Contents

1. Level 1
2. Level 2
3. Level 3
4. Level 4
5. Level 5
6. Level 6
7. Level 7
8. Level 8
9. Level 9
10. Level 10
11. Level 11
12. Level 12
13. Level 13
14. Level 14

Level 1

The following description is how I play level 1. I am running Claw version 1.3, and DirectX is version 7.1. Note that the coordinates I reference are the claw coordinates. These can be displayed on the screen by typing mppos at any time. Mppos is one of the cheat codes that does not interfere with your ability to save your game. Realize that this is not the only way to play the level. Sometimes your state of health will dictate another approach, and I am sure there are other, faster, better ways to do some things. Do your own thing, and use the following just as a guide if you get stuck. Don't follow move for move, you'll miss the fun of discovery and learning! Most of the descriptions that follow are not for the fastest time, but show a conservative approach in difficult areas. This is but one of many different solutions, and not necessarily the way I play it if I am trying to play fast!

Also note that your hardware plays a major role in how your game behaves. What seems easy on a certain set of HW can be a major problem on another. When I at times mention certain timings that worked for me they may not necessarily work for you.

Clean up near the start position, then go up the stairs, and to the left. Hit the guard and get all the treasure. Continue to the right. You won't be able to reach the scepters above you at x=2561 and x=2830, you'll get those later. Step off the platform and drop down. Get the guard and pick up the treasure, then continue to the left. You'll arrive near the start. Go up the ladder and continue to the right. The safest way is not to get the catnip, but to stay low and proceed to the right, clearing the way for an uninterrupted catnip run later. Jump on the horizontally moving elevator platform at x=3535. Get the guard and treasure, but don't go up the crumbling blocks. Now go back to the catnip at x=2711, get it, use it to get the scepters left and right, then run to the right. After the elevator, do go up the crumbling blocks now, and get the crown at the top. (If you're fast, you can extend the catnip all the way across to the ladder at x=5214 and get the scepters above it, but it's not really necessary.) Proceed to the right. At the next platform, you'll find another horizontal elevator. Step down on it, take it to the right, and get the crown and other treasure above you. Drop down, and tackle a couple of guards. Get the treasure, move left, up the ladder, down the other side, and get another guard and treasure. Take the vertical elevator back up. Now proceed up the pegs to the right. You'll find some red catnip there. Do not use that catnip for the scepters above the ladder to the right! (If you're still powered up by your last catnip, you can get the scepters. If you miss it, no problem, there'll be another opportunity.)

I usually do some more cleaning up ahead at this point, before taking the catnip. Go down the ladder to the right. Avoid the explosion caused by the rat. Get the rat. Jump over the guard on your right and get him, from the right. If you get him from the left you may lose some treasure. I usually jump across to the right now also, get the treasure out of the boxes (hitting from the left), kill the guard and expose the catnip he carries. Make sure you don't pick up that catnip, though!

Now go back up. The red catnip is very tight time-wise for what you have to do. Get the catnip, go up the pegs to your left, then up the ladder. Move to the left, trigger the elevator (it'll start moving as soon as you step on it). Jump up to get the crown and other treasure, and land back on the moving elevator. Jump on the platform, immediately hit the guard, pick up the treasure, and step off the other side on the elevator as it passes by. Move to the right edge. Just before it goes into the wall, jump up, get the crown. You'll land on the elevator as it comes back out. Jump back on the platform, pick up the elevator at the far side, and jump to the ground. Keep moving right, go up the 3 vertical elevators. Don't bother with the treasure, you'll get it later. You must reach the top platform under catnip if you want to get the 2 crowns there. Hit the guard immediately, get the treasure, then move back down the 3 elevators. You can get all the treasure on your way down. Now go to the right, jump down the stream of coins. Hop over to the right, get the catnip you left there, pick up whatever treasure is left, quickly move to the left and up 2 ladders to get those scepters there if you didn't get them earlier. Jump back down, and follow the stream of coins at x=5910 down onto another trigger elevator. There are some geckos above you, jump straight up for them, the elevator will NOT move while you're jumping. Do this twice to get both geckos. Then proceed to Save Point 1. You need catnip for the first gecko.

After SP1, move up the ladder, jump to the right, onto every other crumbling block. This will leave you a path to come back on. Get the first guard. Try to avoid the catnip. Jump over the second guard and attack him from the right. Then I jump over to the right and over the soldier, attacking him from the right. Now go back, pick up the catnip, jump over the remaining crumbling blocks, wait for the elevator to take you to a platform above right. Don't bother picking up the treasure now, jump for the warp, you need the catnip power for that. There should be plenty of time.

In this first warp, there are 2 guards to kill. Get them. Pick up the treasure. Then get the catnip above the first ladder. The ascent is critical, you don't have any spare time. The trick is to not get on all the elevators, you can jump from second ladder onto the third platform and from there the third ladder. From the top of the third ladder you can jump to the fourth ladder without stepping onto the fourth elevator. At the top, you can jump directly to the second toggle peg, then the third. Use small jumps. Then jump for the crown and pick up all the treasure as you fall down to the warp exit. After you exit, you can pick up all the treasure where you entered/land.

Now jump to the right, you'll land on top of the ladder. Move to the right, killing guards and picking up treasure. After the second horizontal elevator, you'll find a gecko and some scepters above right. Jump for them, and land on a warp just over the spikes.

There are probably lots of ways to do this second warp. I use my sword mostly. I jump on the first elevator, and immediately duck, I don't want the catnip yet. Hit the rat on the right with your sword as you get close. You can also shoot it. As the elevator moves back to the left, I jump up and catch the next one going right, and hit the rat. Continue this way to the top. On your left is a guard that'll shoot at you. Stay ducked, he can't get you. You can hit him on 2 passes with your sword, and he's history. Or just shoot him. Now, you can jump for most of the treasure from the moving elevator. Don't worry about the topmost rat, he can't get you, unless you jump into his projectile. To get the skull, you need the catnip, so jump down along the left wall. Pick up the catnip, and jump back to the top. Get the crown, and exit the warp. I usually have 4 seconds of catnip left over. Go up, clean up both sides of the next ladder and the 2 elevators.

Top of the ladder, move right first, to get the guard with the rifle. Then get the left one. At x=10,350, I look down, waiting for the right moment to jump. I don't want to trigger the elevator waiting at the bottom! When I see the guard stopping at the left, I jump over him and hit him from the right, immediately. If he shoots, a lot of the treasure from the big pile may be lost. So, I get him, then start taking careful swings at the boxes, getting all the treasure (hopefully) before it falls on the spikes. Then I move off to the right, picking up treasure and getting the guard. I go to the second step from the top, and jump up once to get the rat moving. Then I wait for him to come to the edge, and hit him. Hit the guard while he's next to the wall on the right. Pick up the catnip and move left, across the horizontal elevators. Jump on the vertical trigger elevator and go up, then up the ladder, to the right. (Since I didn't trigger the elevator before, it's there waiting for me, I don't have any delays by the elevator's cycle time.) Take small jumps over the toggle pegs, I always find it harder with catnip than without. When you come to the 2 pegs with chalices on them, jump from the second one onto the toggle pegs above right, then go up the ladder. Follow the elevators, pick up the treasure along the way, then jump down following the stream of coins into a warp where you'll get a skull and an extra life. When you exit, move back to the left, jump down to the patrolling guard and kill him, taking the trigger elevator back up. Around x=1250, go down the ladder, and pick up the treasure above the crumbling blocks. A good jump sequence is something like 2,4,5,3,1 then back to the ladder. Now go back up and move top the right, killing guards and picking up treasure.

You can look across at a skull when you reach x=13950, but don't try to get it yet, you need catnip. Step off the edge and immediately curl back to the left. Jump down the crumbling stones. Keep your eyes to the left, you'll see a vertical elevator. You'll have to jump until you can catch it. Take the elevator, and enter the warp by jumping up the toggle-pegs.

You'll land in a field of crumbling blocks, toggle pegs and treasure. Jump around, and get as much as you can. It's a little tricky. Towards the bottom, there is catnip. You need it! If you manage to get it, take another few jumps if you want, you have some time, then exit, still on catnip. Now you can jump to get the skull you saw earlier.

The good news is that this warp may be entered multiple times. If you missed the catnip, or too much treasure, go back in. You may be lucky if you have some of the crumbling pegs for the descent left, otherwise, lose a life and repeat.

When you're satisfied, jump down after you exit the warp, to Save Point 2.

From SP2 on, it's a piece of cake. Initially, anywhere you can jump down, do so, and clean up guards and treasure. There is catnip on top of a ladder at 15792,2332. Before you take it, clean up the path ahead. You need the catnip to get a crown at 14715,1461. When you get to x=16050, the high road (up the ladder) is totally safe, but there is no treasure. Instead, go down the toggle pegs, the timing is really easy. Down one side, up the other. You're done.

Get the 2 guards and exit!

If you find better ways to do something, or a neater solution to some areas, please let me know (scubaman@attglobal.net)

Rich Kleinhenz

Scores:

Level 2

The following description is how I play level 2. I am running Claw version 1.3, and DirectX is version 7.1. Note that the coordinates I reference are the claw coordinates. These can be displayed on the screen by typing mppos at any time. Mppos is one of the cheat codes that does not interfere with your ability to save your game. Realize that this is not the only way to play the level. Sometimes your state of health will dictate another approach, and I am sure there are other, faster, better ways to do some things. Do your own thing, and use the following just as a guide if you get stuck. Don't follow move for move, you'll miss the fun of discovery and learning! Most of the descriptions that follow are not for the fastest time, but show a conservative approach in difficult areas. This is but one of many different solutions, and not necessarily the way I play it if I am trying to play fast!

Also note that your hardware plays a major role in how your game behaves. What seems easy on a certain set of HW can be a major problem on another. When I at times mention certain timings that worked for me they may not necessarily work for you.

Go up the ladder and run to the right and get the soldier and treasure (jump over the first bullet). Continue to the first flag, picking up all the treasure. Drop down and get the 3 boxes right after the flag, then go right via the ladders, picking up the scepter and coins between them. The lowest box after the ladders has catnip, don't get it yet! Jump from the middle level to get the soldier with 2 slashes, then go up the ladder and left, killing another soldier and officer. Now go up the ladder on the left and proceed right via the toggle planks, then drop back down to get that catnip you left. Make your way back up the ladder on the left at x=1760, and get the scepters and coins on top of the palisades. That's all that the catnip was needed for. Now go up the ladder on the right and continue to the ammo at x=3550. Drop down and open the crate, then get the officer by jumping and slashing, and the soldier by jumping up to his level. Don't jump down on the right yet, instead, go right, open the box, and defeat the 2 enemies and the rat on top of the next ladder where the flag is. Then return and go jump down to the area you bypassed earlier. Don't get the catnip until you've taken all the treasure out of the crates! Then eat it and take the elevator up and run left. Now you can jump up on the toggle planks at x=3550. You need catnip only for the lowest jump. Go to the top, and make your way to the right picking up all you find. When you open the boxes on the last platform, make sure none of it drops! Get the ghost magic last, and jump down on the right. (You see a skull and treasure on your right, you'll get that much later.) Open the 2 boxes where you land at x=5690, and start descending the planks. Kill the officer. Remember you're only invisible, not invulnerable! Drop down 2 more planks to the arrow and gecko at x=5580 and make your way to the right while the magic lasts. Kill the officer there, go up 2 ladders and kill 2 more enemies. Then go back and sweep the whole area of treasure, including at the pit level left and right. Now go up to the next flag. Take care of the 3 soldiers below you, then go down the ladder on the right. I usually get the officer right at the ladder first between cannon balls, and jump back on the ladder for safety. Then, I take care of the soldier and rat across the way. Any treasure that drops can be picked up below. Then jump across and get the rat, and jump down to SP1.

After SP1, jump down and pick up all the treasure around the pits, then go up a ladder and 2 elevators and jump to the officer at x=8700. Follow the coin trail onto the trigger-elevator on the right and defeat the 2 guys on top. Get the soldier at the next flag. I then drop down and get the officer with my sword. It's possible to get the soldiers slightly below with powder kegs, but you can also leave them till later. Step off to the right and move left immediately on top of the palisades, picking up the fire sword. After the first set of shots has passed, get 4 enemies with the fire sword, pick up the treasure, and then get the 2 soldiers that are left, shooting from the ladder. Pick up their treasure and go up the ladder at x=10720. Carefully time your ascent up the next ladder between cannon shots, get the rats on your left with your sword, pick up the 4 scepters on top of the logs to the left. Take care of the welcoming committee on top of the tower at the next flag. You see a crown and 4 coins above you, but you can't get the highest of the coins. (At least, I have not heard of anyone getting it, it's probably impossible, until someone figures out a way to get it!) The lowest coin can be had by simply jumping for it, but the crown and middle coins are just out of reach. To get them, go back onto the ladder, and start running towards the right. You'll be running in place because you're still on the ladder. After a second or so, without breaking the run, jump up top, run right and hop for the treasure. (If you run in one direction without stopping for a second or so, Claw's jumping ability increases slightly, this trick is necessary in several places in the game)

Now go down on the right. killing the enemies and picking up the treasure between cannon shots. You can get the lowest enemy from below by jumping up and stabbing him. Go down the ladder, and up the 3 horizontal elevators. Get the low treasure from the top elevator, you can't get the crown above to the left from there. Jump onto the small tower on the right and get the 2 guys. I usually get the officer from the elevator yet, you can stab him when he is at the edge without danger to yourself. Now go up and get the soldier at the next flag.

Go down the ladder at x=13530, and kill the 2 guys below. Then jump on the horizontal elevator on the left, duck immediately, and retrieve the crown and coins at x=13175. Now go right, down the ladder at x=14490. There are 2 ways to get to the right, you have to take both paths to get all treasure. I usually take the lower path first. The upper path is simply jumping from ladder to ladder to get the high treasure. To get the low treasure, you have to traverse a series of toggle planks. I usually start on the very left one at x=14410, after observing a little while to pick up the rhythm. The problem or rather the challenge here is that the planks are on 1/2 timing (alternating), but the 3 bottom ones are on 1/4 timing. So, from the fourth plank, take 2 quick jumps, then pick up the original rhythm again. I usually jump back on solid ground as soon as I can, rather than proceeding to the ladder via the planks. I find the traverse across the ladders much easier, so I do this now.

Go up the ladder at x=15200, and the next ladder after the flag. On the next platform, where the arrow points right, you have to go left first. Go down a series of toggle planks and back up the other side. I go down by simply dropping from plank to plank, since they are on 1/2 timing. From the bottom across and up the other side they are on 1/4 timing, so these are easy jumps. Exit after 3 short jumps to the top of the palisade on the left, don't go up the last 2 planks! The top 2 planks are on 1/2 timing again. Go up and jump for the crown and scepters, and land back on the log. Now step off the log to the left and fall into a warp that puts you on top of some palisades with a crown, 4 geckos and 4 coins. Jump off from there to the right. If you do it right and wiggle a little as you come down, you can get the crown and both coins, otherwise, the warp is still there, you can take another round. Follow your old route back to where you left off, traverse the ladders from 14360, 3110 picking up the treasure. After the next tower, fall down on the right moving left/right to pick up all treasure on the way down, and you're at SP2.

You have to exit the game at SP2 if you want to maximize your profits, since reentering the game restores all treasure before the save point, and you have a chance to go back and pick it up again. I'll describe several ways, found by other players.

From the ladder after SP2, jump right and kill the officer at 16230, 4850, then go back to the ladder and cross over to the right via toggle planks to the up-arrow and take the elevator up to a ladder. Get rid of the 2 officers there with a few quick slashes, and ascend the toggle planks. Exit to the platform on the right, and duck under the cannon balls. Jump straight down the middle between the platform and the tower across the way, there's a stream of treasure you pick up. You fall into a warp. Initially I found it quite hard to pick up all the treasure there without giving up a life, but it became quite easy after some practice. I start with the gecko over the left toggle peg, then jump from elevator to elevator and across to kill the soldier. (You can also shoot him from where you enter, he carries no treasure.) After getting the right gecko, I found usually 1 coin left in the center that I could not get jumping between elevators without falling into the goo. But then I found that I could jump from the 1 elevator and back onto the same one, and it became easy.

Exit on the right and immediately duck since a cannon will fire at you. Jump down to the right again, this time close to the right wall, so you land on the ledge with a soldier that you must dispose of. Then jump via the 2 toggle planks onto the top of the log on the left where the health potion awaits you. Left again onto the top of more palisades, and then ascend the toggle planks (1/4 timing) and trigger the elevator by jumping onto it. Pick up the treasure and catnip on the way down, but jump off (before it disappears into the goo) to the left and ascend the elevator at x=16260. Make your way all the way to the top again, ascending the toggle pegs, avoiding the cannon, and jump for the ladder at x=16480. That jump is what the catnip was for. On top, go left first, kill the soldier, and pick up the geckos and coins. Catnip helps for those jumps, but it is quite possible (albeit probably a bit slower) to do it without catnip also. It's just a question of timing the jumps properly. Don't hurry, you have but one chance to do this and pick an incredibly rich warp on the other side clean. Jump across there and enter the warp. Don't go for the treasure you see below you right away, instead, hop across to the right, on top of the palisade, and slide down to the right of it into a warp that takes you through the skull and other treasure you saw much earlier. When you return, pick up the treasure here, kill the enemies and exit.

As you return, again avoid the cannon, take the 2 elevators at x=17220 up this time, and go right. When you meet up with the 2 officers before the next ladder, kill them, but don't pick up the catnip the left one spills! Just leave it for pickup later. Go up the ladders and kill the 3 rats on the left, avoiding the cannon balls. Now go back and get the catnip, go up between the cannon balls again. If you just keep running and moving once you have the catnip the cannon balls won't hit you. On top, jump on top of the palisade on the left (that's what the catnip was for), and take a leap onto a cloud! Hop to the left from cloud to cloud, and on top of the palisade pieces in the sky to pick up more catnip. Then onto the elevator waiting for you. Duck under the logs and jump for treasure as you make your way across to the left. When you come near the end, you can jump up between the 2 last logs above you and get a skull, crown chalice and coin, and then drop into a warp which bring you back on top of a tower on your main course, or you can jump off the elevator just before that (around x=15150) to land somewhere before SP2 that you recognize. As long as you exited the game at SP2, all the treasure you picked up before is restored, you can pick it up again! Go back as far as you can which is to say to the base of the cannon tower at x=11450, then follow your old route back to SP 2 and to the second cannon tower where you started.

If you play it that way, you miss the skull and other treasure at x=14945, but you get quite a bit more treasure going back the way I described. I have read of a way to get it all (Eugenio Resende, Claw Player Extraordinaire, found it), but have not tried it. Here is a quote from Eugenio:

"At position 17754,2667, you see two guards; the first releases a catnip when you kill him. I don't kill him yet. I kill the second one and go up the ladders, killing the other guards and the mice. I also kill the guard at 18767,1771.

With a new life, get the red catnip (16541,4800) and go back to the clouds!. This is very, very hard to do, because you don't have time enough to get there. You gotta be very fast and very lucky. If you get to the log just before the clouds, that's ok. You won't have catnip power anymore, but you can walk on the clouds again. Then... just before the place that the skull was, jump down and get the treasures of savepoint 1 again..." [should say SP2, of course]

Finn Scheele, current Claw champ, found this other method for getting the skull as well as the treasure before SP2:

"I've got a much, much better way of getting all the treasure in the clouds! Just go up there with the catnip in the officer, go along until x=15190 and get right on the front of the elevator and do a small jump for the treasure, and you'll land on the back of the elevator. Duck and the just drop down and get all that other treasure! Works every time, much better than the other method!"

