Exile for Windows Help Contents

Copyright 1995, Jeff Vogel

This is the help file for Exile, the full-length, highly detailed fantasy role-playing Shareware game for Windows. In this help file, you will find out how to create a group of adventurers, equip it, take it around the world, and slay evil of all sorts. You will also find out how to register the game, enabling you to play the second half. And, if you get stuck near the beginning, be sure to look at Helpful Hints and Hints For Getting Started.

Exile is being marketed under the shareware concept. In the unregistered (i.e. free) version, you can play the first half of the game at full functionality (that is, by the way, a lot of game). Upon registering (i.e. paying), you will receive a code which will enable you to play the rest of the game.

Click on the topics below to find out about...

Introduction and Registration:

What is Exile?

How do I register?

Order Form

Getting 256 Colors

Playing Exile:

Getting started.

Creating your party.

The Exile Menu.The Exile Screen.

Getting around town.

Moving outdoors.

About Combat.

Other Commands.

Using Items.

Using Magic.

Mage Spells.

Priest Spells.

Extra Help:

Helpful Hints.

Hints For Getting Started

Credits


Introduction
What is Exile?

Exile is a fantasy role-playing game. What is that? Well, its like a fairy tale or Tolkein novel, right there in your computer. You play a party of adventurers, a group of warriors and mages, thieves and holy people, going on quests, solving puzzles, doing good (and bad) deeds.

Exile is designed to be as simple as possible to learn and play. If you, like many game-players, dislike reading the manual before jumping into the game, go ahead. It is recommended you read the Introduction (below), look at the illustrations to see what the buttons do, and, if you plan to design your characters from scratch (eventually a good idea), the section describing what the skills are. Also, the Hints For Getting Started section near the end of the manual contains some useful hints.

Introduction:

The surface world is ruled by the Empire. That's what its called. The Empire. Not the Empire of Something, or the Something Empire. Just the Empire. It's understandable. There's no need for elaborate names when there's only one game in town.

There is the Empire. It is ruled by King Hawthorne. It has been there, for all practical purposes, forever. And it will probably always be there.

The Empire has made everything calm. Orderly. The criminals? Timid, or dead. The Dragons? Dead. Fantastic creatures of all kinds? They were a sometimes difficult and always unpredictable presence. Now they're gone. Order at any cost was called for, and order was obtained.

But the Empire had mercy. It was ruled by humans, with human consciences. When the inevitable question of what to do about the misfits, the unruly, the generally awkward and useless originally came up, as it always does, the government opted for the simplicity of killing them. Recently, however, a group of reformers came into power, and they felt that this bloodshed had to stop. Just because someone opined that the Empire perhaps wasn't the best possible thing, it was decided, didn't necessarily mean that person should be killed. But something had to be done. On that everyone agreed. Order had to be maintained.

So, for five decades now, the Empire has rounded up the square pegs, the loudmouths, and the people just too independent for safety, and thrown them into a gigantic pit in the ground from which there could be no escape. There, they could live out their lives in peace, doing what they want, saying what they want, and never seeing the light of day again.

This worked so well, in fact, that the Empire started throwing the few magical creatures remaining into the pit as well. That these creatures might be a hazard to those already there was seen as a plus.

The grand experiment of teleporting misfits into the underworld was a great success, and caused nobody a bit of trouble. Well, at least as long as you weren't one of the ones thrown into the teleporter.

Unfortunately,  someone has decided that perhaps the people above would be better off if you were no longer among them. So down you go...

Getting Started...


How to register
How to Register Exile

Exile is being marketed under the shareware concept. You can play the first half of the game at full functionality for free. To play the second half, you need to obtain a key (i.e. password) from Spiderweb Software.

PRICING:

    Exile is $25, the Exile Editor is $9, the hint book is $6, and the Exile Bundle (all 3) is $35.

You can register by credit card or by sending a check or money order.

CREDIT CARD:

To register by credit card, call, fax or E-mail the Public Software Library and ask to register Product Code 14127. Then say which Exile products you want. The phone number is 1-(800)242-4775, the FAX number is (713)524-6398, and the CIS address is 71355,470. Be SURE to have your registration codes handy when ordering.

All major credit cards are accepted.

THIS NUMBER IS FOR ORDERING ONLY - THEY CANNOT HELP YOU WITH ANYTHING ELSE.

MINIMUM CREDIT CARD ORDER $15 PLEASE

COMPUSERVE ONLINE REGISTRATION:

While on CompuServe, go to SWREG and search for keyword Exile. Select Exile for Windows to register (make sure you register the Exile specifically marked as for Windows). You can only register the game and the $35 Exile bundle through CompuServe.

IMPORTANT - After registering on SWREG, E-mail the registration codes for the game and/or editor to 76463,1521. Ill get your keys back to you via E-mail right away.

BY CHECK OR MONEY ORDER:

Foreign orders are welcome. Pay with a money order in US currency. To print the order form, click on Order Form below and select Print from the menu above. Pay with a check (to Spiderweb Software) or money order (to Jeff Vogel).

HOWEVER YOU REGISTER, DONT FORGET YOUR REGISTRATION CODES. WE CANNOT REGISTER YOUR COPY WITHOUT THEM!

You should get your registration codes, along with full printed documentation, in the mail within 3-4 business days. If you include an E-mail address, your codes will be E-mailed to you as well. Please dont panic if your code doesnt arrive via E-mail - E-mail often gets lost or bounced.

Order Form


Order Form
Registration / Order Form

Make the check or money order payable to Spiderweb Software and mail to:

Spiderweb Software.

14 Easton Ave. #202

New Brunswick, NJ 08901   (USA)

 (908) 545-7552

Please print NEATLY and impress us with your penmanship.

Last Name                                              First Name

Address

City                                                         State                     Zip

Registration Code                                     To find out the registration code, select 'Shareware Info' from the title screen of Exile. Without this, we cannot process your order.

Registration Code for Editor                                     To find out the registration code, select 'Shareware Info' from the registration menu of the Editor. Again, without this, we cannot process an order for an editor.

For registration by credit card, call 1(800)2424-PSL. Minimum credit card order is $15.

I would like to register:

"Exile: Escape From The Pit  v1.0"............................................................NO        YES         ($25)

"Exile Character Editor".............................................................................NO        YES         ($9)

I would like to order by mail:

The hint booklet to Exile............................................................................NO        YES          ($6)

Send a copy of "Exile" and the Exile Editor on disk................................NO        YES          ($6)

   (this is only available by mail)

Exile Bundle: Exile, the Editor, and a Hint Book.....................................NO        YES         ($35)

Total so far:                                                                                                   ______________

Outside US and Canada add $3 shipping and handling                             ______________

NJ residents add %6 sales tax                                                                      ______________

Total:                                                                                                              ______________

My e-mail address is:

America Online

Compuserve

Internet

Other

Circle the name of the service you would like us to try and e-mail your registration  to.


Getting 256 Colors

Exile is unusual among Windows games in that its graphics are designed for 256 colors. Should the graphics come up looking utterly bizarre, it is likely that your system is not currently set for 256 colors. Following these directions should fix the problem:

1. Go to the Program Manager.

2. In the Main directory, run Windows Setup

3. In the Options menu, select Change System Settings.

4. You will be changing the Display setting, using the arrow control to the right. Select one of the settings that mentions 256 colors. Your best bet will probably be Super VGA 640x480 256 colors.

