phoenix/hints/solutions/Fyleet_walkthrough.txt

                              Walkthrough for

                                   Fyleet

                           by Jonathan Partington

                           Written by Richard Bos


A few notes, first.

One, make no mistake: this is a Phoenix game, and that means it's hard and in
places capricious and unfair. You can die easily. You can lose or destroy a
necessary tool just as easily. Save often, and keep _all_ your save files until
you've finished the game. Although Fyleet is not as random as Philosopher's
Quest, if you want a less demanding game, try the same author's shorter Hamil
or Murdac, or Crobe.
Two, the parser is limited, but good. I have not found any place where using
prepositions or indirect objects ("hit tree with axe") is necessary or even
possible. By contrast, the game is good at giving you less to type. If there is
only one object, simply "get" will take it; if there are several, it will
assume the first one listed. Ditto for "drop", which will drop the first object
in your inventory; and ditto for several other verbs. "Get all" is provided
for, as well. Multiple objects (as in "get bread, cheese, and butter") are not,
though.
Three, this is an old-fashioned game. There are a lot of puzzles which you can
only realistically be expected to solve by dying first, sometimes more than
once. Often, your dying message will advise you on how to avoid that death;
sometimes, it will even give you a hint for another problem altogether. Since
this is a single walkthrough, such hints will not be found here. I'll just
present you with the correct solutions, omitting the process you could have
used to discover them. If this spoils the game for you, well, such is the risk
of reading walkthroughs. By the way, if you don't want to be spoiled quite so
drastically, you should find a ZCode file with hints for individual puzzles in
the same place where you found this document.
Finally, these notes are for the ZCode version generated from the original
Phoenix source, which is available at the IF Archive. I do not know whether it
works for other versions, as well, or even if any exist.


To start the game, give your name. What you choose doesn't matter, since you
won't be asked to refer to it again yourself. Next answer "y" if you want to
read the back story. It's not very relevant, but it does give a hint as to
where you might find aid.

We enter the game proper by getting one tricky object, and our trusty but
annoying sword, and put them to good use.
Go south, get all, and turn the lamp on - you do the latter by just entering
"on". Unusually, we won't need to worry about it again - it won't run out. Go
south again (ignore the phoenix for now), then east, and take the mat. This is
the tricky object: you need to be careful where you leave it, lest it disappear
on you. More on that later. For now, go back west, north twice, and east. Drop
the mat and pray.
Take all, go west, and wait for the sword to turn blue. Then go west. If the
sword has changed colour again, go back east, wait for it to turn blue, and go
west; repeat until you have a turn in the clearing while it is blue. Then kill
the scarecrow with it. Dig twice - you don't need a spade.
Get all, then go east, then south five times. This is a central location; we
will make it our base of operations. Drop the orb, accordion and scarecrow
here. Go south, get water (in the bottle), then go north, nw and west. Throw
the water. Go west, wait for your sword to turn pink (no need to be as careful
here as with the scarecrow), and kill the plant.
Go west, get the fish, east thrice, se, west - ignore that knight for now - and
west again. Drop the mat, pray, and retrieve the mat. Go south, get the ring,
north, west. Shake the gate (rare mercy!), go west, take the amber, and go east
four times.
Go sw. This is a shrine to Hurgenpor, who if you've read the instructions
you'll know is your own deity; and you'll have noticed that the mat is a prayer
mat, apparently also dedicated to that god. It will be safe to leave it here.
Leave it almost anywhere else, though, and it will disappear behind your back
(Hurgenpor is either very popular or not very constant). It won't disappear
from the same location you are in, and there are a few other spots where you
can leave it, but I wouldn't rely on that. That mat is important.
Therefore, drop the mat (for safety), the sword (because those colour-changing
messages will soon start to annoy), and, because this shrine doubles as the
traditional "treasure drop-off point" (presumably you're offering them to
Hurgenpor) also the fish and the amber. Go ne to our base camp, and drop the
bottle here. We'll be needing it again later.

