The Let's Play Archive

Deathtrap Dungeon

by Wethamster

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Original Thread: Let's Cry: Deathtrap dungeon.

 

Introduction






Deathtrap Dungeon is a video game based on the fighting fantasy novel, "Deathtrap Dungeon", written by Ian Livingstone. When I say the game is based on the fighting fantasy novel, I mean it's very loosely based on the novel, in the sense that the game is based on the novel as much as BLT sandwich is the same as a fried egg. They both contain protein but are entirely different. The game and book may have a few names used in common, but are entirely different beasts.

The fighting fantasy novel itself was published in 1984. Fighting fantasy novels being choose your own adventure game books, with a combat system that would change from book to book in minor ways in the series. The books themselves saw a wide variety of genres, from fantasy to horror, or even science fiction. The books boast of a wide range of writers and artists that worked on the books, so the quality of the books varied as well as the difficulty of them. Deathtrap dungeon if I recall was one of the more unforgiving books, but still very enjoyable in my opinion, and one of my favorites of the genre as well. In these books there are plenty of ways to die, from being eaten by a monster, to drinking a potion to only keep growing until your own body mass cannot contain itself in the room you are in, and your body caves in on itself.

Ian livingstone is the co-founder of games workshop and the fighting fantasy books, as well as having his fingers in Eidos interactive. Needless to say, Ian livingstone is quite prominent in promoting various games and fantasy based material, and we can thank him for helping make the world just a little bit more Orcy one WAAAGH! at a time.

That being said, the games developers are from "Asylum Studios", that developed the game with Eidos, while their intension may have been good, the game turned out to be a mess that didn't resemble the novel at all, aside from a few name drops and the very basic setup of the setting. Asylum studios developed games from licenses such as "bob the builder" "power puff girls" and "sabrina the teenage witch" and "play with the teletubbies" to give an idea of the kind of games they have made over time. (Not saying that they are bad games for what they are, just thought people might find it interesting to know what they have worked on in the past.)

While the game itself holds very little in common with Deathtrap Dungeon, the game seems to hold a greater affinity with Warhammer, what with there being a lot of enemies based on the Warhammer franchise. From skaven, to orcs, and possibly Chaos knights? The game feels more like their heart was in making a Warhammer based dungeon crawl than a game based on the novel itself, though most likely it was added in as a sort of celebration of Ian Livingstones achievements, what with him being a co-founder of Games Workshop and all.





The game itself released in 1998 and resembles that of a more clunky version of the first tomb raider game. Having worse character control than tomb raider, the game itself being fairly glitchy. Deathtrap dungeon had numerous push backs on it's release date. While the game kept getting pushed back, the graphics themselves continued to age more and more. By the time the game was released, the game received hard criticism for it's glitchy nature, unwieldy controls and cameras angles, as well as it's bad graphics. The PC edition being far worse off than it's Playstation counterpart, as the UI in the PC edition was blurry and illegible, and the music never worked just to name some of the problems.

That being said, I've made this my personal crusade to let's play this horrible game, to exposed it as the steaming pile of crap it actually is. I'll be playing it the way I played it back in the day it was released. I won't dig after possible fan patches to fix the graphical elements to the game or the UI, or look for fixes to fix the in game music. I've listened to the music on the disk itself, as it was in the era of those days where you could pop a game disk in any CD player and listen to the games soundtrack. I'll say this much, you aren't missing much when it comes to the music.





That's right, I'll be running the fighting fantasy novel as well, I'll pick some unlucky goons to experience the deathtrap dungeon experience. I'll be doing this through a combination of voice chat and a Roll20 server, where I've already set everything up for people to pick it up and play. I'll most likely use a checkpoint/lives system in the game, as let's be honest. The most of us that played choose your own adventure books cheated by using our fingers as bookmarks, and if we chose an option that we didn't like, we pretended it never happened. Having a checkpoint system and lives system will also allow everyone to experience more of the book and potentially get through it as well. Another bonus is that I won't bore the audience by going through the same sections a hundred times.