5. Hit OK, and follow the instructions youre given.

6. Restart the machine. Exile should be in living, vibrant color.

7. Doesnt that look much nicer? Have fun!

When being run, Exile takes over the colors in a system palette. Because of this, other applications may look somewhat odd. They will switch back to normal when Exile stops running.


Getting Started

Starting the game

To run Exile, double click on the Exile icon. After a moment, you will be on the start screen. You have five options:

Load Saved Game -  Resumes a game youve already started. Select the save file to resume.

Create New Party -   Start a new game.

Shareware Info -   This screen gives the relevant information for when you decide

   to register Exile. This includes cost, address, and the registration code you will

   need to give when you register.

Register Exile -   When you register, you will be given a key (a large number).

   Select this option to enter the key to unlock the second half of the game.

Quit - Leave Exile.

When you are just starting, youll want to select Create New Party...

What is going on?:

You are group of adventurers, mages, thieves, and mixed malcontents, who have just been teleported, for crimes unknown and probably trivial, into the vast, labyrinthian underworld of Exile. There, you will meet the people who came before you, learn about the society that they have created, battle the nasty creatures that torment them, and ... and ...

And what? What is the goal? What are you trying to do?

That's a fair question. And there are many answers. Do you want to escape? Save the people of Exile from the dangers they face? Just explore and run around and kill stuff? Wreak a horrid revenge on the surface world? Exile has many missions, some small, some large, some game-spanning. There are several ways to win the game, of varying difficulty. And there are towns and dungeons that just don't have much to do with anything.

Finding out how to save (or change, or destroy) the world will not be easy. You will need to search caverns, huge and small, convenient and remote, talking to people and searching for clues. And then, when you find out something you can do, you must make the harder choice: Is it something you should do?

So go to it! Pick a side, start swinging, and good luck.

Creating a Party...


Creating a Party

What is a party?:

       A party is the group of up to 6 adventurers, called player characters (PCs for short). You can play a party of your own making, or get a prefabricated party provided by the game. When you first run the game, select Create New Party from the opening screen. You can then choose whether to play a prefab party or make one from scratch.

     If you choose the prefab party, just start playing. What your skills are good for is described in the next section.

      If you make your party from scratch, you will, up to six times, go through windows to determine your characters skills, choose a graphic for your PC, and name your PC. To start the game, you must create at least one PC.

Skills:   Each starting PC gets 60 skill points. Skill points are a sort of money you will spend on abilities.

      When creating a character, the first thing that will happen is you will see the window where you spend your skill points. To spend skill points to increase an ability, press the + button next to it. Press the - button to undo the action. The cost in skill points to increase your value in each skill is the number before the slash in the Cost column. The number after the slash isnt relevant yet (it becomes important when you train your characters).

      Should you spend the points and be satisfied, press the Keep button. If you want to start again, press cancel. When you buy and keep you skills, you go to the next step...

PC Graphic:   Click on the button besides the graphic you want to use to represent your PC, or press cancel to begin the whole process anew.

PC Name:   Finally, in the third window, choose a name for your character. It must begin with a non-space character.

What about sex? Race?:   You wont be specifically asked whether your character is male or female. If you want your warrior to be a woman, select a female graphic and appropriate name. Also, all your characters will be human. In the world of Exile, non-humans have this nasty tendency to be killed on sight, as you will soon see...

Making a New PC:   Should you start with less than 6 PCs or drop one later on, you can get another. Return to Fort Exile, where you start, and approach the portal where you arrived. You will be given the option of making a new PC, who will then obligingly step though the portal.

To find out what all these skills are good for, keep reading...

Getting To Know Your Characters:

      Your little computerized people are, basically, a whole bunch of numbers, each determining how well he or she deals with the horrid threats the game will come up with. These are the most important statistics:

Level and Experience:   These two numbers (starting at 1 and 0 respectively) represent how much stuff your character has done. Your experience goes up when you kill stuff and complete missions. For every 100 experience points you get, your level increases (up to a maximum of 50). When your level increases, you gain some health points and skill points (described below), and become a little better at everything you do. Alas, the higher your level, the less skill points and health you gain.

Skill Points:   As mentioned before, these points are the money you will spend to increase your skills. After creating your character, you will spend them at training schools, located in certain towns.

Current Health:   This very important number represents how much punishment your PC can take before dying. Every time he or she is damaged, the number goes down. Time and magical healing raise it again, up to a certain maximum. Keep an eye on it!

      Every skill point spent on health increases your maximum by 2.

Spell Points:   This number represents how many and how powerful spells your PC can cast. Whenever a spell is cast, you lose some spell points. Time and certain magic items bring the level back up.

      Every skill point spent on spell points increases your maximum by 1. Also, every level of Mage Spells and Priest Spells (described below) bought while creating your character gives you three bonus spell points.

      You can have a maximum of 200 health points and 100 spell points.

      The myriad skills you can buy for your characters are described below. Each can attain a maximum level of 20, unless otherwise specified. The cost for each skill is in parenthesis after its name.

Strength (3):  Measures how much brute strength the character possesses. High strength increases damage done in combat, improves odds of kicking down doors, and has other, more subtle effects.

      This stat also has a large effect on the health the PC gains when he/she gains a level. If it is below 4, there will be a penalty. If it is 1 or two, there will be a large penalty.

Dexterity (3):   Measure how nimble the character is. High dexterity gives a better chance of hitting in combat (esp. with missile weapons) and makes the character harder to hit. High dexterity also makes picking locks and disarming traps easier.

Intelligence (3):   Measures mental strength and dexterity. High intelligence also makes your spells more effective, sometimes very much so. Intelligence below 4 makes your spells works poorly.

      The above three skills are important. When high, they give many bonuses in the things you do. On the other hand, when one of these three skills is below 4, the PC will have penalties in any situation involving that skills. A PC in combat with a 1 dexterity will miss a lot.

Edged (2), Bashing (2), Pole (2), Thrown Missile (1), Bow (3):    The higher the skill, the better the chance to hit in the appropriate weapon type:

Edged:  Daggers, swords, axes.

Bashing:  Clubs, maces.

Pole:  Spears, halberds, large axes.

Thrown Missile:  Darts, Thrown daggers

Bow: Bows

Defense (2): This skill has three effects. It determines how well a character does at parrying, decreases the penalty in combat from bulky armor, and occasionally decreases the damage taken from enemies weapons.

Mage Spells (6), Priest Spells (5):  These two skills are very expensive and very powerful. They enable the owner to cast spells of the appropriate type of a level up to the level of skill owned. The maximum level for both is 7.

      You automatically know all spells of level 3 and below. It takes some time to find spells of level 4 and above. Thus, getting these skills above level 3 at the beginning may not be a good idea.

Mage Lore (1):  You will occasionally need to decipher strange magical readings. This skill determines how good you are at this. If your skill is high enough, you may gain a spell or a valuable piece of information.

      What is important when deciphering is how much of this skill is present in the party. One character with 18 Mage Lore is equivalent to 6 characters with 3 Mage Lore.

Alchemy (2):  You will eventually gain the ability to make magic potions. To make a given potion, however, your Alchemy skill much be above a certain level. The higher it is above this level, the better the chance of succeeding.

