Shadowguard
Written by: Silvana (endless thanks)
Shadowguard is a series of encounters inside Minax's castle in the Valley of Eodon. You can attempt these encounters solo or in a party. There are 5 rooms of varying difficulty that must be completed. Double click the "enchanting crystall ball" in the great hall to open the room menu. From there you can see your current progress and travel to the rooms.
"The Shadowguard rooms are designed like puzzles. If you get stuck somewhere, read on."
THE ROOMS
There are 5 rooms and you can enter them in any order you like. Rooms shown in red are the ones you still have to complete; the ones in green are the ones you have already finished. You can repeat rooms you have completed as often as you like, but it gains you nothing. To reach the roof you have to complete all 5 rooms successfully.
To go in as a group you need to form a party. Only the party leader can use the crystal ball and pick the room to travel to. Room difficulty scales with the number of people in the party (more creatures).
From the moment you enter a room you have a 30 minute time limit to complete it (the roof is the exception). When the time limit is reached, everyone in the room is teleported back into the castle where the crystal ball is. The same happens if your whole party dies. There is an Ankh near the crystal ball you can use to resurrect after a failed encounter. If you want to leave a room for any reason, click on your character and pick "Exit Shadowguard" from the menu.
THE BAR
You are teleported into a bar with tables covered in beer bottles. Pirates attack in 4 waves. These pirates have damage reflection, so the damage you deal comes back at you. You can attack normally, and you can also use the bottles on the tables next to you. Put the bottles in your backpack, double click them and try to hit the pirates. A successful hit does 300 damage. 4 bottles are enough to kill a normal pirate. There is a risk that you drink the bottle instead, or break it and hurt yourself. The bottles respawn on the tables once every 60 seconds.
Once the normal pirates are down, Shanty the Pirate appears. He is stronger and faster than the earlier pirates, but he has no damage reflection. The bottles work on Shanty too.
Tactics
* Your pets or summons can be used to distract the pirates
* If the enemy is below 32% health, "Word of Death" damage will not be reflected back at you.
* Provocation is extremely valuable here.
THE ORCHARD
You are teleported to an area with 16 apple trees. In the northern part you find the corpse of an adventurer, nothing left but bones. Inside the corpse there is a worn book.
It reads:
“At last I have found it… this vile orchard is the key to Minax's magic!... all these days trapped inside this tower… I dare not take the fruit among the leaves, for I know not what it may bring… my hunger grows… I am so hungry, I must take one… *rustle!* Vile fruit!... What is this? Why did this horrid creature appear when I plucked this vile fruit!... I hope I can fight it off…”
The goal is to destroy every tree. Double click a tree trunk to pick an apple. The apple appears in your backpack named after a Virtue or a Dungeon. The apple lasts 30 seconds and must be thrown at the tree of the opposing pair. Each tree is randomly assigned to represent a virtue or a dungeon. Double click the apple and throw it at a different tree (target the trunk).
There are two possible outcomes:
*Success - Your throw releases powerful magic and destroys the tree! Both the tree you took the apple from and the tree you threw it at are destroyed.
*Failure – Your throw seems to have sprung a trap! One Treefellow appears for each person in the orchard. The same thing happens if the apple expires (the apple has a 30 second lifetime).
Tactics
Use a piece of paper to note down which kind of apple each tree gives. After a few tries this lets you work out where each matching tree is.
Do not attack the Treefellows under any circumstances (summons included). Attacking them only slows you down. They move very slowly, so you can simply carry on and ignore them.
THE ARMORY
The rooms and halls are full of statues. After a short while, warriors carrying Halberds start appearing in the rooms. Usually, when a warrior is killed, a black bottle called a “Corrupt Phylactery” drops on the ground and lasts 60 seconds. Pick the bottle up and go to the “Purifying Flames” in the middle of the hall. Double click the bottle and target the flames.