There is a sequel to Deathtrap Dungeon, called Trial of the champion. It's a book I think I played, but don't remember much about at all, I just remember seeing the cover in the library several times and am not sure if I ever picked it up and read it. There is also a third unreleased sequel. While It's not a sequel to the deathtrap series, it's more that fans heard briefly what it was going to be about, before it was canceled and the fans dubbed it deathtrap dungeon 3.

For the purpose of this let's play, I won't be playing Trial of the champion unless there is a large enough request for it and the Roll20 server experiment goes well.





Guess what? I'll be running a competition. The one who can make the best guess to how many times I'll be dying in the video game will receive a prize! You can choose a something awful forum upgrade of your choice, or have me give it to someone of your choice. From a platinum upgrade, to a name change or whatever the hell they have up there.

If two people are just as close to one another or both came with the correct guess, I'll choose the person who posted first as the winner.

If you are the winner and I am unable to get a hold of you after the thread is over, I'll give it some time, but if I'm unable to contact the victor, I'll choose the runner up.


Final Death count: 143 GimmickMan is the winer!






What to expect of this LP is live recorded videos, mostly getting peoples reactions down on the game as they are watching, talking about whatever we feel like at the moment to break the monotony of the game. I know what's coming up in deathtrap dungeon, doing pre recorded videos with post would ruin the competition I set up and the spirit of this mock let's play I'm trying to create. That's not to say I won't talk about informative bits every now and then, but there isn't a whole lot of info on the game to talk about, so I have to pace myself and not blow my load early.

For the book, It will be done on a roll 20 server. While I'm not the best at reading up text, posting text crawls in the Roll20 chat and forcing people to pause the video every 20 seconds would become rather bothersome, especially for those that don't read as fast or are easily distracted by everyone talking. Mostly it's an experiment to try and recapture the feeling I once had myself when experiencing these books with a group of friends for the first time.





Fang, the town of lost souls, once known as the town of plenty is ruled with an iron fist by the tyrant Baron Sukumvit. Deep in the hillside overlooking Fang, he built a labyrinth of trap-filled passageways and rooms populated by stomach-churning creatures of evil. He named it Deathtrap Dungeon. All those who opposed him were dispatched to the dungeon. None came out alive. He let it be known that anybody in the lands beyond fang would be welcome to enter the dungeon of their own free will. If they killed the supreme beast Melkor the red dragon, and came out alive, he would offer a purse of 10,000 gold pieces and the freedom of the town Fang.

The first year, seventeen brave warriors attempted "The Walk", as it came to be known. No one reappeared. Now you have decided you will attempt "The Walk".


I will add a youtube video host for those that prefer that, though most likely some quality is lost in sending the video from twitch to youtube.

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http://www.twitch.tv/sirwethamster if you want to bookmark if you've got an account so you can get a warning when I start instead, in case you don't catch it in the thread.





The first Deathtrap Dungeon was opened on Seaday the 21st of Watching in 274AC, on the occasion of Baron Sukumvit's 40th birthday. Sukumvit had designed the dungeon both to offer Fang a unique tourist attraction as well as satisfying his own penchant for sadism without needlessly victimizing or antagonizing his subjects. Upon completion, the labyrinth was tested by Sukumvit having fifteen of his own bodyguards sent into the dungeon; none of them returned. This solidified the notoriety of the dungeon and ensured its reputation as the "ultimate challenge" for the adventurous. Once a year, the Dungeon would be opened to admit a number of brave (or foolish) champions who hoped to win the substantial price of 10,000 Gold Pieces. This challenge would eventually be nicknamed "The Walk."

Nothing here yet, but let me know if you've an interest to be a victim of the book so I know who to invite to the roll 20 server and set things up with you all. Skype is of course required.

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Chaindog: Hero Chaindog. A name won in the savage war pits of the barbarian north. He was brought up to fight tooth and claw in the arena, for the entertainment of decadent nobles, and fat merchants. He was so brutal, so vicious and cunning that the guards had to keep him chained up, like a dog, to be 'unleashed' only when he was required to fight. Hence his name. Chaindog. The only word he ever responded to, the only word that meant anything to him. In a life of violence and sudden death, he held onto that name, held onto the sense of identity that gave him.

