Beating Thade

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The Castle of Eliv Thade

Feel like The Castle of Eliv Thade is too evil? If you drop by this haunted mansion, don’t be like Gilly, a poor Usul who only had a lantern to help her. To beat this game without fear or stress, you need Andy. Who is Andy? He’s your new best friend for this game.

Andy is an anagram solver. More precisely, Andy is the programmer who created the anagram solver I found while searching on AskJeeves.com. You can find this page at: http://www.ssynth.co.uk/~gay/anagram.html and I find it really helpful in making my way through this game. Once you have this page (or any other anagram solver you prefer) up, the rest of the game is a snap.

For those of you who haven’t come across a fancy word like “anagram” before, an anagram is just a jumble of letters that you use to spell out a word. In other words, all you have to do for this game is take the mixed up letters and make them into a real word. If you saw the anagram: agme, you could make the words game or mage from it.

Beginning

Go ahead and pick the Super Brave level…after all, we’ve got a friend to help us. You’ll get more points this way, too.

You start off with three lives. That means you have three chances to goof. “Goofing” includes taking a chance on the cracks and falling through. If you try to stand on a square with cracks on it, you have a 50% chance of falling through to the basement, which will cost you one life. Entering the wrong word will also cost you one life. If you enter a real word that doesn’t match the one he wants, it still counts as a “wrong” word.

In the beginning of the game, the rooms are “hazy”. Once you visit a room, you will be able to see it clearly on the board.

The Dining Room

The first room to visit will be the dining room. It only takes two turns to get there.

Type the letters gcryuen into the anagram solver. Limit the search to just one word (and Massive English if it’s not already defaulted to that). The solver reveals the word is URGENCY. Repeat with 2 spaces to get into the dining room. If the solver lists more than one possibility, use the “Letter Hint” option to point out which one is the one he wants. Remember, even real words that match the letters are wrong if it’s not the one he wants.

Now that you have visited this room, it is clearly shown on the game board:

The Kitchen

I suggest visiting the Kitchen next. It can also be reached in two turns. Solving this room will give you:

The Library

The library is our next stop…how brave are you? If you still have three lives left, you can always risk one on the cracked squares. Remember, if you solve it (to move to that square) you can still lose a life if you fall through. The less adventuresome may want to avoid the cracked tiles all together. The choice is yours, and risking can reward you with more points. Solving the Library will give you:

The Bedroom

This is our last stop as far as collecting items. Once we have solved this one, we can return to the beginning and make our escape through the only other room we haven’t been in: The Crypt. How are your lives holding up? Hopefully you still have at least two. That will give us a bit of a “fudge factor” or “safety net” when it’s time to solve that last word. Solving the bedroom will give you:

The Crypt

The game has pretty much been solved by this point. Your game board should look something like this:

As you can see, all four rooms are clear and all four items have been collected (lower right hand of the screen). All we need to do now is head to the crypt. Taking the shortest route leads to the kitchen and across to the crypt. Those wanting more points can doubtless retrace their entire route back to the library and kitchen first, but I haven’t bothered doing so. However you choose, make your way back to the crypt to see this screen:

8 letters? No fear here…thanks to Andy. What’s this? Andy doesn’t know!? Yes…there are times when even Andy doesn’t have the answer…because Andy doesn’t play Neopets. With a little work, you can see that the last anagram: kasarvua is none other than our beloved potions expert: KAUVARAS

Having finished the game, you should be able to collect your points and escape:

For the curious, some of the other anagrams in this game are:

The Castle of Eliv Thade: Live (or Evil) Death

The Sword of Skardsen: Darkness

The Shield of Pion Troecc: Conceit Pro (and lots more)

The Grimoire of Thade: Death

The Amulet of Thilg: Light

I hope you enjoy this game as much as I have…especially with that extra 100 np added for solving it on the hard level. At 600 or np for up to 3 games, this can be a great little neopoint makers…thanks to Andy.

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