      When one PC is trying to make a potion, only that PCs Alchemy skill counts. Thus, it is much, much better to have one PC with high Alchemy skill than several PCs with low Alchemy skill.

Item Lore (4):  When you kill a monster, there will occasionally be items on its body. Normally, you wouldnt know what they were. However, Item Lore skill makes it possible that when you find the item, you will know what it is. Otherwise, you would have to take it to town and spend money to identify it.

      Item Lore doesn't do any good for identifying items you already have that aren't identified.

      The higher the Item Lore, the better the chance of the item appearing identified. In general, several PCs with low Item Lore is better than one PC with high Item Lore.

Traps (2):  Many chests and some corridors will have traps on them, which can be devastating. You will, however, be given a chance to pick a PC to disarm it. Chance of success depends on this skill.

Pick Locks (2):  Many towns and dungeons will have locked doors. A PC with some of this skill and lock picks equipped can try to pick them. The higher this skill, the better. Beware. Some locks cannot be picked.

Assassination (4):   Sometimes, when a character attacks a much weaker monster, the blow will do a good deal of extra damage. The more of this skill you have, the better the chance of this happening, and the stronger the monsters it can happen to.

Poison (2):   You will find poisons, which you can put on your weapons for a little extra punch. Having a few levels in this skill will make it more likely you will put the poison on at full strength, and the less likely you will nick yourself with the poison accidentally.

      Although you can buy a lot of this skill, 3-4 levels should be sufficient.

Luck (5):   This skill is expensive, but can be a bargain at twice the cost. Its effects are pervasive, subtle, powerful, and sometimes irreplaceable.

      Eventually, one way or another, you will have a party to control. At this point, you will be dumped into Exile. In particular, you will be in one of the towns there...

Getting Around Town...


Exile Menu
The Exile Menu:

The Exile Menu:

The Menu gives you access to both commands and help...

Options Menu:

      This menu enables you to change aspects of how the game is played:

Sound On/Off: This turns the sound on and off

Save Maps: Selecting this has the maps of the town and outdoors stored in your save file,

   so that you don't need you remap everything. Very Useful. Setting thing increases the size

   of your save files 50 K.

Give Delays: Turning this off makes the game move slightly faster.

 The next two options enable to you select new names and graphics for your characters. The alchemy selection shows you a list of all alchemical concoctions you know how to make.

More Help Menu:

     This menu calls up handy reference pages for most of the info in this manual.

Library Menu:

     This very useful menu can be used to bring up windows with helpful information on a variety of topics. You can get screens with detailed info on mage and priest spells, as well as descriptions of the skills and advice on how and when to buy them. There is also a summary of how alchemy and poison is used, and a very handy list of helpful hints and time-saving tips. A quick browse through the last is recommended.

Actions Menu:

     People who prefer to play with the mouse can select Wait 40 Times from this menu. In town, this has you pause 40 times, in order to rest and let wandering monsters accumulate.


The Exile Screen
The Exile Screen:

You will now be looking at the main Exile screen. To the upper left is the terrain screen, showing you and your surroundings. To the lower left are the buttons which you use to do certain things. To the upper right is the status screen, giving the relevant info on the state of your party. To the lower right is the text screen, which will tell you what youve done and whats going on.

Terrain Screen:   When outside or in town, the person in the middle represents your party. Around you will be the flora, fauna, and miscellaneous stuff of the underworld.

       To move around, move the cursor into the terrain screen. Move it around. It will turn into an arrow. Click the mouse button when the arrow points in the desired direction. When looking, picking locks, etc. (all described below), to select the item to look at (or whatever) click on it.

       The border of the terrain screen is also something to click on. When looking, aiming a missile, or targeting a spell, clicking on the terrain screen border will shift the view of the terrain screen in the appropriate direction.

Buttons:    These change depending on your setting. What the Outdoor/Town/Combat buttons do is described in  the relevant sections.

Status Screen:   This has a variety of pages. You can scroll through them right or left by clicking on the blue arrows. There are also faster ways to move through them...

     Roster Page: The first page lists your party members and their status. The

         numbers in the first column are remaining health points. The numbers in the

         second column are  the remaining spell points.

     To drop a PC permanently, click on the X button by the PCs name. To have two

PCs switch places, click on the EX button by one PC and then another to have them

switch places.

      To get to this page, press 0 on the keyboard or = on the keypad. Clicking on

  the name of a PC on this page takes you to that PCs stat page.

Below each PCs name will occasionally appear letters representing the status of the

character:	B - blessed	C - cursed

S+ - hasted	S- - slowed

PW - poisoned weapon

P - poisoned	P! - very poisoned

I - invulnerable	R - magic resistant

     PC Stat and Inventory Pages:  Each PC has each of these. The first gives the skills

and experience of the PC, and the second lists the inventory. Typing the number 1 -

6 takes you to the stat page of the appropriate PC. Clicking on the stat page then

takes you to the inventory page.

      On the inventory page, clicking on an item equips it (indicated by an asterisk to

the left of the item). Repeating this unequips it. See the items section for information

on what the other buttons do.

      Spell Pages:  These pages let you know which of the spells above third level youve

          obtained. Below each PCs name and the 4  5  6  7 line will be the first letter

          in the name of each high level spell youve obtained. The first line is mage

          spells. The second is priest spells. The initials for fourth level spells are below

          the 4, and so on.

      Special Items:  Pressing 9 gets you to this page. It lists all the special items,

          passwords, etc. youve obtained.

      Time Savers:  When in combat,  hitting z or 0 on the keypad takes you to the

          stat page of the character currently active. Hitting it again takes you to that

          characters inventory page.

More PC Info:  Hitting the 'More Info' button on a PC's stat page flashes up a screen with detailed information on your character, including a spell list. To find out detailed information about an item, then hit the button by the item on this screen.

Text Screen: As things happen, you will be told about them in the status screen. Occasionally, it will fill up. When it does, you will be asked to click the mouse.


Getting Around Town

When you begin the game, you will be in one of Exiles many towns and forts. There are a variety of things you can and should do.

Moving around:   To move, place the cursor on the terrain screen in the direction you want to move (it should turn into a little arrow) and click. You will take a step in the direction the arrow points. To move up, for example, move the cursor above the little person in the middle (you). The cursor should turn into an arrow pointing up. Click. You will move up a space.

      You can also move using the keypad. Hitting 5 pauses your party, 8 makes you move up, 2 down, and so on.

      If you cannot move there, because of something in the way, the text screen will tell you so. If youve stepped on something unpleasant, like swamp, lava, or some sort of trapped square, you will be informed. There are several interesting things to know about moving around...

      Leaving Town: When you want to leave a town or dungeon, pick a direction and

         keep walking. Eventually, when you walk off the edge of the map, you will be

         outdoors. A handy way of telling how far you are from the edge of the map is to

         use the Map button, described below.

      Special Encounters:  You will occasionally see, both in town and outdoors, a

         white circle on the the nearby floor/ground/whatever. The white circle

         signifies a special encounter or occurrence of some sort. Step on it to find out

         what it is.

      Wall and Secret Doors:  Not all walls, man-made or otherwise, are as they

         appear. Some walls have secret doors and hidden tunnels. When you walk into a

         wall with one of these, you will pass through it. This may not always be a good

         thing.

      Boats:   Both outdoors and in town, you can find boats. To enter one, move onto it.