Finn's method is very simple, and I agree it works very well indeed. To really maximize the score, here are a few more notes:

After the walk on the clouds, when you fall out of the warp that you enter at x=12320, you can get some officers higher up on the tower with some chancy shots. Sometimes they spill extra treasure down for you to pick up. I have not found a reproducible way, though, so it's a question of trying it many times until it works.

Finally, for the overall top score possible, a few (very few!!!) players have managed to make the catnip from the walk in the clouds last till the base of the tower around x=11450 and managed to climb that tower. First player to manage that, to the best of my knowledge, was Mahesh Muthuswamy. That allows you to back all the way to SP1. A few words of caution are in order here: it is not fair to save the game at SP1 at this point. This would allow essentially an infinite loop! Two players that have mastered this method have voluntarily taken their scores off the highscores board. If you manage to play this way, you are truly a master of the game. You have to also manage enough self control not to save the game at SP1 and jack the score up by this infinite loop.

Well, after all this, your on the home stretch. Just go to the right and head for LeRauxe.

And that's it, folks!

If you find better ways to do something, or a neater solution to some areas, please let me know (scubaman@attglobal.net)

Rich Kleinhenz

Scores*:

* higher scores are possible in this level as outlined above

** subtract 100 for the coin that appears to be unreachable, practical score is thus 965400

*** subtract 100 for the coin that appears to be unreachable, practical score is thus 1456800

Level 3

The following description is how I play level 3. I am running Claw version 1.3, and DirectX is version 7.1. Note that the coordinates I reference are the claw coordinates. These can be displayed on the screen by typing mppos at any time. Mppos is one of the cheat codes that does not interfere with your ability to save your game. Realize that this is not the only way to play the level. Sometimes your state of health will dictate another approach, and I am sure there are other, faster, better ways to do some things. Do your own thing, and use the following just as a guide if you get stuck. Don't follow move for move, you'll miss the fun of discovery and learning! Most of the descriptions that follow are not for the fastest time, but show a conservative approach in difficult areas. This is but one of many different solutions, and not necessarily the way I play it if I am trying to play fast!

Also note that your hardware plays a major role in how your game behaves. What seems easy on a certain set of HW can be a major problem on another. When I at times mention certain timings that worked for me they may not necessarily work for you.

Across the spikes, a robber-thief awaits you. A quick shot takes care of him. Or jump over and stab immediately. You can get the next cut-throat by jumping twice and stabbing him, or jumping up to his level and hitting him twice fast. They can be surprised, especially if their back is turned. It takes them a moment to react, so if you can get close and hit them, you can usually finish them before they hurt you. Bypass the ladder going down, swing across on the rope and get the next cut-throat. You can get the second one completely safely if you duck at the edge and hit him, but he takes many hits to the head, so it costs time. Get him whichever way works for you. You can also keep going right and take care of 2 more robber thieves by again running up to them and hitting them twice fast. Then go back to the ladder leading down at x=5980. Start down then jump to drop the rest of the way. Get the robber-thief, making sure you don't lose his treasure into the spikes. Jump across the crumbling stones, get a crown on the way, and hit the robber thief on the other side. Get his coin before it falls into the spikes. You can also shoot him from the other side before coming across, but you'll lose his coin. #2 will usually hit you once, and the stun might knock you off, if so, just try again from the start, it's only the beginning! Jump up for the catnip to the right, drop down onto the trigger elevator, then jump immediately back on the platform and catch the elevator on the other side. Up the ladder and to the right, catch the rope, or take a hit from the spikes if you can afford it if you just missed the rope, you must reach the ladder at x=7200 under the influence of catnip. Swing to the left, and make your way to the top, cleaning up as you go. Sometimes treasure falls, and you may be able to pick it up later, or by returning to the lower branches, just don't go all the way down. From the very top, step off to the left, and immediately curl to the right, to land on a branch with a cut-throat. Kill him, and get the nice treasure to the left with a far jump. Jumping from the edge you'll get it all.

Proceed to the right. Get up the next tree at x=8600. From the rope, you must land on the lowest branch, you can't jump there from the ground. Leave the lightning-sword at first. From the top, jump onto some more leaves to the left, to get a crown. Now get the lightning-sword, go down, and kill the cut-throat and robber thief down below. Take the elevator to the right, jump to get the treasure.

After you get the robber-thief on the other side, you have to make a tricky jump. Follow the stream of treasure by jumping to the right, then curling to the left, but partway down (around where the crown is) move right again, to land on some crumbling blocks. Jump to the right, leaving some blocks for a return trip. Kill the cut-throat, jump back left on the remaining blocks, and follow the treasure trail the rest off the way down. Another approach (especially if you miss the first time, like I frequently do) is to follow the treasure trail all the way down, moving right-left-right, then lose a life and take a straight jump to the right from the top to get on the crumbling stones.

Open all the boxes, including the one right after the flag, then follow the coins down. Kill the enemy, and jump around the wild elevators to get all the treasure, but leave the catnip. If you fall, get the robber thief that's between the 2 spike fields down below. Exit to the right onto the ladder. Go down and open the boxes, and kill the robber thief. Run to the left. The spike will go down at you running speed. In the middle, there's a break.

Go up the ladder and make your way across to the right, till the next ladder at x=13600, picking up all the treasure but the high scepters which you can't reach. Then go back for the catnip, and traverse again, this time getting the high scepters. Make your way up 2 ladders. At the arrow pointing up and skull and cross-bones sign, jump on the trigger elevator to the left. Immediately duck under the ledge, get up as soon as you're past, and jump via 3 crumbling pegs to the left into a warp where you will be rewarded with rich treasure including a skull and ghost (invisibility) magic. While you're invisible, run up and kill as many guys as you can, not necessarily bothering to pick up all the treasure. You should be able to get all 6 guys before the next drop-off. Then go back and get the treasure you missed.

Now comes another tricky jump: Follow the coins onto a crumbling peg, jump to the right via another crumbler, get the guy there, trigger the elevator, pick it up on the left of the platform, and take it across to the left. If the cut-throat is standing at the edge, don't jump up, take the elevator back and try again. I think you can shoot him from the right platform, I never tried that. If he spills treasure, it'll be there for you to pick up below. Go down to Safe Point 1.

Go up the ladder. First kill 2 guys to the right, relieving them of their treasure., then jump up the ledges on the left to the top of the hill. Swing across the rope and onto one of the elevators. Jump to pick up the scepters below the rock. As you come up the far side, fire a shot at the rat on the left, then jump to the right getting the treasure between the rocks. Repeat the same at the right rock, and jump down to the right. Go down the ladder at x=16860. swing on the rope, jump in the middle to get the catnip, complete the swing to the left on the rope, and jump off on the left. It's a little tricky, but not too bad. Go back up to the top of the hill as before, catch the elevators as before. Inch to the right edge of the elevator as you come around the rock. Just as the elevator starts moving left, jump up onto the crumbling peg and then to the top. Clean up on both sides, crowns, an extra life that you jump for from the rope, then exit to the right.

Now follow the coin-trail down, picking them all up on the way down, moving right-left-right-left-right, onto a crumbling peg. Drop onto the second, jump and kill the cut-throat. Now take a far jump to the left, onto a ledge and into a warp. Pick up the rich treasure there, and invulnerability magic as you exit. Get the coins on your way down off the ledge, kill the guys in vain trying to hurt you. Move up the series of elevators, killing the guys to both sides, picking up all the treasure. Bullets work once the magic vanishes and you're vulnerable again, as does the sword which I normally use. If you drop some treasure, you may have to jump down and risk a few hits by the spikes.

Pick up the ice-sword top left, it's not that terribly useful, I found, but get it anyway and come across to the right. Go up the ladder, kill the cut-throat on the left with the ice-sword, continue up, take the elevator across to the right, jumping to get the gecko and rings. Go up the tree, and take the elevator to the right. Make your way up the next tree. Tough places are where there are 2 guys on a branch… find out what works for you. Some places, you can take a jump to the outside, so that both are on the same side of you and you can fire bullets or a magic claw in one direction. Sometimes, you'll just have to have to sustain some damage while you kill one then the other. If you're good with the sword, that works also, of course, just jump arrows/knives, and make sure you don't let the treasure spill. It's best to get really close for hand attacks, and immediately jump through the space an enemy vacates on the second hit. Go all the way to the top, swing across, getting the gecko and coins jumping from the rope and picking it up again. There are 2 cut-throats waiting for you, you can shoot them, their treasure won't fall off.

Now climb down the ladder, and jump on the grass on the left. Jump on the crumbling peg on the left, and drop down twice without jumping. On the third peg, jump to the right, get the cut-throat, and enter the warp.

Pick up the treasure where you land, then jump up the ledges on the left. Observe the swinging rope a few times, to get the rhythm, then jump via the crumbling peg to grab the rope and swing to the right. Get 4 crowns from there, and exit the warp, at Save Point 2.

Jump on the crumbling peg on the right, then follow the treasure trail down. If you do it right, you land on another crumbler. Drop from it onto yet another one, then jump right to get the cut-throat. Go down the ladder, step on the elevator and duck. On the other side, proceed right then down the ladder. You can jump the guy waiting there when his back is turned, and finish him quickly. Down via 2 crumbling blocks, and to the right. Take care of the 2 fellows waiting there, duck under the rat's fireball. You can get the rat with a bullet, or your sword if you can time it with the spikes. Get the first 2 rats that way, then fire 4 shots or a magic claw across the last set of spikes to eliminate 3 cut-throats and a rat. Now comes another fun area. Make your way up the elevators, ropes and ladders. I manage to get all the rats with my sword with well-timed jumps and stabs. They always have a long setup time for their projectiles, plenty of time to put them out of their misery. When you reach the top of the last ladder, expose yourself briefly, to get the rats on the left to fire a shot. Duck back down when they do. This kills at least one of the rats waiting for you on the right. While they're setting up again, jump up and hit them. Go right to the exit. If there are any rats left on the right, duck or jump over their fireballs as appropriate.

It's a fun level, and not all that tough to get perfect.

If you find mistakes in my description, better ways to do something, or a neater solution to some areas, please let me know (scubaman@attglobal.net)

Rich Kleinhenz

Scores:

Level 4

The following description is how I play level 4. I am running Claw version 1.3, and DirectX is version 7.1. Note that the coordinates I reference are the claw coordinates. These can be displayed on the screen by typing mppos at any time. Mppos is one of the cheat codes that does not interfere with your ability to save your game. Realize that this is not the only way to play the level. Sometimes your state of health will dictate another approach, and I am sure there are other, faster, better ways to do some things. Do your own thing, and use the following just as a guide if you get stuck. Don't follow move for move, you'll miss the fun of discovery and learning! Most of the descriptions that follow are not for the fastest time, but show a conservative approach in difficult areas. This is but one of many different solutions, and not necessarily the way I play it if I am trying to play fast!

Also note that your hardware plays a major role in how your game behaves. What seems easy on a certain set of HW can be a major problem on another. When I at times mention certain timings that worked for me they may not necessarily work for you.

Go up the springy ferns and get the treasure. Kill the 3 enemies on the first platform. It's easy to lose treasure into the goo, you may find that first jumping over your friends from the opposite team helps. Jump to the other side via the ladder and kill the 2 guys there. Then jump back on the ladder, get the gecko from the lowest rung. Climb back up the ladder and go on a springy fern. Get the catnip and go to the left. Get the treasure, then go to the right, and get the treasure and ammo there. Jump on the crumbling peg and kill the cutthroat at 3545/3038. Drop down and get the crown. I usually jump back to the platform on the left to start my descent from there. Pick up the geckos on the way down the floor spikes and get the fire sword. You can actually just step from floor-spike to floor-spike, with the right timing. You can use the fire-sword to kill the enemy on the right side of the tree at 3830/3855, you will not lose his treasure.

Kill the next few enemies with the fire sword and make your way to the right along the elevators after the flag. Kill the robber thief on the right while still on the elevator, using, e.g., the fire sword. When you get off the elevator on the right don't get the catnip that the robber thief spilled. You can at this point kill the rat at the other side of the tree, though. Go up on the springy fern then left, kill the guys there if you didn't earlier, and jump from ladder to ladder picking up the treasure. I usually go up the elevator now and kill the guy on the right, just so that he doesn't stun me on the way by later when I'm on catnip i.e. under time pressure. Now go all the way back to where the catnip is. Get it and make your way back up to the elevator. As you get off go up the crumbling pegs to your left, onto some ladders, then via a springy fern onto a platform and collect all the treasure there. Be quick to get the skull though, you can only reach it with catnip power.

Exit the platform to the left, pick up the invulnerability magic and drop down and kill the enemies. Make your way across the goo pits to the right, and jump over to the next platform. Get on top of the first tree, and drop some dynamite on the rat. Jump down and shoot the enemy across the pit. Pick up the treasure and exit via the springy fern. Jump on to the next springy fern, and next to the rat on the right. Let the rat throw one of its bombs, which will kill the other rat. Now kill the rat beside you and get the treasure. Get over the next tree, and kill the robber thief. Another good strategy through this area is with dynamite sticks, dropping them onto undesirable elements from tree tops.

Now don't follow the coins down out of this area, but do a running leap to the right, kill the rat and hop into the warp. Jump around on the springy ferns in the warp area and get all the treasure, working your way to the bottom slowly. You can jump around on a fern if you don't want to be catapulted up. If you do fall off or miss something, don't worry, this warp can be entered multiple times! When you're all done, follow the coins down, but make sure you take a stop partway down on the right to eliminate a robber-thief, he has several scepters you don't want to miss. You're at SP1.

(See the end of this chapter for some special notes about this place)

Just after SP1, you'll see red catnip. Leave it there, you'll need it soon. Go ahead and kill the bad guys. Drop down onto the springy fern, but ignore the treasure to your left for now. Get yourself catapulted up to the next platform, kill the robber-thief there, as well as the one above you.

Now go back to the catnip. Time is critical now. Start to the right. On the third platform, jump up to the left via a crumbling stone, and get the crown there. Then make your way back to where you just were (around 8645/4675), step off the edge on the right, and immediately start moving left. You'll fall into a hidden warp. Proceed along the springy ferns to the left, but don't allow yourself to be catapulted up, rather jump from one to the next which is much quicker. Let the fourth fern catapult you up to the platform. Immediately jump for the skull on the left, and land back on the platform. Now you can go back to the right, pick up the treasure from the catapults, then back to the left and exit.

Now it's time to pick up the skull you bypassed earlier. Jump down on the springy fern at 8354/5093, and immediately jump onto the nearest stepping stone. Jump onto the other stepping stone, you'll get the skull and lightning-swords, then jump back to the first one and shoot back up on the springy fern. Critical timing, but easily mastered.

Climb up the rope ladder and go left, cleaning up as you go. Then go up the rope ladders and springy ferns. You might want to go all the way up, not bothering with all the treasure along the way. When you get to the last springy fern which shoots you up to the level of the next enemies, you can get them from the fern using the lightning-sword. Then you can go back down and pick up along the way. Alternatively, faster, pick up all the treasure on the way up and get the enemies with hand/sword attacks if the lightning sword runs out.

Now jump over the goo pits to the right. (Do not use the crumbling pegs, you can't reach the crowns above w/o catnip!) In the center, get the invisibility magic, and continue to the right. Keep going, killing enemies and rats as long as you're invisible. Leave the catnip at 9949/1500 behind for now. I go as far as I can while the invisibility lasts, in that general upper area. If I miss some treasure, I pick it up when I get back. At some point, you have to get the catnip you left earlier, go back left from there to the goo pits, and jump across the crumbling pegs to the left, getting the two crowns up above.

There are many ways around this area, I don't have a unique way. Here are some pointers for some special places: At 9635/891 there is a crown. You can drop down from the ladder and immediately jump back up. Your sword works through the trees, many times you can kill a rat or some enemies without any danger of getting hurt. Some places doing this is not a good idea, if you lose treasure into adjacent goo, but many places these fellows are between trees with no goo, and it's completely safe. This whole section is a maze, make sure you cover it all. At 8932/2686 there are some geckos over floor spikes, you can get them one by one without getting hurt. At 9499/3182 there's an extra life, and a crown and other treasure. I get it by jumping off the rope ladder to the right, crouching and firing a shot at the rat across the pit. Then you can jump across the stepping stone and get the goodies, returning the same way, up the ladder.

Traverse the stepping stones starting at 9873/3736, picking up all the treasure as you jump across. Get up the rope ladder, and follow the coin-trail down, but do remember to stop off to the right halfway down to kill a robber-thief, he has scepters and coins. Then you reach SP2.

Go down the rope ladder. Part way down, on your left, is a scepter, at 9299/5053. I usually let myself fall down along the left, moving right after the scepter, and grab the rope ladder just before falling into the goo. (Try it, for some added adrenaline ;-) Take the elevator to the right, then climb up the ladder. At the top, jump via the floor spike onto the tree. Step off the tree, before the second floor spike, to pick up another scepter at 10254/4617. Proceed down the ladder (again, a swerving fall is the fastest way), get across the next elevator, and go up the springy ferns. On your way up, you have to pick up some more hidden scepters. To the right above the first fern, you'll see some food. Beside it is a scepter. You can get it and land back on the first fern, with a little practice. Or jump from the second fern, curling around to land on the first. From the fourth fern, you'll reach another scepter to your left, again next to some food. From the last fern, don't follow the coins to the right, jump left instead to pick up invulnerability magic in the top left corner. Drop back down to the fern, and now follow the coin trail to the right. Jump across the rope ladders. If you don't get all the treasure, don't waste time on it, you can get it later! Ideally, you'll cross the pit on the ladders, picking up the treasure, kill the robber thief, ignore the rat, take the springy fern up, get the cutthroat, cross over the goo via the floor spikes which can't hurt you now, and take the springy fern up to the rope ladder. Up top there are 6 unfriendlies waiting for you. Get them while you're invulnerable. I do it all with my sword, 2 hits each. And I still have 3-5 seconds left over. So, it's not all that tough ;-) If you're low on time, a magic claw left and one right will also do the trick. If you left treasure behind, now's the time to get it.

Now get yourself shot up onto one of the elevators, get the crown and go up the ladder. Cross the floor spikes. You can walk across with the wave, or jump when they're down in the middle. I usually don't worry about them and just jump, taking a hit. Where I'm going, there's lots of health points! Up the rope ladder, and kill the rats. You can do this w/o losing any health points, or again not worry and take a hit. Between the top of the rope ladder and the platform, there's a tree. Step onto it! Now, a little maneuvering (tiny jumps to the right) you can break through to the other side. Pick up the skull and coins, then fall down along the rope ladder. From the small platform, jump via the crumbling pegs to the lower right, then back up to the left, into the warp.

Mastering the warp was tough for me, but it's not impossible. As usual, it's all in the timing. The first level, left to right, is easy. Pick up the timing, and jump with it, picking up the rings. The next level is also easy, although the timing is different. It's a good idea to stop and think at those first few traverses, you have no time pressure. Jump from stepping stone to rope ladder, pause, jump again etc. The next level again has different timing. The moving stones don't sink. You can take little hops. I found that what worked best for me was to jump quickly w/o stopping. The next level again is a piece of cake. Don't try to jump onto a stone that's moving away from you, unless you're very sure of your jump.

