Beginners - Walkthrough

A walkthrough for the starting map

Please note, screen shots are from the GTK Client and content based on Crossfire v1.4.0

Need a guide to take you through the world of Crossfire?

After you have successfully created a character, you'll find yourself in the middle of the starting town - Scorn. After reading the signs () proceed to the small white house ().

scorn and beginners house screen shot

Upon entering Beginners, you will see additional signs (, , ), levers (, ) and gates ().

beginners entrance screen shot

Start by reading the first sign, closest to the entrance.

Note: Follow the signs in this order..

The First Sign says:

This is the beginning of a guided tour into crossfire. To fight monsters you run directly at them. The sooner you kill them off the better.

Try standing on top of the handle at your right and press the 'A'-key. The gate will then open and a monster will try to attack you. Run directly toward it to knock it down. Remember to put on your armour...

Good luck!

Proceed to the lever () directly to the right, stand on top of it, and hit the 'A'-key on your keyboard. The gate will open ( to ) and there will be a kobold () waiting inside the room. Hit the direction key(s) as necessary so that you are always facing the kobold - like you are trying to walk on top of him. You shouldn't have much of a problem dispatching the kobold - one or two hits should finish him off.

The Second Sign says:

You survived. That is promising ;->

As mentioned it is better the sooner you kill off the beasts. That way they do not get so much time to hurt you. To go really fast you can hold down the CONTROL-key to run in a direction.

Try opening the gate at your right and run in by holding down the CONTROL-key and just pressing the direction key _once_.

Proceed to the lever () directly to the right, stand on top of it, and hit the 'A'-key on your keyboard. The gate will open ( to ) and there will be a three kobolds () waiting inside the room. Since the room is a straight and narrow hallway, hold down the CONTROL-key and hit the direction key (once) to go right/east. You shouldn't have much of a problem dispatching the kobolds - one or two hits should finish them off. If necessary, stop and rest in this room to regenerate any lost Hit Points.

The Third Sign says:

Practice to run with the CONTROL-key down once more. Speed is very important in this game. Another thing that you should know is that to fight many beasts at once can be dangerous. You may be badly injured before you manage to kill them all off.

Well, go practice now!

Proceed to the lever () directly to the right, stand on top of it, and hit the 'A'-key on your keyboard. The gate will open ( to ) and there will be a four kobolds () and two ants () waiting inside the room. Since the hallway is wider, there's a good chance the monsters will step out of your way as you run at them. This time you will need to keep the CONTROL-key pressed down and hit the necessary directions keys (once) to chase your targets down. At the end of the hallways is food () Pick it up and save it for later or consume it if necessary (stand on top and hit the 'A'-key or middle click on it while it's located in your inventory window). Consuming food can also quickly restore lost Hit Points.

The Fourth Sign says:

It is time to get to know some other monsters. Monsters generate from monster generators and you should try to destroy the generators as early as possible, to limit the number of monsters being produced.

So, open the gate at your right and destroy the face-shaped generator right away. Do not waste time reading this ;-)

Proceed to the lever () directly to the right, stand on top of it, and hit the 'A'-key on your keyboard. The gate will open ( to ) and there will be anywhere from four to 10 orcs () waiting inside the room. Why so many? Because there's an orc generator () in there. Keep the CONTROL-key pressed down and use the direction keys to navigate the hallway to dispatch the orcs. Make sure to destroy the generator as well. You should also notice that a row of walls () is destructible. This can make your movement a little difficult - but easily corrected, just turn around or destroy the adjacent walls. There's more food () at the end of this room. Also, pick up the items dropped by the slain orcs - but don't use any of it yet! Some of it might be cursed (that's bad...)

The Fifth Sign says:

Not all monsters have generators and not all monsters need a generator to reproduce.

Sometimes you get a reward for winning a hard battle.

By the way: Chests are opened by pressing the key 'A' while standing on top of them or by pressing 'a' if you have it in your inventory. The middle mouse button can also be used. Try it out.