Now we're off to collect some of the low-hanging fruit, the easy, stand-alone
puzzles. Go north thrice and wear the ring - this must happen here. Go back
south three times and ne, get the ruby, sw twice, and drop the ring and the
ruby.
Go ne and east, drop everything, east, and wave your hands. Get all (and don't
read that book!), west, get all, west. Drop the chair (which is a treasure, but
also an object we'll use later on) and the book, take the orb, go south three
times and take the duster. Go north twice and drop the orb here. The orb is
what allows you to walk on the lake, and we'll be back.
Go north four times, west, nw and north. Take inventory. The sign will have
changed: instead of a message mentioning Carmel Sprout, it will bear a phrase
which is an anagram of one of the eight compass directions. Go in that
direction. For example, if it says "STEW US HOT", go southwest. Repeat this,
taking inventory and following the sign, until you reach the centre. Take the
tusk, go east, take inventory again, and go in any other direction than that
mentioned to leave the warren. Drop the sign.
Go west twice. Throw your lamp - which will remain miraculously undamaged - and
retrieve it. Go west, get the sapphire, east twice and south. Dust the mirror.
A magic word will appear. Enter it as your command. Notice that in here, you'll
see a new magic word. Take the bust, then enter the new word - backwards! By
the way, you'll note that all letters used in either word are horizontally
symmetrical, so they can reasonably be read in a mirror.
Go west, sw, and nw, and take the portrait. Now go all the way back se, ne
twice, east, se, east, south thrice and sw. Drop the portrait, sapphire,
tusk and bust, go ne, and drop the duster here.
Go nw and north, get the staff, and without wasting many turns go south, se
twice, and south, and drop it. Go north and se (and note that this is no place
to dawdle - we'll be back later), and east. Take the broom, and go west, nw,
and south. The staff will have turned into a snake - this is the only safe
place for it to do so.
Take the snake, which is now completely harmless, go north and nw, and drop it.
(By the way, I'm using the word "it" in this walkthrough; the game doesn't
understand it, but then, you can get the same effect using simply "drop"!)
Go nw and west, sweep the floor, open the trapdoor, go down, and get the
candlestick. Go back up, east, se and sw, drop the candlestick, go ne, and drop
the broom.

Next is a semi-maze. It's not really a maze, but the actions of its denizens
make it one. It's also, in my opinion, a lot fairer and more interesting than
both main real mazes in the game.
Get the bottle and accordion, south, get some water, north, sw, get the mat,
and go ne, west twice, and south twice. This is the area in question. Those
giants throw rocks, and they'll hit you if you are too close, too close being
within two rooms' distance, rounded down. That means that, if the blue giant is
about to throw, you must move to (or stay in) one of the three rooms closest to
the south-eastern corner; and to evade the red giant's rocks, near the north-
eastern one. This is always possible, but it takes exact timing.
Go se. This is the east edge of the room, which is always safe to remain in, as
neither giant can reach it. Note the red giant about to throw - the north
corner will now be safe, so go north. Make a note of the word on the wall (and
note also that this is the Giants' Word, as there will be more magic words
later on). Go south to safety. Drop the mat, pray, and get all. The blue giant
should be about to throw (if not, wait a turn), so go sw, then south out of
this area.
Go south. Read the papers, then play the accordion. Take inventory to see that
Bacchus has done something appropriate. Drop the accordion, which we won't use
again. Go north, get the colander, go west twice, and note the chant. If you
can read music, you'll notice that it spells a word. If not, well, each O
stands for a note, which stands for a letter from A to G. There are exactly as
many letters in the chant as there are Os, and the word can only be one of
three: BEEF, BADGE or CABBAGE. The number of Os alone, therefore, tells you
which chant is sung, even if you can't read music. Needless to say, make a note
of this word as well.
Go back east twice, north and ne, wait one turn for the right giant to throw,
then go nw, north twice, east twice, and se twice. Take the helmet - thanks,
Bacchus! Go nw twice and sw, and drop the mat safely, then ne, and drop the
colander and bottle. Wear the helmet, go nw, west and up, get the hay, and go
down, east and se. Drop the helmet - we'll need it again.