The belief that he would not be Chaindog forever, that he would escape and live another life kept him going through the dark, red years. As homicidal as he was mighty, he soon rose to be champion of the War pits. And then, one day, his jailer made a mistake. Instantly, Chaindog was upon him and, moments later, the jailer lay dead, nearly every bone in his body broken. After hours of frenzied revenge against his captors, he escaped. He began to wander the earth in search of that which he had lost, to behave as a man and not as a psychotic assassin. After some limited success in this area, he realised he knew nothing else but violence. He came at last to Fang, in search of wealth. Here ,
at least, he would be paid handsomely for his brutal skills. With money, he can retire to a life of ease, and end his troubles. Then, and only then, will he take a new name.




Red lotus: Red Lotus can't remember where she was born. She was seized by marauding pirates at an early age, and made a slave. Her masters were some of the most despicable scum-bags ever to sail the seas and Red Lotus was 'brought up' in an atmosphere of pain and terror. Plotting and scheming she watched and learned. Every dirty trick in the book, and every nuance of killing and slaying was all that interested her. She became as skilled in the arts of war as any warrior. When she grew to womanhood, the pirates took a different kind of interest in her. She had to kill five of them before they would leave her alone. They grew to respect her, or more accurately, fear her. A driving ambition, never to want for anything again, was born out of the rage and hatred that blossomed in her heart. Nor would she give herself to a man, and any that tried to take her died under her flashing blade. No, only one man was worthy of her love.

He who could defeat her in battle. None have succeeded, though many have tried. For Red Lotus is as alluring, and as lovely as any painted courtesan of the cities she has so joyfully sacked in the past. She has a terrible beauty, that makes men desire
her, and dread her, a heady combination. Like the moth is drawn to the flame, or the male spider is drawn to the female black widow, so are men drawn to Red Lotus. With similar results. Now Red Lotus has come to Fang in search of wealth and fame. And woe betide anyone or anything that stands in her way.

(Special thanks goes out to Spalec for finding the info on red lotus.)



Sukumvit Charavask: Baron of Fang, is famed for his Deathtrap Dungeon, to the extent that he is known to those who live in north-west Khul. He is famed for his colorful bamboo umbrellas.

He was born on Seaday 21st of Watching, 234AC, and opened Deathtrap Dungeon on his 40th birthday, in 274AC.







Imp: These little guys are the first enemy we see, and will be the last we see in the game, you'll see why. They provide little threat at close range, as they spend most of their time laughing like Beavis and Butthead while telling you to "Look at my butt." The most danger they ever provide, is when they are placed far away on ledges so they can toss throwing knives at you.



Minor automation: These guys are one of the first enemies we spot in the game, and are placed smack dab at the end of the tutorial level. They are literally walking flamethrowers and can kill you instantly if you aren't careful. The best way to deal with them is to find a ledge and take them out with ranged weaponry or spells if possible, otherwise you have to pray you can move up behind them and kill them before they kill you. They also explode when they die, but luckily that does no damage after further tests. (Is that a bug?)



Knackerer: These are more of a trap or obstacles than an enemy, but I felt they deserved special mention, as they repeatedly kill you over and over again within seconds of them touching you. They always do find the most annoying places to place these overgrown steampunk steamrollers. There is no way you can destroy them, all you can do is pray you aren't in their way.



Orcs: Apparently Warhammer Orcs are in this game for some reason, even when this isn't the warhammer world. Ah well, what is there to say about them? They are green, hate Stunties and loves a good scrap or two! These enemies don't usually pose much of a threat, they don't hit terribly hard or fast, though if you aren't careful, like most enemies in this game, they can cut you down in seconds.



