In any ADOM game, you will want to start by going to the training caves. These are a good place to find out whether your character is worth continuing or whether you'd be better off starting over. The training caves are just about 15 or so spaces to the left of the NE corner where you start out. Keep killing monsters until you get to experience level 6, then leave, because after level 6 the monsters get too deadly.

Once you've left those caves, go to the Terinyo village. Buy a couple of large rations if you want. (It doesn't matter that much because you'll find them all over the place in one of the upcoming dungeons.) Make sure to talk to the old mystic who lives in a square building to the left of the water area of the village. He will tell you about a Mad Carpenter who needs to be saved. His telling you about it will allow you to find a location you could not have found otherwise.

Now you'll want to visit the caves where the Mad Carpeneter lives. They are on the far East side of the kingdom, very close to Terinyo. They show up as an orange symbol next to the mountains. Once you've entered, start killing monsters and picking stuff up until you get to level 4. Here you'll want to pay closer attention to make sure you don't start hacking away at the Healer, who will appear as a white @ sign. Chat with him and he'll tell you you need to learn tolerance. What this means is that when you get to level 7 (which is the last level), you will find the Mad Carpenter and he'll keep attacking you. Just ignore his attacks and get him to follow you down all the levels until he is at level 4. His attacks never seem to do any damage. Then make him walk adjacent to the Healer. The Healer will give him his sanity back and the Carpenter will disappear. He'll leave you a book of bridge building, a blessed hatchet, and something else I forget. Pick all this up. Also chat with the Healer and get him to teach you the Healing skill if you don't already have it. If your hit points are low, ask him to heal you too. Then leave this dungeon.

Now you are probably moderately tough with a fair amount of money and enough food to do some decent exploring. You can go back to Terinyo and buy some rations, talk to the Old Mystic (who will tell you about another dungeon, but this isn't necessary the way it was before), or get training from the Carpenter (who should be around somewhere). You can also go to the Thieves' Village just SW of Terinyo. There you can buy more advanced items (potions, scrolls, blessed weapons, rings, etc.), talk to a Crime Lord or a Master Thief, or talk to a Mad Scientist type guy on the far right side of the screen (where a lot of people probably never explore). I am not sure what the Mad Scientist is good for, but apparently you don't need to talk to him to finish the game. The same is the case with the Crime Lord and the Master Thief. If you chat with the Crime Lord he'll ask you to kill the Terinyo sheriff and the Old Mystic -=-- you can come back and get a gift (a Chaos amulet). I don't think this is a very useful course of action, and you don't really want the Terinyo village people pissed off at you. In my opinion, it's a much better bet to eventually kill the citizens of the Theives' Village, but this isn't necessary either.

Okay, so now what' It's time for you to cross the kingdom. You'll have to veer far south because a large body of water splits the right side of the screen off from the larger left side. When you're traveling south, you can stop in the "Endless Dungeons" if you want and build up your inventory/experience points. As far as I know there are no interesting artifacts or beings in the Endless Dungeons, but I haven't explored it much. It isn't necessary to complete the game. It also apparently goes on, deeper and depper, to infinity. Not my idea of a good time. (I could be wrong about its being infinite.)