         To leave it, steer it onto ground. Boats are essential to get to certain interesting

         places, and may be able to travel over more things than water...

      Light:   Some areas are dark. To see beyond your nose, you will need a light

         source, be it a torch or spell. In certain unpleasant areas, even a torch or spell

         wont get rid of the darkness.

Pausing:   Sometimes, youll want to just sit and watch the world go by. Click on

   your party or hit 5 on the keypad to just wait.

Selecting Spaces Shortcut:   When you hit the look button (or the talk button), click on the space you want to look at to look at (talk to) it. A quicker way to look at something is to hit l on the keyboard, and then the keypad key in the direction you want to look. This has you look at (or talk to) whatever is in the next space in that direction.

      Each of the many buttons at the bottom left corner of the screen has you do something. The appearance of the button is given in parenthesis. Several of them have keyboard equivalents. When they do, the key is given in the parenthesis:

Cast Mage (Fireball. m):   You will be asked to select one of your party members, who will then be given a chance to cast any mage spells he or she knows. Mage spells are described later.

Case Priest (Black ankh. p):   Same as cast mage, but for priest spells.

      For detailed information on how to cast spells, go to the section on magic (Section 7.3).

Look  (Eye. l):   Clicking on this button and then on a space in the Terrain Screen gives you a list of everything in the space you click. Terrain, monsters, and items will be identified.  Also...

      Looking Off screen:  When you look, if you click on the terrain border, the

         terrain youre looking at will scroll in the direction you click on, so you can see

         the monsters before theyre right on top of you.

      Signs:  When your party is adjacent to a sign, you can read it by looking at it.

      Searching Stuff:    When your party looks at something it is standing adjacent

         to, you will search the crate/desk/bookshelf/whatever for interesting things. If

         there is something there, you will have a special encounter.

      Opening Chests:   When you find a treasure chest, standing adjacent to it and

         looking at it has you try to open it. You will be asked to select a party member to

         disarm the trap. Picking someone with decent Trap skill is well advised.

Talk  (Lips, t):   You can talk to any living creature which is not actually trying to kill you. To do so, click on this button, and then the thing you want to talk to.  You will then be presented with a window with the description of the person.

      To talk to a person, type something in the text box at the top of the window, and hit return. You will then ask the person about that thing. Everybody responds to look,name and job. Beyond that, you can figure out what the person knows things about by reading what they tell you. For example, if you ask someone her work and she says I sell information. asking her about information would be a good idea.

      People only respond to single words. Dont say What do you know about the sword? Just say sword.

      Special Information:   Occasionally, someone will tell you something that will

         help you do something else, such as a password or the location of a hidden item.

         When this happens, you will be told something along the lines of You take note

         of this. If you die later without saving, be sure to go back to get this

         information again.

      Stores:   Most of the towns have a store of some sort in them. To buy something,

         talk to the person behind the counter. If there is something to be bought, or if

         you can sell things, you can then find out what. In general (but not always), the

         thing to ask about to purchase something is buy. Purchase and Buy are used

         interchangably. Sometimes, however, the thing to say to buy something may be

         tricky to figure out.

      The Buy and Sell Buttons:    Pressing the Buy button in the corner of the talk

         window has you ask about the most common things people sell, fist asking about

         'buy', then 'heal', then 'train', and so on. If the person has nothing to sell, you

         will get the standard I Don't Understand response. The Sell button works the

         same.

      There are many sorts of stores. The more important ones are:

      Shops:  There are many sorts of shops. Some sell weapons, some armor, some

         potions, some strange things. Many will also buy things, generally for half what

         you paid.

      Training:   You can spend your experience to gain valuable skills at the

         occasional training center. This works exactly the same as when you created

         your character, but you also have to pay gold. Each level in a skill costs the

         amount after the slash in the cost column.

         Should you buy some skills and then decide you dont want them, press the

         Cancel button to restore your character. Press the Keep button to keep the

         training.

         Hitting the left and right arrow has you scroll through your party. However,

         when you leave one PC's page, you can no longer cancel changes you made on

         that page.

      Sages:  Occasionally, you will find a learned soul who can teach you how to cast

         new spells and make alchemical delights. Other people can identify your items

         for you, so you can know if that potion is poison before you drink it.

         When you buy a spell for a character, only that character knows it. On the other

         hand. You only need to buy an alchemical recipe once for the entire party. The

         person selling it to you will tell you which special plant you need to make it.

      Docks:  A few towns sell sturdy boats to navigate the lake and rivers of the

         underworld. When you buy a boat, it will appear outside town.

      Healers:  A few towns have people skilled in the healing arts. For a fee, they will

         cure all damage the selected PC has taken, up to and including being turned to

         dust. Paying a healer will also have the curses removed from all the PCs

         equipped items.

      Auto Note-Taking: While talking, pressing the Save button dumps what was just said

         in the file TALKSAVE.TXT. Be sure to save important stuff!

Get   (Hand picking up scroll. g):   When you see an item on the ground, to get it, move your near it and click this button. If there are hostile monsters nearby, you can pick us all items adjacent to you, otherwise you can pick up all visible items within 4 spaces.

You will be presented with a list of gettable items and a choice between all the characters that can get them. Click the Get button by an items to get it, and click the button by a PCs graphic to have that PC get it.

Bash   (A boot, b):   This is the hard way to open locked doors. Stand adjacent to the door, click this button, pick a strong PC to do the deed, and click on the door to kick. If you succeed, the door will become unlocked. If you fail, damage is your reward.

      In general, the odds of a bash attempt succeeding are not too good.

Alchemy   (Blue bottle, A):   Should you have the right ingredients, the right recipe, and a PC with sufficient alchemy skill, click on this button to try to make a potion. You will be asked who is going to make it, and then given a list of potions you can make. Certain potions cannot be made by a character with low alchemy skill. The higher the alchemy skill, the better the odds of success.

Pick Locks   (Keyhole, P):    The easy way to unlock locked doors. Stand adjacent to the door in question, click this button, select a PC, and click on the door. The PC attempting to pick the lock must have lockpicks equipped. Should the attempt fail, the lockpick may break. Also, some doors have locks which cant be picked.

Map   (A Scroll, a):   As you wander around the town or dungeon, you will automatically keep track of the terrain you see. When you click this button, you will see a map of the area youre in. Your party will be represented by a solid green square. Walls are solid black, water is solid blue, lava is red, swamp is green, and obstructions are black-outlined squares. Spaces you haven't seen are morked by dots.

      Also, you can leave the map window up while you play. It will keep updating itself as you travel.

      Finally, you can have your map saved with sour saved game. To do so, select Save Maps from the Options menu. The maps will be saved from then on.

Enter Combat Mode   (Sword. f):   As you wander around, someone or something might decide to attack you. When in town mode, you travel in a tight-knit, awkward group. Thus, you cant fight back, and the monsters move and act faster than you.

      To deal with this unpleasant situation, click on this button to enter combat mode. Your group will split up into its individual members, and you will be able to fight back.

      There are other useful shortcuts...

Wait 40 times  ('w'):   Waiting a while causes your health and spell points to return, albeit somewhat slowly. Hitting 'w' while in town has you wait 40 times, restoring some of your health. You stop waiting when someone takes damage or a hostile monster comes into view. Don't do this too often in hostile territory - wandering monsters will keep appearing.