Snake girls: The first enemy that hard to kill and quite deadly. They are the real terrors of the first level, they have incredibly reach on their melee attacks with their flails, their attacks are lightning fast as well, and they have a ton of health. It's easy to lose almost all of your health to one snake girl in a matter of seconds. The only real tactic here is to use spell scrolls on them, or hold the blocking button down, while occasionally jabbing forward. Inching yourself closer with your attacks, while you pray the AI doesn't decide to slip up behind you, or attack the second you attack, ruining all of your hard work. They do have one weakness though, the Venom blade, it will kill them in a couple of hits usually.



Jesters: These come in three flavors. Hell king's Jester, Hell clowns and Death jugglers. None are particularly strong, which is why they end up sending several of them at you at once. When they aren't doing random silly animations half of the time, they can be quite deadly with their flurry of attacks. Their main strength is when they are in larger number, usually coming at you from all sides. If you aren't careful, they can mow down your health in no time. Your best options are to take them out fast, and take the couple of hits they give you as a trade off, and pray you don't get stun locked. You can also wedge yourself into a position, where you can carefully block and attack and counter attack, though this can be risky if there is a lot of enemies.



Giant boots: These guys are a little different from regular imps, in that they are invulnerable to all damage and cannot die. You won't see them very often thankfully, and the way you deal with them is usually just fleeing. With their Mario boot power up, they walk up to you and show you what these boots are made for, and they walk all over you until you die. That's about as exciting as they are, they have the power of walking into you until death do you part.



High priestess: Apparently I've had it wrong this entire time, these dark elves are actually high priestesses. (even though they don't look the part.) They are particularly annoying in close range as they will attack you, and if they manage to hit you they will poison you. At a range they are even worse than up close an personal, as they will constantly throw lighting ball..bolt? spells at you, usually being paired with a few melee flunkies to keep you tied up while you're turned to a crisp. If you've got a Venom sword or Silver sword, you can instantly dispatch them, but I recommend saving Venom swords on the snake girls instead.



Zombies: Ah yes, you can't have a video game without our good old generic friend, mister Zombie. These come in different flavors even! The club wielding melee flavor that is the easiest to deal with, and the axe throwing annoying type, that will make your day quite miserable. A silver sword will instantly fix their wagon, and even if you have a Silver sword. I recommend taking them out with regular weapons, because when you get up close, their attacks are slow and and painfully dull, making it easy to block them and get several hits in before you need to block again. though if you choose to save on your Silver sword, beware that they have quite a bit of health.



Skeletons: It would seem these skeletons have a bone to pick with the player and are out to get you! These come in the sword slashing variety and the bow and arrow wielding variety. The skeletons with bows and arrows are the weakest of the lot, as they spend most of the time running up to you and taunting you, instead of keeping their distance and shooting you. While the sword wielding skeletons can hurt you fairly decently, they are still fairly weak compared to some of the other close range enemies. The Silver sword will take them all out fairly painlessly.



Skeletal Lord: These guys really aren't much different from regular skeletons, they have slightly more health and do slightly more damage, but if you know how to deal with them or have a silver sword, they go down pretty quickly.



Pit Fiend: A mother fucking T-rex! Finally, they did something right in this game, this is an actual enemy from the book itself, one of the few things they did right it would seem. These monsters are very dangerous, they can kill you in seconds if you aren't careful and it's recommended you keep your distance. These are the enemies you've saved all of those bombs and war pigs for. The best you can do is unload everything you have into them while trying to keep your distance from them, which can be a challenge. War pigs will pick their closest target, (Usually the player.) to chase down and blow up, and explosives have massive splash damage with no collision detection, so try not to kill yourself while fighting a pit fiend.



Minotaur: These sad looking cows are not as fierce as you might expect, they are one of the weaker enemies in the game. They have low health, their attacks are slow and deal low damage. Considering how big of a deal the game tells you they are, they are rather pathetic. The only one dangerous trait they have is, their attacks can't be blocked and you will take damage if you attempt to do so. It's usually best to just power through and quickly dispatch of them. They can even be bypassed entirely, if you quickly finish the level they are in, they will never have a chance to spawn, as their spawn is based a timer.