You now have a “Purified Phylactery” in your backpack. Walk up to a statue wearing gold cursed armor, double click the bottle in your backpack and target the statue (targeting the lower part of the statue is easier). The statue is destroyed. Repeat this for every gold statue and the room is complete.
Tactics
*One person fights the warriors while the other deals with the statues.
* Move the party into a room where all the statues have already been destroyed.
THE FOUNTAIN
The large pool has to be drained, otherwise it overflows and nasty water elementals come out. When the water elementals die they drop canal pieces on the ground. Your goal is to use those scattered canal pieces to connect the pool to the 4 drains with golden taps. Lay the pieces out so that the pool empties into the drains.
Once the canals are laid out, double click the golden tap to drain the pool. If the canals aren't lined up correctly a “Hurricane Elemental” appears. Worse still, some of the canal pieces you placed get damaged. Make sure the canals are in the right positions before you open the tap.
Once all 4 drains have run, no water is left in the pool and the room is complete.
Tactics
• More than one canal can be connected to the same drain.
• If you are short on straight pieces, zigzag your way along with corner pieces.
• The elementals are weak, but if you don't kill them quickly they can put you out of action in no time.
• Bring spare bags or something else to store canal pieces in so you can keep them organized
• Canal pieces cover the whole floor and get in the way of your movement. Pick them all up as fast as you can.
THE BELFRY
The first thing you notice in the room is the Greater Dragon on the platform in the center. Be careful: it breathes fire on you and casts a variety of spells. On the far east of the area there are a pair of feeding bells. Double click these bells and nasty drakes appear. When you kill them there is a chance their corpses contain enchanted drake wings. When you use a wing you are teleported onto the platform and fight the greater dragon. A wing only teleports 1 person and you have 1 minute up there, so it is not possible to collect wings and teleport everyone at the same time. The greater dragon on the platform is no ordinary greater dragon: it has 10,000 hit points. During the fight the dragon periodically pushes one target (player, pet or summon) off the platform. If you fall off the platform you have to find another drake wing.
Tactics
• Give the drake wings to the melee fighters first and let them start the fight.
• Don't forget to bring dragon Slayer weapons.
• It is tricky, but mystics and mages can drop summons on the corners of the platform. They can also use the disco skill from outside the platform and heal the people up there.
• Tamers can get their dragons onto the platform without using a drake wing. To do it, park the dragon in the southeast corner, then move to the northwest corner and call it to you a few times. The dragon's ability to fly can let it climb up from the corner. Keeping it up there and getting it to attack can be tricky at times.
THE ROOF
Once you have completed all 5 rooms you can enter this one. Your final encounter takes place in this large room with a small balcony in the middle. The sorceress Minax stands beside a corrupted time rift from which 4 warrior commanders emerge. She pulls the attacks of players standing near her onto herself, takes no damage at all and does not fight you.
When you first enter the room, every player is attacked by Minax before the first warrior appears. The order in which the warriors show up is completely random. All of them must be killed to complete the room. Remember, there is no time limit in this room.
THE LEGENDS
The commanders, or legends, that must be destroyed:
• Juo'nar the Lich
• Virtuebane
• Ozymandias the Lord of Castle Barataria
• Anon the Mage
After the last warrior falls, Minax is furious with you, curses you and blows up the time rift. Gold bursts out of the fourth warrior's corpse the way it does on a champion kill, and various goods are inside the corpse. Remember, you have 5 minutes to pick up the gold and the loot from the corpse!
Tactics
• If tamers get their pets onto the warriors quickly, the fight can end before the warrior gets summons out. For this tactic to work, no player may attack the warrior directly.
• The disco skill works on 3 of the warriors -- all except Virtuebane.
• Don't attack Anon while he is in elemental form, or he will just keep healing himself.
• Avoid fighting close to Minax, or she will pull your pets' and summons' attacks onto herself.