After you have passed by the Endless Dungeons, veer west until you are past the water. Then head NW until you are in the middle/left upper area of the screen. There is a location that is just diagonal from a corner of mountains. It is marked by an asterisk. Enter it. This is the Dwarven Caves and it's where most of the action occurs. The Dwarven Caves are extremely deep, but you won't find out how deep until much later in the game. They go all the way to level 50, but for now we're just concerned with the first 20 or so. The levels get progressively more difficult, with tougher, more vicious monsters as you go down further. That means that the first several levels are pretty easy. The first interesting (not completely random) level is the Arena level. Here you'll find that a wide area fills the entire right side of the screen. The wide area has a rectangle in it, and on the north side of that rectangle sits an "@" sign who you can chat with. This is the Arena Master. Don't try to fight him (you can do this much later, if you want). Just chat. He will offer to let you fight in arena matches. Try some if you want, but remember, you probably aren't going to be tough enough to win many of them in a row. You might want to fight several battles, then come back later when you've recovered hit points or gotten toughter. Each time you win an arena match you get a good sum of money from the Arena Master. The 20th won battle (which is always at least twice as hard as the previous 19) will win you an artifact --- a pretty good blessed sword. Again, you may have to come back after you've gotten to a decent level in order to win this 20th match. The 20th win makes you the Champion. Other interesting levels in the early part of the Dwarven Caves include the "no walls" level, where you can find most types of lower-level monsters. It's also a good place to practice your herbalism skill (stomafillia herbs are quite useful for hunter, alrunia antidotes for poison, and I forget what the other ones do.) Eventually you'll get to the Dwarven City. I forget what level this is, but it's probably somewhere between 15 and 20. It's a very important spot in ADOM because you will be returning to it many times for a variety of reasons. First of all, there's the shop. Then there's the church where you can give sacrifices to your deity. There's also (in version 9.4 anyway) a place where you can do Smithing, and a home where an elderly warrior lives. Most important are the Training room and the Dwarven Leader room (which stands out because it always has two dwarven guards guarding the door, who are the origin of the quote "Axes high!"). One other room that is important to mention is the tiny room with no doors. You can't dig your way in here -- you need to teleport in. If you don't have the teleport skill, I don't know how you can get in there, but eventually everybody gets the teleport skill when they become corrupted by chaos. Inside the small room lives a mystic who will happily give you a really excellent blessed battle axe that does a ton of damage. Okay, back to the previously mentioned rooms in the Dwarven City. In the Elderly Warrior room, talk to him repeatedly. If you have the weapon from winning the 20th Arena fight, the Elderly Warrior will notice it and ask you if he can have it. I forget what he gives you in return but it's worth giving him the weapon if you already have something better. The Training Room is a great place to build up your skill points. I find that giving the trainer 1000 gold coins each time you pass through is a great policy. (Usually you don't have much else to do with your money.) 1000 is a number I made up -- It could be that you need less, or possibly more -- I don't know. Anyway, I've seen characters gain dozens of strength, dexterity and other points by regularly consulting the trainer. And building up your attributes is extremely important if you want to get anywhere in ADOM. Where the church is concerned, I don't really understand how worshipping works and it never played a large role in my playing of the game -- but it might for you. The main thing is, experiment with sacrificing stuff and try to make your god happy so you can "wish" later on. Again, I personally don't find this all that important in the grander scheme of things. The Dwarven Leader is a very important character to talk to because he will send you on quests (you have to say "quest" to him) and also he will send you on a "portal" quest (you have to say "portal") which will take you to the other side of the kingdom. I don't recommend doing the portal quest until you have done a significant number of regular quests for the Dwarven Leader. Each time you complete a quest, go to the Dwarven Leader and he will give you something useful (the rewards get better during the later quests -- one of them is an excellent shield).

The levels that go lower than the Dwarven City are pretty tough, and you will want to play them carefully. Among the many tough levels are the "living trees" level and the Undead level. There is also a level somewhere down there that is full of bees. Remember to kill all the bees until the queen bee comes out. Kill her, then go to the hive and try to pick stuff up. You will need the bee wax for later. The "Living Trees" level is also important. For one thing, you will need to cross it during one of the quests. For another thing, it is a good place to get logs with which to build a bridge. This is not the only place to get logs, but if you have acquired the "Strength of Atlas" or an equivalent spell, this is as good a place as any. (You'll need the "Strength of Atlas" spell to carry more than a couple sets of logs at a time). If you have access to a lot of stomafillia herbs or a ton of rations and other food, then you can ignore the "living trees" level as a source of wood, because you can do all your wood chopping out in the general kingdom where otherwise your hunger would progress very rapidly. Anyway, the "living trees" level is an interesting place to visit. To cross it, keep moving. Don't get sucked in to the concept of standing and fighting because you will never be able to kill all those trees. Don't try to burn them, they'll just get pissed off and all attack at once. The Undead level I mentioned earlier is a big pain in the butt unless you're pretty powerful. You have to run a gauntlet of zombies and so on. If you have a pickaxe for digging, this is a great level to use it so you can avoid a lot of monsters. You'll probably want to kill them all eventually, though. Below the Undead level, somewhere around level 25 I guess, is a level with a blocked portal. You can go no further than this until you have completed the Portal Quest that the Dwarven Leader will tell you about if you ask. The thing to remember about the first 25 or so levels of the Dwarven Caves is that you will have to do a lot of running back and forth (or up and down) in order to get things done. You will basically live in these areas for a while. Get used to it. Your character needs to build up strength here before he/she can really kick butt. But there are other things to move on to.....