Scorpion automation: It would seem someones been busy building more steam punk based weapons. This is a giant steam punk scorpion, it chases the player about and attempts to pin them down, while murdering them with it's pincers and stinger. They are fairly deadly if you allow them to get close, but one well placed bomb usually takes them out. Normal weapons won't be able to hurt them, I'm uncertain if spells work on them, but explosives will do the trick just fine. Just be warned, they are very swift, and it's best if you can take them out before they get too close.



Alchemist of chaos: Also nicknamed Doctor Babyface. These guys wear the stereotypical mad scientist outfit, and are most likely the ones that work on all of the traps in the dungeon. The Alchemists aren't too deadly if you get up close, if they manage to hit you they will hit hard, so it's best to block their attacks when possible. More troubling is their affinity with explosives. like every good mad scientist, they carry an infinite supply of bombs. If you stand a little ways away from them, they will start chucking out bombs like there is no tomorrow, usually killing themselves and you in the process. Their bodies also explode without warning when they die, but as before, it seems to do no damage. (I imagine that is a bug, no seriously.)



Rockmen: Time to rock out, and break out that megabuster, and... Oh wait? You're telling me it's the wrong game? Drat! I wanted to play a good game. Anyway, their main defining feature is that they are made out of rock, and their wonder twin power is the form of a boulder. They hit slow but hard, taking almost a fourth of your health out with every hit. When these enemies are around, the mechanics of the level usually involves a lot of running and praying you don't get mauled to death in a few seconds. The only weapon that can possibly hurt them is the Magic warhammer, it in return kills them in one or two hit's thankfully.



Giant spider: Ahh yes, the giant spider. Weak to the Venom blade, and obnoxious as all hell. These little numbers have a nasty habit of sometimes stun locking you you when you get up close. Otherwise they spit poison at a distance that quickly starts stacking. The best tactic is to run up close to them and swing your sword at them, or shooting them with a fireball spell or two quickly before they can poison you. A thought though. An video games there are almost always sewer levels, would spiders monsters be the sewer level of monsters in video game monsters?



Ugluk Stormfart: This one enemy is more pain and frustration if you try to take him out normally, expect some deaths. This orc shaman is supposed to be a boss of sorts, but like every enemy in the game, even bosses feel like regular enemies. What this boss does is teleport around the room and shoot the lighting spell over and over like the high priestesses. In fact, this really is just a High priestess with a new model and skin, and with the added ability to teleport. His attacks up close will poison you just like the high priestess. The only difference between the high priestess and this one is, he has a ton of health, can teleport around, and is able to read your attacks, instantly blocking almost everything you throw at him. This is a really obnoxious fight, unless you cheese it with items to which I highly recommend, then the fight itself will go smoothly. I can recommend using one of those strength potions to help you along.



Giant scorpion: I believe there is only one in the entire game, he isn't very dangerous. More often than not, the Giant spiders in the area will spit on him in and attempt to hit you, and poison him due to the game having friendly fire with enemies, the poison killing him off in seconds. Being a creature of poison, he is weak to the Venom blade. I don't really have much to say really, the scorpion is just there, and the next moment he is gone.



Greater automation: Ahh yes, pipe organ RobotronX52! The latest in steam punk robot innovation! Ride the back and play the organ, all while your Robotron blends and char broils your foes with it's handy dandy hand attachments! These enemies are big and tough, and probably like the robot scorpion, I need to take em out with explosives, since normal weapons will probably bounce off of him. There aren't many of these in the game, and most of the time you can cheese them without getting anywhere near them. They really aren't too dangerous unless you try to take them in close quarters, which you can't really do anyway.



Rat soldier/Rat musketeer/Rat grenadier: The totally not Scaven soldiers come in three flavors. Swordsmen, musketeers and grenadiers. They barely have any health and they usually serve as the main fodder for levels near the end of the game. Even in large numbers they usually aren't too dangerous, though occasionally they can trip you up pretty badly. By far the musketeers are the weakest, they have the least health and their shots barely inflict any damage, if they even manage to score a hit. The grenadiers being the most dangerous and very suicidal. They are easy to kill due to their low health, you can even get them to commit suicide pretty easily, due to the wide splash damage of their grenades that ignores all obstructions. However if they see you, they will fire their grenades at you like they are going out in style.