Recast Mage Spell  ('M'), Recast Priest Spell ('P'):    This has the last person who cast a mage (or priest) spell attempt to cast it again, on the same person (if it is a spell you cast on a PC).

      When you leave town (or go into combat) the buttons will change. The next two sections say what the new buttons do.

Moving outdoors.

About Combat.


Getting Around Outdoors

    When you leave town, you will be in the massive caverns and twisty, endless tunnels that make up Exile. The things you can do out here are similar to what you can do indoors, but slightly more restricted.

      Moving around and casting spells work the same as in town. However, the spells you can cast are a bit more limited. Looking works the same, although there will no longer be things to search (there are still signs to read).

      The map button works the same. You will keep track of what youve seen outside, and can call it back up. However, if you move a long way away from an area and then return, you may have forgotten what you saw the first time.

      When you see a town, tower, fort or dungeon, move onto it to enter it.

      As in town, you can find boats to get around on. Move onto a boat to board it, and steer the boat onto ground to disembark.

      Watch out for waterfalls! Not only will they suck you down them, but when you fall down one you lose a bunch of food too.

      There are three new buttons outdoors:

Rest   (A tent, r):   When you are far from a friendly town and a hospitable inn, this is your best option for recovering strength. When you press this button, you will settle down for a while and sleep. You will wake up, however, if a group of monsters gets close to you, and not get any rest in the bargain. It is usually best to rest in secluded areas.

      You cannot rest if someone is poisoned, or if you dont have enough food to get through the night.

Save   (Disk with arrow pointing to it), Restore   (Disk with arrow out):   These magical buttons enable you to make a snapshot of the current status of your game so that, should you get killed, misplace the game-winning artifact, etc., you can return to the spot you saved at.

      When you click on save, you can enter a name for the snapshot of your progress. When you restore, double click on the file you saved. You can also save from the pull-down File menu. You can also save in town. See Other options below..

Recast Mage Spell  ('M'), Recast Priest Spell ('P'):    This has the last person who cast a mage (or priest) spell attempt to cast it again, on the same person (if it is a spell you cast on a PC).

     There will still be combats outdoors. Occasionally, monsters will run up to attack you. When this happens, you will find yourself on a battlefield where you will fight the monsters, much as you would have fought them in town.

      You can drop items outdoors, but when you do theyre gone forever. Should a PC die (of starvation, for example), the PCs items will appear on the ground the next time you enter a town or get in an outdoor combat.

About Combat.


Surviving Combat

      Combat works similarly to being in town or outdoors, except that you move your party one at a time instead of all at once. You will get to move each of your PCs, and then all the other people/monsters move (and maybe attack you). Then the process repeats.

      The main difference between normal town and combat mode, of course, is that youre probably trying to kill something.

Line of Sight:   A character can only fire a missile or spell at a location he or she can see. Also, trees and other obstructions between the shooter and the target will make the missile less effective. Fortunately, theres an easy way to tell if you can see a space. When targeting a spell or missile, a line appears between the attacker and the target if the space the pointer is on is visible.

Action Points (APs):   When a character starts to act in combat, he or she gets 4 action points. This amount is then decreased if the character is wearing lots of armor, and increased if he or she is hasted. Each action then deducts some of those points. The character can no longer act when theyre all gone.

Moving and Attacking:   You move by clicking on the terrain screen in the desired direction. To attack something, move into that thing. The result of your attack will appear to the lower right.

If you attack someone who wasnt attacking you, you will be asked if you really want to do that. Attacking innocents will bring the town guard down on your head, and you may have a serious problem. Be careful! Merely causing damage to an innocent will also bring the cops down on your head, and you may not get a warning before you do it.

Moving costs one action point per space.

Swapping Places:   When one PC moves into another during combat, they switch places. This is very useful in tight spaces. Swapping places costs east PC 1 AP.

Stand Ready:    As before, when you click on the active character, that character will wait. However, should a hostile creature then move into weapon range, that PC will attack the enemy.

Targeting:   When you cast a magic spell or fire a missile, you select a creature to fire at by clicking on it. When you may want to aim at someone off screen, before selecting your target you can scroll the view around by clicking on the border of the terrain screen.

The buttons have the following effects. The description of the button, the keyboard equivalent, and thecost of each action in APs follow in parenthesis:

Look  (Eye, l, 0 APs):   Looking works much as it did before, with one major difference: when you start looking, you can click on the border of the terrain screen to move the view around, and see things that were off-screen before. Note, however, you cannot see things by scrolling the screen around that you havent yet seen by being close to them.

Parry  (Shield, d, all APs):   Should a character be at risk, you can have that character use his or her turn simply defending. How effective this is depends heavily on the defense skill of the character, although there will always be some benefit.

Get  (Hand grabbing scroll, g, 4 APs):   Works exactly as before, except you dont get to choose who gets the item - the active character gets it.

Wait   ('Wait', w, 0 APs):   Clicking this has the PC wait until all other characters have acted before acting.

Shoot   (Arrow, s, 2 APs for thrown, 3 APs for archery):   When you click on this and the active PC has a thrown missile weapon or a bow and arrows equipped, you will shoot a missile at the target you select.

End Combat   (End, e):   In town, when you are through fighting, click this button to go back into town mode (whether or not any foes remain). When in an encounter outdoors, you can resume traveling by clicking this button (although it will only work if all the enemies are dead).

Active   (Act, x):    Clicking on this button makes the current PC the only active PC. None of the other PCs will do anything until the active PC dies, or you click the Act button again.

      The getting items shortcut from town mode works here too:

Recast Mage Spell  ('M'), Recast Priest Spell ('P'):    This has the current PC attempt to cast the mage (or priest) spell last cast, on the same person (if it is a spell you cast on a PC).

      This sums up the things you can do in combat. But what of the rewards, and the risks?

Getting Damaged, Armor:   Every time you get hit, your health goes down. When you receive a blow that would take you to 0 or less health, you end up at 0 health (this is signified by a coughing noise). When you get damaged and have 0 health, you die. When you take a lot of damage and have 0 health, you will be obliterated (making this PC much harder to raise from the dead).

      Fortunately, there is a wide variety of armor in the game. Armor will not reduce the number of blows you take, but will reduce the amount of damage you take when those blows land. However, the heavier the armor, the more it interferes with your ability to attack and cast spells (although defense skill helps with this).

      Changing armor takes a while. While you can change helms and shields, you cannot change armor in combat.

Dying:  This happens. When it does, all the newly deceaseds possessions drop to the ground in a pile. Should this happen when you are in a boat, you may need to row back for them.

      Items cant be dropped when outdoors. Should someone die when wandering around outside, the items will stay with you until you enter a town or get into combat, at which point they immediately drop to the ground.

      Dead people can be brought back to life. This can be done using certain priest spells, or at the healers you will find in some of the towns.

      Beware. If the killing blow does enough damage, it will turn the PC into dust. It will then be much more difficult to raise him/her from the dead.

Killing Enemies:   Whenever you kill an enemy, the person dealing the death blow gets some experience, and everyone else gets a much smaller amount. Should this experience give you a level, the game will let you know in the text screen.

Treasure:   Will appear when the monster is killed and you get lucky. If you have decent Item Lore skill, the item may even appear fully identified.