REWARDS
Shadowguard is a series of encounters inside Minax's castle in the Valley of Eodon. You can attempt these encounters solo or in a party. There are 5 rooms of varying difficulty that must be completed. Double click the "enchanting crystall ball" in the great hall to open the room menu. From there you can see your current progress and travel to the rooms.
"The Shadowguard rooms are designed like puzzles. If you get stuck somewhere, read on."
THE ROOMS
There are 5 rooms and you can enter them in any order you like. Rooms shown in red are the ones you still have to complete; the ones in green are the ones you have already finished. You can repeat rooms you have completed as often as you like, but it gains you nothing. To reach the roof you have to complete all 5 rooms successfully.
To go in as a group you need to form a party. Only the party leader can use the crystal ball and pick the room to travel to. Room difficulty scales with the number of people in the party (more creatures).
From the moment you enter a room you have a 30 minute time limit to complete it (the roof is the exception). When the time limit is reached, everyone in the room is teleported back into the castle where the crystal ball is. The same happens if your whole party dies. There is an Ankh near the crystal ball you can use to resurrect after a failed encounter. If you want to leave a room for any reason, click on your character and pick "Exit Shadowguard" from the menu.
THE BAR
You are teleported into a bar with tables covered in beer bottles. Pirates attack in 4 waves. These pirates have damage reflection, so the damage you deal comes back at you. You can attack normally, and you can also use the bottles on the tables next to you. Put the bottles in your backpack, double click them and try to hit the pirates. A successful hit does 300 damage. 4 bottles are enough to kill a normal pirate. There is a risk that you drink the bottle instead, or break it and hurt yourself. The bottles respawn on the tables once every 60 seconds.
Once the normal pirates are down, Shanty the Pirate appears. He is stronger and faster than the earlier pirates, but he has no damage reflection. The bottles work on Shanty too.
Tactics
* Your pets or summons can be used to distract the pirates
* If the enemy is below 32% health, "Word of Death" damage will not be reflected back at you.
* Provocation is extremely valuable here.
THE ORCHARD
You are teleported to an area with 16 apple trees. In the northern part you find the corpse of an adventurer, nothing left but bones. Inside the corpse there is a worn book.
It reads:
“At last I have found it… this vile orchard is the key to Minax's magic!... all these days trapped inside this tower… I dare not take the fruit among the leaves, for I know not what it may bring… my hunger grows… I am so hungry, I must take one… *rustle!* Vile fruit!... What is this? Why did this horrid creature appear when I plucked this vile fruit!... I hope I can fight it off…”
The goal is to destroy every tree. Double click a tree trunk to pick an apple. The apple appears in your backpack named after a Virtue or a Dungeon. The apple lasts 30 seconds and must be thrown at the tree of the opposing pair. Each tree is randomly assigned to represent a virtue or a dungeon. Double click the apple and throw it at a different tree (target the trunk).
There are two possible outcomes:
*Success - Your throw releases powerful magic and destroys the tree! Both the tree you took the apple from and the tree you threw it at are destroyed.
*Failure – Your throw seems to have sprung a trap! One Treefellow appears for each person in the orchard. The same thing happens if the apple expires (the apple has a 30 second lifetime).
| Virtue | Compassion | Honor | Honesty | Humility | Justice | Sacrifice | Spirituality | Valor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vice | Despise | Shame | Deceit | Pride | Wrong | Covetous | Hythloth | Destard |
Tactics
Use a piece of paper to note down which kind of apple each tree gives. After a few tries this lets you work out where each matching tree is.
Do not attack the Treefellows under any circumstances (summons included). Attacking them only slows you down. They move very slowly, so you can simply carry on and ignore them.
THE ARMORY
The rooms and halls are full of statues. After a short while, warriors carrying Halberds start appearing in the rooms. Usually, when a warrior is killed, a black bottle called a “Corrupt Phylactery” drops on the ground and lasts 60 seconds. Pick the bottle up and go to the “Purifying Flames” in the middle of the hall. Double click the bottle and target the flames.