Rat ogre: Rat ogres, hey, I know these guys from Warhammer! Haha.. Funny how I keep mentioning Warhammer isn't it? Anyway, There isn't too much to say. They have a decent amount of health, hit decently hard, easily stun locked into place with ranged weapons and spells. The best tactic is really to use ranged weapons like the blunderbuss against them. Like with minotaurs, you can't block their attacks, so you either brute force them, or you consume your precious ammo and spells against them. Either way, they do pose a significant threat.



King Skabulus: King of the ratmen, and yet he looks exactly like a rat ogre with a re-skinned club, and a crown put on his head. He is exactly like a normal rat ogre, only with more health. This is the pinnacle of laziness when it comes to designing bosses ladies and gentlemen.



Giant rat: Well, it's a giant rat with slit snake eyes? I'm not sure what there is to say about them, they are kind of like the Pit fiends, in that they have a lot of health and will ruin your day if you let them touch you, plus they are made of huge rat beef!!! This is really just round two of dumb AI monsters vs traps when you meet them in the game. Only the AI is slightly worse this time, and you don't need to time the traps thankfully. Instead you can open the pits and wait for them to walk into the holes by themselves... That is if you can lure them over to the holes in the first place. Their AI is notoriously bad when it comes to chasing the player around around their rat maze, instead opting to run back to their spawn spot at every opportunity, or getting stuck in the walls.



Insect Queen: Yet another boss that really doesn't feel like a boss. This one has in the past been notoriously "buggy" for me. The boss itself looks like a alien queen from aliens, only purple. It just sits there and does nothing until you go up and give her a big hug. It will usually claw swipe the entire room once you catch the bosses attention, and spit tons of ranged attacks that will hit most of the room. So it's never worth going in there to fight her straight up, and even then sometimes her AI will break and she will do nothing, even while you're hitting her with a sword. It's far better to stand by the doorway and defeat her, as this won't trigger the boss, leaving the boss to just sit there and stare blankly. Now you could just hit her with every weapon you got, which is what you would think you needed to do to kill her. But she has so much health, that you'll run out of spells and ammo before you kill her. Instead you need to shoot the spikes on the ceiling to kill her. Now this is where the bugs will usually happen, either the spikes won't fall when you shoot them with rockets, or the queen will ignore the damage from the spikes, forcing you to load and try again until it works out in your favor. But yes, that's really it, shoot spikes to kill the boss who will simply sit there and do nothing until she dies.



Ghosts: These certainly are ghost men! Call the ghost busters or whip your handy dandy Silver sword out. Don't got a Silver sword? Then you get to suck on donkey balls as it's the only way I know of to harm them! Luckily the games good at throwing silver swords at you left and right, so it shouldn't be a problem.



Medusa sisters: The Medusa sisters are simply just re-skinned Snake girls with a different weapon in their hands. At first they might seem bad, but they really aren't. Like most bosses, it's just a matter of them having more health and or dealing more damage their their regular counterparts. In this case, the two of the three sisters wielding weapons will poison you with their attacks as an added extra compared to normal snake girls. They are all of course weak to the Venom sword. The final of the three Medusa is the only one that acts like a proper Medusa, using a petrifying stone gaze, which is pretty neat in itself. You'll turn to stone and instantly die if you get hit by the slow moving projectile attack she does. The solution to this boss is to turn around and giving the Medusa the cold shoulder treatment. If you have your back turned and the projectile hit's you, nothing will happen, rendering this enemy helpless as you use the back attack over and over again to turn her into red paste.