Now you get to the tough part. The red catnip puts you under extreme timing pressure. That first traverse is particularly hard, I think. Every other stone is up for 2 sec, down for 1/2 sec. You can't lose a lot of time observing them. You need quick reactions. When you see a stone sinking, jump to it, it's only gone for 1/2 sec and will be back by the time you arrive. You also have to pick up the scepters on your way across, so sometimes you have to take a little ride on the moving stones.

The next level is not so bad. Jump to the first moving stone, then on the rope ladder. From there you have to observe the disappearing stone ahead. It's up for 2 sec, down for 2. You have to time your jump via the crumbling stone so as to hit it when it's up. Then via the next crumbling stone to the next rope ladder, and finish the traverse via the moving stone.

Hurry up to the next level. Take very low jumps across the goo pits to the right. Don't worry if you miss any geckos along the way. You have to jump for the skull while catnip-empowered! If you left some geckos on your way across, get them now, otherwise exit to the right.

If you go back for geckos, you may exit on the left, by climbing/falling down all the rope ladders. At the bottom, there is a second exit.

As you return, jump down to the right, or left with an immediate curl to the right, to find tons of boxes with lots of treasure and health-points. Pick it all up, and exit to the left: drop down the rope ladder on a crumbling peg, and jump to the lower left via 2 more crumbling pegs.

Now make it back up to the top, go across where you killed the 2 rats, and go down the ladder to kill 2 enemies. Proceed to the right via the stepping stones with low jumps, and face Katherine.

Katherine is easy, if you stay close to her, crouch and hit her as fast as you can.

Mahesh Muthuswamy found a way to get into the SP1 to SP2 stretch twice! From within the warp just before SP1, you can actually jump over into the SP1-SP2 stretch. From the highest springy fern, you can jump onto the tree on the right, then over to the next tree top, and down into the play area. Now you can get everything between SP1 and SP2 (not triggering SP2, of course), then trigger SP1 from behind and exit the game to get all the treasure restored. Make sure that before you enter the warp you follow the coin trail just before SP1 down, getting the robber thief on the way, just don't trigger SP1 but lose a life instead.

If you find better ways to do something, or a neater solution to some areas, please let me know (scubaman@attglobal.net)

Rich Kleinhenz

Scores:

Level 5

The following description is how I play level 5. I am running Claw version 1.3, and DirectX is version 7.1. Note that the coordinates I reference are the claw coordinates. These can be displayed on the screen by typing mppos at any time. Mppos is one of the cheat codes that does not interfere with your ability to save your game. Realize that this is not the only way to play the level. Sometimes your state of health will dictate another approach, and I am sure there are other, faster, better ways to do some things. Do your own thing, and use the following just as a guide if you get stuck. Don't follow move for move, you'll miss the fun of discovery and learning! Most of the descriptions that follow are not for the fastest time, but show a conservative approach in difficult areas. This is but one of many different solutions, and not necessarily the way I play it if I am trying to play fast!

Also note that your hardware plays a major role in how your game behaves. What seems easy on a certain set of HW can be a major problem on another. When I at times mention certain timings that worked for me they may not necessarily work for you.

When you start, be ready for a gull attack, jump and hit it with your sword. Then hit the 2 statues and pick up the treasure. A guard will jump off the roof, get him when he does. I get pretty much all the guards in this level with the sword, they take 2 quick hits. Since they have no long-range weapons, they're quite easy to get that way. You just have to get very close to them to do this effectively. Guards salute a lot, and are very absorbed in that activity that they can be eliminated easily. Go right, get the other guard. Before going up the ladder, jump for the top 2 coins of the stream leading down, since you can't reach it from below, and you won't take that route down. As you go up on the roof, look out for a gull, go when it's flying to the left, go up, jump and hit it from behind. Pick up the treasure, and fire a shot to the left from the left edge of the roof. You'll hit the other gull which will spill red catnip. Pick it up and go back on the roof, take the elevator to the right, and go to the top of the tower via the 2 slide-away planks. Jump off to the right, try to land on top of the ladder, and make your way across the lower roof. One of the guards will jump off to the left. Don't bother with those guys now if you're running low on time, jump over them, since you need to make it to the top of the roof under the influence (of catnip ;-) and get the crown. Then come down, strip the lower roof and street level to the left of enemies and treasure.

Go right over the lower roof again, and to the next area via the slide-away plank. Clean up at street level and on the roof. Take the elevators from the roof to the right. You can get the gull beforehand with a shot if you prefer. On the next roof, clean up on top, then crouch at the right edge, watching the gull and the elevator. Jump on the elevator when the gull is moving left, and kill the gull with a shot or your sword. Jump to the left on a roof section the same height as the elevator and get the treasure. Then go to the next lower roof, and get the guards. If you fell during this loop you can jump back over to the bottom of some steps and repeat the loop. You may have to anyway, since some of the guards may have jumped over there. Don't forget the statue on the lower landing of the steps. Time your jump down to street level, you have to pick up the treasure, and get several guards right there. Up the ladder and to the right, for some more guards and treasure on street and roof levels. Make sure not to spill treasure to the right into the spikes, you may have to jump over some guards to attack from the right. Time your jumps carefully going up the slide-away planks, and don't forget the cross and scepter in the windows! Take the trigger elevator to the right, picking up the ice-sword on the way if you want. I usually try to leave the ice sword, I don't like the uncontrolled long-range damage it does. Clean up on the upper level, then go down one level. If you use the ice sword, jump over the left guard to fire it left-right or you may lose treasure into the spikes below on the left. Don't follow the arrow down on the right of this platform, but take a running leap of to the right, and grab the ladder you'll hopefully reach. You'll be rewarded with a skull. Exit back down to where you came from (a much easier jump ;-) go left and take the ladder down. Cross the 3 slide-away planks, picking up invisibility magic. Keep making your way right, killing everything in sight.

The easiest way to cross the crumbling bridges is to fire a shot, then run across and use a hand attack. By firing that shot first it only takes 1 hit for the guards to croak. Go up the ladder and climb the bell tower. The next house has some boxes at the upper level, you can't get there, but you can jump and slash, then jump again to pick up the goodies. You can also jump from the ledge at the guards on the upper level of the next building until they're gone. Or get them with dynamite which you also need to open the boxes. Then follow the stream of coins down to Save Point 1.

(At the end of this walkthrough, there are some special notes dealing with this area.)

Now comes the most difficult piece of this level, I think. It took me quite a bit of practice to get it right. You need the white catnip to clean up on the roof level, and it's very tight, time-wise. I tried various strategies, but had the highest success rate the following way. This approach works probably 90% of the time for me, at least in terms of not getting knocked off by the bloody birds. The trick is to do the rooftops first, the street level later. The reasoning is this: Motions are synchronized to some clock. When you start from SP1, if you just get the catnip and go up, you arrive at a very consistent time up there, with respect to the motion of the birds. Now if I take the following path across, most of the time I don't get a single bird hit!!! And fairly often I even get the magic claws. Maybe 30%. The variability is because of the length of my jumps which is not all that consistent. And, to get the magic claws, the timing is EXTREMELY tight! BTW, when I screw up in that section, it's usually that I try to take too small a jump and come down short. You have to take minimalistic jumps, just enough to get you there, high jumps take extra time.

I start off from SP1 right away, get the catnip, jumping from the bottom step, curl back to that first step. Jump up on the first platform, and get the ring and 4 coins. Don't jump too high, that costs extra time, you have none to spare. Duck and hit the crate. Go right onto the 1st roof, get the stuff in a single leap. If you have to jump twice at anything, you've lost. Jump up on the platform, get the 3 coins, then down on the next roof. Get the stuff in a single leap again. On to the next platform, 3 coins, then to the next roof, for treasure and bullets. If I miss the bullets, I don't worry, I usually have 99 anyway. Step off the roof on the right, curl back onto the lower roof. Jump for gecko and coins, and go right on to the next platform on the left. You just have to make it there on catnip. The 5 coins are yours. I often get on the next roof to the left but run out of steam in the middle of the jump for the magic claws. I don't really care about those.

If it works right, all the gulls are flying just ahead of you and won't hit. Every hit does not only cost health-points, but you're stunned for a moment, and that delay is all it takes. Plus, once the first gull hits you, chances are that more of them will get you. Luckily, if you screw up, you're right after SP1, it's easy to just start over!

Now go down to street level and clean up there, enemies, crates and statues. Time your jump off to the right and jump over the rightmost guard, attacking from the right to contain the treasure. You can get the seagull up ahead by crouching and firing a shot before stepping down and crossing the slide-away planks. You have to make a quick decision to land to the left of the guard or jump over him, depending on where he is. Continue to the right. Up the ladders and up to the second roof level, then jump across to the right. Be ready for a gull attack. Wait for a guard to jump down on the crumbling bridge, either hit him from a crouched position a few times, or fire 2 bullets.. Once he spills his guts I mean treasure, run across to the right. Or trigger the bridge, jump over the guard to the right and watch him drop to the next level down where you can get him soon. Or use fast hand attacks. Slide down to the right edge of the level below you, get the guard, then trigger the bridge, make your way down to the bottom that way. Go up 2 roof levels, killing the guards from the right, then jump across to another platform slightly lower. Again I find it advantageous to jump over the guards and attack for the right. Run off to the right, pick up the coins on your way down to a building's shingle roof. Make your way down to street level, kill the guards, then hit the box on the left where you'll find some white catnip. With it, jump back on the lowest roof, onto the elevator to the left, then the higher elevator, then across to the street level on your left, picking up the extra life and 4 coins. If you miss, don't worry, you can make that loop again later, you don't need catnip to make this circuit. While on catnip, you have to go up to the second roof level, then to the platform on the right, and you have to reach the ladder at x=20000. Make your way up ladders, platforms and an elevator to the top, do onto others whet they'd like to do onto you, be rewarded with a skull and entry to a warp. I usually am very careful with the jump onto the last elevator, I've missed it too often in my rush. I jump in place a few times, picking up the timing, then move right on a final jump. The warp is just to pick up treasure, no challenge there. You end up below the building where you picked up the catnip.

If you need to go back around the loop for the extra life or 4 coins, you need to lose a life, since you can't get on the lower roof. Once there, you can make the loop as many times as necessary before coming back down to street level. But, before losing the life voluntarily here and now, continue across the 3 crumbling bridges, I usually need to lose a life there anyway which puts me back to the same flag ;-)

As you cross the 3 bridges, you have to make sure you don’t lose treasure off the far end. The first guard can be gotten from street level, then run across quickly to catch up with his treasure. The others don't come all the way to the left. You can use bullets to shoot them at the left end of their travel, then run quickly to pick up the goodies. From the last bridge, you have to take a running leap for the ladder up ahead of you at x=22370. If you miss and land at street level, you'll have to lose a life before the next flag (SP2). In that case, clean up where you are. I don't believe it is possible to get to the platforms any other way than the ladder, I've tried many, many times from the slide-away planks and have never succeeded, so I am fairly convinced it can't be done, but who knows! Starting back over from the last flag and running across the 3 crumbling bridges in one run and making the leap from a full run for the ladder has worked for me every time.

Now you have to make your way up more crumbling bridges and ladders, killing and gathering souvenirs as you go. Again, killing the guards on the bridges at closest approach then running quickly across worked best for me. make your way to the top, jump for the skull and enter the warp. If you fall, just start over at the last flag, it's not all that difficult. The warp takes you to the top of the tower where you could have gotten by climbing the slide-away planks. As you arrive, you fall through 2 fire-swords. If you have not cleaned up at the bottom of the bell tower, jump down now and do so now, then climb back up and descend on the right along a trail of coins. You're at Save Point 2.

(Again, there are some special notes about this are at the end of the walkthrough)

Do not fire your fire-sword to the right if you continue straight from here, you'll spill treasure into the spikes at the right. Instead, jump the guards, and fire from the right to the left. Go up the next roof and repeat. The fires-word just saves a little time, you can do the same with your own sword, magic claws, bullets, whatever you like. You won't have the fire-sword unless you play right through SP2 anyway. Continue to the right, across an elevator, the lower rooftop of the next building, up some slide-away planks, a platform to your left, and the higher roof level onto the bridge tower on your right, doing your thing all along, being very careful not to spill treasure which is quite easy here.

Make your way down the crumbling bridges as before, you can stand on the right side which won't crumble. The third bridge from the top has treasure on the left. If you run across, you'll crumble the bridge, but if you take a few leaps, your contact with the bridge is short enough so you can make it back to the right before it goes. The town guard on the bridge below has white catnip which you can let drop on the lower bridge. Get down to street level, kill the guard, then pick up the catnip and treasure from the bridge, leaping off before it crumbles. You need the catnip to make it to the shingle roof of the building, after jumping up the slide-away platforms, where a skull rewards your efforts. I jump back down to street level at this point, getting the gull on the way. It doesn't seem to attack on the 1st ascent, but that may just be my timing, your mileage may vary. Go up the slide-away planks again, jump off to the right this time, following the coin trail. Don't forget the statues, than make your way down the crumbling bridges the usual way. The second and forth bridges from the top have treasure on the left this time. Pick up your map, and proceed to the next level!

Special notes for more than 100% treasure:

I have been looking at highscores on the Claw website, and noticed that somebody recently got considerably more than 100% of the treasure. I thought it was a fluke, but then a few more people got it, so apparently it was real. Thanks to Mahesh Muthuswamy, Finn Scheele and Randy Stroot for coming up with the following method. It seems so obvious in retrospect…

Just before SP1, you're on top of a tower. If you take a long jump forward, you can get past SP1 without triggering the flag! Now process to the next flag, but make sure you don't trigger it. Instead, lose a life. You restart at the last flag before SP1. Now you go back to SP1, again, don't trigger it. Continue to the level just before the next flag. If you take a running leap off the ledge and immediately high again, you can jump over the next flag also! Continue to just before the next flag, then lose another life. Now go to SP1 and trigger the flag. At this point, you have to exit the game. When you restart the game from SP1, all the treasure after SP1 is restored, and you can get it again! You can play a similar game at SP2…

For even more treasure, try this (I’m told Mahesh Muthuswamy first came up with this):

Jump over SP2 w/o triggering it. You can start following the coins but then move right. Continue through the next checkpoint, triggering it. Go down until the last collapsing bridge then get the catnip and, using the remaining parts of the bridge on the right side, jump up until the top. Get the skull and stuff from above, and get all the treasure further on. Don't go into the checkpoint at the bottom of the bridges though! Once you've got all the treasure to just before the entrance to the boss end a life. Go down the bridges again and get the crown and coins on the lowest level, then end yet another life. Work your way back to SP2 and trigger it from behind. You don't have to play this method for after SP2 again, do it the normal way.

Maximum score (as far as I know today) can be achieved with the following method (due to Mahesh Muthuswami):

Jump over SP1 without triggering it. Leave the catnip, go along on ground level, and jump over the first flag. When you get to the second flag, don’t trigger it, just get the treasure on that ledge and lose a life. Again, jump over SP1, leave the catnip, and this time take a running leap to jump over the first flag. Now pick up all the treasure up to the second flag. Don’t trigger the flag, lose another life instead. Again, jump over SP1, this time do take the catnip, and make the run to the second flag before the catnip runs out (15 sec) and jump over that second flag. Now you can go down the crumbling bridges. A running leap from the left wall will let you jump the third flag without triggering it. Now you can pick up all the treasure in this area including the warp. After you exit the warp, jump past SP2 and clean up all the way till the next flag. Don’t trigger it, instead, lose a life. Now you’re back before SP1! Trigger SP1, exit the game, and reenter to see all the treasure ahead restored. Now follow Finn’s method from above, and you can be a champ!

If you find mistakes in my description, better ways to do something, or a neater solution to some areas, please let me know (scubaman@attglobal.net)

Rich Kleinhenz

Scores:

Level 6

The following description is how I play level 6. I am running Claw version 1.3, and DirectX is version 7.1. Note that the coordinates I reference are the claw coordinates. These can be displayed on the screen by typing mppos at any time. Mppos is one of the cheat codes that does not interfere with your ability to save your game. Realize that this is not the only way to play the level. Sometimes your state of health will dictate another approach, and I am sure there are other, faster, better ways to do some things. Do your own thing, and use the following just as a guide if you get stuck. Don't follow move for move, you'll miss the fun of discovery and learning! Most of the descriptions that follow are not for the fastest time, but show a conservative approach in difficult areas. This is but one of many different solutions, and not necessarily the way I play it if I am trying to play fast!

Also note that your hardware plays a major role in how your game behaves. What seems easy on a certain set of HW can be a major problem on another. When I at times mention certain timings that worked for me they may not necessarily work for you.

Enter the game and clean up on ground level. Always be ready for bird attacks, there's one right at the beginning ;-). The town-guards can be killed with 2 hand attacks. When they salute (which they seem to be spending most of their time on), they don't seem to defend themselves. Watch where their treasure falls, and be ready to pick it up, jump over them if necessary to intercept treasure before it falls into goo and is lost. Get on top of the first building from the window sill. After getting the lower level box, look up to watch the bird . Jump on the crumbling window sill and on the roof while the bird is flying away from you (to the right). This bird (and many others in this level) only attacks while you're on the shingles, so immediately jump to the upper roof and kill the guard (and the bird, if you want, although he won't hurt you any more, so you might as well et him live), and pick up the treasure. Take a long jump down to the left along the stream of coins. Go to the right. Across from the ladder there's a guard. Don’t kill him with a bullet from afar, he'll spill his treasure into the goo below. Rather, jump to the ledge below him, and hit him twice while jumping up. Don't forget the treasure above the ladder.

Descend the ladder, go to the right first and open the boxes and get the fire sword. Then take the horizontal elevator to the left and jump down. Or climb down the ladder, it just takes longer. Kill the guards with your fire sword and pick up the goodies. The bubbling-up goo gets you only for 1 health point, but it stuns you temporarily. Go up the ladder, kill the guards right and left and pick up their valuables. Up the ladder, and fight with some more guards and a gull. It's best to jump over these guards to make sure you get their goodies. Take the catapult up to the lower roof. As you climb the ladder, you'll get attacked by a gull. If you keep going up it won't get you. Or, entice it into an attack, then duck back down, and then climb up as it flies away from you. Hit it from behind. It won't attack you when you're on the top roof. This same scenario is repeated many times in this level.

Again, there's a guard and treasure at the far side of the ladder, you can get the guard from the ledge. Descend the ladder. On your left is a box with catnip, leave it for now. Jump onto the chain, swing to the other side. Get the magic claw, then go up the ladder. Clean the street level of guards and treasure. Then go back via the chain and pick up the catnip. You need it to get to the top of the roof via the crumbling window sills. There is a gull there, and you can't see it from the bottom… if it hits you during your jump onto the shingles, you won't make it… tough luck, try again (start over), it's worth it, there's quite a bit of treasure up there!

Continue to the right, hitting guards and boxes. Get onto the horizontal trigger elevator (stepping onto it triggers its motion). Jump onto the brick platforms and catch the elevator on the far side. Leave the red catnip alone for now. Then more of the usual, guards, boxes, birds. The next ladder leads to a shallow basement with a box containing only bullets and some health-points. Jump from the high roof to the top of the next lower roof along the path of coins. Don't jump into the next hole yet, around x=9130. Across it is a guard, and a crown. Crouch and kill the guard with 2 pistol shots, if his treasure falls, you'll get it soon. Now hurry back to that horizontal elevator, and pick up the red catnip. Run back across to the right, jump across to where you just killed that guard with pistol shots, and get the crown while the catnip lasts. Then jump down, and congratulate yourself, you made it to Safe Point 1.