THE RING OF THE HIGH KINGS AREA

Before discussing this area I should say that bridge building is important here. Always keep your book of bridge building in your possession because if you don't have it, you can't add points to the bridge building skill each time you go up a level. Whether you get logs from the "living trees" level of the Dwarven Caves or from the general outside area, you'll need at least 3 logs and probably many more in order to build an adequate bridge. (This depends on your skill level in bridge building.) Okay....let me back up. The Ring of the High Kings area is in the far upper left corner of the kingdom. You can't get there unless you have a Climbing Set or a really good Climbing skill level, or maybe both, I'm not sure. The Climbing Sets are not too hard to find after a while. Basically, when you go to the Ring of High Kings area you will be in a one-level (no stairs) room with an island that is surrounded by piranha-filled water. You can't cross this water without building a bridge. To build a bridge, you must have both the hatchet and logs in your possession. You will want to stand by the edge of the water on the south side, where it only takes 3 spaces to reach the door of the little island. Put the hatchet in your Tools inventory spot, then "U"se it. When you have reached the door with bridges, you will have to kill a water monster of some sort, then you can get the Ring of the High Kings. I am not sure what this ring does exactly, and I am not even 100% sure you need it in order to win, but I think you probably do. Most likely it's what gets you past one of the deeper portals. Order-wise, this is probably the first place you should attempt to visit after you've been in the Dwarven Caves.

THE PORTAL QUEST

The Portal Quest will take you to a previously-invisible graveyard in the SE area of the kingdom. It is marked, appropriately enough, by a cross (plus sign). Once there, you will have to fight many zombies, wraiths, ghosts and other annoying creatures in order to get yourself inside a tomb in the center of the screen. This tomb has a downwards stairs, which take you to a quite deadly area. The thing to remember about the lower level is that you don't need to explore it all. It's a trap room and you'll probably die or be in a world of pain if you try to map it all out. (I used to think you had to step on all the "you hear a squaking sound" traps in order to finish this quest, but I later realized those traps don't have special significance). Basically, just go all the way south and hit the "s" key until a secret door opens. Then travel S and then E along the bottom area of the screen until you are as far SE as you can go. Somewhere around there is a secret door. (It's in a vertical hallway on the right/lower side of the screen.) When you find the secret door, enter carefully. It should take you to a large room on the right side of the screen. Then start hacking away until you have killed the Necromancer and Griff, who the Dwarven Leader should have told you about. Kill everything else threatening. Then use a pick axe or wand of digging to dig up that grave in the center of the large room. You will find a good artifact. I think you need to pour holy water on this grave too. Your portal quest is finished -- get the $#% out of there.

At this point, there is no one order you need to do things in. You just need to do things. Here are some areas you might want to focus on:

THE GREMLIN AREA

This is located in the SW area of the kingdom. It's all dark, so use a torch or your amulet of protection. Do not go here if you aren't pretty tough. I am not sure what the intended point of this area is, but the bottom line is that you have to kill a ton of gremlins because they keep reproducing (due to a well-placed water trap). Hack through the gremlins and stand on the trap until they're gone. If this doesn't work, I'm not sure what to do. Also, I don't know of any good use for the balls of fluff. One time I had one in my inventory and when I got soaked by a water trap much later on, the ball of fluff turned into a gremlin in my backpack and ruined some of my stuff. Obviously the creator was making a reference to the movie "Gremlins." In the Gremlin area you will find a "Phial" potion which is useful for creating blasts of light, but not anything else that I know of.

