Level 3 - Courtyard
Balcony
Move forward and head down the stairs. They'll bend to the right and end in a fallen tree. There's a stream of ice magic flowing from the steps and into a lantern. Pick up the Lantern and start heading back up the stairs. Halfway between the landing and the top of the balcony, there's a large tree branch that you can climb out on. Follow this over to the Ruined Tower.
Ruined Tower
As soon as you enter the tower, you'll be attacked by an Overgrown Plant!
General Strategy: The plant will occasionally heal itself, so a good option would be to make sure the damage dealt outpaces the healing.
How to Defeat:
- Round 1: The plant will attack, respond by casting Ignite.
- Round 2: The Plant will take a round to heal. Hit it will the Ice Shards.
- Round 3: Most likely, you'll be attacked again. Cast Winter's Grasp to do some extra damage (and follow the story).
- Round 4: Plant should take a round to heal. Toss a Fireball at the plant to do some critical damage, which should finish it off. Note that critical damage only happens here if you've done the Ice Shards/Winter's Grasp combo.
Once they fibrous beast has been felled, head over to the window it was in front of. Take Bronze Cup that's sitting on the sill. Turn around and head to the crumbled doorway on the other side of the room. Take the stairs leading down and to the left.
Stair Landing
Nothing much you can do here, so just keep heading down the stairs. At the bottom you'll be blocked from progressing further by a stream of fire. On the left is a sturdy branch that you can hang the Lantern on. Do so, then cast Ice Shards on the Lantern to negate the fire smoke stuff. Once that obstacle has been dealt with, head into the Shack.
Shack
There's some stuff that we'll be needing. First, pick up the pouch of Seeds from the table. Turn around and face the doorway you entered from, then open the door to the left of that to reveal a small closet. Take the Lantern sitting in there. Now exit through the door to the left of the fireplace.
Clearing
Move forward to face off against the Tree Spirit!
General Strategy: You'll want to attack the Tree root rather than the dryad thing. If the root has sustained damage, the spirit will take a round to heal it rather than attack you. So just keep on the attack and you should be good to go.
How to Defeat:
- Round 1: You'll be attacked, respond by casting Ignite on the Tree.
- Round 2: The Spirit will take a moment to heal the tree. Cast Fury of the Storm, and watch as the Burning status does its job.
- Round 3: The Spirit will heal again. Hit the Tree with Fireball twice. The damage from Burning should finish off the Tree Spirit, even though it has more than 20HP left.
Once you are victorious, approach the tree for which you just fought the spirit. As a result of the battle, it was damaged and has sprung a leak. Use the Bronze Cup to scoop up some of the acidic sap flowing from the tree. There are two gates here, but they're both locked. Nothing to do here but to head back to the shack.
Shack
Head through the doorway in the opposite wall.
Fallow Grounds
There's a bright green patch of soil that you can highlight, but nothing we can do with this yet. Just move through the open gate.
Pathway
Follow the pathway until you enter an open area with a time crystal.
Bridge Clearing
There's a bridge across the way being blocked by some ice magic smoke stuff, but nothing nearby to hang a lantern on. Use your Time Orb on the nearby time crystal to move the whole area this side of the shack back to the past. If we approach the bridge now, we can spot a handy branch at the foot of the bridge. Hang the Lantern on it, then cast Fireball on it to negate the wild ice magic. Take back the Lantern, then head back to the time crystal and use the Time Orb on it to return to the present. Cross the bridge and turn left to spot a caged room. When you approach the door, you'll notice that it is held closed with a padlock. Use the Bronze Cup filled with acid sap to melt the padlock, then open the door.
Dirt Room
In the back corner of the dirt-filled room is a Courtyard Key on the ground near a skeleton. Pick that up, then return to the time crystal in the Bridge Clearing.
Bridge Clearing
From the time crystal, turn around and you should spot an archway leading to an underpass. This is only accessible in the present, so if there's some rubble in your way then activate the time crystal to clear it. At any rate, head into this Tunnel.
Tunnel
Follow this path until your round a corner. Cross the small clearing and use the Courtyard Key on the gate on the other side to unlock it. Move through.
Clearing
We're back in the clearing where we got the acid sap. Turn left and use the Courtyard Key on the other locked gate in this room. Enter the new area.
Statue Path
Large statues line the sides of this path leading to a grand set of doors. The door is locked, so just turn right and follow the side path.
Side Path
Follow one more curve to the right and down the slope into the Undergrowth area.
Undergrowth
No sooner do you enter this area than you face off with a Living Tree!
General Strategy: This guy will either be super easy or a giant pain. Ignite and two Lightning Strikes are enough to take him down. So you can take him out in three rounds with that set of spells. However, he'll sometimes use a confusion spell on you which scrambles up your spells, making it so that you don't actually know what you're casting. This quickly leads to your death, so it's probably best to take the following safe strategy, even though it takes longer.
How to Defeat (Safe):
- Round 1: He'll attack. On your turn, cast Frost Giant to summon a guardian.
