Hints for Xak 1 and 2

GAMES PLAY:
  What the buttons do:
       I:      Jump (ifin an applicaable scene) / Select Menu item
       II:     Attack (turbo off) / Cancel Menu
       Run:    Uses whatever is selected in ITEM A
       Select: Calls up the Menu

  Item:  There are two item blocks, A and B.  Things in "A" generally
need to be used (by pressing the run button), however, tehre are exceptions
(the GREEN Spell, for instance, instead if you have a green speel in Item
A, and come to an appropriate place to use it, you will be asked if you
want to use it or not).  Most things in B work the same way as the
exceptions to "A" above, although there is generally not a question
since "B" items are not of the use once variety.

The Menu is in english, and fairly straight forward.

SPELLS:
  There are 5 spells.
  BLUE - return (most of the time returns you to the last town, but not always)
  RED  - ???
  YELLOW - ???
  GREEN - destroy wall (used only in the caves of Xak 1)
  SILVER - Cure (available only from the Elves in Xak 1, and to be used on
           a twit from the third town)

ITEMS:
  There are scads of items.  These are the less obvious ones.
  Red Cape (A) - cape of healing, allows you to heal anywhere
  Grenade (A) - allows you to open chests after the third town.
  (there are many others, but I either never found a use for them, or they
   are covered below)

HINTS:
1.  Investigate - in order to get out of the city, you will need to talk
to all the townsfolk, as well as search in between the pues in the church.

2.  In the forest area with the "grey cats" - there are three openings,
the upper one leads to the 1st boss, go first to the opening on the left
and speak with the girl.  Take her to the opening on the right in the cat
area, and to the house (answer YES).  Then take girl back to the town
(you will drop her off).  Go back to the house by the Cats and you will
now be able to enter the north area.  After beating the boss, go back to
the house for 1000 Gold.

3.  On your way back to the town, you will encounter another 'injured'
person.  Answer NO to both questions, or it's GAME OVER.  Kill the
resulting insect after the second NO.

4.  You should have enough gold to buy the second set of armor and weapons
in the first town.

5.  Head off toward the Moving (killer) Trees - you can kill the trees (if
you're strong enough).  This leads to the Castle.

6.  The castle has 3 keys peppered throughout it.  Only the last key is
hard to find:
     1.  Upon entering, go left, up - key is visible.
     2.  Hidden in a bookcase (forgot where).
     3.  Eventually you'll find a person in a corner of the room, after
         talking to him, go back to the 3 flames (1F, NE section), and you
         will get a bucket.  Take the bucket (ITEM B) back to this guy and
         you'll get the 3rd Key.

7.  Go back to town and get the 3rd set of armor/weapons.  The castle boss
is nealy impossible to beat without this equipment.

8.  After beating the boss - go back to the one door that you couldn't get
through earlier.  It will now be open.

9.  Move onto the 'lower' area of the forest (where the salamamnders are).
If you continue West, you'll find a bucket that can lower you.  The mayor
of the second town can enable the bucket for you (although, you can jump
over the bucket and "walk" inbetween the wires, so long as you jump over
the bucket at the bottom of the screen as well).  The second town is East,
and then South (through the WATER, watch your HP) of this area.

10.  Go in the bucket, and through the cave.  On the exit of the cave is a
pirate.  After you've spoken to him, go back to the goon hideout (NE of
the pirate exit) and you will find a potion (green) on the upper left
table.  Go ack and give this (ITEM B) to the pirate.  Repeat, the pirate
will give you a key that will allow you to open the chests by the goons
that you couldn't open before.

11.  In the caves, there are 2 hidden doors.  You need to purchase a GREEN
spell (2nd town) to open these doors.  After you've done the first one, you'll
free a prisoner.  You then need to go back to the second town, a demi-boss
will be there for you to beat (he's easy).  Exit the town, then re-enter
to buy another GREEN spell (if needed).  Also talk to the Mayor -- he will
give you "ESP Magic" (round, gold thing -- Item B) which you need.  Go back
to the cave and open the second hidden door.  In this area you will find a
white emblem on the wall.  To open this passageway use the ESP Magic and
a doorway will open up.