THE TOWER

This is a hot, hot place. You need to be pretty tough and you need at least two objects or experiences that involve immunity to fire. (Eating fire beetles and wearing a ring of fire resistance would work). Otherwise you'll steadily lose hit points.This area is all red and about 3 or 4 levels deep. You'll have to fight red dragons and the like, so be prepared. The on the last level, you may need to dig or use a wand to get to the other side of the screen (where the action is). If you defeat all the really tough dragons, etc., you'll get the first Chaos Orb -- the Chaos Orb of Elemental Fire. You definitely need this.

THE PYRAMID

Another tough, tough level for more experienced players. I'm not sure what exactly triggers your ability to get into the pyrarmid (an ability you don't have early in the game). Maybe it's being a certain level or character. Anyway, the pyramid has 3 levels and they're all tough. In the first level, don't bother with the right side of the screen unless you want to fight mummies. Go left and search for secret doors everywhere you can. Eventually you'll find an area to the NW of the screen where a downstairs can be seen. Now you'll be in a smaller area with a few secret spots, etc. There's another stairway. Go down. Now you will be in a huge room and a ton of monsters will be after you. Good luck. If you complete this battle you get an ankh amulet. Again, I'm not sure how crucial this is to finishing the game, but I imagine it plays a role.

THE GRASSY PARK AREA

There's an area near the pyramid that consists solely of a cresent-chaped body of water, a house with a back room, and many trees. I have no idea what good this area is, but I vaguely recall a Fool's poem about this area being good for magic (for reading tomes, maybe'). I am not sure....in any case, this seems to be another non-crucial area.

THE BLUE UNDERWATER AREA

This is a good place to go relatively early (though after completing the portal quest) because it's not *that* hard. The important thing though is that you have proper swimming ability/breathing aid. You'll be in a big blue room that you have to explore thoroughly to get around in. (Swim around the south, not north, to get places faster.) In the very center of the screen is a large room with tons of items there. The trouble is you can't pick up anything without your God yelling at you. Oh well. You *can* talk to the blue dragon in the middle of the screen, who will discuss her baby with you. After this has happened, go to Terinyo and talk to the blue baby dragon. It will fly off into the sunset in order to get together with the mom dragon. Now go back to the underwater dungeon and talk to the blue mama dragon again. She tells you she'll be sending you a great thing later. What this turns out the be is a really tough two-handed trident that somebody drops near you much later in the game. (By the time I got it, I had forgotten all about that part of the game.) I forgot to mention that the blue underwater area is not initiall easy to find. You'll need to walk through the big lake in the middle of the kingdom until a message says "You discover an underwater passage!" or something similar. Some of your gear might rust in the meantime. Don't say I didn't warn ye.

THE RIFT

Just south of the Ring of the High Kings Area is an area that you can't get into unless you have a reasonable climbing ability. Sometimes if you *do* get in, you'll fall and much of your stuff will be damaged, as well as yourself. So you might want to make sure you're ready before you try this area. When you get in, basically you'll be in dungeons like any other dungeons. The monsters are fairly tough, but not excruciatingly so. When I was in here I came across a sick baby white dragon, and I imagined I was supposed to help him, but I couldn't figure out how (I tried to "g"ive him a number of items, including healing herbs, but he refused). So if anybody knows what to do with the sick white baby dragon, let me know. (I ended up killing him because I was bored and chaotic.) When you're in the rift, go as far down as you can. Eventually there will be no more downstairs. So go up. (There are levels above the level you start in.) Sooner or later you will come to a room with two upstairs symbols. One of those symbols takes you to another level. The other one goes to an area of the Kingdom screen that is unreachable from any other means because it's surrounded by white (unpassable) mountains. When you get to this area, walk over to the entrance that's on the right and you will be in the the Library. The Library is chock full of tomes (i.e. spells) but you'll have to kill a ton of tough monsters to get them. After that, you can continue back up the rift and get out. That's all I know about that area.