Fleeing:   Of course, sometimes the enemy is just too tough. When this happens, it is possible to escape.

      In town combat, you must move your party to the outskirts of town, leave combat mode, and then walk out of town. You cannot leave town when youre in combat,

      In outdoor combat, you flee by moving to the boundary of the battlefield (which will look like a black nothingness) and walk off. If you succeed, the character will have fled. When your whole party is fled or dead, or youve killed all of the enemies and pressed the End Combat button, combat will end and your party will be reunited.

      If you are adjacent to a monster and move away from it, it will attack you. The same goes in reverse.

Poisoning a Weapon:   Using poison poisons your equipped weapon, which can be either a hand-to-hand weapon or a quiver of arrows (not darts or throwing knives). Hitting a monster with it then does a considerable amount of damage, spread out over time. The level of the poison decreases with every blow delivered and every blow that lands. The poison is lost should you change weapons or leave town.

      Using poison on an already poisoned weapon gives the weapon a strength of poison equal to the maximum strength of the poison already there and the poison youre putting on.

Enemy Resistances:   There are a wide variety of types of damage you can do. Hand to hand weapons do physical damage. Poison is another kind of damage, fire is another, non-fire magic (such as ice bolts or kill spells) is yet another. These sorts of damages affect different monsters differently. Many monsters are resistant to fire. Less are resistant to magic. Very few are resistant to poison, however - keep this in mind when dealing with that pesky enemy mage in the back.

Other Commands.


Other Commands

The menu bar at the top of the Exile window provides several other options.

From the File menu, you can save the game. When you select this option, you will be asked to input a name for a file in which Exile will put a snapshot of your current position, from which you can restart later. To restore this saved position, select restore. To chuck it all and start over, select restart.

You can save the game whenever you are outside or in a town or dungeon, and are not in combat or in the middle of casting a spell, looking at something, or some other such activity.

From the options menu, you can turn the sound on and off and change your characters names and graphics. If you select Speed Up, the delays in the game will disappear and everything will go faster. Selecting Slow down from the same menu undoes this. The settings for the sound and speed are saved when you save your party, so you dont need to keep resetting them. Selecting Save Maps has your maps saved in your save file, so you dont need to continuously map and remap the dungeons.

Finally, from the help menu, you can bring up screens with quick summaries of the information in this manual.

Using Items.


Dealing With Items

There are three sorts of possessions you can come across:

Gold:   Well, this isnt actually literal chunks of gold. Exile doesnt use money quite as much as the surface world. The number of gold pieces you are said to have represents the various trade goods, valuable chunks of metal, furs, and other valuable, barterable items you carry around. Anyway, whatever it actually is, its what you buy stuff with. You start with none.

Food:   Preserved giant lizard steaks, dried mushrooms, yummy, tangy lichens, and all the other rich bounty of Exile. Every once in a while you will eat some of it, one unit for each active PC. Not having enough food results in starvation, damage, and bad things.

When getting items, when you hit the get button all gold and food near you are picked up automatically.

Items:   Each PC can carry 12 objects, such as armor, helmets, tools, weapons, etc. You can do various things with these items:

      Equip or Unequip:   To bring an item to hand, click on it on the PCs items page. This has you

put on a suit of armor, wear a helmet, draw a sword, etc. To unequip (i.e. remove) it,

do the same. You only have two hands, and some weapons take up both

of them. You can only wear two rings, and one necklace (too many magic items

interfere with each other in bizarre ways).  Beware. When you equip a cursed

item, you will need to find a healer to take the curse off.

      Give:   To do this, click on the yellow G button to the right of the item. You may

then select a PC to give the item to.

      Use:    Clicking on the blue U button has you use the item, for better or worse.

Most usable items have a limited number of uses (the number in parenthesis

after the name of the item, should the item be equipped). When the last use is

used, the item disappears.

      Drop:   Clicking on the green D button leaves the item on the ground at your feet,

unless youre outdoors. When you drop an item outdoors its gone forever.

Detailed Information on Items:  To find out the details on an item, hit the 'More Info' button of it's owner, then press the button by the item on the 'More Info' screen.

Storing Items:  Too many items to carry around? There are rooms where items can be stored in Silvar and the Castle. It may take some looking and talking to people to figure out where the items can be stored.

Using Magic.


Using Magic

There are seven levels of spells. Your characters begin the game knowing all spells up to third level. They can cast a mage spell of a given level if they have that many spell points, and Intelligence and Mage Spells skill at that level (and the same goes for priest spells). Upon casting, the character loses a number of spell points equal to the level of the spell cast, and something happens.

      Spell effects are cumulative, and build up quickly. If you bless a character twice, the effect will be much more than twice the effect of one bless. When you poison a monster twice, it will do well over twice the damage the first spell would have caused. If one fear spell doesnt make a monster flee, the next one will have a much better chance of working. Casting two light spells makes the light last twice as long.

      Mage spells require great delicacy of movement to cast. For this reason, they cannot be cast when bulky armor is being worn. Priest spells, consisting mainly of shouted prayers, do not have this limitation.

      To find out if an item is bulky, go the to detailed information window of the item (get to this using the owner's 'More Info' button). If the item has an encumberance value of more than 0, it will hinder the caster.

Selecting a Spell:  When you decide to cast a spell, you will get the spell selection window. On this window, you need to select the caster (to the upper left), the spell to cast (from the list of spells in the lower half), and, if necessary, the PC to cast the spell on (to the upper right). Hitting 'Cast' then casts the spell. Hitting 'Cancel' allows you to do something else.

      This winodw only lets you select a caster who can cast mage (or priest) spells.

      If you want to cast a mage spell again, hit capital 'M'. Hit 'P' to recast a priest spell. This will have you try to cast the same spell on the same person (if it is a spell you cast on a PC). If you try this when in town or outdoor mode, the caster stays the same. If in combat, the current PC will attempt to cast the spell (and if this PC is a fighter, it won't work too well).

Mage Spells.

Priest Spells.


Mage Spells

These are the spells available to your mages. A character starts with the first three levels of spells automatically. The higher level spells must be found or bought.

      PCs can cast spells on other PCs regardless of the distance between them. Hostile spells, on the other hand, can only affect monsters sufficiently nearby. When a spells name is followed by R and a number in parenthesis, the number is the maximum distance between the target and the caster for the spell to work.

Level 1:

Light:  Creates a weak light.

Spark:  (R 6)  Fires a weak bolt of electricity at an enemy.

Minor Haste:  Makes the selected PC move faster for a while. Haste spells don't take

effect until the beginning of the next round.

Strength:  Makes the selected PC more skilled for a short time. Works like the priest

spell Bless.

Scare:  (R 6)  Decreases the morale of the victim. Casting this on a weak foe will

make the foe flee.

Level 2:

Minor Poison:  (R 6) Poisons the target creature. This does a fair amount of damage,

but it takes time to happen.

Flame:  (R 8)  Fires a decent-sized bolt of flame at the target. The damage done

increases with the level of the caster.

Slow:  (R 7)  Makes the victim get half its usual number of actions for a while.

Dumbfound:  (R 10)   Makes the victim incompetent: easier to hit, easier to damage,

and less able to attack you.

Envenom:  This spell puts poison on the weapon of the selected PC, with no chance

of failure or accidental poisoning.

