Magic Sword Game System: Arcade Cheat Category: Hint Game Company: Unknown Game Category: Unknown Hint, Cheat, Walkthrough:   MAGIC SWORD =========== (JEFF LAKE): There are three stages I feel one needs to take to finish the game on one quarter.: 1. FOOD: The duration of your game depends on your vitality and your vitality depends on how much food you can get and there are several tricks to accomplish this. a.) Magic Scroll. Definitely the most important item in the game you could have. Unfortunately you can have it for only 2 levels per find. As stated before it allows better probability of food being dropped from monsters. The scroll is hard to find at the low levels(1-20+) so you have to depend on surviving for a while. The absolute BEST time in the game to have the scroll is, I think, level 33. The level with the swarms of Jellyfish. With average luck and prayers you can get 2 or 3 lobsters, and about 4 or 5 smaller food values like mushrooms and tomatoes. I've managed to get 3 FULL vitality levels(not bars) just from those jellyfish alone! The tough part is acquiring this very lifesaver(Scroll). The only way, besides hoping the ninja on that level has one(100-1), is to acquire one from the previous level, #32. To do this you have to hope and PRAY one of the Samurai gives you one when you kill them. This will not always work. There is however, an alternative way of getting a scroll. Ryan Vurlicer spoke of an alternative path that is more rewarding and more difficult. It is on level 32 of the ALTERNATIVE path that one can be GUARANTEED a magic scroll. The hard part then is keeping it to when you need it for the jellyfish. All those stupid skeletons dropping crystal balls can be a pain. b.) Alternative paths. Take those RED levels!!! Sure they're more harder, but oh, that food at the later levels as well as the points are REALLY nice down the stretch. I can't remember the last game I've played where I have taken the regular route. c.) Earlier Levels. Master those levels! Find every nook and cranie where food can be found. Don't get hit! Build you Vitality! By level 28, I've managed to get 7 FULL vitality levels(not bars). 2. COMPANION CHOICE: Of the 8 different companions to chose from I will list them in the order of which I see is most valuable for survival. 1.) Lizard Man. Best in the game by far. His shot speed along with power makes him ESSENTIAL for certain Bossmonsters. 2.) Thief. His bombs are great but knowing where those randomly placed trapped chests are is a definite boon. Build him from the VERY start. 3.) Knight. Supposedly the best in the game. His shot speed is lacking and the opportunity to increase his levels is awkward and not well placed except at level 48 when he is guaranteed level 8. 4.) The others. Not worth taking EVER unless you want variety or a challenge. Try winning with the priest from ground zero. It's a bitch! 3. POINT MAXIMIZATION: Only through learning the previous 2 steps can this one ever be contemplated. Whenever you find a necklace, grab it! Milk the 2 levels you have it of ALL it's points! Through the use of this, and learning where all the Blue Gems(flames) are you can get scores over 5,000,000. If you include the Diamond, 6 Mil. MIND-BLOWING SCORES FROM HELL: Level 47. That's all there is to it. As long as you have a good amount of vitality(3+) you can grab the necklace and WRECK HAVOK on points. The biggest thing to note is that a necklace is available on this level. Grab it and go back to the platform at the beginning of the level and wait for those wierd things with the floating skulls around them to appear. Give a blast of Magic(hit both buttons). All the skulls turn into 8000 pt coins(16000 if you have the necklace). Repeat until time is running out or you are almost dead. The next level has SOOOO much food you can still easily finish the game. Using this method I've been able to get scores over 8 MILLION! With my personal high being 8,850,000 points. I might add that this is WITHOUT knowing about the 1 mil. diamond and a couple other gems Mr. Vurlicer pointed out. I, therefore, feel scores of 10 million are possible. My quest begins. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Source: MAME v0.33 Strategy Guide - Compiled by Phanatik URL: http://members.tripod.com/~phanatik/index.html