Now the fun begins. Fall or go down the ladder, and catch the elevator going to the left. (Don't trigger the elevator waiting right under the ladder.) Duck as soon as you get on. Jump onto the brick platform as the elevator turns around. As you jump, lash out with your sword and kill the rat. Catch the next elevator going left, again duck, jump over the next platforms etc. until you reach the ladder. This can all be done with 1 continuous right-left motion without breaking stride. Go up the ladder, and get the rat, guard and treasure. I use a magic claw and a slash for a box that does not get opened by the MC for the fastest time so I can catch the elevator on its first cycle and not have to wait. Go back the way you came. I found that if you slide down the left wall instead of taking the ladder you land on a little ledge, convenient place to catch the first elevator from. Jump onto the elevator waiting under the ladder where you started and take it to the right. Duck under the bricks. Jump straight up for the treasure, the elevator will not move during your jump. After you duck under the last bricks, just about where the lamp is, jump for the ladder. This will make it easy to get the fire-sword, and land on the elevator rather than have to curl back and grab the ladder. Get the guard and rat halfway up the ladder and the fire-swords to the left. Continue to street level, get the guards with the fire-sword. You can also go right to the next street section and get the guards there with the fire-sword. It's prudent to shoot the 2 on the right from the right. Now go back and get the rest of the treasure. I usually don't go to the second level here, I get the guys below and head for the roof. The left-most building is a little tricky. Get the lower gull, then go up the crumbling sills. There's an upper gull. If it gets you before you make the shingles, tough luck, you'll need to try again. (I play the sequence I play because the timing consistently works out such the upper gull heads away from me.) Try to get the boxes from the left. The other building and the 2 in the next street section are standard fare by now. Do your thing. When you get to the opening leading down around x=13870, take a running leap across and get the ladder. On top of the ladder is a crown.

Jump straight down from the ladder. Touch the flag first, so if you screw up, you don't have to start too far back. Crouch and fire a pistol shot to the left to get a rat waiting for you. Then take the elevator across to the left. Jump down the next shaft, and onto the elevator moving left. Crouch under the platform, and step on the second elevator between the 2 platforms, at the point of their closest approach. Make your way up the ladders, killing guards and picking up treasure. You should only use sword/hand attacks so you don't lose the treasure.. Take the vertical elevator to the top, clean up there. Then jump off to the right along the stream of coins. Take the elevator back across the goo. Jump across the shaft and kill the guard there, then jump down along the series of coins.

To your left is a guard, jump across and get him. The goo-fall won't hurt. Continue to the right along two swinging chains. Clean up, go up the ladder, get the rat on the left (slash with the sword while jumping), then the rat and guard on the right. Don't get on the catapult yet, instead go left. You'll find a skull in a shaft. Crouch next to the shaft, and you'll see the top of one of the swinging chains you recently crossed. As the right chain (the one right underneath you) is all the way to the left, jump down the shaft, picking up the skull on your way down, then immediately move to the right (while you're still falling) and you'll catch the rope. Go back up the ladder, and go all the way to the left this time. Jump across and kill the last guard. A red catnip will fall out. Get it, run to the right to the catapult. Grab the ladder on your first jump up, and proceed to the left. Jump down. You might like to get all the guards with a magic claw or two. Go all the way to the left to a catapult. Take it to the lower roof level, run to the right across 2 roofs (don't go up to the top!). Jump for the ladder on the right, go up and jump into the warp. If you have time, get the guard on the rooftop before entering. You need to jump for the warp under catnip.

I found the warp pretty tough! It took me a while to get it right. The breakthrough for me was to use magic claws liberally. Also, it pays to have some seconds of catnip left when you enter, it makes jumping for the reasure around the first platform more efficient. I fire the first claw right as I drop out of the warp, killing the first guard, saving a little time (to be able to do that you must face right as you jump for the warp!) Now immediately jump onto the first platform and use more magic claws to get rid of enemies and open boxes wholesale. It is important to reach the elevator at the other side of the platform as it passes by with a low jump so you don't touch the warp exit.

Now take the elevator to the 2nd (split) platform. Again, you must clean up here, both lower platforms and the upper one, and you got only this one chance, and again you have to catch the elevator on the other side again… The last 2 boxes on the right platform only contain health points, don't bother with them if you're under time pressure. Take the elevator to the next small platform at x=2540, kill the guy there.

If you made it this far, you're nearly home free. The rest is relatively easy. Swing across on the chain, kill the guy there. Do not go up the ladder at this time! You have to catch the moving elevator without triggering the waiting elevator to your right. Wait till the moving elevator just passes the waiting one, and jump onto it without touching the latter. It's not difficult, but if you're too late, you'll drown. Now it gets really easy. Jump out to safety, kill the rat, get all the treasure in the area. From the top of the second ladder, you can see a warp below, a skull above. Jump all the way to the left, you'll slide down the wall without touching the lower exit warp. If you keep your finger on the left arrow, you'll land around x=3150, on the platform next to the trigger elevator. Go up the ladder, clean up up there, then come back down. Run (don't jump!) at full speed to the right, across the waiting vertical elevator, triggering it, onto the old parked elevator, run up the ladders, and wait for the rising elevator. Once it passes the lower warp, get on it, get the skull and coins, and live happily ever after. Congratulate yourself!

You land back on the same rooftop where you entered the warp. Get the guard, if you didn't on your way up. Also get the guys on street level, if you didn't get them yet. Then exit back out via the rooftop, following the stream of coins. Proceed to the right, empty out crates, dispose of guards, and pick up all treasure. Jump across the next building on the crumbling window sills, and grab the ladder right after it. Go up the ladder, clean up on the left rooftop. Then jump to the next roof, clean up there, but don't take the catnip! Get off the roof at the left. Sweep the street. Jump across the next shaft and get the boxes. Then jump back to the left ledge on top of the shaft. Slide down the left side of the shaft, and you'll land on a terrace. Kill the guards, get the booty. There's a rat on the far left, across another shaft. Don't worry if some treasure falls, you'll pick it up in a moment. Then jump down that left shaft to another terrace and sweep there. Now jump across the main shaft to the right to a ledge and slide down the right wall, or jump directly to a terrace to the right of the shaft a little ways down. To the right, get on the ladder. You can get the cross, scepters and crown with well-timed jumps, starting at the top, but you can't get on the top ledge where the guard is, or get the skull. So, lose a life! You'll start over at the last flag. Jump across the crumbling window sills again, get on the roof, and get the red catnip. Now go back down to where the skull is waiting, sliding down the right side of the shaft. Get the guard and the skull. Then jump down the main shaft to SP2. You could also get the red catnip immediately and not give up a life for it, but you'd really have to hustle to get all the stuff along the way. Magic claws will clean up fast and efficiently. I always felt if I survived the warp in reasonable shape (i.e. got to the skull) I had too much invested to risk it.

Right after SP2, there is red catnip above you. The safest thing is to leave it for now. Get across the swinging chains, get rid of the next 3 guards, i.e. clean up the path to the ladder. Then go back, swing across the 2 chains, at the top of the last swing jump up at the catnip, then curl back to the right to catch the rope on its return swing. Run back to the ladder. Alternatively, you can get the red catnip immediately as you jump onto the chain, swing to the right, catch the second chain, kill the enemies on your way to the right, and pick up all treasure, and still have plenty of time on the catnip. Go up the ladder, don't jump on the first grill, but directly on the second one (to your left) on its way to the right. From there, to the 4th, and to the left to get the skull and coins, and magic invulnerability. From there it's easy to jump onto grill #3 as it moves out, and get on the ladder leading up. If you jump from the very edge of the ledge, you can even reach the ladder on the right directly. Should you fall, jump up via grills #1, #2 and #3 to the ladder. Get the guard, then cleanup street level. Don't go on top of the first building, you can't get to the top w/o catnip. Go right, but before the goo, go up the ladder, leaving the treasure on the sills for now. Go on top across 2 roofs. Then, with a running leap, you can make it to the other side. If you miss, go back up to the left, clean up at street level, and cross the goo via the crumbling window sills. Back to the rooftop for another try! When you make it across, kill the guard, and you'll find catnip and in one of the boxes there. While on catnip, run back to the left across the rooftops, make sure you don't fall to street level! Get on the left-most roof, look out for the gull, and go for the treasure on top. Now you can make it back to the right, picking up what you haven't got yet.

At the next shaft, make your way across. You can get the geckos and scepters over the fast moving horizontal elevators by stepping onto the elevators, and jumping high when they are on the left, or by jumping from the edge and curling back.

Exit the shaft on the right. Cleanup at street level, and on top of the second house. From there you can also jump and shoot a bullet to the right to get a gull that might hurt you later. Now get the low gull in front of the 3rd house. You can shoot the guy on the other side of the shaft if you want, you'll collect any treasure he spills later. It's not necessary, though. Slide down the left side of the shaft, kill the guard on the ledge. The jump across. Terminate that guard also, and swing across on the chain. Go up the catapults, clearing the way. (On the lowest level at that tower, you can hit the guard on the other side of the wall through the wall with your sword, if you want.) Clear up all the way to the top. Then come back down, swing back across to the left, and go down the shaft. I find it useful to clean up ahead till the very end. If I make a mistake, oh well, I need to lose a life anyway to go back. On the other hand, the section is not tough, and this way you assure that you arrive in perfect health condition when you face Wolvington later. So keep going, navigating the horizontal elevator ducked low, and across the swinging chain. Make a short stop below the chain for the box. When you see the exit, lose a life.

Now you start over at the last flag. Go left, get onto the second building, and take a far jump off the left edge from the top level, not the shingles. You'll land at a box containing catnip. Eat it, and run at street level to the right. Jump up the crumbling window sills. If you haven't killed the high gull it may knock you off here. Get the skull while on catnip, then jump off the right, picking up the red catnip. Go back up the tower, and enter the warp. You're rewarded with an extra life, making up for the one you gave up to get here. There's also invisibility magic there. I used to leave it, to pick it up at the exit, but there's really no need since I already cleared the path to the very end. And, if I miss a jump, I'd miss the coins surrounding it. So, get the stuff and carefully make your way across to the right. You're rewarded with an incredible treasure heap! To exit the warp, you have to make it all the way back across the chains…

Now, go to face Wolvington! He's actually really easy, if you jump close right away, crouch, drive him to the right, and just keep hitting him. It's actually boring… you hit him, he hits the air above you, you hit him… till he dies!

If you find better ways to do something, or a neater solution to some areas, please let me know (scubaman@attglobal.net)

Rich Kleinhenz

Scores:

Level 7

The following description is how I play level 7. I am running Claw version 1.3, and DirectX is version 7.0a. Note that the coordinates I reference are the claw coordinates. These can be displayed on the screen by typing mppos at any time. Mppos is one of the cheat codes that does not interfere with your ability to save your game. Realize that this is not the only way to play the level. Sometimes your state of health will dictate another approach, and I am sure there are other, faster, better ways to do some things. Do your own thing, and use the following just as a guide if you get stuck. Don't follow move for move, you'll miss the fun of discovery and learning! Most of the descriptions that follow are not for the fastest time, but show a conservative approach in difficult areas. This is but one of many different solutions, and not necessarily the way I play it if I am trying to play fast!

Also note that your hardware plays a major role in how your game behaves. What seems easy on a certain set of HW can be a major problem on another. When I at times mention certain timings that worked for me they may not necessarily work for you.

Start the game and kill the red-tail pirate, empty the crates, and kill the bloody bird. The pirate has a tendency to spill a coin to the right, make sure you catch that, or attack him from the right. I noticed throughout this level that enemies' coins tended to spill to the right, keep that in mind when you kill them. For this perticualr guy, I found it best to jump towards him, slash his head once while still in the air, and quickly again, and that way I gor away again before the bird got me. Go up the ladder, and get the treasure on both sides. The higher birds have a crown each, so don't forget them! You have to entice them into attcking, then slash them. Make your way to the right, killing and plundering. Jump quickly across the stepping stones starting at x=3100, and go up the ladder. Get the coins and health-points if you can use them, but you can't reach the crown. Continue to the right. Don't get friendly with the bear-sailors ;-) Cross the next set of stepping stones, get the red-tail pirate, then jump and get the catnip from the next stepping stone. Turn around, backtrack to where you left the crown, pick it up and return, then go up the ladder. Wait till there's no red-tail at the edge of the platform, jump up and immediately to the upper right to get another crown. Curl back, and clean up on the platform. If you still have catnip, you can jump up and stab the boxes on the upper level, otherwise, throw a couple of sticks of dynamite to open the boxes and expose the scepters. You can pick them up with regular jumps. Exit the platform to the left along the stream of coins and gecko. Then continue on your journey to the right.

On a long island, around x=6300, up above you on a platform, you see 3 red-tail pirates. You can jump up and attack them from here from complete safety, or leave them till later. Jump around on the water-jet at x=6708, going left, right, and then up, picking up the goodies, and then go up the ladder. Clean up, then go up the ladder on the right. Kill the bloody birds with your sword, and get all the coins and the ice-sword. Cross a couple of ladders to the left, kill the gulls with the ice-sword, and land on a rooftop where you get a crown. Jump down on the left, and kill the 3 red-tails with the ice sword if you didn't get them earlier. Their rich treasures may spill to the right, but they land on the island where it won't be lost.

Continue going right, up that same water-jet again. Follow the arrow to the right this time, traverse the next few platforms and water jets, killing gulls, bear sailors, and picking up all treasure. Soon you're at Safe Point 1. If you want full score, you cannot exit the game here, but you have to play through to SP2.

Traverse the stepping stones and small islands with water jets. You can get the gulls with the sword from the top of each island. They can't hurt you if you get them from there. On the second island a couple of crabs are waiting. Get them when they try to bite you. If you played through SP1, there are 3, and 1 of them has a coin. If you exited at SP1, that crab with the coin is not there, and you can't get ful score. After the second flag on the wooden platform, you're getting to the crab nesting places. When you trigger the nest, crabs jump out. You can get them quickly and simply with a magic claw. I use my sword. When they first jump out, while they're in the air, they are vulnerable. Crouch to avoid the gull attacks. I make my way up to the top first, just getting crabs. The black ones are nasty, they throw fire balls. If you're close to them, they tend to explode themselves. You may lose some health-points there, but it doesn't matter. Food is ahead. From the top, go back down to the left, killing the bloody birds and picking up the treasure if you left any behind.

Continue your path down the trail of coins to the right. Get the first gull with your sword, then jump across the stepping stones to the water-jet. I jump up and down on the water-jet so as to stay low, and fire a bullet or 2 at the second gull. (The bullets don't travel in a straight line when you shoot while jumping…) Then I let myself get shot up and go up the ladder.

Kill the pirate to the right and trigger the crab nests, killing the crabs as they came out. You may want to leave all of this till later, when you have a fire-sword which makes it really easy. By the crab nests, there are crumbling stones leading up. Look up to time your ascent with the bird. You have to go up, jump left at the top to get several coins, and kill the gull. This is a rich bird, carrying 4 scepters which you want to talk him out of. Now go down the ladder, drop onto the water-jet, and immediately start jumping to the right across a few stepping stones, to another water-jet. Get yourself shot up, wriggle around a little near the top of the travel to not leave a coin behind. When you drop back down, immediately start jumping to the left across the stepping stones, get yourself shot up the water-jet, up the ladder, then to the right and right away up to the left via the crumbling stone to the top of the hill. Jump for the crown and extra life, then empty the boxes, and only then get the fire-sword and exit to the right. Proceed down to the right along the coin path, triggering a crab-nest at the bottom. Get them while they're still in the air. Then get the pirates and treasure. Now go up the water-jet and get the bear sailor. When you jump on top of the ladder on the right, you'll trigger 2 crab nests above. Jump back up, and get them with the fire-sword or your sword or any other method that suits you.

Now come the biggest challenge of the game, at least I thought so. At the bottom of the ladder is a white atnip. Get it, and go back up to the left, jump to the top of the next ladder, and the top of the hill on the left. Jump on the crumbling stone at x=15,809, and go right across the series of crumbling stones. Your last jump to the last block has to land you on the left edge, or you won't reach the skull above to the left. You have to make sure your jumps are relatively small, so you don't miss any of the coins along the traverse, since you can't get back here.

Once you drop back down, you have to make your way to the right on the lower series of crumbling stones to get into a warp. You have to build up momentum, so you absolutely have to keep your finger on the right arrow until you make it onto the last block. It's the jump onto the last block that needs the momentum. This also means that you have to land on the last but one crumbler's very left edge, or you overshoot. It's not an easy traverse, at least it was not for me.

If you miss, you miss the warp, but also 4 coins just before the warp. You can give up a few lives to try to make it. If you don't succeed, luckily, you have another chance to enter the warp later on. It's also not easy, and you won't get the 4 coins you just missed, but it's better than nothing.

The warp is not all that difficult, but you have but 1 chance. Go right on water-jets. I think the gulls may be ignored, they seem to be there for annoyance purposes only, I don't think I've ever been attacked by them. As you shoot up from the third jet, you'll land on a crumbling block. Jump from block to block to the left, leaving enough for a return path. Make sure you get the skull top left. Jump via your return path to the right, and go past the center for another skull top right. Return to the center, and drop down on the water-jet. Catapult to the right on 2 more jets, and exit the warp, picking up fire-swords. When you get back to the place where you went up the crumbling stones around x=20100, it's time to lose another life. You have to go up the crumbling blocks again. Drop down between the last 2, and face 2 bear sailors guarding some nice boxed treasure. Exit to the right, picking up the 6 scepters, crown and invisibility magic.

Below that last series of crumbling blocks are some islands, with water-jets between them, and gulls patrolling. Easy stuff, go clean up. Exit on the ladder to the right, jump right after the flag, following the stream of coins, and curl back left, picking them all up on the way down. Cross the stepping stones, and go back up. At the top of the ladder you'll trigger a crab nest. Take care of them, 2 more nests, a bear sailor and a red-tail. Then go up the crumbling blocks. If you take a far left jump off the very left edge of the last crumbling block, you can make it into the first warp.

The next piece is easy. Go down via 3 crumbling blocks to face off with some bear sailors and gulls, and pick up treasure and health-points. After that, another series of crab nests and a couple of red-tail sailors await you.

I think the next section is a lot of fun. Drop down, following the coins. Go to the right, up the ladder, and clean up on the pier where there's tons of treasure. I usually also go to the upper level to pick up so that later I'm not distracted. Then go back down the ladder at x=23450. Hop to the right under the pier. There are alternating stepping stones and water-jets. Don't let the water-jets shoot you up, jump on them, stabbing to the right to kill the gulls. When you get to the last one, where the catnip is, let yourself get shot up. You land on the pier. Go up the ladder and to the left, and jump up the crumbling stones, while on catnip. Jump onto the roof to your left, get the treasure, and enter the warp.

You are immediately on a water-jet. I usually jump a little before I let myself get shot up, to catch my breath. Go up, and jump over a series of crumbling stones, up, right, up, left and so on, just follow the serpentine to the top. At the end, you get a skull and exit. On the pier where you land are 3 bear sailors, very rich ones. Clean up, but don't get too friendly with them. Then go to Safe Point 2.