Proceed to the lever () directly to the right, stand on top of it, and hit the 'A'-key on your keyboard. The gate will open ( to ) and there will be anywhere from four to 10 mice () waiting inside the room. This mice should be very easy for you to vanquish. However, like the sign says - not all monsters need a generator to reproduce. If any mice escape your wrath they will replicate. If left along for a long enough time, they could reproduce and take up every available square of this map! You should also notice that not all of the walls () are destructible in this hallway. This can make attacking, and chasing down, the mice a little difficult. Something else you will find in this room is food () and a treasure chest (). Before opening the chest, stand on top of it and hit the 'S' key (for find traps) and 'D' key (for disarm traps) repeatedly. This particular chest probably isn't trapped, but always searching for, and disarming traps on, chests (and doors) are very important. After you are through searching the chest, press the 'A' key to open it. Grab your reward by middle clicking on it or by pressing the comma ',' key. The chest will disappear when empty.

The Sixth Sign says:

All doors are not the same.

Some need keys and some need strange button mechanisms :)

If you don't have a key, you can try to hack the door to pieces.

Beware of standing on a gate when it starts to go up.

Proceed to the door () and pickup the key () if you want to open the door right away, or leave the key on the floor if you wish to physically break down the door. NOTE: If you pick up the key and touch or attack the door, the key will be automatically used to open the door. Now, as you may recall from your previous lesson, before you open the door you should always search for traps. Hit the 'S' key (for find traps) and 'D' key (for disarm traps) repeatedly, and then open the door. Waiting inside are three orcs (), you shouldn't have much of a problem defeating them. Grab the food () and any items the orcs might have dropped. Remember, do not wear or wield any of looted items, they might be cursed!

Proceed north one step to the second half of your lesson. You will notice a button (). When someone (or something) steps on the button or if a heavy enough item is placed on the button, the gate () will open. Be careful though, if nothing is on the button, the gate will start to close and crush whatever is standing on top of it. Stand on the button and wait for the gate to open, quickly run (hold down the CONTROL-key and run into the room) past the gate. It will start to close once you are inside the hallway. Waiting inside this room are ants () and a ant generator (). You will also find another key () in this room as well.

This lesson isn't quite over yet. To the north is another door () that is locked. Search the door for traps, and if you picked up the key from the previous room - you can walk right in. Otherwise, you need to bash the door to open it. A swarm of bees () and an orc () are your opposition in this room. Careful with the bees, the can be hard to hit for low-level characters. Once you finish them off, go to the next sign.

The Seventh Sign says:

Now you are on your own until the next sign.

Proceed to the lever directly to the right, stand on top of it, and hit the 'A'-key on your keyboard. Instead of a door or gate opening for you, you should see the walls start to open ( to ). Before you charge into this room, watch out for the boulder (). If you push it into a corner, you won't be able to enter the final area of the map! Inside this room are bats (), a goblin () and ants (). The bats might be a problem, they are a little harder to hit then the bees. You should have no problem with the goblin. After the monsters have been finished off, stand to the right of the boulder and push it by just walking into it. Easiest thing to do is to push it all the way to the wall on the left hand side of the map. Once there, just leave it for now. You'll come back to it later. Go to the next sign.

The Eighth Sign says:

Did you find anything?

Proceed to the wall directly to the right. If you attack the wall, you will see they are destructible or crumble ( to to ). Attack more of the walls and you'll notice that you are hacking your way through a miniature maze. At some point you should find a room with a pixie (), who sometimes turns invisible, a treasure chest () and more food (). Remember, search the chest for any traps before opening it. When you're done in this area, head over to the other side of the map.

The Ninth Sign says:

Here you can test your shooting weapons or spells if you possess any. If you have readied a bow and have some arrows handy, you can fire by holding the SHIFT-key down while pressing a direction. Your arrows fly for ever if they do not hit anything. Make sure you pick up your arrows. Arrows easily burn ...

You apply a bow by clicking on it with the middle mouse button.