THE STEEL GOLEM AREA

This is in the central south area of the kingdom. I find the steel golems extremely difficult to kill. So you will probably want to visit this area very late in your game. The dungeon starts out like any other, but its first exit is guarded by the previously mentioned golem. If you kill him and go downstairs, you'll have to kill literally dozens of identical (and equally tough) steel golems. Yikies, these guys are tough. Needless to say, there are some worthwhile items in this dungeon, once you've gotten past the monsters. There are rooms full of armor, weapons, and a room full of pools (that do various unusual things to you). The armor and weapons are unremarkable, mostly; presumablythey're there for you to do smithing on. The center of this level has a diamond-shaped pattern of forges and a chaotic dwarven dude who runs the place. If you talk to him, he'll ask you to kill the Terinyo dude (I forget what he's called but he's represented by a green @ sign). Then, if you come back, he'll ask you to kill the Dwarven Leader. I think he rewards you with a cool shield or something. I don't find it much worth it, since the Dwarven Leader already gives you a great shield when you complete all the quests. But if you're Chaotic, maybe you'll want to go this route. In the SW corner of this level is a downwards stairs. You can't get into it ever, to my knowledge. It's blocked by a statue of a knight and flames, or something. It seems to be a one-way door that you can only come up through (from a deep Dwarven cave) and never go down. I think you have to be around level 30 of the Dwarven caves to find the stairway that comes up to this. Obviously this stairway makes for a nice way to make a quick escape from the Dwarven caves -- but only if you are prepared to kill all the steel golems in this dungeon (or have already killed them). One other thing. I don't remember but I think the Dwarf in this dungeon will teach you Smithing if you don't already have this skill.

THE UNICORN QUEST

When you are of a sufficient level (probably 25 or 30), go to the Terinyo village and talk to the guy whose title I forget but who is represented by a green @ sign. That guy. Chat with him and he'll tell you about a Unicorn that needs your help. Then and only then can you see a location that you couldn't see earlier. This location is in the middle of the Kingdom, not too far from the calm park area and the pyramid. You'll see it if you walk around there a little. Enter it and you'll be in a big grassy area that has a thick forest in the center. Walk around the forest and soon you'll meet an upper-case white "U" which is a Lawful unicorn. Chat with him and he'll ask you to kill his foe, a black unicorn who lives in "the forests to the east" or something like that. Exit the level and now you'll find another new location just east of the White Unicorn spot, and also near the pyramid. Enter there and go kill that Black Unicorn. (If you chat with him, he'll ask you to kill the white unicorn! Which one you kill is a personal choice depending on your alignment.) When you have killed one unicorn or the other, go to the unicorn for whom you did the killing and chat with him. I forget what he awards you with, sorry to say. BUT he does offer to relieve you of ALL your corruption, once and only once. I strongly recommend you NOT have him relieve you of your corruption until you are extremely corrupt (8 or more corrupt traits). Even if it means making a special trip up 30 levels of Dwarven Dungeons much later in the game, it's worth waiting to have the Unicorn un-corrupt you instead of squandering this one-time miracle too early in the game.

I think that sums up the non-Dwarven areas of the kingdom pretty well. I hope I didn't miss or forget anything. If you think about it, four of the areas nicely sum up the elemntal orbs: the steel golem area represents Earth, the underwater area obviously represents Water, the fire tower represents Fire, and the rift sort of represents Air. It's nice to know the designer tried to make the game thematically consistent.

Now, let's get back to the Dwarven Caves.

When you get through the first portal (the one that was opened for you by the Dwarven Leader's hidden lever after you killed Griff and the Necromancer), you'll soon come to a level with a very deadly creature in it. This creature is similar to the Siren in Greek mythology, except that her singing doesn't cause men to become slobbering lust-filled fools, just to instantly die. I wish I knew my Homeric literature better, but I believe it was Odysseus who was tempted by the sirens. To get safely past the island where the sirens lived, he had all his men put wax in their ears and tie him to a mast (where he could hear the beautiful singing but couldn't foolishly react to it). Well, that should be a clue as to how to defeat a certain ADOM monster. If you EVER get to a level and hear something to the effect of "You hear a high-pitched screech!" (or something similar), DON'T go anywhere new. Go find some wax and "u"se it, which will cause you to put it in your ears. (If you don't know where to get wax, read through the earlier part of this message and you'll find out where to get it). With wax in your ears, you can defeat the screeching monster (whose name escapes me). Otherwise you're dead meat, no matter how tough you are. I think this monster only shows up once, which is quite fortunate.