12.  In this area you will talk to a "crature" you need to select the
gold-diamond shaped thing [first thing in Item B] and a passage will
open up.

13.  In this area, you will need to repeat the steps in 12.  Past this is
the 3rd boss (the guy in the second town didn't count)

14.  To get past the Monkey Statues - you need to select the RED ORB thing
as Item B.

15.  Repeat the steps from 12.  This will take you to the 3rd town (3T)

16.  There is a cave in the NW section of town -- most of the action takes
place in here for the next little while.  Eventually you'll come to a
stariway that you cannot enter (4F).  Go back down to 2F where the skull
in the middle of the floor was, answer NO, then go back to the stairway -
you will not yet be able to enter it, instead, go South, East, then South
and talk to the Elves in the chest again - they will give you a SILVER spell.
Take this spell to the ghoul on 3F (Item A).  This will cure him.  Go back
to the town (3T) and the boy will be at the firts house on the right.
He will give you a BUNNY?!??!  This bunny as Item B will alow you to proceed
to 5F (however, before you leave town, be sure to buy a BLUE spell [return],
you WILL need it).

17.  On 5F, there is a skeleton, talk to him.  When you enter 7F, there is
a chest that sends you to a prison - you need to do this once, and you
need to have a BLUE spell to get out.  Since you're back in town, you
shoudl buy some of the things that look like grenades.  These (when selected
as Item A) will permit you to open a couple fo the chests in the upper
levels of the cave.

18.  Don't open the chest on 7F again -- it'll do the same thing everytime.
The boss is on 9F.  After you beat him, answer NO, or else your game
is truly over, re-laoding isn't even an option (he asks you if you want
to join him)

19.  Burnland.  There are three sections here, on the first, there is a cave
on the far right of the screen.  Go in and talk to everyone (answer YES),
and you will be given a Blue Cape that protects you from the curtains of
fire in the FIRE CASTLE (beware -- in the FC, there are certain floors
that suck your HP, to help, use the RED CAPE [press run] and jump a lot).

20.  In the FC, on the 2nd floor, upper right, you'll get a red potion,
take this to the girl in the cave.  Also in this room is the Dragon RIng,
but I'm not sure if you can get it now, or have to wait.  It's inbetween
a couple of beds.

21.  On the 1st floor, there is a fireplace in the back, go there 3 times to
eventually extinguish the flames and you will be able to enter the 3rd floor.

22.  On 3F, there is a flame room, you need the Dragon Ring (Item B) - see
number 20 if you don't already have.  Xak becomes a shooter (ala Dragon
Spirit) for a few moments . ..

23.  After you beat the boss, you go to the Temple Puzzle.  Talk to the
dying soldier before hand -- he'll give you the FLAME SWORD.

24.  The goal of the temple puzzle is to utilize each passage once and only
once, and then use the Blue Diamond one last (the Blue Diamond will be
designated as "*" in this file).  The layout of the temples are:

        B  G         E  B
        F  D         G  A

        D  C         G  A
        *  A         E  *

You start in between the "E" and "*" temples (lower right).  One pattern
that works is:  A C B E G F D *

25.  This will take you to the boss of Xak 1, after beating him, it's onto
Xak 2!

26.  Answer YES to the girl on the tree.

27.  Town exits:
            North:    Dock
            East:     Forest
            South:    Fountain
            West:     Ice Cave
East of town, there are 3 stumps that indicate areas that are accessable, so
long as you have the GOLD MASK (Item B).  The middle and right one will
remain open, but the left one (that leads to the city) will have to be
re-opened anytime you want to pass through it.  The first area to go to
is the stump on the Far East (north).