Pick up the bow () and arrows (). Now for an exception to the rule - it is safe to wield this bow, it won't be cursed. Wield (or apply) it by middle clicking on it in your inventory window. You should see a message stating:

Readied skill: missile weapons.
You ready pine bow (readied).
You feel one with the powers of magic!
You will now fire arrows with pine bow (readied).

Stand on the lever and hit the 'A'-key on your keyboard. The gate will open ( to ) and goblins () will charge out and try to attack you. While holding down the SHIFT-key, hit the direction key (probably west or left) to fire at the goblins. Each time you hit the direction key an arrow will be fired (as long as you have arrows in your inventory to fire, that is). The goblins might get very close to you (in what would appear as melee range) but keep firing the arrows at them. If for some reason, you decide to engage them in melee, your character will automatically switch over to a melee skill (weapon, clawing, karate, punching, etc.) upon first contact with the goblin. Basically, you will always have to manually switch to using the bow, but the game will always switch back to the melee skill when necessary.

The Tenth Sign says:

Spell training area.

To cast a spell e.g. small fireball type:
'cast small fire

When you have done this you will notice that the Range line changes to: "spell (small fireball)" You now do the same as you do when you fire arrows. Hold down the SHIFT-key and press a direction key.

But beware. Spells can and often do hurt you...

Walk down the hallway and pick up (middle click or use the COMMA ',' key) the wand of medium fireball (). Left click on the wand to examine it. The result states the following with comments and descriptions are enclosed in brackets []:

That is wand of medium fireball (lvl 1) [Wand name, spell effect, and effective level of spell]
It has 2 charges left. [Number of charges before the wand no longer works]
It is made of: pine. [Material type, what the wand is made of]
It goes in your range slot [When applied, what skill slot the wand uses - replaces the bow in this case]
It weighs 2.300 kg. [How much the wand weighs]
You would get nothing for it. [How much money you would receive for selling the wand]

Middle click on the wand to wield (or apply it). Stand on the lever () and hit the 'A'-key on your keyboard. The gate will open ( to ) and goblins () and gnolls () will charge and attack you. Quickly press and hold down the SHIFT-key and press the direction key for the direction (probably west or left in this case) you want to fire the wand. A fireball () will launch from the wand towards your target. Once the ball hits anything (monster, wall, another player, etc.) it will burst into flames (). Depending on how quickly you invoke the wand, you may have to run away from the fire (Spells can and often do hurt you...) otherwise you'll get burned as well.

The good part about using a wand is it allows non-spellcasters to clear out large populations of monsters or other benefits from the spell using the spell (healing, detect invisible, etc.) and it doesn't require Grace or Spell Points. The down side is, you will not gain any experience from monsters vanquished with a wand. Also, wands have a limited number uses (charges.)

The Eleventh, and final Sign, says:

Now let us see how well you do in _real_ combat.

Good luck!

Remember the boulder () you found earlier? You will now push the boulder on to the larger button (), which will open the gate ( to ). Inside is a room with just a couple of monsters, a goblin () and maybe an orc (). Take care of eliminating those, but again - be careful of the boulder inside this room! You will need to find a way to move the boulder out of the doorway. The button in the far left corner should be another hint for you.

Once the second boulder has been moved, monsters in the next room will start attacking you. Navigate your way through the rest of the maze and quickly take care of the remaining goblins () , orcs (), gnolls (), and kobolds (). You'll know that you've cleared out the whole maze when you encounter an ogre (), a cleaning woman () and birds (). Use some of the skills and suggestions you've learned from the previous rooms. Think of this room as the final exam for all your lessons.

Some suggestion for this section:

Use the walls and hallways to your advantage
- Don't let yourself get surrounded, keep an escape route open
- Use doorways and other choke points to fight one monster at a time
Wait until the fighting is over before picking up loot, the weight will just slow down your movement and attack speed
- When the fighting is over, pick up all the items and carry them back to a shop to sell it
Don't be afraid to run away to regenerate Hit Points
- Eat some food to quickly regenerate a Hit Points (assuming you're not full already)
Some of the rooms in the maze contain multiple entrances or exits - you just have to find them.

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