After SP2, the game changes a little. Start off by jumping off the pier to the right, then go left over some sink buoys to pick up a few coins and invulnerability magic. Rest a moment on safe ground till the buoys come up for the return trip. Water-jet up to the ladder, get on deck and clean up. Don't forget the ring and coins to the left. I then take a running leap off the right side, to a deck below. If I can slash a gull on the way down, so much the better. I get the pirate down there, then wait for the cable car to come around. I take it to the platform up above to the right where I kill the pirate and get the booty. By then the invulnerability is gone, and I get back down on the lower deck. I jump down the left side onto a water jet, then jump to the right via a couple of stepping stones to another water-jet. Here you let yourself get shot up, to the right, to another water-jet partially hidden behind a platform support. Shoot up, curve to the right to pick up a crown and scepters, then land back on the jet. Return to the deck via the jet on your left. Take the cable-car up. Take the ladder around x=26600 up. From the top of the ladder you can jump for 4 coins to the right. When you get back up, kill the pirate, get the goodies, and go to the next platform. Do the same, don't forget to go down the ladder to pick up 4 coins and some health-points, or the 4 coins off to the left.

Now take the cable car across. You could kill the birds with your pistol jumping up from the platform, or with your sword as you cross. Go down the next few platforms. killing and plundering. I found it best to jump over the pirates and attack from the right so as not to lose the coins they spill. Now you have to go through these cable-car stations. They're all similar. Each has gulls that must be killed without accidentally jumping off, some treasure in the middle that I usually get by jumping from the 2 o'clock position to the 7 o'clock position. Also, there's treasure outside the trail that you must jump for. It's not all that tough. When you get to the ladders, jump down and relieve a bear sailor of his life, a gold bar and a coin. When you get to the platform after the fourth station be careful how you attack the red-tail. Treasure from the boxes that wants to spill left must be picked up before it drops. Stuff falling off to the right can be picked up later.

Instead of going down the ladder, jump off to the right on a roof to pick up treasure there, then go down the ladder to face 2 red-tails on the right. And that's it, folks!

If you find better ways to do something, or a neater solution to some areas, please let me know (scubaman@attglobal.net)

Rich Kleinhenz

Scores:

Level 8

The following description is how I play level 8. I am running Claw version 1.3, and DirectX is version 7.0a. Note that the coordinates I reference are the claw coordinates. These can be displayed on the screen by typing mppos at any time. Mppos is one of the cheat codes that does not interfere with your ability to save your game. Realize that this is not the only way to play the level. Sometimes your state of health will dictate another approach, and I am sure there are other, faster, better ways to do some things. Do your own thing, and use the following just as a guide if you get stuck. Don't follow move for move, you'll miss the fun of discovery and learning! Most of the descriptions that follow are not for the fastest time, but show a conservative approach in difficult areas. This is but one of many different solutions, and not necessarily the way I play it if I am trying to play fast!

Also note that your hardware plays a major role in how your game behaves. What seems easy on a certain set of HW can be a major problem on another. When I at times mention certain timings that worked for me they may not necessarily work for you.

The start of level 8 puts you on a dock with boxes that need to be opened carefully so the treasure does not spill. Pick it all up, get the gull, then take a running leap onto a platform to your left. It's a tight jump, I found it easiest to take a swing on the rope, and start the motion to the left from there, keeping the finder on the left arrow to pick up the momentum. Pick up the treasure there and invulnerability magic, then return. Swing on the rope to the right, land on the stepping stones and jump up on the next dock. Hit the gull on one of your leaps. Be careful that the bear sailor doesn't grab you. He can't hurt you while you're invulnerable, but he'll delay you if he does. Enter the first ship. It's usually best to get the rat first, since he has a long range weapon, but here it doesn't matter, of course, being invulnerable. Go to the left, then up the rope ladder. Get all enemies, gulls and boxes as you go. There's a rat on the next platform to the right, you might want to get him as soon as you can with a single shot from a standing position. On the second rope swinging to the right, don't drop onto the platform, but leap up to the ladder leading up the mast. Go left (get the gull before he [or is it a she?] bites you) on the rafter. There's a few ways to play this area, they all work, so I'll just give you the generalities. On top of the left mast, there are 4 geckos and ammo that you can only get with catnip. Also, on top of the right mast, there's ghost magic and a crown. Again, you need catnip for the crown. Don't get the catnip, and then the ghost magic (which seems so accessible with the catnip, because there is only 1 timer, and if the catnip timer is ticking and you start the ghost magic timer, you're out of catnip. So, I usually get the ghost magic first, then clean up in relative safety, then get the catnip and the high treasure on the first mast, and then the crown from where the ghost magic was. After you got everything out of the rigging, get down and to the bow of the ship. Climb down the rope ladder there, picking up the treasure alongside it with small jumps, or by dropping and curling back in grabbing the bottom of the ladder. Now cross over to the second ship.

Go up the rope ladder, get the rat first, then the 2 pirates. At the very stern there's a box with some health. Go up the mast, get some scepters at the top. Then make your way back down and to the bow. To the right of the bow, at x=8031, there's some nice treasure on top of a post. You may be able to get it without catnip. On one PC I could do that, on another I needed to take a running leap, but the catnip is there for this jump. To get the catnip go left after the rope ladder at x=7582. You may want to get the rat firing at you with a pistol shot first. Pick up all the treasure and the catnip, go back up to the bow, and take that leap to the right.

Leap back to the left, onto the platform, then make your way across the ropes to the right. You can stop off in the middle on a stepping stone for a moment to pick up an extra life and some magic claws. You just have to get the timing right! On top of the second pole is a skull, you can't get it from down here. Get it by leaping off for the stern of the ship. Coming up soon. Get off the second rope, via s stepping stone onto the platform. Do your thing there, then jump across the cannons to the right, picking up those nice geckos. Off to the right of the next platform is an ice-sword on top of a stepping stone. It's easy to get so you might as well. Use it to clear your path ahead of you, the main deck, then the birds cruising between the masts, the rat and the bear sailor at the stern. Pick up all treasure. You definitely want to get the skull you passed earlier, it's a blind leap off the stern, landing on that post. Jump down and grab the rope, and follow your previous route up. You can also get the skull by stepping left off the lowest rafter. Nothing fancy on this ship, just follow the arrows till you reach Safe Point 1 at the bow.

Get the gull, then descend the rope ladder. I usually wait for the gull at the bottom to show up on the screen, then start leaping across the stepping stones to the right, behind the gull, hitting every other stone. On one of the leaps you can lash out and get the gull, but if you start off right behind it, it won't get you. Get the skull and return, stepping on the alternate stones, picking up those coins, then ascend the ladder again.

Swing across to the next ship on the rope. I find it very difficult to get the fire-swords and still land on the stern of the ship, but occasionally I succeeded with that, so I know it's possible, again this may be hardware dependent. I found it easier to jump and get the swords, grab the rope again, and take another swing, then jump to the ship. You may also bypass the fire-swords altogether, they're nice, but not necessary, you can do just as well with sword and hand attacks. If you got the fire-swords, fire across from the high point of the aft deck to the right, getting the 2 guys there. Jump down to the main deck, get the rat and the sailor. Go down the rope ladder for the main deck, jump across 2 cannons to the left, get the sailor and pick up the treasure, then go right and pick up there. Then go up the rope ladder again, and follow the arrows. At x=14850, you can get a gull with a pistol shot if you want, they're such a nuisance. The second gull you can get with your sword as you jump down from there. At the 2 masts around x=15300, go a little further to the bow first and relieve a bear sailor of some ammo and a couple of coins. Go up jumping between the 2 masts, take the rope across to the rope ladder at x=15970. Go up the ladder, get a rat and a sailor, then swing to the left on the rope. Be ready for 3 pirates and a gull on that boom. Get them, they're worth it!

On the left set of masts, there's catnip on one and scepters and ammo on the other. You don't need catnip for the scepters. The right set of masts has a crown, you do need the catnip there. I usually clear off any and all obstacles that I can before a catnip run, so as to not get into time trouble. This place is not bad. Climb on the leftmost mast. Stand on the right edge of the top rung, and take a leap to the right, not getting the catnip this time. You'll land on the next mast. Get up there and take the treasure and ammo. Leap off to the right along the coin trail, and land on another boom. Get the pirate that's on that level. You can jump up and grab the lowest rung of the ladder up the right mast. You can climb up the 2 masts, killing the birds on the way, but the catnip is ample, you can leave the birds and just avoid them when you climb later with catnip. Go back for the catnip, and get that crown on top of the double-mast. Then step off the right end of the boom along the coin trail. Follow the arrows to the bow. You'll see a warp to the right, you'll get to it later for the other side.

Take the rope ladder down. I get the first gull jumping from the ladder. Then swing across on the 3 ropes. Land on the pole at x=18470, get the gull, then go via the stepping stones to the platform. Cross 3 platforms, stepping over the cannons, then jump on the horizontal elevator, the center stepping stone, the next elevator, and up the rope ladder at x=21275 Follow the arrows towards the bow, but after climbing the rope ladder at 21985, go left. At the bottom of the next rope ladder, get the lightning sword. The box there contains catnip. I don't need it to enter the warp I am heading for, so I often leave it. The lightning sword lets you proceed fast, so I usually take that. Make your way left to the stern. Jump across the top of the poles, and into the warp. If your hardware or skill smake those jumps tough, use the catnip.

As you enter the warp, be ready for bird attacks. They seem to come from all sides at once, millions of them. The worst thing is to stay in the middle, since when they bite, you're stunned and can't lash out for a moment, and the attacks are quite fierce. The best thing seems to be jumping onto one of the structures on either side, limiting the attacks to one direction. From there you can get rid of a lot of them. They spill tons of treasure. Start making your way up to the top, killing gulls, releasing treasure as you go up. Watch your health. There are 30 health-points in 3 crates on the left, 75 on the right. One of the gulls also has 25 points. Pick up all the treasure, including a skull! Then exit out the top. If you left anything on the stern section of the ship, pick it up now. then proceed to the bow and Save Point 2.

Drop down to the platform and go right after taking care of business. Follow the arrows through the ship. The only special place is a rope ladder at x=24540 down from the main deck. To the left is a platform with a pirate and some treasure, to the right, jump across a bunch of cannons, get a skull at the end. Your last leap off the last cannon lands you on a horizontal elevator taking you back to the rope ladder. Ignore the birds, they're mostly here to irritate you and throw you off. I used to think they just couldn't hurt you at all, but found out that I was wrong: Once I got a bite, standing on the edge of the floating crate. If you stay in the middle, they don't seem to get you. And on the way over, you're at their level, so they can't get you anyway. Let them screech and swoop, just go about your own business. Complete your rounds of the ship.

At the bow, descend the rope ladder at x=26845. Get the rat, then the pirate. Off the very bow, there are an extra life and some magic claws, you need the red catnip to get there. Usually I just leave it there, I don't really need the life, and have plenty of magic claws. There is some risk in the jump, and you've come a little ways from SP2 already. However, with a little practice, it is possible to get this stuff, then leap onto the next pole on the right and pick up the path from there. If you do that, you should get the initial treasure along the route, then come back, get the catnip, go up the ladder, jump for the goodies, then continue to the right. If not, get the catnip, and go right over the poles and swinging from the ropes till you reach a pole with ladder rungs at x=29345. From there, take 3 stepping stones to the tall pole at x=29664. You need the catnip to reach the bottom rung, that's all. If you have enough time left, it's best to keep going to the right on the stepping stones tp pick up the remining chalices. There should also be enough time to grab the rope and take one swing back and forth to pick up the coins. It's possible to get those 5 chalices and coins later also, but it's easier from here, and the catnip should have plenty of time left.

Climb a long way up till you reach the little platform where the pole gets thin. Don’t climb further. Stand in the middle of the platform, and take a leap to the left. You should hit the warp.

The warp is interesting. Again, there may be other ways to play it, the only one I found to work for me (after many tries following a different approach!) is this. When I land, I wait for maybe 2-3 seconds, then go for the catnip. The wait is from experience, I want to grab the rope without having to wait for it while I'm on catnip. I swing on 2 ropes to the right, but instead of climbing up to the next level after grabbing the ladder, I jump right IMMEDIATELY, run under the exit warp, and up onto the next platform. I immediately leap to the right then back to the left and descend back to the lower level and go to the ladder from there. These 2 leaps are very important, I have to get the high stuff that I can't reach w/o catnip. That's really only the 2 top coins, the rest can be reached when I come down without catnip. I need to reach the first rope with 33 or 34 seconds catnip left. If I'm too late and have to wait for 1 swing period, I can't make it. Well, at least not getting all the treasure. You can still do it coming out a few coins short, that's not so bad. But in that case there was no need to go to the right first for those 2 high coins, it'd be easier to start climbing immediately! Swing and climb up. When he says 'I don't have time to run around in circles' you're at our last swing, get ready to jump up and climb the rest of the way. At the top, get the coins and extra life, then jump right along the coin trail, land on a pole, and take another leap along a second coin trail to the bottom. Grab anything you didn't get the first time, and exit.

You're landing on the tall pole. Follow the coin trail down to the right for the top. You need to leap off the very right edge of the pole. Now you might have to go back to pick up those 5 chalices you may have left on the stepping stones to the right of the tall pole. Swing on the rope, jump to the left, leap to the right across the stepping stones picking up the goodies, grab the rope on the next swing and proceed to the right to face Gabriel.

If you find better ways to do something, or a neater solution to some areas, please let me know (scubaman@attglobal.net)

Rich Kleinhenz

Scores:

Level 9

The following description is how I play level 9. I am running Claw version 1.3, and DirectX is version 7.0a. Note that the coordinates I reference are the claw coordinates. These can be displayed on the screen by typing mppos at any time. Mppos is one of the cheat codes that does not interfere with your ability to save your game. Realize that this is not the only way to play the level. Sometimes your state of health will dictate another approach, and I am sure there are other, faster, better ways to do some things. Do your own thing, and use the following just as a guide if you get stuck. Don't follow move for move, you'll miss the fun of discovery and learning! Most of the descriptions that follow are not for the fastest time, but show a conservative approach in difficult areas. This is but one of many different solutions, and not necessarily the way I play it if I am trying to play fast!

Also note that your hardware plays a major role in how your game behaves. What seems easy on a certain set of HW can be a major problem on another. When I at times mention certain timings that worked for me they may not necessarily work for you.

Pick up the stuff at the start and go up the ladder. Go up 2 levels, dodging arrows and defeating the peg-leg pirate (PLP). He has only 1 bullet in this level, you can avoid it relatively easily. Swing on the first rope, and grab the second, picking up the treasure. Don't jump too high, or the crazy-hook pirate (CHP) may get you. Land on the landing on the right, then go down and get the PLP. He has catnip which will allow you to jump back up on the landing. Go up the ladder and go left. Hit the CHP, catnip-empowered, you can get him with a single hit to the head. Go up the next ladder, and get the CHP there, and the gull. I usually go ahead end get the CHP down on the right also, while the catnip lasts. Do not get the ice-sword at this time!

The best way to defeat CHPs in this level, I found, is to jump towards them, and hit them on the head as you're coming down. They're hard to approach, and their reach is longer than yours (in level 10, it's different!). The other way to get them is with 2 bullets. This particular CHP often drops a coin down to the lower level, so be sure to drop down there and look. Now go back up. Around 2150/6000 jump off to the left, into an exciting warp.

This warp takes some practice. I don't know whether I can adequately describe how I play it, but I'll try, you might find better ways that work for you. It's a good idea to take this slow at first, bounce a few times on each catapult. You land on the leftmost low catapult. Bounce up and to the right. (I usually just ignore the birds. If you play slow, you may have to slash them.) Another bounce up and to the right gets you on a horizontal elevator. From here, you can jump up (avoiding the warp exits) to pick up the treasure. Step off the elevator and drop down right at the palm onto the next low catapult. Bounce up and to the right and repeat. Your last jump to the right from the rightmost high catapult is blind, to the rightmost low catapult, but by this time you'll know how far to jump. Now it's time to pick up the treasure under the high catapults. I do this by bouncing up and to the left, dropping through the treasure. As soon as I land on the conveyor belt, I jump up, and land on the next low catapult to the left. Works for me. You may find running on the belt to the right while jumping might get you in the right position to jump on the catapult more easily. It's all in the timing, as usual!

Exit the warp and proceed to the right. Pick up the ice sword by jumping up and left and curl back immediately without dropping down from around x=2690. Swing on the rope and get the CHP with the ice sword. Continue and swing to the left, and get the 2 pirates and gull on the next level with the ice sword. Jump down to the right, moving left and right to pick up treasure on your fall. If you don't get it all, don't sweat it, you'll have a chance to pick up the rest later. Go up the ladder at x=4252, avoiding the arrows. Leave the treasure off to the sides for now! Up top, continue to the left via the rope, and get the 2 pirates and gull up top with your favorite method. Jump through the invulnerability magic and drop down the same chute as before, picking up anything you left before. Hurry back up the ladder and pick up the treasure left and right. Drop down and descend via 3 levels of conveyor belts. Run with the belt, don't let it carry you, you have limited time in your magic invulnerability status! To run against a moving belt, keep jumping, to keep your contact with the belt to a minimum. Get the PLP while you're still invulnerable, but don't waste time on the boxes now. Don't follow the coin trial off that platform on the right, but curl back under it and get the CHP below. If you were quick enough, you're still invulnerable at this point. Otherwise, just shoot the guy ;-) Pick up the rich treasure and catapult back up, now you can open the boxes and collect the treasure. Proceed right, and up a series of belts and elevators till you get to the next flag. I usually throw a stick of dynamite over the logs to get the CHP on the other side of the log. His treasure stays for you to pick up later and does not drop out of reach.

I drop down on the left and grab the rope, and swing via 2 ropes to the right. If you take a single swing on each rope, the arrows won't get you. I try to ignore the gulls. After the second rope, jump up to the right and get the catnip and some treasure. Re-catch the rope, swing back to the left, and take the catapult back up to the flag. The catnip allows you to jump on top of the log now. That's all you need it for! If you didn't get the pirate before, you can get him now easily by dropping a stick of dynamite. Go to the right. You have to eliminate the CHP on the little platform just before the warp somehow, but you want to make sure you catch his treasure before it drops, be especially careful that he does not drop it to the left, because it'll cost you health points and maybe a life to retrieve it later.

The next warp is interesting also, it took me a while to figure it out. It's actually 3 warps, they look similar, but have different treasure. Each one has 5 exits, and you can move between them. You can pick your own way through it. Since you can reenter this warp, you can pick up all the treasure - well, not easily, but you can. Here's a general idea of what worked for me: Wait until the platforms disappear. Wait a little longer, then pick up the catnip and be ready to ascend when the platforms come back out. I originally tried to jump to the top and then drop down to get the treasure, but found myself exiting through the top accidentally too often. What worked better was to jump, duck, jump a little loop off the edge and curl back in to the next level above, duck, and repeat till you're at the top and can exit, having picked up all treasure on the way up. I got good mileage with that and got all the treasure (not every time I tried, but reasonably often).

Once you survive that, go to the next platform to the left again, drop down and grab the rope, and swing to the right. Get the crown and drop down along the coins, but move towards the left along the logs to land at a small gap in the logs before you reach the ground. From there, proceed left via catapults and elevators through fast arrows, picking up all the treasure, till you get to a skull on the left. If your timing is good, you can exit the way you came.

Now go right and go up through cannon fire, picking up treasure. It's worth knowing this place, you may get back here later. There are several safe places to rest on your way up. On top, go to the right. Hit the second CHP (above to the right) with high slashes; if you're lucky, he'll spill a coin for you. You may have to take a running start for these attacks. Then descend the elevator on the right. You have to jump left and right for all the treasure on the way down. If you can get the timing right, you can do so unscathed. If not, you might consider giving up a life to get it all: drop down on one side of the chute, die, and the second time drop on the other side. Below is SP1.