Agrash, demon necromancer of the abyss: Yet another boss that may as well have been a regular enemy. He teleports around the arena, making him annoying to have to hunt down, doubled by the fact that he will sometimes teleport again just as you are about to reach him, forcing you to hunt him down again, only to see him teleport once mor in front of you. He has your good old fashioned close ranged melee attacks, fireball spells, and a flame breath attack. His weakness is the red dragon slaying sword, that also doubles as a demon slayer sword. You have to hit him a couple of times with the red dragon slaying sword and he will die, yet here is the kicker. A second demon spawns that you need to kill when the first one dies, since it wasn't much of a boss fight, they just had a second Agrash spawn in, in hopes that it would pass for a boss fight.



Insect warriors: Simple low to medium health enemies that can attack incredibly fast, and rarely stun locks you to death in my experience. They seem to die in one hit with the warhammer, finally giving that damned weapon a use, this is the only time the warhammer is of any use in the entire game. It takes longer to kill the mantis with the sword, but is quicker and easier to block and hit with. But generally it's safer with the warhammer, as you can squash the bugs in one hit.



Demon witch: Demon witches! Oh boy! they are? well they are a mixed bag, some of them barely have any health, while others have a ton of health, sometimes they block a lot and use quick attacks, and other times they taunt non stop, allowing you to wail on them until they die from several stab wounds. There isn't anything remarkable about them, just another enemy to add to the pile, and call names, like "four boobs," and "snake eyes."



Giant hand: A giant hand to match the giant imp riding boot! only this hand will give you the finger and make sweet karate chops at you while somehow yelling "Hiii-Yah!" A rather amusing enemy, but you don't see many of them. These chumps are also great fodder for use in zelda jokes at the very least.



Warrior priestess/Knife throwers: Ahh yes, what video game isn't complete with scantly clad women in chainmail bikinis, modeled by lonely nerds in their parents basement? Well I for one am glad we are past the 90's and put clothes on our female antagonists for the "most" part these days. Their models are probably the same as red lotus, with a skin and the head changed, though I'm not surprised. They can be obnoxious yes, but a danger? Not really. they have low health, one focuses on hacking you apart up close, the other throwing knives until you get up close to her.



Dragon knights: These knights are our standard fair enemies for a few levels in the middle of the game. We have Mister Checkers, who uses crossbows and maces, Mister Black knight, who has a sword and shield, but never seems to try to block you. Then we finally have Mister Red knight, which has slightly more health and does slightly more damage. Each seem weak to the silver sword, though it isn't really needed against these enemies unless they come at you in a large group. They go down pretty quickly with the normal sword, so hack and slash your way to glory through the not "Chaos knights." BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!



Orc crossbowmen: Nothing much to say here, he's green, he's mean and he shoots with a crossbow. He is however smaller than normal orcs. They only show up in one level, and their bolts are incredibly slow, making them easy to dodge.



Orc sergeant: Like normal orcs, he is just bigger and has a longer reach. They are just orcs with more health that also do a little more damage.



Flying insect warriors: The developer that made these enemies had a hatred for all of man kind, when he one day said. "Yes, I know, let's make giant bee's as an enemy!" lo and behold, he created giant bee's that die instantly to anything, but not before poisoning you a million times while you've run out of antidotes, only to die to the poison you can't remove! I can't express how much I hate these enemies. Even with all the antidotes they give you for this level, more often than not, you run out of them and are left waiting to die. Also they can be a bitch to hit as they clip through you if you try to use your sword or hammer on them. On the bright side, their wings sometimes clips into the walls or floors, making them stuck in place!



Bloodbeast: This bucktoothed horror from beyond, like the rest of the games bosses, he isn't much of a boss, especially if you know what you're doing, but there are some bugs to him. To be able to hit and do damage, you need to get up nice and close, and hit his face. Problem! If you aren't standing at a perfect distance to him, you're either too far away and will miss, or your sword clips through his head and hit's his invulnerable neck, body or arms. There really aren't any attack patterns to him. If you stand at a distance, he shoots poison shots and lighting spells randomly at you, if you get up close, he bites or swings his tail and claws randomly at you. The best way to take this guy out is equip a venom sword, drink a strength potion and kill him in 1-2 shots.