Go south, get the orb, south, and drop the orb here. We'll see soon why it's
not wise to carry it around this time. Go south and west, take the parrot, east
and north, and drop it. Take the orb. Notice the parrot's squawk - if it does
that two turns in a row, Bad Things happen. Luckily, it only does it when
you're carrying the orb, not when it's lying on the floor. Therefore,
immediately go north, and drop it. Ah, but now how are we going to get back
across, now, to retrieve the parrot? We're not - it is coming to us. Look up
the magic word you found on the wall in the giants' room, and enter it as your
command. Hey presto! Get the parrot, and notice how it does nothing while
you're carrying _it_ but the orb is just lying here.
With the parrot, go north thrice and east. This is a wishing well. Drop the
parrot, wish, and choose wish G - floating like a feather. Enter the parrot's
word again, and retrieve it, cheating the well of its payment! (In fact, you
could do this again and again, getting all wishes - consecutively, not
concurrently - but you only need it this once. This is unusual clemency in a
Phoenix game - I'd have made sure it worked only once...)
Go west, south twice and sw, and drop that dangerous parrot. Then go ne and
take the duster, go north thrice and get the phoenix, then go north and east.
This would've killed you without the wish. Dig, bandage the gnome, and dig
again.
Go east, ne, take the plate (See? No need for more wishes!), sw, se, south
twice, take the opal, and back north. The reason this room seems wrong is that
there is a hidden exit, but I don't know where it is. It could be in any
compass direction not already mentioned, so just try going east, west, ne, nw,
se, sw until something happens.
Go up twice, south and west, get the wand, go east and south. Throw the phoenix
into the abyss. Make a note of the word it squawks. (I think all possibilities
were OS commmands on the original Phoenix system, but I'm not sure, and at any
rate it isn't relevant to the game.) Go south and jump down, then go west, nw
twice, drop the hay and the wand, sw, drop the plate and opal, and go back ne.

Now for the first real maze. It's a nasty one, and we need to go past it twice.
Take the colander, chair, scarecrow and wand. Go north twice and south. The
statue should speak a riddle, the solution to which is a magic word we need
soon. If it doesn't, keep going back north and south until it does. Then go
south, west and sw into the maze.
Here's why this maze is a stinker: while in here, you will occasionally drop or
attempt to pick up a random object (which makes mapping a pain), or - which is
worse - move to a random adjacent room. The remedy for the first two is simple:
whenever you drop something, immediately pick it up, and when you randomly try
to pick something up, just ignore it. The solution to the wandering... well,
let me quote the original author of the game:
  "To get to the south end of the maze, go NW, NE, SE, NE, NW, E, W, SW, S.
   Some of these will tell you that you can't go in that direction - ignore
   this. If you become confused and wander into another room, restart the
   sequence at the beginning."
What a palaver... Luckily, the chances of wandering are not _that_ high, and
the maze is not large. Also, when you drop or pick up something randomly, you
don't wander about that turn. Therefore, you just might get through the maze on
your first try. And therefore, my advise is this: first try to just run through
the maze, going east, east, north, sw, south, not forgetting to retrieve what
you drop. If that works, all well and good. If not, try the solution given in
the quotation above.
Once out of the maze, go west, drop the scarecrow, and enter the solution to
the statue's riddle: peach. Then go west thrice, get the ikon (the more
traditional spelling "icon" works as well), and go east five times. Drop
everything, then take the colander and go se.
This is an interesting area. The two objects in the northmost two rooms need to
be swapped, but you can't have two objects in the same room, not even if one is
in your possession. The problem is that with the topology of the place, this is
simply not possible. There must be a trick... and there is.
I'll give the moves needed in a compact notation, because it's essentially a
block puzzle: se, se, get heart, nw, drop, nw, e, get sunglasses, s, drop, nw,
nw, get spleen, e, drop, s, nw, get heart, nw, drop, se, se, get sunglasses,
nw, drop, nw, s, get toe, e, drop, nw.
Get sunglasses, wear sunglasses. Aha! There's the trick. sw, drop, n, get
heart, se, drop, se, w, get sunglasses, n, drop, se, se, get toe, w, drop, e,
nw, get heart, se.
Back outside, go up, get (this command works in the dark - or you could have
taken your lamp before climbing up, but you don't need to), down, get all, drop
the wand (which we don't need any more), go west, and north back into that
rotten maze.
Follow the same procedure as last time: first try going sw, se, east, se,
north, and if that doesn't work, try the official hint:
  "To get to the north end of the maze, do the same, except that the
   sequence of directions is SW, NE, S, SE, NW, SW, NW, S, N."