Level 3:

Unlock:  Some doors are magically locked, and others are just hard to open. This

spell will crack them. However, it isnt guaranteed to succeed, and wont

work on all doors.

Haste:  Makes the selected PC get twice the usual number of actions for a long time.

Haste spells don't take effect until the beginning of the next round.

Fireball:  (R 12)  Fires a powerful ball of flame, which affects the target space and

every space adjacent. The damage done increases with the level of the caster.

Long Light:  Like the first level light spell, but much more effective.

Fear:  (R 10)  Like scare, but much more powerful.

Level 4:

Poison:  (R 8)  This makes poison run thick in the veins of the target. Repeated

castings will have a devastating effect.

Ice Bolt:  (R 12)  Slams the target with a heavy, pointed bolt of ice. Effective

against monsters who are resistant to fire. Damage increases as level of

caster increases.

Slow Group:  (R 12)  Makes all monsters within a 12 space radius move at half

speed for a time.

Magic Map:  This powerful spell gives you a vision of the entire level. Your map will

show you the entire area. However, to cast this spell requires a sapphire.

Level 5:

Stealth:  This powerful spell makes monsters less likely to see you for a time which

depends on your level. Try casting it before walking through a room

crowded with monsters.

Major Haste:  Gives the entire party double the actions for a time depending on the

level of the caster. Haste spells don't take effect until the beginning of the

next round.

Fire Storm:  (R 14)  This spell is like fireball, but does more damage, and affects

all creatures within two spaces of the space you target. Be careful not to

fry your party!

Dispel Barrier:  In some towns, you will find magical barriers blocking you from

certain areas. This spell will remove them. The chance of success starts

low, but improves with the casters level. Some barriers are harder to

dispel than others, some cannot be dispelled, and it is rumored some

barriers can be walked through.

Level 6:

Major Poison:  (R 8)  This spell makes the targeted monster very poisoned.

This spell does a lot of damage, but it takes time to take effect.

Group Fear:  (R 12)  When cast, the caster begins to radiate a horrible aura of fear.

All monsters within 12 spaces lose a lot of morale. This spell gains

effectiveness rapidly with the level of the caster.

Kill:  (R 6)  The deadly Kill spell deals a devastating blow to one target you select.

Ravage Enemy:  (R 8)  Another effective spell. When cast, all monsters within 8

spaces of the caster are slowed and cursed.

Level 7:

Shockwave:  A dangerous spell. It sends a wave of force out from the caster,

damaging everyone nearby--monsters and PCs. The farther someone is

from the caster, the more damage is taken, out to a radius of 10. Dont

cast this spell in towns, unless you want to fight the guard.

Major Blessing:  When cast, the entire party is blessed and hasted, and has their

weapons mildly poisoned.

Recharge:  A spell of many and varied uses. When cast, you select a wand, staff, or

rod in your possession, and it gains a charge. Unfortunately, there is a

chance of melting the item, which increases with the number of charges

already there.

Protection:  One of the most powerful spells in the mages repertoire. It makes the

whole party temporarily magic resistant, and makes one PC you select

immune to ALL damage for a short time.

Priest Spells.


Priest Spells

As with mage spells, all PCs start with the first three levels of priest spells, and some only work within a certain range.

Level 1:

Minor Bless:  Makes the character harder to hit and take less damage from blows. It

also makes the PC hit more often, and his or her blows do more damage. Its

effects decay with time.

Minor Heal:  Increases the health of the selected PC a small amount, up to the PCs

maximum health.

Weaken Poison:   Reduces the amount of poison running around in the veins of the

selected PC.

Turn Undead:  (R 8)  When cast on an undead creature, it usually does a reasonable

amount of damage to it. It has no effect on non-undead.

Location:  Returns the partys x-y location in the town.

Level 2:

Bless:  Like Minor Bless, but better. Its effect increases with the level of the caster.

Cure Poison:  Like Weaken Poison, but better. Its effect increases with the level of

the caster.

Curse:  (R 10) The opposite of bless. It makes everything work much worse for the

victim, for a time.

Light:  Gives a short, reasonable quality magical light source.

Wound:  (R 5)  Deals a painful blow to the targeted victim. The damage increases

with your level.

Level 3:

Heal:  A much better version of Minor Heal.

Minor Heal All:  Casts one minor heal on each PC.

Holy Scourge:  (R 8)  This spell gives the victim a powerful curse, the effect of

which increases with the level of the caster.

Detect Life:  This spell causes all other living things to appear on your map for a

short  time. Note, however, that this spell only detects creatures in areas

you have explored.

Repel:  (R 10)  Makes the victim very afraid. With luck, it will flee.

Level 4:

Cure All Poison:  Causes everyone to become less poisoned. Useful for dealing with

those nasty swamps.

Curse All:  (R 10)  Causes all monsters within ten spaces to receive a powerful

curse.

Dispel Undead:  (R 8)  Deals a deadly blow to the targeted undead nasty. Chance of

having effect increases with level.

Remove Curse:  Occasionally, you will put on an item which then refuses to be

taken off. Casting this spell has a chance of removing the curse.

Level 5:

Bless Party:  Much like Bless, but affects everyone.

Major Heal:  Works like the Heal spell, but gives much more bang for the spell

points.

Raise Dead:  This spell returns a dead character to life. However, you need to have

Resurrection Balm for the spell to work, and there is a small chance

(decreasing with your level) that it turns the corpse to dust. A dusted

character can only be revived with a Resurrect spell.

Flamestrike:  (R 9)  The first good offensive priest spell. It chars all beings

adjacent to the space you target. The damage done increases with level.

Level 6:

Heal All:  Like the Heal spell, but affects the whole party. Very efficient.

Revive:  This spell heals all damage and cures all poison for one PC.

Ravage Enemy:  (R 10) This spell works similarly to the spell of the same name for

mages, but you select one target and it has a very intense bad effect.

Destone:  Certain rare monsters can turn one of your characters to stone. This

valuable spell undoes the damage.

Level 7:

Revive All:  When cast, the party receives a powerful healing (increasing with level

of the caster) and has poison cured as well.

Ravage Spirit:  (R 4) Demons have a nasty tendency to resist any spells you throw

at them.  This spell gives them a blow which, most of the time, does a lot

of damage. The chance of success increases with the level of the caster.

Resurrect:  Like raise dead, but much more effective, and works on even a dusted

character. It still requires Resurrection Balm to cast.

Divine Thud:  (R 12)  The most powerful offensive priest spell. It delivers a

stunning blow of force to all beings within two spaces of the targeted

space.


Helpful Hints

      Your first choice will be whether to take the prefab party or create one from scratch. Playing with the prefab group is a good way to get used to the game - its intelligently designed with a good mix of skills. When spending skill points, bear in mind that its best to lump all your Alchemy skill on one person, but Mage Lore and Item Lore skill can be spread around.

      When creating a party, its a very good idea to have PCs who can cast level 3 mage and priest spells. Front-line fighters should have at least 3 strength and dexterity, and a weapon skill of (hopefully) 4 or 5, at least.

      Buying Alchemy and Mage Lore can wait awhile. They will eventually be necessary, but not right away.

      On the other hand, buy strength as soon as possible. Otherwise, you won't get much in the way of health when you gain a level.