You have to exit the game at SP1 and reenter. (If you're good enough to play through, you probably won't be looking at this anyway! ;-) The reason is that you will go back to before SP1, and the treasure there will be restored when you re-enter the game. If you play through, it won't be there.

The area after SP1 is a little tricky. You go up through catapults and ropes, getting enemies and gulls along the way. They tend to spill treasure, so make sure you do another sweep of the area below later! The first gull has a coin, don't let it live! I get the first CHP via 2 pistol shots, the second with the sword. You can't get to the PLP up on your left without catnip. But, if you're so inclined, you can get him by falling past him and slashing him. Unfortunately, this works only sometimes, if he happens to look away as you slash him. I usually leave him till later. I generally go ahead and pick up everything along the way till the next flag. From the platform before that flag, drop down to the left and pick up 4 coins and some ammo. Now step off the left edge, onto another belt, and walk against it to the right. Drop down and get the CHP. Get all the gold bars, don't let any jump on the logs on the left! Now pick up the catnip, jump on the conveyor belt. Run to the left, and jump up to the catapult (if you drop down, you won't have enough time). Ascent back up via 2 catapults and 2 ropes, and over to the left at the PLP. I get him with my sword just as I come down on him. Works sometimes… kneel, hit him, then stand and slash him. This jump is all you needed the catnip for.

Now I clean up the areas to the right. I bounce up and over to the next catapult, and then next to the saw blade. From there, I take the rope over to the next catapult. There I jump a few times until I can get the nasty little bird. Then down to the right and eliminate the CHP. I wait till he's on the right, and shoot him twice between the eyes. Then it's back onto the catapult and up to the left onto a high platform where a box with 2 crowns is waiting. Now you can make your way to the left again, and on top of the logs. Get the CHP (the one you may have stolen a coin from earlier) below (a stick of dynamite works well). Then you can enter the warp. (It's a multiple entry warp also, so you have as many chances as you want and your health permits). This warp is all timing. A few notes might help: When I come to an area with the vertical arrows, I stop before it, and jump up and down, picking up the rhythm, making small left moves to keep me stationary. When the arrows go whoosh, I jump up. When I come down, I am with the arrows. After I pick up the timing. I move to the right, keeping the rhythm. This way I can pick up the treasure between, and won't get hurt.

When you come to the short belts, again it's just timing. Don't let the long belt carry you there, you have to run to the right and jump, that way the first arrow will never get you. On the first short belt, the arrow goes above you, just make little moves to the left to stay on the belt (actually, you won't fall off the belt on the right unless you jump), observe the timing, and jump for the treasure, then jump to the next belt. There, the arrows are low, you have to immediately jump over it, get the treasure and go to the next belt which has high arrows again. Take it like the first one. At the short belts with the chalices, it's similar, although there are 5 of them, with #3 a little higher and #4 a little lower. The arrows are high, low, low, high, low. After you get all the scepters from between the arrows, you come to a swinging rope. You have to remain stationary just before the end of the belt, and jump over the arrows as they come. Time your jump to grab the rope, getting 2 scepters on your jump. The next short belt I found to have the toughest jump (maybe, because it is towards the end, I didn't get here all that often and therefore had the least practice). The arrow is high. You can't jump at liberty… But it's doable, and you get 4 scepters and 4 coins and an extra life for it. If anywhere along the way you miss a jump and drop down, be ready to kill some pirates with a magic claw. You'll find an exit down there, and can reenter to try again.

After you're done, you'll find yourself before SP1, at an area you already visited. Since you exited at SP1, all the treasure that you got before is back, you can get it again! Go back down past the cannons, kill guys, get treasure, the usual. Then proceed back to where SP1 used to be and go back up to the next flag. Step over the catapult after the flag, and get off the belt on the right, stepping onto a small ledge right under the end. Go left and pick up snacks and treasure, and a lightning sword. Now catapult out of there, and up another level where several pirates are waiting. Get them with the ice sword. Swing off to the right, and jump down along a treasure trail. Grab the ladder and go up, avoiding cannon-ball hits. Hit the welcoming committee up top. A jump away, to the right, is a snack, get it if you need it. Follow the ropes to the left, and go up to meet 3 more unfriendly pirates. I use a magic claw on them, but I am not sure whether I lose some treasure that way, they may drop something. Continue swinging to the right, and 2 more pirates wait for you topside. Let them have it, and take a long jump off the left edge to reach a red catnip and 4 coins. Proceed right, go up and then jump off to the right and down a ladder. A conveyor belt takes you to the right. Jump high off the end, to reach a ladder (this is what you need the catnip for). Go up and get the CHP. Now you have a tough jump to the left, through arrows, to reach another platform and ladder. Nasty jump… but you don't need catnip, so observe the timing and jump with a running leap off the fast moving short belt. It'll take a few tries. Here is where cheat codes come in handy so you can use mpplayallday for many tries and mpjordan which toggles catnip mode on and off. Once you get it, go back to SP1 and do it for real. Unfortunately, it's a loooooong way back. Anyway, on top of the ladder there is a lot of treasure in the boxes. Then take a LONG HIGH jump off the right to get all the coins and the skull.

Now drop down the ladder onto a series of belts. You run in the direction of the belts, off the edge onto the next one, while arrow shoot at you. If you keep moving at full speed, you can do it without getting hit. Take 2 short belts to the left, then 2 to the right. Below that, a very short belt to the left, and jump onto a horizontal elevator. Follow it to the left, and jump down to pick up a crown below. Then get some more coins and ghost magic and catapult yourself up. Go left against the belt, jumping like crazy, until you get the 4 coins and ammo. Then off to the right and to SP2.

If you have the stamina, keep playing, the ghost magic helps a little (but not much, in my opinion). Make your way up, doing the usual. When you get to the first rope (after crossing a coveyor belt), drop down and open two boxes, then take the catapult back up and keep going. After the next flag, you reach 3 elevators that start moving as soon as you step on them. Run as quickly as you can to the right one, taking small jumps, so that they start as closely together as you can make it. As they go down, keep moving left and right between them to pick up all the treasure distributed along the way. Ascend the catapults to your right. After the sixth catapult, you'll see an arrow pointing right. Instead, jump from the very left edge of that catapult to another one top left. Stay on that until you see 3 gulls to your right. Get them! They have lots of treasure! I jump into them when the timing is right and slash them. Pick up their treasure at the bottom and go up again. If you didn't get all 3, go back there, and eventually proceed to the right.

Make your way to some ropes. You can't reach the ladder from the first rope, you have to get to the second rope and to the ladder from there. Get the bird if he bothers you. If you fall, you'll take a few arrows, exit to the left and try again. On top of the ladder, get the CHP on your left, he is very rich. Make sure he does not drop treasure to his right, or you'll take arrows trying to retrieve it. Continue to the right. You'll quickly reach some planks coming out of slots, over a catapult. It looks worse than it is. Jump until you just see the planks coming out, get on the first one, and take a SMALL jump on the second one and duck under the arrow, repeat this jump-jump-duck till you get to the top. If an arrow hits you, the momentary stun will cost you the ascent. Now you have in front of you an area with lots of little cubicles, tons of treasure, lots of enemies, arrows, but nothing really unusual. Criss-cross as you see fit. Just keep looking up and down to make sure you have missed nothing! High horizontal arrows pass over you as long as you don't jump. At 21400/4000 there is a catapult. From its left edge you can make it on top of the logs on the left from where you can jump down to get a skull and a bunch of coins. Don't forget a few coins to the right above from that same catapult, though!

You reach the exit not from the very bottom right corner ladder, but the one to the left of it around x=22820. Get your map piece, and count your treasure! The ladder next to the map from above is there just to confuse you, there is no accessible areas at the other end of it, and no treasure in particular.

If you find better ways to do something, or a neater solution to some areas, please let me know (scubaman@attglobal.net)

Rich Kleinhenz

Scores:

Note: These scores are 'more' than perfect. Since you are back before SP1 after the third warp anyway, NOBODY would play on without picking up the extra treasure! The SP1 score includes a coin stolen from the CHP guarding the entrance to the third warp. The SP2 score includes all the treasure from going back after the third warp as far as you can. You can't really get a 'perfect' score without these tricks in this level, since there appears to be an error in the game: a box containing a gold bar at 15980/7797 is unreachable.

Level 10

The following description is how I play level 10. I am running Claw version 1.3, and DirectX is version 7.0a. Note that the coordinates I reference are the claw coordinates. These can be displayed on the screen by typing mppos at any time. Mppos is one of the cheat codes that does not interfere with your ability to save your game. Realize that this is not the only way to play the level. Sometimes your state of health will dictate another approach, and I am sure there are other, faster, better ways to do some things. Do your own thing, and use the following just as a guide if you get stuck. Don't follow move for move, you'll miss the fun of discovery and learning! Most of the descriptions that follow are not for the fastest time, but show a conservative approach in difficult areas. This is but one of many different solutions, and not necessarily the way I play it if I am trying to play fast!

Also note that your hardware plays a major role in how your game behaves. What seems easy on a certain set of HW can be a major problem on another. When I at times mention certain timings that worked for me they may not necessarily work for you.

In this level, the Crazy Hook Pirates (CHPs) seem to have less range than your sword does, so they are much easier to get than the ones in level 9. You can get that first CHP by jumping up twice. Dodge the arrows and go up the ladder and to the left. Run up to the Peg Leg Pirate (PLP), hit his peg leg low to stun him, then get him with another slash. (PLPs fire 2 bullets in this level.) After getting the health potions, coins and dynamite go to the right. Across the next gap, there's a CHP. I usually shoot him (when he's off to the right, so I don't lose his treasure). Jump cross picking up the scepters. Since the toggle peg runs at a fixed timing, but the arrows are proximity triggered, sometimes it's a good idea to back off and approach again to get the relative timing of arrows and toggle-peg favorable. Jump up the crumbling blocks. If you stay to the sides and take big jumps, you can avoid the arrow. Go left and open the treasure boxes between the arrows. Swing on the rope, and pick up the ice sword, re-catching the rope. The ice sword makes it easy to defeat the next few enemies.

At the next series of crumbling blocks you reach around x=3650, jump on the lowest one, jump up, and grab the rope when you come to the middle. Take the rope across, kill the CHP if he's still there, then approach the crumbling blocks from the right in the same way.

Jump down from the flag, but don't follow the coins straight down. You must land on the ridge across the way, and not pick up the catnip below. Immediately run to the right and duck to avoid the arrows. Get the CHPs and the PLP using your favorite method (the fire sword should still be active). Get the next CHP up high with a carefully thrown stick of dynamite (press the throw key longer for a further, higher throw), or jump and slash. Now go back to the left. Jump up on the last ledge before the drop-off to trigger the arrows and immediately get back and duck down to avoid them. The next set of arrows is delayed, you have plenty of time to pick up the catnip and start off to the right again. With the catnip you can now jump up to where you killed that last CHP, and pick up the treasure up there, including the crown. Then make your way back to the left. It's a good idea to throw down a stick of dynamite to eliminat ethe CHP below, otherwise you're caught between a CHP and a PLP which definitely costs health points! Now you can jump down where that catnip was, terminate the remaining pirate, and follow the trail of treasure down. If you jumps straight down the center, you get it all, without having to wiggle left and right. Make your way to the right, killing enemies, picking up treasure, and you're at Save Point 1.

Now starts a rather long stretch. Make your way to the right. The first gull has never struck me, you might be kind and let it live. Around x=8790, I usually get the PLP across the way with a magic claw, when he is out of sight. If he is in sight, you lose his treasure. I jump on the crumbling block when the bridge just starts receding, then it is coming towards me for my jump onto it. The trick top catching the next rope is keeping the jump for it low. If you jump high,you bump your head and miss. The peg after the first rope is not a toggle, you can rest there if you want. Catch the next rope, and jump up the series of toggle pegs on the right leading up left onto a platform. Swing on the rope until the lowest toggle peg is just about to appear at the end of a swing, then go up. If you miss and land, you can catch the rope again. On top, there's a CHP waiting. Stab him. The seagull seems to be here only to irritate, it has never attacked me, but who knows. I kill it anyway, because sometimes it attacks when I exit the warp. Jump across to the left to get the PLP and pick up the treasure there, then enter the warp between the platforms.

The warp starts with a series of crumbling blocks and seemingly arrows from all sides. Until I got the start timed right, it seemed hopeless, but it's really not bad at all! I step to the right to trigger the arrows, duck under the first one, then wait about a second, and jump. The second arrow passes under me as I jump from block 1 to block 2. Then I just keep jumping, keeping the jumps pretty small, right, up, left, up and right, and hope that the CHP pirate is not waiting at the edge. I have tried firing a magic claw at him, and that works, but sometimes I lose a coin down the other side that way. If I land on the platform (which is really 90% of the time) I just run through him, losing 10 points, and duck so as to not take the PLP's bullets. Then I first get the PLP with my sword (wait till he's close, jump up, he runs away, you after him, duck and stun him, then stand and hit him again). You get 25 health points and a coin. Run back, avoiding the arrow. Now I get the CHP for another 25 health points and a coin.

Make it up the series of horizontal elevators, ducking under the arrows. Get the CHP at the top, and ascend the toggle pegs. I trigger the arrows when the lowest peg has disappeared, and duck under the arrow. This allows plenty of time to go up the pegs. Relieve the CHP up top of his 3 scepters, and jump down on the right. Stay a little to the left of the coins, so that you get them, but don't fall past the ledge where a CHP is waiting with some catnip for you. The catnip allows you to jump on the ledge to the left, which is all that it is needed for. Jump straight down the chute to the left. If you follow the middle exactly, you should pick up all the treasure, including 2 skulls and 2 crowns. Or wiggle left right, if your reactions are good enough to follow the treasure trail as it wiggles left and right. You land on a horizontal elevator. Duck, follow it left, jump on the next ledge and repeat 3 more times to get to the exit.

Get back down between the platforms where the warp entrance was and take the rope across, or jump off to the right. Move to the right, killing a couple of CHPs and picking up nice treasure. Jump from the right edge to get the geckos; if you let yourself get irritated by the arrows you lose. After the flag, jump on the ladder, and back down between arrows to get the crown. Go up and to the right. After the PLP, you'll find crumbling blocks going down, with criss-crossing arrows. I first jump up the rope and clean up on top, then come back down. I found the following approach worked for me for the crumbling pegs: I run up to the edge, step off the edge immediately onto the first block, step down onto the next, then start jumping up the other side. It works most of the time, even if I take an arrow or two I survive. If you die in the middle before you get the second crown, you can descend again from the other side, and usually die, but at least get the treasure. For me, the fire sword that you get with the skull turned out to be quite useless in the next section. Start by taking the trigger elevator to the right. You have to clean out the area and catch the elevator on the other side to complete the ride. If you can manage it without dropping treasure, great, I never did using the firesword; instead, I used conventional weaponry after waiting till the firesword expired (I did get the first CHP with the fire sword). If you miss the elevator, you can ascend the ladder and make your way across the top, dodging arrows. Not that bad, really, you just have to run past the first two vertical arrows before ducking for the first horizontal one. No treasure up there, just a dangerous alternative passage.

Now make your way to the right, doing the usual. Swing across the rope and kill the CHP there. I usually go up now to clear the way for a catnip run later. Go up the toggle pegs, get the CHP, then up the ladder to get the PLP and across a toggle peg to another ladder leading to yet another CHP. To the right of that platform you see a rope. You can't get it w/o catnip! I instead proceed to the lower right, at least to pick up the coin trail leading down so I don't have to do it later. Sometimes I also go across to the right, the guys there have lots of health potions, I want to start the catnip run with fully charge batteries! Now go back down to where you started, and go off to the right, stepping only on crumbling stones. Don't use the toggle pegs! Go up the ladder and get the PLP to your left. If his coin falls on the bridge on the left, it'll go right through it and is lost. Arrows will start shooting at you until you step to the right again. Jump to the platform on the right across for the ladder, and jump down on its right to pick up a crown and 4 coins. Land on a crumbling stone and jump left immediately, then go back up the ladder. Make your way to the left, ducking under the arrows. I usually get the CHP with a couple of bullets. Pick up the red catnip on the left, and make your way back to the ladder on the right, trying to avoid the arrows. Down the ladder and return left via the toggle-pegs. Go back up and jump for that rope. You have to stand at the very edge, even with catnip. Luckily, if you did as I did and cleared the way first, you have enough time to get a few tries if you miss. You want to arrive up there with catnip time left, though, so you can get all the coins and the skull as you go up the crumbling blocks to a platform with a PLP and lots of treasure. Jump over the little bugger and get the invincibility magic, then get him and pick up all the treasure before exiting quickly.

Drop off the left edge, and make your way to the right. If you're still invincible, immediately make your way up the crumbling blocks, since the arrows can't hurt you. Otherwise, trigger the arrows by stepping up to the edge, duck, then start up. You can make it to the top before the second round fires. Get the CHP up top, then fall down along the wall on the left and into a warp. You land on crumbling pegs. When I first enter, I immediately move a little to the left and drop onto a block. I jump to the right, drop down to the next level, than start jumping up and down moving leftwards. Keep the jumps low so as to land on the lowest one of the stack on the left. Jump up and grab the swinging rope. Swing across, land on the top block, drop down 2 blocks then jump to the left onto a retracting bridge from where you can jump for a skull and exit.

If you were lucky, you picked up invisibility magic. I don't find it very useful here, but maybe it helps a little. Where you exit the warp, coins lead you to a ladder going up. You can go up and get the PLP up top if you want, but he doesn't really get in the way later. Instead, jump down to the far right. Where you land, a PLP is waiting. You want to kill him and get his coins (this is where the ghost magic helps a little). Don't get the catnip yet! Take a far leap off to the right, onto a crumbling block. Drop down to the one right underneath, and jump to one side, using every other block only, then come back on the ones you left standing, take them across to the right, again leaving every other one for a return to the center, then exit through the center warp exit. It's quite easy, really. Now jump down again, this time, get the catnip from the retracting bridge, jump down to the right to exit through the center warp exit. Now take up the ladder and get the crown and coins on top of the ladder. That's all you need the catnip for. The extra power makes it easy to move across to the right and kill the enemies, but they can be dealt with otherwise also, of course.

Around x=22050, you have to jump far to the right to land on a ledge, kill a CHP and get lots of treasure. Then jump to the far left to get a PLP, and to the right for another CHP. Quite a bit of treasure on this way down to Save Point 2.

From SP2, take 4 ropes to the right to a ladder. Go up a few steps, and take a leap off to the right, sliding down along the wall to land on a crumbling peg. Drop down on the one right underneath and take some jumps to the right onto an elevator. As the elevator goes up, jump left and right onto crumbling pegs to pick up treasure. I usually make sure that for the 2 crowns on top I get the left one first, then the right one, as I once was knocked off by the CHP who happened to be waiting at the top. Get the CHP and enter the warp.

Here's what worked for me in the warp. I wait until the rope I see below swings to the right. At that point I jump on the top crumbling block. I don't jump there, but drop down 3 blocks, then I jump up and come down just to the left of the blocks, and I'm on the rope. I jump to the next rope, and onto the top block on the left. Again, I drop without jumping, and only take a jump on the lowest one. When jumping left to right, the rope is a little further away, so that jump has to be a little further. I got this to work nearly 100% that way. Finally, after landing on solid ground, I drop down on the right, immediately duck and stun and hit a PLP. I get the second PLP across the way with a magic claw. Both of these guys just have health points. I tried many, many times to get both of the skulls by jumping onto the toggle peg in the center and exiting on the left. I had very, very little success with that, so I started to jump between the arrows for both skull and the other stuff with 1 leap and die on the spikes. It's worth it. To get all the coins, I needed to take a running leap. Jumping from just behind where the arrow comes down always missed 1 coin for me. (Occasionally I also make it to the other side with that jump, but then there's ususally the lower coin left over and I have to get it and generally still lose my life over it.)