- Round 2: Whichever attack he does, be it thorns or spores, the Giant will absorb the damage. Cast our old friend Ignite to start chipping away at his health.
- Round 3 and onward: As long as you have the Frost Giant up, then alternate between Fireball and Ice Shards until the tree is felled. Lightning Strike will not do critical damage while the Giant is in play, and will also damage the Giant, so avoid using it. If the Giant falls, use Lightning Strike to hit for critical damage and hopefully finish the job.
How to Defeat (Risky):
- Round 1: He'll attack. On your turn, cast Ignite to inflict our old pal Burning.
- Round 2: If he attacks with thorns, then follow up by casting Fury of the Storm. If he attacked you with spores, then you're basically dead already.
- Round 3: If he attacks with thorns, we can end this here. Just cast Lightning Strike twice and he'll go down. If he attacked you with spores, then you're basically dead already.
After the fight, move forward through the path that the Living Tree was blocking. Follow this path around a couple bends until you reach a Campsite.
Campsite
There are four objects here that provide clues to solve the statue puzzle. They are:
- Hanging Cloak: Four mages, four words, to create an incantation. All incantations start with the most important mage. In this case, perhaps the one with the most ornate clothes.
- Remains of fire beneath cauldron: The fourth word is powerful and as long as it is said last, requires a mage of no standing.
- Scroll laying by some books: The third word comes from history, invoking the past as it has been inscribed to us on parchment.
- Animal skull stuck to a tree with a dagger: A weapon or a wizard's tool is usually tied to the second word of an incantation, something to focus energy.
The fire remains beneath the cauldron proudly displays a fire symbol seen between some charred logs, so we can infer that we're casting Fire last. There's a small purple crystal beside the stack of books near the scroll, which resembles the Ice Shards symbol well enough that I think this is supposed to be the third hint. The dagger describes something to focus energy, perhaps akin to a Lightning rod. The only spell school we're missing then is Light, which we can slot into the only missing part of the incantation. Which gives us the order of Sunburst, Lightning Strike, Ice Shards, Fireball. Great, but what to use these on?
Make your way back along the winding path to the main Undergrowth area.
Undergrowth
Ahead of you will be a group four tall wooden figures. Walk in front of them and turn to face them. If we inspect them from left to right, we are given these descriptions:
- Wooden Figure 1: Bewitched but alive, this man holds a scroll within wooden hands.
- Wooden Figure 2: Despite having somehow having been ensorcelled into wood, this man is still very much alive.
- Wooden Figure 3: This figure, apparently transformed into wood but still alive, is clothed in an ornate robe.
- Wooden Figure 4: While this appears to be a statue carved of wood, I sense that magic is at play here and he is merely paralyzed. He holds a wand in his hand.
We know from earlier that we want to start with the fanciest dressed one, which is Wooden Figure 3. Wooden Figure 4 is holding a metal rod that could draw lightning, so this is second. Wooden Figure 1 is holding a scroll like the one we found in the campsite. And Wooden Figure 2 is pretty plain, much like a mage of no standing. So now we have our spell order, and our wooden figure order. Casting the spells on the wooden figures does nothing, but do not despair! Move forward past the wooden figures and you should spot a row of tall mushrooms. These are tied to the souls of the living being encased in the wooden figures, or something, so this is what we need to cast our spells on.
With our back to the statues, the mushrooms are numbered 1-4 from left to right. Cast Sunburst on Mushroom 3, Lightning Strike on Mushroom 4, Ice Shards on Mushroom 1, and finally Fireball on Mushroom 2. This will open up a path on the other side of the wooden figures, so turn around and move forward. You'll be blocked by something only the Djinn can help you through, so we need to make a quick detour. Make your way back to the Bridge Clearing.
Bridge Clearing
Use the Time Orb on the time crystal to travel back to the past. Pick up the Lantern by the bridge if you didn't do so earlier, then cross through the Pathway to get to the Fallow Grounds.
Fallow Grounds (Past)
Inspecting the soil patch here reveals that it is fertile ground once more. Plant the Seeds here, then hang the Lantern on the convenient branch above the soil. Cast Sunburst on the Lantern to imbue it with light energy. Run back to the Bridge Clearing, use the time crystal to move back to the present, then return to this area.
Fallow Grounds (Present)
Take back the Lantern, then look down at the soil and take the Skull Flower that is now growing there. Step out onto the Pathway.
Pathway
When approaching the archway leading to the Bridge Clearing, there will be a door along the left wall just before you get there. Open the door to move through.
Djinn Prison
Not sure why we moved through the door backwards, but turn around and head toward the Djinn. Chat with him to unlock the next riddle, then hand him the Skull Flower as the answer. He'll teach you the Stone Shield spell. Return to the Undergrowth.
Undergrowth
Move through the wooden figures and down the path. Cast the Stone Shield spell on the particles to get rid of them, then walk toward the door to exit the Courtyard.
Congratulations on completing Level 3!