      Whenever you get a new spell, experiment with it. The spells are designed to be worth the spell points you put into them, and build in effect with repeated castings as well. For example, bless spells, generally underpowered in other games, are extremely powerful in this one. Cast 3 bless spells on one fighter, and watch the havoc. Similarly, if a fear spell doesnt work on a monster, the next fear spell is more likely to make it flee.

      Poison is extremely useful. It will do full damage against many monsters that magic is ineffective against (such as evil mages). Try it on arrows!

      Unlike many computer fantasy games, you cannot rest in dungeons. Pack lots of potions - you will need to have staying power. This is the primary use of alchemy. Also, when resting outdoors, try to find an out-of-the-way nook to do it in. It makes it harder for the wandering monsters to find you.

      Early in the game, lack of gold will be your main problem. Make your purchases carefully, and take advantage of places where the food is cheap (like Silvar). Training is expensive, especially for the skills you need most. It is often a good idea to hang onto your skill points until you have the money to buy the skills you need. For example, Luck skill is cheap, but early on its better to hang on until you get the cash for that next level of Mage Spells skill.

      Finally, below are some tips for getting your party established. Dont read ahead unless you want a few small things given away...

1.  Dont leave Fort Exile without going to Tor and asking him about Supplies. You

wont last long otherwise.

2.  Head due west to Silvar. Buy some nice stone weapons and a bit more food. If

youre feeling adventurous, break into the closed store at the west end of town.

Theres something useful inside. Also, look around carefully in the Hall of Records.

3.  Fort Duvno is a short ways to the north. There, you can find out about the two

introductory dungeons...

4.  There is a bandit fort a little north and about 20 spaces west of Fort Duvno. Be

careful - theyll flank you!

5.  The evil Nephilim are building a fort north of Fort Duvno. Theres some nice

stuff in there.

6.  Looking around carefully will reveal several other interesting things in the area.

Theres rumored to be a cave full of bats...

7.  Finally, when this area gets old, go to Formello (to the north). If you keep your

ears open, you may be able to find a mission there worthy of your skills. It has

something to do with a necklace.

If you get really stuck:  There is a hint booklet available! Its $6.50, from Spiderweb Software. See Shareware Info on the title page to find out where to send the money to.


Hints for Getting Started

Exile can be a rather tricky game to get started in. The foes are many, and the cash is scarce. This is a quick guide for how to get started in a comfortable way, step by step.

First, answers to common questions:

1. How do I attack something?

Move into it.

2. How do I equip a weapon or put on armor/rings/etc.?

Go to that characters inventory page and click on the name of the item. Equipped items are named in italics.

3. I cant figure out talking to people! How do I do it?

Everyone responds to look, name and job. After that, try parroting what they say. If they say in response to job: I like to repair swords. Ask about repair and swords. Characters only respond to one word questions.

4. How do I aim or look at someone offscreen?

Click on the thick gray rectangle around the terrain display to scroll the view.

The rest of this section is excerpted from the hint book, a repository for all manner of useful Exile information. It is a step by step guide to finding all the useful stuff near the beginning of the game. It gives a lot of secrets away. Don't read this unless you're pretty stuck.

This is not a guide for everything you should do early in the game. It only says where the goodies are, not where all the valuable information is. Dont be afraid to take a break from looting to talk to people for a bit.

1. OK. You have a fresh party, standing in the middle of Fort Exile. First, go find Tor, in one of the buildings to the south. Ask him about supplies. He will give you food, gold, and crude weapons.

2. After Fort Exile, go to Silvar. Its due west. Once there, buy a bit more food (its cheap in Silvar), and a few better weapons.

3. Now for the Silvar freebies. Search the bookshelves in the town hall. Youll find a scroll of fireball. Then go to the abandoned shop on the west side of town. Kick down the door, and then go through the door in the south wall. Save the game and keep going through the trap until you get past it with no deaths. Search the crate to get a nice weapon. Then go rest at the inn until youre at full strength. Finally, go through the secret door at the back of the field with the cows. Theres a nice combat there. Its tricky, but the loot is often good.

4. That cleans all the easy goods out of Silvar. Now find Fort Duvno, north of Fort Exile. Talk to people there. Rest up. Its time for your first dungeon.

5. The bandit fort is atop the hill a bit west and a little north of Fort Duvno. First, circle the hill to the south. Youll find a nice weapon. Then enter the bandit fort. There is a third nice weapon in a crate in the blocked off room to the northwest (youll have to find a secret door). Kill all the monsters in whatever way you see fit. There are several chests in their lair. Also, there is a goodie hidden in the mages bookshelf, and there are two chests in a room to the south, guarded by two spirits. You need to enter the room from the east.

6. Now, after training and exploring, go north. To the northeast you will find an abandoned camp. Search the wall nearby. In a secret cave, you will find a supply cache.

7. Now go to the new Nephilim fort, in the north wall of this huge cavern. Fight lots of goblins and Nephilim. There are two very nice things here. First, search for secret doors in the quarters to the very northwest. Youll find some nice loot and a bronze key (very useful later). Then search for secret passages in the room with the lizards to the very southeast. In the secret cave, search the body. The ring you find is a nice item, and worth a lot of cash to boot.

There are other treasures hidden here, but those are the big ones.

8. 	Now, if you feel like, there is one more dungeon in this area - the bat cave. Its down a passage in the northeast corner of this cavern. There are two good treasures, but you have to fight a lot to get to them. After a lot of dead bats and a secret passage or two, you will find a huge lava pool. Look across the lava. The special you will see is a bunch of gold and a potion of Ambrosia (total healing). Walking around the lava you will find an altar with a bunch of gold worth of gems and a pair of magic gauntlets. Its a nice haul, but not necessary to win the game.

By this point, you should have a reasonably powerful party with some nice items and some change. Its time to do some real adventuring.

9. Head north to Formello. Ask the mayor about her necklace. The mission she sends you on is the beginning of great things. Go clean out the three level Nephilim fort to the west. Then onward!


Credits:

Concept, Design, and Programming: Jeff Vogel

Graphics, Design: Shirley Vogel

Opening Screen Graphic:  Tim Phillips

Beta Testers: Ted Hutt, Leonard A. Spinazzola, Nathan Ten million deaths Williams,

    Jackie Ellie Swartz, Sam Condor Howard, Christian Puryear, Brian Glass

AOL testers:  Ssingle348, AlpineX1, Timot74321, MnBsOmega, Barbara658

Special thanks to:

Shirley Vogel - First, she made all the graphics, did most of the testing, and tolerated my neuroses. Second, without her prodding, this game would not exist.

Tim Phillips and Sean Sayrs - The crew from Fantasoft that pulled me on board, sent me sound disks and graphics, provided moral support and the presence of like spirits.

Jackie and Sam - My Exile for Windows beta testing MVPs.

Christopher Tate and Tom Trinko - For always filling my mailbox with huge letters filled with comments. Without them, the game would not be as good.

Richard Garriott (aka Lord British) - For creating the Ultima series, my biggest inspiration.

The makers of Wizard's Crown, Phantasie, Realmz, Might and Magic, Deathlord, and Wizardry (in that order) - For providing good ideas to crib.

Comedy Central - For playing in the background for several hundred of the hours I spent making this. It's playing right now.

BrandtD at AOL - For being my first registrant.

talk.bizarre - For being generally cool.

All my friends - For not killing me when they found out I made them characters in my game.