Now ascend a series of toggle pegs and get the lightning sword up top. If you can't catch the rope during that same ascent, jump off to the right to land safely and ascend again, I (nearly?) always get the rope by the second time. Make your way across to the right, it's easy with the lightning sword, kill everyone in sight and pick up goodies. Off the right edge, take a far leap to the right, you land on a ledge with treasure and a warp entrance. The warp takes you to an area filled with crumbling blocks. You get 1 chance to get it all. There are several crowns, and at the bottom right a skull. Don't paint yourself into a corner, so to speak, make sure you leave some blocks to get back out. If you make it, exit via the ladder top right.

Now drop off the left edge (after making sure the pirates are a little off to the right). I get them with a magic claw. I don't get the catnip now, I like clearing the way first. Go right, until you see a swinging rope. You need catnip to exit that rope, so go back and get it. It's over 2 retracting bridges. Jump on the left one, then the right one or straight off and go back to the rope. Swing up, exiting high on the right. Immediately jump for the crown and coins, then get the CHP. Swing on the next rope to grab the skull. If you can hang out there (jumping) until the rope returns, great, exit to the left. Otherwise kiss your life goodbye.

Now slide down along the left wall and go right, killing a few pirates and picking up goodies. Go up some toggle pegs, and continue on. The only remaining rope leads to a PLP, some treasure and lots of health points to get you nice and healthy when you face Marrow.

Instructions for defeating Marrow are elsewhere on this and other sites. I just want to say that I had little luck with my sword against Marrow's parrot, I ended up shooting him. That way, I could get him even before he came on the screen. When it came to hitting Marrow, I stayed on the bridge, jumped up when he was close, and immediately ducked under his counterattack. If you jump up to where he is, you're dead meat. Believe me, I know. I probably got him twice (out of many tries) before I realized that staying on the bridge was much safer.

If you find better ways to do something, or a neater solution to some areas, please let me know (scubaman@attglobal.net)

Rich Kleinhenz

Scores:

Level 11

The following description is how I play level 11. I am running Claw version 1.3, and DirectX is version 7.0a. Note that the coordinates I reference are the claw coordinates. These can be displayed on the screen by typing mppos at any time. Mppos is one of the cheat codes that does not interfere with your ability to save your game. Realize that this is not the only way to play the level. Sometimes your state of health will dictate another approach, and I am sure there are other, faster, better ways to do some things. Do your own thing, and use the following just as a guide if you get stuck. Don't follow move for move, you'll miss the fun of discovery and learning! Most of the descriptions that follow are not for the fastest time, but show a conservative approach in difficult areas. This is but one of many different solutions, and not necessarily the way I play it if I am trying to play fast!

Also note that your hardware plays a major role in how your game behaves. What seems easy on a certain set of HW can be a major problem on another. When I at times mention certain timings that worked for me they may not necessarily work for you.

As you enter the level, you see some stairs above you. I could not figure out how to access those without cheat codes. They give access to a warp. That warp, however, only has things like ammo, magic, fire swords, catnip and the like, no treasure. Since there is no treasure up there, don't worry about it. I suspect it is only there as a teaser. Anyway, open the crystal and jump down to get the mercat and another crystal. The fish do jump onto land, so hit them, too. Then go up the toggle-pegs. Leave the catnip! Proceed to the right. When you come to the crumbling stones around x=5150, don't trigger them, but jump across. You don't need a running leap, but you have to step close, you need them later, so make sure they don't crumble! After the next mercat I usually go down and kill the 3 fish first, so they can't harm me later. Hop across the toggle-pegs and get the siren. (The toggle-peg you see up above is not reachable w/o catnip). I usually jump back down at this point and make another approach, since otherwise I often lose a coin from the mercat there. Now make your way across the ladders and get the mercat on the next platform. I found that if I hit him from the left I never got all his treasure, so I jump over him and hit him from the right. Pick up the crown on the other side, and start making your way back to that first catnip. From the ladder at x=7140, you have to jump from the second lowest step to make the jump, or you'll bang your head and fall in the drink. Make sure you don't trigger the crumbling stones when you cross them! Again, jumping from a standing position seems to work better than full stride. I get the catnip by ascending the toggle-pegs, jumping at it from the top peg, landing on the same peg again and jumping off to the right. Go to the middle one of the crumbling stones and jump up. Up top, you'll find nice treasure and more catnip. Get the catnip and get out of there! Time yourself so as to not have to take another trip up the elevator. Run to the right, and jump via the upper toggle peg to a ladder leading to treasure and yet more catnip. Take the catnip and go to the platform after the ladders. You can now jump up to another ladder there (x=7590) leading to a skull and some magic which I find somewhat useless in my game. Keep going right via toggle-pegs, crumbling stones, horiz. elevators etc. till you get to the flag at x-10080. That whole stretch is just timing… Now you can jump down into the pool, kill the 3 fish, pick up the fire sword and coins and come back up the toggle pegs. The last peg just under the platform does not toggle, from here you must time your jump to cross over to the right. Get a couple of mercats and a siren, open the crystals, and continue right. At x=12670 there is an arrow pointing up to the right. Jump via the crumbling stone to a ladder on the right. I go around this block clockwise, but do whatever feels good. You have to clean up all around. From the ladder at 13860, you can start making a run for a warp, but at some point, you have to jump into the pool to pick up treasure down there (and kill fish). To get to the warp, jump over to the toggle peg to the right of the ladder, and make another jump to the far right. Grab the ladder there. I usually go and kill the merkat and siren above the ladder to the right first so they don't interfere in the time-critical catnip run. From the ladder, drop down triggering the elevator. When it's at the right height, exit to the right to get the catnip. Then step back out and immediately jump up to the top of the ladder (it's a 5 sec. catnip!) and to the toggle-peg above to the left, and from there to the ladder above. This will take you to a warp that puts you into the area inside the block you circled before. Move sideways first, then jump out, richer by a crown, an extra life, a couple of coins and some health points.

Now proceed right, across crumbling stones, and up a series of ladders in a clockwise direction. Keep going, soon you'll be at SP1.

From SP1 follow the trail of stuff down into the pool. With a little practice you can I get it all in 1 jump (otherwise, end the game and restart at SP1). Kill the fish, and fire your ice-sword at the enemies. I do this from the water. If I do it from the platform, I also get the siren across on the next platform, and she'll spill her treasure. I'd rather get it than waste it! Then I jump across to the siren via the lowest 2 toggle pegs, and get both unfriendlies there. The pool on the left has some fish, but also treasure, it's a good time to pick it up. Then it's time to go up the toggle pegs. This one is easy, just jump left and right. Two guys wait up top, get them! I found the next waterfall more challenging to master, but then it became easy. I first jump across and clean up on the platform there, then in the pool on the left. After getting the ammo and coins at x=14170 I return via the horiz. elevators. Now it's time to ascend the toggle pegs. It's up, up, then up and right fast, up, left and done. Kill the guys, and get going to the left. Don't jump on the first peg, but start on the second. The fifth and sixth pegs are also on the same timing, so you have to make 2 very fast jumps or skip one of them. If you don't forget that, it's actually quite easy. Jump onto the stone pillars, and go down to the left. Three guys are waiting, do to them what they'd do to you, given a chance! Jump across the waterfall to pick up the coins, then slide down the right side of the waterfall, you'll land on a ledge and can enter a nice warp with skull, crown, scepters, extra life and coins. An elevator will take you back down, you know the way.

When you come to the stone pillars again, follow the arrow this time upwards to the left. From the next platform, around x=12135, you jump via 2 crumbling stones onto a crumbling stone triplet. I run across it, and take a running leap to the left for a ladder above leading to another skull, some coins and invincibility magic. Drop down the chute at 11040 to SP2.

From SP2 ascend the ladder and cross over to the next platform. This is a tight jump. You have to anticipate when the toggle pegs will appear, jump early and take 2 quick jumps. Alternatively, there is an invisible platform just to the right of the first toggle peg, you can jump onto it and then onto the second peg directly, making this jump child's play. You can feel the invisible platform if you try to walk off the left edge, you can't! Keep going. The next toggle pegs are on 1/2 timing (i.e. alternating). Go left, left, up, right, up, and then all left. You can land on the platform, kill the siren, and then slide down the right wall of that platform, or slide down directly from the toggle pegs. You'll land on a ledge with a mercat and a warp. After you hit him, jump through the space he vacates immediately, so none of his coins roll under the warp and become irretrievable. The warp transports you to a ledge 2 stories higher. Just to the right of the ledge, there's another invisible platform. I don't think it has any use, maybe you discover some. Take the toggle pegs across, but do not jump onto the forth one, jump right over it to the fifth. You'll be rewarded with another skull, an extra life and more. The exit takes you back to right after SP2, so make your way across to the left again. Where Claw indicates things look challenging, they really aren't very challenging at all: a few fast leaps will take you across the upper toggle pegs. Just keep your finger on the left arrow key and take hops as necessary. There's nothing to go down for. After you reach the stone pillars at x=7390, go down to the left again first to kill a few enemies and pick up treasure. Then cross the pillars above.

At x=6685, there's catnip above, but it's REALLY, REALLY tough to get. It is needed to reach a whole bunch of treasure including a skull. For me, this is the toughest jump in the whole game. I manage to get it only occasionally. You need to use momentum by taking a running start of sufficient length. Start off on the pillar to the left of the platform, jump up and run to the right, drop onto the first pillar without stopping, hop onto the second and jump. That jump has to be still in the forward direction. Then you have to curl back at just the right moment after you've gained that little bit of extra height to get the catnip. Another approach might be to start running from the right, from the last toggle peg. You can make your way across from there without letting go of the arrow key also, just taking appropriate hops. It should be enough to get you the extra jumping height. Frankly, I feel there is a hardware limitation of some sort to this jump. I played for weeks, every night trying for a while to make this jump, but never succeeded on my home PC. Finally, I tried on a different PC, and to my surprise, got it with the first attempt. I was so stunned I failed to complete the level, but I was able to make this jump not every time, but at least occasionally on that other machine.

After the platform, wait on the stone pillar at x=5920 for the horiz. elevator. If you got the catnip, jump on the elevator and immediately to the top. Kill the mercats and get the treasure (a skull, a ring, 2 gold bars and 18 coins) plus an ice sword. Exit on the right, dropping down on the elevator at the right moment and duck. Between the islands, change elevators, picking up the scepters. Proceed to the left.

After the next mercat, there are 4 toggle pegs arranged in a cross fashion. You can jump through that sequence in a clockwise fashion, picking up a crown above, then continue left. Get the enemies with a magic claw, and follow the ladders to the end of the level. In some cases, you have to jump from the edge of a ladder to make a jump, sometimes a reverse jump makes it easier to get the treasure (jump in the direction you want to go first, not picking up the treasure, then jump back for it). Soon you're at the last ladder. You can't enter the exit platform from the top of the ladder, go down a step or 2 and you'll have no trouble..

If you find better ways to do something, or a neater solution to some areas, please let me know (scubaman@attglobal.net)

Rich Kleinhenz

Scores:

Level 12

The following description is how I play level 12. I am running Claw version 1.3, and DirectX is version 8. Note that the coordinates I reference are the claw coordinates. These can be displayed on the screen by typing mppos at any time. Mppos is one of the cheat codes that does not interfere with your ability to save your game. Realize that this is not the only way to play the level. Sometimes your state of health will dictate another approach, and I am sure there are other, faster, better ways to do some things. Do your own thing, and use the following just as a guide if you get stuck. Don't follow move for move, you'll miss the fun of discovery and learning! Most of the descriptions that follow are not for the fastest time, but show a conservative approach in difficult areas. This is but one of many different solutions, and not necessarily the way I play it if I am trying to play fast!

Also note that your hardware plays a major role in how your game behaves. What seems easy on a certain set of HW can be a major problem on another. When I at times mention certain timings that worked for me they may not necessarily work for you.

The mercats in this level take 3 hits each. Start out by defeating several of them, and follow the gold coins down to the right. Get the fish before they get you. Cross over the pool on the toggle pegs, and get the siren on the right. She has a single coin, make sure you get it before it drops into the pool! Pick up the scepters on the lower peg, and shoot up on the catapult. Get the mercat on the right first, then cross over to the left to pick up the catnip waiting there. The catnip allows you to reach the crown and scepters to the upper right of the platform, but you need the catnip for another chore, so keep right on going. Ascend the toggle pegs and then the crumbling stones to get another crown and scepters at the top, then land on the platform to the right and get 2 mercats and a siren. I usually get the siren from the right to make sure I don't lose her treasure. Now slide down along the close wall to land on a platform with toggle pegs on the left. Time your jumps to pick up some coins and an ice-sword, and come back on the same platform. Now you can jump for the gecko and coins that you see across to the right, and land at the first flag.

There are 2 fish trying to prevent you from crossing over to the right on the toggle pegs. Over there, a siren is waiting. If you use the ice sword, you may lose a gold bar that she is carrying. You can wait for the ice sword to time out, or lose a life, or get the fish without the ices sword. I let them jump over me and than shot them on my left without getting the siren. Then I cross and get her from up close, picking her clean. Now go up on the catapult, and towards the right while the ice sword lasts, to use it against some enemies. I try to get the 2 right up top, as well as the mercat on the next lower level. (If he spill treasure, it'll be below.) There are 2 stalactites that might get you, one on either side of the little peg at x=5987 that you catapult onto, I found it easy to make a short jump and return to the peg to trigger the stalactites without losing much time. Now clean up any treasure around the area, including the gecko and coins around 5963/2913 (you can't get to the ladder yet to get the crown and scepters!). Go via the toggle peg to the left to pick up the catnip at x=5610, and traverse back over to the right. Use the catnip to jump onto the crumbling peg at x=6778, and from there to the top to defeat a mercat and pick up chalices and coins. Now go to the ladder you saw from below and get the crown and scepters. Continue right across the floor spikes, while avoiding the stalactites. If you step from group to group as they descend, the floor spikes can't hurt you, and the stalactites drop in front of you. Follow the coins down, and immediately shoot a magic claw to the right to get the mercat and siren, since floor spikes won't let you get close to the mercat for a hand attack. If you use bullets, the mercats in this level tend to block them with their tridents.

Make your way to the top from the catapult, using toggle pegs and elevators, killing the enemies on both sides. You can land on the ledges they're on, and hit them with your sword, that way you don't take a chance with their treasure. Don't forget the gecko top left, at 8160/2441. Continue to the right. Across some floor spikes there's a siren after the step down. She can be eliminated with a stick of dynamite. Continue right to the next flag.

There are probably lots of ways to do the next area. Key, of course, is to kill all enemies, get the treasure without getting killed, and use the catnip to reach an area with a skull via a warp. I usually jump to the right and get the fire sword first, landing at the ledge right below the fire sword. From there, use it to cleanup here and on the ledge above it. Now I hop up the toggle pegs to the left and then right to reach the highest ledge. You have to jump quick because of the stalactites. Kill the enemies up top to the right, and fire a shot across to the left at a siren that has no treasure. Now jump across there via the top toggle pegs, get the catnip, and drop straight down along the wall. You land by a pool that you have to cross towards the left, guarded by a nasty fish. The catnip gets you across. You enter a warp that takes you to a ledge from where you can reach a skull and other treasure via 3 crumbling pegs. Jump slow enough not to get hit by the stalactites, but fast enough to not fall off the pegs. If you miss, you may want to lose a life to restore the crumbling pegs. You have to try to make the jump across the pool w/o catnip this time. It's possible, but very hard to get. I succeeded occasionally only. Now go back up to the top, pick up the treasure laying around, and follow the curved treasure trail around x=11400 down to arrive at save point 1.

After SP1, there are 2 paths to the right. The lower one has a skull and invulnerability magic. You can use that magic for a tough part ahead, at the expense of losing a life, or pick it up now, not lose that life, but take your chances on a very tough ascent with extremely tight timing. I started blaying the second way, but later changed to the first since I have 9 lives anyway. I'll decribe the second way first, then briefly go over the alternate (better, as far as I'm concerned) way.

Right beneath the toggle peg that you see there's another toggle peg with exactly the same timing. You need to get onto that lower one. From there, go right and then up and to the left via more toggle pegs, picking up your second skull. You become a shadow (invulnerable) along the way, so now you can easily eliminate the 2 unfriendlies there, jump right for another siren, and right again. Let the catapult at x=13086 shoot you straight up first to get some scepters. The stalactites you trigger can't hurt you. Now let yourself be shot up onto the platform to the right, get the 2 enemies there (walk through the siren and hit her from the right). Jump onto one of the elevators and duck, get the siren and mercat, and take the catapult up. I go left first to get the mercat. Usually I run out of catnip around here. The jump across to the right to get the siren. Where you just killed the last mercat there's a crumbling peg. You can't reach it jumping from a standstill. But, if you go right to the very edge of the ledge, and start running left, leap across the gap, you build up enough momentum to be able to make it. Immediately jump up, of course.

This momentum thing is used quite a bit in this level. Here is how it works: If you run without stopping for a certain time (maybe it is a second) you gain a little extra jumping ability. You mustn't break stride. You can leap during this time interval, as long as your finger stays on that arrow key. In this situation, there's barely enough room to make it. But it's not as bad as the catnip in the last section of level 11 :-) Anyway, once up there, you have to ascend a series of crumbling stones amongst falling stalactites. You have to be VERY quick. It's a knack, and takes a little practice, but it can be done. You have to jump faster than you think it's possible. At the top you get a few coins and a lightning sword. The latter helps you clean up along the next stretch, but it's not really necessary, you can also use magic claws.

The alternative way to work this section is to not take the lower path off SP1, leave the skull and invulnerability magic there for now. Make your way all the way up to that momentum jump around 14150/2700, and lose a life. You start over at SP1. Take the lower path across now, pick up the invulnerability magic, and make your way back to where you were. Now, being invulnerable, it's a piecce of cake to make that ascent up the crumbling pegs for the coins and lightning sword, since the stalactites can't hurt you!

Continue to the right. After you jump down to the flag, you have to make your way along the first of several similar runs. There are enemies that are best got with a super weapon like the lightning sword or magic claws. There are lots of stalactites falling down. If you run, you stay ahead of them. Stop where there's a gap in the stalactites, underneath some treasure, the next group of stalactites will crumble in front of you. Keep going across shooting, running stopping and so on to the end. Now run back without breaking stride and jump for the treasure that's too high to reach by simply jumping. Go up the ladder to the next flag.

Now comes a series of crumbling pegs that I could only very occasioanlly traverse successfully (i.e. with getting all the treasure) without sacrificing a life. Stalactites fall, but generally don't hurt you. You have to try to make jumps that sweep up as many coins as you can get. If you don't succeed, it's best not to trigger the flag, so you get to start from the left again (if you start from the right going left, you'll need to lose another life). Now go up the toggle pegs. Start on the left, then switch to the middle and then right so as to avoid the stalactites. Continue to the right, and follow the coin trail down. You may want to jump for some scepters and coins from the crumbling peg part way down, but you can't get to the crown, you'll get that later. At the bottom, make your way to the right the usual way.