Whew! Out of the maze, go east and sw. Drop the chair, jacinths and bone. Get
your mat, go ne, and take the snake as well. Go west and sw, and through the
maze again: east, east, north, sw, south; and/or follow the same hint as the
first time. Go se and sw.
Here you notice a fare, in groats. You'll have seen a number of coins (and one
note) to the north of here. Their values are: the token is worth 1 groat, the
piece 3, the coin 9, the noble 27, and the note 81. All powers of 3. It is well
known that you can make any whole number by adding powers of 2, as used in
binary numbers. What is less well known is that you can also make any whole
number by adding _or subtracting_ powers of 3. For example, 30 = 27 + 3; but
also 29 = 30 + 3 - 1. Thus, you can make your fare by inserting several of the
coins, and possibly inserting the negative of some others. I'm afraid you'll
have to figure out which to pay and which to subtract yourself - a whole table
would take too much room - but that's what you're in for in an adventure
written by a Cambridge mathematics student! Be grateful it doesn't involve
fifth-degree polynomials...
Anyway, having made the calculation, go nw and ne, and take all the pieces of
money you need to pay on the plus side. Go sw and se, and insert each coin (and
probably the note). Then go back ne and nw, and take all coins (certainly not
the note, this time, unless you've counted wrong) you need to pay with a minus
in front. Then go sw and east - note the bit about negative ionisation - and
sw, and insert each coin.
You'll find a badge. You will remember that this was one of the possibilities
for the chant, near the giant room. If it was the one sung in your game, take
it now. If the chant was one of the others, leave the badge. Go south, drop the
mat, and pray. Notice the symbol? You _could_ leave the mat here safely. Just
to be extra sure, though (and so as not to forget it), retrieve it right now.
Wait _one_ more turn, then go south. Get the belt.
You will have been moved out of the Humpty Dumpty room, either north or south.
If you're north of Humpty, go to the south side, by going south twice. Once
there, go east. Here are two more chant objects: some beef, and a cabbage. If
yours was one of these, get it. Ignore the other one, but do get the onion as
well. Go west twice, throw the snake, and go north.
Go nw, ne, and north, then go back through the maze (sw, se, e, se, n; or
follow the second quoted hint above). Three cheers: that was the last we'll see
of that maze. Outside, go east and sw, drop the mat, belt and icon, go ne, and
drop the onion (but keep your chant object).

A rather weird area, which IMAO doesn't really fit with the rest of the game,
is up next. Go west twice, south twice, se, wait a turn, sw, south, and west
twice back to the room with the chant and the postbox. Post your object, and
weirdness starts. Go southwest.
You are now in a slippery area, which is really a lines-through-the-dots
puzzle. Note the letter above your head. There are twenty-five of these, in a
5x5 grid, which leaves one letter left over. You have eight moves before you
are tossed out of this area, and you need to see all letters. Because this area
is slippery, you can see more than one letter per move, but it still comes down
to connecting 25 dots with 8 straight lines, starting from one corner of the
grid. Oh, and horizontal moves go all the way across the grid, but diagonal
moves - being longer across - go three squares at most. Using this information,
it is quite possible to find the solution on paper - there is only one, with
four symmetrical variations - but if you can't be bothered:
Making a note of all letters you pass (you will see some twice): go west,
south, east, north, sw, north, se, west. Take the turnip. Exit, and when asked
which exit to take, answer with the one letter you didn't pass in the grid. You
might want to take a note of the calculation you see, which provides a partial
solution to a problem you come across later. You might not need it - it's quite
solvable without it, and anyway I'll give away the solution - but if you want
to have a go and might need the hint, remember it.
You are now in a good(?) old wolf-goat-vegetable puzzle. So: drop turnip, get
goat, north, read poster (see?), drop goat, south, get turnip, north,
drop turnip, get goat, south, drop goat, get wolf (which bites you, which is
why it's important to do him last - you have a few moves leeway, but not
dozens), north, drop wolf, south, get goat, north.
Go south. You get a hint on how to get out of here, but first get the
bloodstone. Then follow the hint, and go in all possible directions: north,
northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest, up, down.
I find it advisable to keep to a systematic order; that way you don't forget
one direction (much though you might like to - bleedin' noise...).
Take the sceptre. The calculation is what's called an alphametic: equal letters
stand for equal digits, there are no leading zeroes, and the resulting addition
must be correct. Solve this (possibly using the hint found earlier) and replace
the digits in the number shown by their corresponding letters. This will give
you a word. (If you really can't work it out: it is either "gudgeons" or
"mongoose".) Enter that word.
Retrieve your lantern, then (not wasting turns - remember that wolf) go east
twice, north, ne, wait one turn, nw, north twice, east twice, and north six
times. Drop all (this is important), swim, and get all. Go back south six times
and sw. Drop the sceptre, bloodstone and emerald, and go ne.