As you go deeper in the Dwarven Caves, you'll find increasingly tough monsters, many of whom breathe fire or lightning or acid or frost or garlic or whatever. Hopefully by this time you will have built up a resistance to most forms of attack either through items (like rings of resistance) or because you've eaten corpses of a variety of monsters with these abilities. Whenever you are in a level that only allows you to explore half the screen, get out your wand of digging or your pickaxe. You are in an Orb area. The first Orb area you'll encounter is the Orb of Water area. Be prepared to fight a LOT of monsters. After that, the Air area is much deeper and the Earth area is the last one, at least it was in the game I played. These are all very, very tough. Also get used to fighting a ton of red dragons. They are very deadly but the upside is that they leave lots of cool stuff behind when they die.

There's also a Casino way down there somewhere. There are plenty of items for sale (at amazingly high prices -- you'll really need that Haggling skill here!). Unfortunately, there don't ever seem to be Scrolls of Un-Corrupting here, which are very useful scrolls. You can play slot machines till your heart's content, but it's not my cup of tea. (I remember somebody giving a hint about how you can do really well at the slots if you have coins made of the right material, but I have no idea how to get such coins). Whenever I get to the Casino area, I usually just ignore everything and keep going -- unless there's something I really, really want to buy in the big-ass store.

My memory is hazy at this point because I only ever got this far once, and I completed the game after that. But there aren't that many interesting levels after this. Except for the end ones....

When you get to about level 48, you'll find four platforms that represent the four elements: a bonfire, a mini-tornado, a pool of water, and a pile of rocks (or something representing earth). Hopefully by now you have all four orbs -- if not, go get them! (Remember, the fire orb is in the Tower, not in the Dwarven Caves, so make sure you have this before you go to the deepest levels of the Dwarven Caves.) You'll want to "U"se each Orb while standing on the appropriate platform. I don't know what happens if you try to "U"se the wrong orb at the wrong place (e.g. water orb while on the bonfire) -- does anybody know' When you have put all four orbs in their appropriate places, the stair that used to go up turns to a downwards stair. Now there is no way for you to go back up. No turning back! You'lre almost done!

Go downstairs to level 49 and you'll be in a big icy area. You can't even move, the floor is so icy. Unless.....you throw stuff in the opposite direction. Remember Newton's laws of physics' Remember inertia' Wasn't high school fun' Well okay, then. Start throwing stuff.... I find that it's better to use the wand of digging (or a spell of Divine Digging) beforehand so you can just go on a path to the NW instead of all around the screen. At the center of the screen is a downstairs. This will take you to level 50 -- the very last level, yay.

This is one tough level. You'd better be prepared to fight. This is a very good time to have lightning bolt or death ray spells. And a great weapon(s). And a lot of hit points. And scrolls of melee damage. And rings of increase damage, or of protection. Or an amulet of protection. Or boots of dexterity. You get the idea. There are tons of Chaos monsters, Ghosts and other badass, annoying creatures here. Take a straight path to the left side of the screen. Go the the extreme SW or NW corners of that left-most little room (which has a swirling mass of pure chaos in it). You'll find secret doors in the corners. Beyond those doors will be more monsters -- kill 'em. Then you'll find levers in each secret-door room. These two levers will stop all Chaos. You have completed your ultimate goal! (You may want to just run past the monsters and pull the levers, because after you pull the levers they can no longer corrupt you).

Now what' Well, you can go back up now and keep fighting other monsters. You shouldn't get any further corrupted, but I'm not 100% sure about this since my character turned into a gooey mass of chaos right after I "won" the game. I've heard that you can go back to the NE corner of the kingdom, where you started, and get some special congratulatory message. I imagine also that if you go talk to the Old Mystic in Terinyo (if he's still alive) he might say something nice to you, like "good job!"