulverize the Green Dragon - what an
idiot he is - and open the princess' cell (have a key on hand
before coming here). Talk to here and teleport back to the
castle. You carry her back, quite literally. It would be really
funny if you could say something like, "Gee, gorgeous, while I
was out kicking butt on those monsters why'd you eat so much?" Oh
well. Return her to the king for a royal thanks and an item
called Gwaelin's love, a rather useless item that tells you your
coordinates related to the castle and how much experience you
need to get a level up. This would have helped finding Erdrick's
token, but not much else.

The Dragonlord will prove a great challenge to lower-level
warriors, as will his guards. The lower three levels of the
castle contain some particularly deadly enemies. Armored Knights
(besides looking like transvestites in their bright pink armor)
cast HURTMORE and HEALMORE. Stonemen have an ungodly amount of
HP, and can punch you like nobody's business. Blue Dragons and
somewhat dangerous, but not as bad as the previously mentioned
ones. Wizards you should be able to handle. Now, the bomb. You
will probably meet at least one Red Dragon, this guy can kill you
no matter what level you're at if you're unlucky. He uses SLEEP
quite often, so STOPSPELL before attempting to run may be wise.
He can do damage in the 30s range. Just run from all these
enemies.

Now, the directions to the Dragonlord are complicated as well.
Follow the same paths through B1-4, but at B4, when you get to
the northeast corner, instead of heading south to Erdrick's
Sword, head west. At the end of this corridor is a stairwell, go
down it. Follow the linear path through B5 and B6. If you got
nervous and took the stairs in the NE corner of B4, you'd wind up
in an infinite loop corridor that has sent many an NES controller
flying into the TV. B7 is actually lit up (geez, thanks!) and you
can see the Dragonlord to your right. To get to him, first head
to the west side. Head north. When you can go west or north into
a dead-end room, go west. When you enter an area with various
floor types instead of the normal brick floor, head south. Head
back into the normal area at the bottom, and head west to the
Dragonlord!!

Talk to him (after guzzling up your remaining herbal garden) and
he'll offer you half the world if you join him. Say no (unless
you want to die [at best - some gamers claim saying yes loses all
your levels and gold!!]) and he'll battle you. Just bash him
liberally and he'll bite it sooner or later. He can use HURTMORE
(minor) or STOPSPELL. Chances are it won't work but if it does,
you have to reset because you need HEALMORE for the upcoming
battle. Whoa, that was easy. Wait, what's this? A giant, ugly
dragon? Well, you've got to fight some more. The final boss can
hurt you for up to 50 damage with flaming breath or attacks, so
use HEALMORE when your HP falls below 50. HEALMORE uses 10 MP,
and it will take A LOT of rounds to kill this guy, due to his
ungodly defense (single digit damage readouts are common) and HP
(around 100 I think). Just keep striking and healing, and pray
for a critical hit. Hopefully you were smart and saved your MP
throughout the castle (maybe even used torches to save MP for
RADIANT). If you have at least 120 MP, you actually have a good
chance of winning. (You have a max MP of over 120 at level 20).
If not, well, you don't...

You'll kill the Dragonlord sooner or later. When you do, take the
ball of light from his corpse and it will banish all evil from
Alefgard! You'll be teleported out of Charlock. RETURN home (or
stay at the Rimuldar inn if you lack the MP - that happens
strangely often) and speak with King Lorik. You've won!!!

Good work, Dragon Warrior. You're overdue a long, relaxing bubble
bath and a night with Princess Gwaelin (don't kill me!) for
finishing your quest.

15. CONCLUSION

pant pant... I think that's everything. Dragon Warrior, while not
nearly as great as Dragon Warrior 3 (the only game in the series
that is actually a worthy challenger of Final Fantasy) is great.
DO NOT attempt to plagiarize... please. It won't get you
anything. I promise. Enjoy Dragon Warrior I. (Just don't tell me
if you don't). And if you new to the RPG genre, check out the
following other titles: Super Mario RPG, Dragon Warrior 3, Final
Fantasy ANYTHING...

And finally - "May the light shine upon thee!"

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Great guide and educational material for beginners! 
Hope that will help me with my uk dissertation

 

no

Are you trying to replicate Wikipedia here?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Quest

I just thought it may help