28.  In this area there are 3 caves and one tree that you can enter.  Start
at the left-most cave (with the GOLD MASK), then move to the one on the
far right ("The treehouse.").  Answer YES.

29.  Outside the house, answer YES to the witch -- you can then go back to
the left cave and pass through.

30.  You'll find anotehr cave in this area - in it is a MIRROR.  Take this
mirror (Item B) back to the tree house and you'll get the GOLD MASK back.
Take the mask to the middle stump (27) and go south.

31.  In this area, there is a tree to the far right.  You will need to have
the MIRROR (Item B) to enter it. [note, you may have to go back to town and
talk to a few people before doing this, I tried it, it didn't work, but
later it did. . .?]

32.  This leads to a bridge with holes.  Stepping in a hole is death.  Save
often.

33.  This leads to a forest area with 2 caves.  Forget the left one for now
(also, the pool by the entrance will restore your Magic) and instead go into
the right one.  In the caves, there are pools.  Standing in these will
replenish your HP.  You'll eventually come across a goon's bedroom.  Search
it carefully [left side] and you'll get a key.

34.  In the back of the cave, you'll find doors that cost 10G to open.  Do
it.  Behind the first one is a boss.  If you are at level 33 (and have
FORCE ON), he's a breeze to beat.

35.  Continuing on, you'll coe to 3 doors (with little wings).  The first
two (left & middle) are red herrings.  The right one leads to a boss (FORCE
ON, again).

36.  After beating the boss in 35, go left and search the bedroom, talk to
the girl.  She can make the chest on the right take you out of this cave, and
into the otehr one (if you'd taken the other entry mentioned in 33).  Your
main goal here is to get the girl back to the treehouse, and then to town
(Gold Mask needed to activate the stump).

37.  After returning the girl to town, return to the cave (the one one the
left).  You'll need to key for one door, and also, there is an area with
two pools (one north of the other), to the east of these is a candle and
cape.  You will get something here.  Go back to town.

38.  The priest in the church will give you 10000G -- the Nun on the right
will restore your MP for 100G.  Speak to everyone in town.

39.  The west exit will now be available to you.

40.  After crossing the lower bridge, do NOT take the first exit to the left,
instead, head north and talk to the people in the house -- they will ask if
you can rescue their daughter (Of course!), and will give you EAR MUFFS.
go to the exit on the lower left now.

41.  ICE CAVE:  The ear muffs (Item b) will permit you to go through doorways
that you aren't able to without them.  You'll need to find the KEY (it's
in the NE corner of a floor, but I forgot which one).  The Key will
enable you to use the elevator (strange thing on the West side of every
floor -- see 42).  On one floor, you will see four chests in the middle
of the room, with no visible path.  To get them, simply walk through the
wall directly North of this 'room' and you'll walk right through the wall.

42.  The boss of the ICE CAVE is in the middle floor (lower left selection
on the elevator menu).  Hie floor is very different from the other floors.
(Level 39, FORCE ON and he's pretty easy so long as you take the offensive).

43.  Go back to town.  Talk to the people in the bar, then go talk to the
Nun on the left in the church.  Exit town to the South (the fountain).
Answer YES to the old man.

44.  SKY CASTLE:  The castle has 2 parts (right and left).  They are
'connected' via a "Tree Stump Bridge" (on 3F).  Clear out as much of the
right side as possible (there is a nother demi-boss on the top floor [4F?]
of the right side) before moving to the left (you need to have a shield
looking object, kind of looks like an old VW logo).

45.  The bridge is a PAIN to cross (you will want to save often).  It
took me a while to figure it out -- the key is to not think of the logs
as being different heights, but rather that they zig zag (are not in a
straight line) -- have different North/South co-ords.  To make most of
the jumps, you will need to move the controller up and down as well as
left (and right?).