You now have a “Purified Phylactery” in your backpack. Walk up to a statue wearing gold cursed armor, double click the bottle in your backpack and target the statue (targeting the lower part of the statue is easier). The statue is destroyed. Repeat this for every gold statue and the room is complete.
Tactics
*One person fights the warriors while the other deals with the statues.
* Move the party into a room where all the statues have already been destroyed.
THE FOUNTAIN
The large pool has to be drained, otherwise it overflows and nasty water elementals come out. When the water elementals die they drop canal pieces on the ground. Your goal is to use those scattered canal pieces to connect the pool to the 4 drains with golden taps. Lay the pieces out so that the pool empties into the drains.
Once the canals are laid out, double click the golden tap to drain the pool. If the canals aren't lined up correctly a “Hurricane Elemental” appears. Worse still, some of the canal pieces you placed get damaged. Make sure the canals are in the right positions before you open the tap.
Once all 4 drains have run, no water is left in the pool and the room is complete.
Tactics
• More than one canal can be connected to the same drain.
• If you are short on straight pieces, zigzag your way along with corner pieces.
• The elementals are weak, but if you don't kill them quickly they can put you out of action in no time.
• Bring spare bags or something else to store canal pieces in so you can keep them organized
• Canal pieces cover the whole floor and get in the way of your movement. Pick them all up as fast as you can.
THE BELFRY
The first thing you notice in the room is the Greater Dragon on the platform in the center. Be careful: it breathes fire on you and casts a variety of spells. On the far east of the area there are a pair of feeding bells. Double click these bells and nasty drakes appear. When you kill them there is a chance their corpses contain enchanted drake wings. When you use a wing you are teleported onto the platform and fight the greater dragon. A wing only teleports 1 person and you have 1 minute up there, so it is not possible to collect wings and teleport everyone at the same time. The greater dragon on the platform is no ordinary greater dragon: it has 10,000 hit points. During the fight the dragon periodically pushes one target (player, pet or summon) off the platform. If you fall off the platform you have to find another drake wing.
Tactics
• Give the drake wings to the melee fighters first and let them start the fight.
• Don't forget to bring dragon Slayer weapons.
• It is tricky, but mystics and mages can drop summons on the corners of the platform. They can also use the disco skill from outside the platform and heal the people up there.
• Tamers can get their dragons onto the platform without using a drake wing. To do it, park the dragon in the southeast corner, then move to the northwest corner and call it to you a few times. The dragon's ability to fly can let it climb up from the corner. Keeping it up there and getting it to attack can be tricky at times.
THE ROOF
Once you have completed all 5 rooms you can enter this one. Your final encounter takes place in this large room with a small balcony in the middle. The sorceress Minax stands beside a corrupted time rift from which 4 warrior commanders emerge. She pulls the attacks of players standing near her onto herself, takes no damage at all and does not fight you.
When you first enter the room, every player is attacked by Minax before the first warrior appears. The order in which the warriors show up is completely random. All of them must be killed to complete the room. Remember, there is no time limit in this room.
THE LEGENDS
The commanders, or legends, that must be destroyed:
• Juo'nar the Lich
• Virtuebane
• Ozymandias the Lord of Castle Barataria
• Anon the Mage
After the last warrior falls, Minax is furious with you, curses you and blows up the time rift. Gold bursts out of the fourth warrior's corpse the way it does on a champion kill, and various goods are inside the corpse. Remember, you have 5 minutes to pick up the gold and the loot from the corpse!
Tactics
• If tamers get their pets onto the warriors quickly, the fight can end before the warrior gets summons out. For this tactic to work, no player may attack the warrior directly.
• The disco skill works on 3 of the warriors -- all except Virtuebane.
• Don't attack Anon while he is in elemental form, or he will just keep healing himself.
• Avoid fighting close to Minax, or she will pull your pets' and summons' attacks onto herself.
REWARDS
Source: Quingis UO