Rend/Rip/Roar the hydra: Ahh, the hydra, now there is a boss!... Wait what am I saying, there is nothing great about this guy. All he does is walk around and shoot fireball spells at you until he gets close enough to bite you. Once he is within range, his model will usually start turning around in odd angles, while it tries to bite you or claw at you. It's only vulnerable point is to hit it's head, and the only way to do that is to hope it doesn't start twirling around itself while it attempts to bite you. When it does twirl it misses you, and any attacks usually hit his body, which is invulnerable to damage. This is just a matter of trading blows until it dies or you die, just like most enemies in the game. Recommendations to kill it? Grab a Venom sword and a strength potion, then kill it in 1-2 hits!



Vilefor the purple dragon: This black dragon, or purple dragon? I know my version of the games instruction manual mentions he is a black dragon, yet in the playstation manual it mentions he is purple. Either way, continuity burps aside. This and the last boss in this game are amongst the most obnoxious and poorly designed bosses there are. The dragons main method of attack is to fly around in circles, constantly shooting homing spike balls that explode, lighting spells and fire at you.

To get the dragon down on the ground, you have two options. First, you can wait and be lucky the random number generator tells you he wants to land "somewhere" on the map, after that you must pray to the gods he doesn't go back into the air 1-2 seconds after he landed. In that short amount of time you have to try and reach him to get some solid hits on him. The second way is if you've got the ammo for it. You can shoot at him in the hopes that you force the random number generator to have him land. The problem is hitting him with any and all projectiles, as he will usually fly out of the way of them, that and it's best to save your ranged weapons for the final boss.

There are also rocket traps that have one use each, these shot a massive number of fireballs in the air. The problem is the timing and the angle of the fireball traps are awkward and poorly designed. The dragon moves by so fast and the delay of the traps, plus the fireballs travel time, makes it so you'll never hit, but you're free to give it a shot. Once you finally have him grounded, the only place you can damage him, is his head. There can be clipping issues here as well, making you hit his body instead of his head. The dragon is weak to the Black spirit sword, so use that with a strength potion to kill him in a couple of hits. On the ground all he does it bite and use claw attacks, so like with the other two previous bosses, trade hits until he dies.



Melkor the red dragon: The final encounter of Deathtrap dungeon. It all comes down to this, kill the dragon and win the game. This boss is exactly the same as the previous dragon. It will fly around, shooting lightning, fire and homing explosives at you. The only difference is you have to go through a ton of traps to reach the boss, while he gets to take pot shots at you. If you die at any point of this encounter, you have to go back to the last save point, at start of all of the traps and do it all again, forcing you to go through 10-15 minutes of navigating crushers and pitfalls to try and fight him again.

Once you're at at the point you can fight him, you'll either have to pray that you're lucky and he lands in the arena, or you can shoot at him, trading blows with him, with ranged weaponry until you force him to land or your health dips too low to trade blows. The problem is getting to him, since it involves teleporters to get into the arena where he lands. Under his arena there are four lightning traps to shoot him with, each carrying one shot. The problem with them are, that they are worse than the fireball traps. When flipping a switch, you just have to blindly fire the trap and pray it somehow hit's, as you have no way at looking at the dragon to try to time it. I recommend going hog wild with the traps, as you will want to go under the arena anyways to pick up some extra goodies. If you manage to hit him, awesome! if not? Don't feel bad, the chances of hitting him are next to nothing. Killing him once he is grounded is simple. Grab your red dragon slayer sword, a strength potion and kill him in a couple of hits. Congratulations, you can now put the game away and pretend it never existed!





Casnorf art.



Deathtrap dungeon book art.

Throm. Opal studded dagger. Opening scene. Golden idol. Basket man.Cage. Demonic bird chair. Chest. Constrictor snake. Riddle man. Hobgoblins fighting.
Phantom faces. Immitator. Dead adventurer. Topaz skull. Pit scorpion. Two stairs. Insect room. Mirror demon. Final challenge. Orc. Manticor.
Dead barbarian. Trapped man. Winged helmet. Leprechauns. Ninja. Pit fiend. Rock grub. Skeleton. Trailmaster. Troglodites.

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