(see below for info on the Sky Castle, there are a few mysteries here
that have yet to be revealed)

46.  Left Sky Castle:  The 3rd and 5th floors have "Mouseholes" - let the
VW thing be Item B and you will be able to enter them (in fact on 5F you
will need to do this).  However, go down first (down to the basement),
the boss is on 9F, and once you beat him, you will be transported back to
town.  On 5F, there is a force field on the right, the mousehole will
allow you to get to the otehr side.  8F is poisonous (like the floors
in the Fire Castle), but here, the entire floor is deadly.  Use your
healing cape and Jump through as much of this level as you can (I put
the I-button turbo ON until I reached the UP stairs).

47.  After you've beaten the boss, you'll end up back in town - talk to
everyone (including the weapons guy, and the magic guy, in that order),
then exit town to the north (boat).

48.  On the ship, go below the deck and talk to the sick girl, then go
talk to the captain.  You then go underneath again and talk to everyone.
Go up -- goons will be on board, kill them and talk to the people on deck.
One of them will transport you and he down below.  This will happen 2
more times (the last time, talk to the captiain).  Then, go up to the
bow (north) and you will encounter yet another boss.  After beating the
boss, you'll end up on a Sandy Island.

49.  Talk to the Hag - she will disappear.  North of here is an area that
you will not be able to pass unless you have the thing that looks like
a stack of newspapers selected as Item B.

50.  THE TOWERS (left and right):  Do the right one first - stand in front
of a falcon statue to active the "teleport" door (Blue Door).  In order to
use the teleporter you need to have the MIRROR selected as Item B.  These
aren't too tricky and when you get to the end, just back track to get out.
After you've finished the right tower, go back to where the Hag was, and
there is a plank of wood there - search and you will get a Gold Key (or
soemthing).

51.  Proceed to the Left tower.  Operates the same as the right.  At the end
of this tower you'll come to a room with 3 teleportes in the shape of an
inverted "T".  The lower ones just return you, the upper one takes you
to the FLAME SWORD.  However, the MIRROR will not get you there, the GOLD
KEY (Item B) will.  DO NOT RETURN TO THIS ROOM!  Once the sword has been
removed, there is no other way out!

52.  You are now outside of the towers, EQUIP the FLAME SWORD and get ready
or the last few bosses.  Move to the upper left area (between the two
towers), and you'll be swiched to that shooter mode again.  SAVE BEFORE
HAND as the last guy you need to kill is tricky (even if you're fully
pwered up).

53.  You are now at the entrance to the last boss.  He is VERY EASY to beat
when fully powered up, so use your HEALING CAPE to restore HP before
going in.

Sky Castle Extra (from Steve Sidler):
   First, I crossed that tree log bridge at least 12 times..got so good
 at it that I didn't even have to save it between jumps! When you first
 enter the castle, I went right as you said. On 2F I found a mousehole
 and got a cane-like item (B list). Went into left door (left of Big Red
 Door) and found a switch on wall. Used cane-like item, and in a room
 south of the switch, a ladder appeared (after some sound effects). I
 could not exit down ladder. Crossed tree log bridge (tlb) and found
 similar switch and used cane-like item and another hole with ladder
 appeared in a southern room from switch room. Also, my cane-like item
 disappeared. I used the bomberman-like item and was allowed access into
 hole. This item is an underwater suit and proceeded underway (the blue
 that you can see is really water). Found a giant crab, couldn't do
 anthing with it and got to a room with 3 skeletons. Killed them and a
 could not enter door. Went back over tlb and went down other hole.
 Passed another giant crab..nothing..then met someone in a room. He gave
 me a gold mace-like item (B list). Returned to skeleton with locked
 door. Got in using gold mace. In here was a shrine/altar. Got my MP
 restored, along with a letter/note item (B list). I don't know what to
 do with this. NOTHING (including the cane-like item, letter, and BM suit)
 worked on the red door. I could not get into it either...dang!  Also,
 could not get the crabs to do anything with any item I tried. 
 (if anyone has any additional info on these areas PLEASE let me know
 so that I can add the info here)

Have fun, and enjoy!.

-bt garner