It's time to tie up the last few loose ends before the endgame. Get the book,
go south, get the orb, and go south twice. Go south again, and if you're thrown
out (but only then!), again. Drop the book. You'll be thrown out now. Wait
(exactly!) four turns. Go south twice, se, ne, northeast and nw. Take the
pendant, then leave sw and north.
Go east. You are now in the second horrible maze. It is, in fact, a perfectly
normal, solvable maze, with one complication: at each turn, either the north
and south locations will be blocked off, or the east-west ones will be. Which
it is changes each turn, completely randomly. If you leave your location and
return, the other two directions might be blocked off, or the same. There is no
way of predicting this, and no way of influencing it. However, with sufficient
patience it _is_ quite possible to map the maze using the normal object
dropping method, and once mapped, it is also quite possible to go through it -
again, with patience. That, I fear, is the only advice I can give in this
walkthrough.
Having crossed the maze, take the tapestry (paltry reward for such tedium), go
north back into the maze, and with equal patience traverse it back to the
crossroads. From there, go north thrice and sw. Drop the orb _first_ - remember
that parrot! Then drop the tapestry and the pendant.
Take your sword, go ne, get the onion, hay and helmet, and wear the latter. Go
nw, then west four times. Eat the onion. Take the onyx. Go east four times,
north twice, nw, west, sw twice and west. Feed the horse, then take the shield.
Go east and south and take the figurine. Go north, ne and south.
Wait for your sword to turn green, then pull the rope. Take the egg, then go
north and northeast. Drop everything and retrieve only your sword, then fight
the dwarf (the sword's colour doesn't matter this time). Get all - you won't be
able to carry everything. Drop the shield (we'll be back for it soon), then
take whatever was left on the ground. Go east, se, south twice, se and sw to
the shrine. Drop the egg, figurine, topaz and onyx.

You have now brought Hurgenpor enough treasure to be allowed into the endgame.
Pray to prove this. Take the orb, then immediately (that parrot is still
active) go northeast. Get the broom, then go nw, north twice, nw and west, and
retrieve your shield.
Go southwest twice and north, drop everything, then lift the dumbbells. You now
have a sufficient, but limited number of turns of extra strength, so don't
dawdle. Take all, then go south, ne twice, east, se and east to the glowing
room. Ride the broom. It asks for a magic word - enter the word the phoenix
squawked when you threw it into the abyss. You'll be transported to a new room,
almost but not quite reachable from the main area.
Go south and kill the idol with your extra muscle. Now wait until you shudder
and lose your super-strength, causing you to drop everything. Get all, and wear
the helmet again. Go south and west. You will automatically - if you are kitted
out right - defeat all your enemies. All that is left now is to solve the magic
square - yellow is 8, green 6, blue 4, and red 2 - and give the answer to the
question. The only thing to remember here is that the game wants a two-digit
number in two words, not two separate digits, so (e.g.) 24 must be given as
twenty four, not as twentyfour or two four.


So you've ransacked Fyleet, all for the glory of Hurgenpor and yourself, and
now you're enjoined to try a difficult adventure. So what was this, then,
Wishbringer!? Never mind - apart from those two bloody mazes, and that silly
area inside the post box (which I think just doesn't belong in this game), I
rather liked it.