Jump across to the right via the toggle peg at 21886/2565. You can kill some enemies in that area now, or wait till later. But you have to slide down along the right wall at x=22015 to land on a trigger elevator that takes you to the right. Jump down from the elevator onto crumbing pegs and back up, picking up nice treasure include. a skull and a crown, and then, when it goes left, jump up and get the treasure off the upper crumbling pegs (include. an extra life), or the other way around. Get off the elevator jumping onto a catapult (where invariably a fish would attack me, but so what) and let yourself get shot up to the left to a ledge with a warp. That warp take you to the crown you saw earlier. Jump back off that ledge and make your way to the right till you reach the next flag.

From here, you have to take fast jumps across crumbling pegs to avoid the falling stalactites. I found it best to keep my finger on the right arrow, taking little hops without breaking stride. You get to more crumbling pegs that you must ascend, avoiding a few stalactites. Land in the middle of the forth peg to avoid the stalactite you trigger here, to the very right of the nineth, and to the right on the eleventh. I often get hit by the last one, but it does not knock me off any more. The earlier ones do. (By the way, on several of these ascends, if you drop, you have a chance to survive, there are some ascends amongst more stalactites, but you miss some treasure areas.) Now you see a treasure trail to the right, follow it down. Try to stay slightly to the right. Partway down, you land on a crumbling peg. Quickly jump up to the right to get to a small ledge and warp. It'll take you to a small treasure area with goodies including a skull. The warp exit puts you back out on the same ledge. Below the treasure trail curves left and right. Follow it down to the next flag.

Make your way right to the next flag, doing all the usual things Hop up the crumbling pegs, amongst falling stalactites, it's quite easy. Kill the siren at the top. On your right, you see a crumbling peg, and toggle pegs below. Step onto a toggle peg, without touching the crumbling peg. Just stand there, dropping from peg to peg, till you hear a new sound, and pick up a white catnip. Immediately start jumping up the toggle pegs, till you reach the crumbling peg up top. From there you can get the ice sword up above, but it's not terribly useful. You can get the mercat on the right with it. Then drop straight down the stream of coins to SP2.

Go right and make your way up a series of elevators and toggle pegs, killing enemies left and right. Just like before, it's best to jump onto the ledge with the enemy and use hand/sword attacks. Go down after the next flag, and do the same thing again at x=33860. Drop down after the next flag again, and go right. Make your way up the toggle pegs. It's not hard if you take it a piece at a time, jump fast and onto the ledges with the enemies, and use hand attacks. When you reach the top, you just have to defeat Aquatis to finish the level.

And that's it, folks!

If you find better ways to do something, or a neater solution to some areas, please let me know (scubaman@attglobal.net)

Rich Kleinhenz

Scores:

Level 13

The following description is how I play level 13. I am running Claw version 1.3, and DirectX is version 8. Note that the coordinates I reference are the claw coordinates. These can be displayed on the screen by typing mppos at any time. Mppos is one of the cheat codes that does not interfere with your ability to save your game. Realize that this is not the only way to play the level. Sometimes your state of health will dictate another approach, and I am sure there are other, faster, better ways to do some things. Do your own thing, and use the following just as a guide if you get stuck. Don't follow move for move, you'll miss the fun of discovery and learning! Most of the descriptions that follow are not for the fastest time, but show a conservative approach in difficult areas. This is but one of many different solutions, and not necessarily the way I play it if I am trying to play fast!

Also note that your hardware plays a major role in how your game behaves. What seems easy on a certain set of HW can be a major problem on another. When I at times mention certain timings that worked for me they may not necessarily work for you.

Enter the level and go right. I usually get the first chameleon with the powder keg, then get the red tail pirate (RTP). Easiest way is with a magic claw when he is close so you get his coin. Pick up the catnip in the crate behind the bush at x=1152. Cross over the spiked pegs (land on the left-most edge), kill the RTP at the other side, and jump on the fern to the left of him (you need the catnip for that jump). Bounce up to the left, and jump for the crown first, before the catnip runs out as you pick up the invulnerability magic. Go right, don't bother with the bloody chameleon (BC) in the ditch, just get the treasure and health points. Kill the bear sailor (BS), since he can still grab you despite the magic, costing time, get his treasure, and go up the toggle pegs. Being invulnerable, you can ignore the arrows. Up top, clean up and jump down on the right. Get the BC, he could harm you later, and jump down the center of the waterfall to land on a water jet. Jump quickly left via the sinking stones, then back to center and to the right, to get all the treasure and power-ups. Then take the water jet up to grab the swinging rope. When you land to the right immediately use the fire sword on the BS. Two steps down a RTP and BC are waiting. I usually jump over them and get them for the right with the fire sword.

Traverse the series of toggle pegs by jumping on #2 when it appears, then on #1. After that, its 2 double jumps forward, 1 single back. The sequence is 2-1-3-5-4-6-8-7-9. Since I generally still have the magic sword, I fire off a shot while traversing to the the waiting BC. The BC just below the next step I usually get with the powder keg, then I get the BS (if he survived) with 2 quick stabs with the sword. Now jump on the fern and get all the enemies waiting up top. It's easy to throw a stick of dynamite during a bounce to get the RTP and land there on the next to pick up the treasure.

After the flag, go up top first and get the BS and BC there. There are lots of ways to play the next few pieces, I play them depending on my health situation. Often, I go back to the left edge, and watch the BC below, to make sure he is not waiting for me at the edge, because he can knock me off the fern and end my life! So, when he stops on the right, descend straight down from the toggle peg, and immediately jump right and get the BC. Then get the catnip and get back up via the fern. Go right, and grab the swinging rope. You need the catnip to exit the rope to the top right platform. Get the BC, and jump up via the first 2 crumbling pegs and then to the right where a BC is guarding a few coins and an extra life. From there you can jump to the third crumbling peg and up to the left to a platform with a BS, a BC and lots of treasure. Jump off to the right and step off the left edge, you'll land on a small platform with just a BC. Step off to the right onto some pegs immediately to avoid the BC's bite, and from the lowest one start swinging left via 5 ropes. From the last rope, jump up and get the skull, and grab the rope again, then swing back to the right. Up the pegs, get the fire sword, grab the rope above, and go right to the next flag, killing anything in your way with the fire sword.

After the flag, hop on the horizontal elevator going right and duck immediately. You have to get onto the second elevator, but I never managed to do this directly (I don't believe it's possible, but who knows). Instead, take small jumps on the fern, don't get bounced up, and jump on the next elevator when it comes back. Swing right via 2 ropes, get the BC and the treasure up top, and drop down the center of the waterfall, landing on a springy fern. Again, instead of getting shot up, I jump in place, to stay low. I wait for a dart from each side to cross under me (2 jumps), then jump left, landing on every other crumbling peg, so as to preserve a return path. Back on the fern. You can either jump in place until another 2 darts pass under you, or bounce to the top and repeat the whole cycle ot the other side. It's worth it, for 2 skulls, to crowns and 2 geckos! Back on the fern, you can now go back up, go left till you get to the fern where you started the little excursion at x=10737. Bounce up and go to the left. Duck under the arrows that you triggered on your way up. As you wait on the left, you don't trigger any more darts. Time your start with the toggle pegs, and run right and up the toggle pegs without stopping, there's lots of time till the darts come. Get the BS up top, and pick up a couple of coins and a crown to the right. (Jump on the bottom left peg first, then center, right, and up the middle in 2 jumps. A piece of cake, really.) I usually clear the path ahead by going right now from the fern right above the pegs at x=11,355, all the way till the arrow at x=12,650. Now I go back onto the fern, and jump to the extreme left, where there is another springy fern that's easy to miss above the palm. From there, you take another far left bounce, and you'll land on a crumbling stone. Immediately proceed left via 2 more crumbling stones to get a crown and invulnerability magic. Go right again, and up the same way as before. Where you turned back before, continue right over toggling spikes, and darts coming your way from the right, so it's a really good idea to do this while you're invulnerable! Pick up the crown at the right, and return the same way. Slide down along the wall at x=12,650 to land on a crumbling peg. Immediately proceed left via more crumbling pegs, to get to a platform with a BC and a crate with catnip. Kill the BC, but do not eat the catnip now! Jump on the crumbling peg and enter the warp above. If you cleared the way before picking up the invulnerability you should still have several seconds of magic left.

The warp is mostly jumping via crumbling pegs. After the first rope, exit low so as to not land on the higher peg. Get on the lowest, and jump up, then jump following the stream of gold coins, to land on a trigger elevator. Exit to the right onto more crumbing pegs and go up. The place with the crowns is pretty interesting. The peg under the crown is mostly on, so jump up on the 3 stacked pegs until you've just seen the crown peg disappear, now you know it's safe to jump on. Repeat this to pick up all 4 crowns. Follow the coin trail. After a long jump, you land on 3 more stacked crumbling pegs. From there, go right via sinking stones to more crumbling pegs. You'll get to a place where darts drop down. I don’t know what it is, but they don't seem to hit me if I just proceed right via jumps. I think I land sort of between the pegs, picking up 2 coins each time I touch 'ground'. I've tried just running, and if you time the start right, it works. After you go up and to the right via 2 springy ferns, it's more crumbling pegs. But, after the first 3, the spacing changes. (You'll also see a high path, but ignore it, proceed down to the right) You have to jump onto every other peg, so as to leave a return path! Go to the right in this way, kill the RTP, BS and BC. Don't accidentally exit the warp! Jump low to get the catnip and 4 coins, and go back left via the path you left. You can now reach the upper path. Go right on it to get another skull and some more goodies, then exit.

Now you can pick up the catnip you left. Jump down on the right, where 2 BCs are waiting. Kill or ignore, as appropriate, and proceed to the right via the swinging rope, to Save Point 1.

Unfortunately, you can't exit the game here, you need to cross the next waterfall on catnip, or you won't make it onto the crumbling peg with the fire sword above it. Jump down the center of the second waterfall at x=14,534, to land on a the middle one of 3 water jets. Get on the right one, and jump around low, till you can get on the horizontal elevator on the right. Duck, and it'll take you to a treasure area. The problem is that the exit is via the same elevator… What works for me is to jump on the second peg, then the forth, fifth, third and first, and drop down on the returning elevator with perfect timing from there. Go on the platform to the left of the jets, kill the BC, and pick up treasure and ice sword. Then get yourself popped up by the middle jet, and make your way back out via the 4 crumbling pegs near the top. Now you can jump down the first waterfall at x=13,703. Clean up, and don't forget a gecko and some dynamite to the left. Go right, and make your way across the floats, to the right, picking up all treasure while avoiding the arrows. After the next flag, you have to take very fast, short hops up a series of toggle pegs to make it to the top. Go right, until you've defeated the 3 BSs under the rope. Take the rope back up to the left, and run left without stopping, and take a running leap onto the crumbling peg at x=15934. Go up via another peg, then left, and clean up there. Once you eat the catnip, hurry back to the right till you reach the rope where you turned around. The catnip allows you to reach the crumbling pegs to the right of the rope. Go up, and immediately, before you run out of catnip, jump for the crown! Then get the BC if he bothers you, or just leave him there.

Now you can go down the waterfall, jump for both crowns and power swords while swinging from the rope, and continue along with the game for quite a while, killing and picking up treasure, till you come to a series of 4 swinging ropes leading you to the lower right. From the last rope, jump onto the high platform for another warp entrance.

I really like this warp, it has somenice ideas, but it took me a while to figure it out. Follow the coin trail down onto a trigger elevator. Pretty much right away hop off onto the springy fern at x=15830. Get the BS on top, and the BC. You can crouch and take a shot across to the right to take care of a BC that'll greet you later otherwise. Step onto the closest crumbling peg, and drop down along the left most pegs onto another trigger elevator. Immediately jump back onto the remaining crumbling pegs and go back up top. Defeat the greeting committee, then step right to the very edge. You'll see toggle pegs over to the right. Just when they disappear, drop down along the coin trail onto another trigger elevator. Jump off onto the toggle pegs you saw from the top, and hop up before they disappear again. After getting the unfriendly folks up top, you have a series of horizontal elevators in front of you. (Another sho froma crouch to the right takes care of another BC, if you remember) Descend one by one, and finally step onto a trigger elevator. Immediately get back off and ascend via those same elevators. Get rid of 2 BCs, and drop down the trail of coins, You'll find all the elevators you triggered earlier, making a nice set of stairs. Go up, and pick up your rewards (a skull and 4 crowns) after slaughtering yet another BC.

Exit the warp and arrive at SP2.

After eliminating the RTP, I get the BC to the right with a bullet. If you get the fire sword below first and use it to get to the right, you often hit the BS all the way to the right also, and he seems to always drop a scepter into the drink. So, I shoot the BC and traverse to the right first, and get the BS with the sword. Then I drop down on the springy fern at x=25450, and get the RTP to the right. Then I hop to the left across the ferns. I find that if I kneel on the third fern, I can fire a bullet at the BC and dispose of him from total safety. Now I get the fire sword, hop to the right again, and drop down the waterfall, hitting the RTP and BC there with the fire sword. And here is another reason to get the fire sword last: While you could get the enemies here with other means also, burning BCs are fun to watch and bounce, and, you can get the BC and BS on the next platform to the right from here with the fire sword, making the exit from the next jets much more convenient. The BS's treasures (2 geckos and a scepter) have always stayed on the platform for me if I've done it this way. Bullets or a magic claw tend to spill the treasure further, it seems to me.

Now jump onto the center water spout, then pick up the treasure left and right with quick hops over and back, avoiding the darts. If you have not got rid of the BC and BS on the next platform to the right, you have to time your exit very carefully. Not only are there the darts coming down, but it's not a good idea to jump when a BC or BS is waiting right at the edge. Also, to make the jump, you have to position yourself on the right-most edge of the water spout. Repeat all of this to get to the next platform where a BS awaits you. His 8 coins tend to spill all over, so you have to be quick. Then go right via 3 crumbling pegs onto some horizontal elevators. Make your way across jumping for the treasure and avoiding the darts. Grab the swinging rope and swing over onto a water spout. Go up via a few springy ferns, and exit to the right, leaving the catnip on the left for now. Clear the way till you see the crumbling pegs up ahead (x=30600), then turn around and get the catnip. Come back and jump up the crumbling pegs to the right. Clean up that area, picking up lots of treasure, while you make your way down on the right.

Jump across the waterfall to the left to get the RTP there, then go down the waterfall onto a horizontal elevator, and duck. Go up via the 4 short horizontal elevators, and jump high to the right, following the trail of coins. You land on the trigger elevator waiting there. Don't duck under the ledge, though! Rather, let yourself get swept off, and land on a hidden waterspout that'll bounce you up and lets you get the skull, crowns and extra life. On your drop back down, curl back ionto the spout, and you can pick up the elevator going right from there. Duck and ascend the water spouts.

Make your way to the top via the crumbling pegs, and get ready to face Red Tail. Don't forget to pick up one last crown, though, on the left side of the waterfall. There are some toggle pegs that'll let you get there, but they show up only very occasionally, so wait there at the top patiently until you see the way across! The pegs toggle slow enough so you can come back the same way if you don't stop for too long.

The last treasure is actually in Redtails area. You have to run to the right and take a far jump into the water, you'll land on a sandbar where you walk to the right to find an elevator with the skull and an extra life. The elevator will take you back to shore. You can do this after you defeat Redtail, or any time it is convenient. I find it's least risky to leave till last (as long as you don't forget in your excitement about having beaten Redtail). You better not depend on that extra life for defeating Redtail anyway, or you'll be in serious trouble for level 14! Redtail really was rouble when I first played this level, but in the end I started to like the fight with him. I fight him on top of the logs. When he jumps up, he kicks, so you have to at first back away, but immediately get close again and strike him before he fires a bullet. After 2 strike he goes back down, and you have to watch whether hs jumps back up or throws knives. Just position yourself properly and the knives will miss, and get redy for his next jump.

And that's it, folks!

If you find better ways to do something, or a neater solution to some areas, please let me know (scubaman@attglobal.net)

Rich Kleinhenz

Scores:

Level 14

The following description is how I play level 14. I am running Claw version 1.3, using a keyboard, and DirectX is version 7.1. Note that the coordinates I reference are the claw coordinates. These can be displayed on the screen by typing mppos at any time. Mppos is one of the cheat codes that does not interfere with your ability to save your game. Realize that this is not the only way to play the level. Sometimes your state of health will dictate another approach, and I am sure there are other, faster, better ways to do some things. I have come to realize that the PC hardware plays an important role, and a certain jump or critical timing that's really tough on one system may be easy on another. Do your own thing, and use the following just as a guide if you get stuck. Don't follow move for move, you'll miss the fun of discovery and learning! I don't usually play for the fastest time, I take a conservative approach when in doubt. I also tend to use my sword most of the time. This is but one of many different solutions!

Also note that your hardware plays a major role in how your game behaves. What seems easy on a certain set of HW can be a major problem on another. When I at times mention certain timings that worked for me they may not necessarily work for you.

As you start out, you have a sliding plank in front of you. Across on the other side, there is a Tiger Guard (TG). I usually fire a magic claw across to take care of him. Magic claws (MCs) seem to be the most sure-fire way to get TGs, but sometimes it takes 2 or even 3 to get one. I don't quite understand why. Multiple sword hits also work, but are much tougher to administer. Bullets and dynamite seem to be totally useless against TGs, magic swords work like MCs. After crossing the sliding plank, hit the 3 statues to get at the treasure. Continue moving right, dodge fire balls and dropping lava. At the checkpoint, don't forget the statues. Keep going across more sliding planks and crumbling pegs. After you cross the lava, immediately duck to avoid the fireball from the right. At the top of the stairs, a TG is waiting. Jump over him before you fire a MC, or you won't get his treasure. Don't forget the statues.

Jump onto the crumbling peg and down to the right to safe ground. Stay at the edge to avoid the dropping lava. Jump onto the sliding peg on your left, and back. Now as you cross to the other side of this little platform, a fire ball will shoot at you from the right. I jump over the fireball, onto the crumbling peg, and to the next little platform, from where again I pick up the treasure from the sliding plank. Repeat this sequence one more time. Cross over to the right on the chain, and lock in the checkpoint. Swing on the chain again, pick up the ring and coins, and drop onto the left stack of crumbling pegs. I usually drop down as the pegs crumble. At about the fifth peg I start jumping up, to build up a rhythm. From the bottom peg on that stack, don't break the rhythm until you are all the way across! I cross on the single pegs, leaving the stacked set alone. The first peg I use is the one immediately to the right of where I dropped. If you then keep jumping to the right on those pegs, the lava geysers will not get you, they drop down at just the right time. At least, that's how it works for me! After developing this technique I started going across 100% of the time. At the right, you have to climb up on horizontal elevators alternating with crumbling pegs. Once you hit the first elevator, you've probably made it. To land on it, you have to develop a sequence of pegs. You may need short hops to time it just right. At the top, pick up the skull and coins, then hit the statues for some health points and catnip. Drop down, and make your way to the left. Because the pegs are stacked, it's pretty easy to go across and pick up all the treasure above. You do need the catnip to reach the treasure. Now jump back up the second stack of crumbling pegs.

Time your jump to the ladder to avoid the fire bombs thrown by the lava hand. Go up 2 ladders, and get onto the elevator. Crouch and hit the 3 statues, picking up the treasure as you go around. Grab the chain and swing across to the right. Avoid the floor spikes, and hit the 3 statues, then go up the stairs. Time your exit from the stairs with the floor spikes disappearing, because you have to crouch for a moment to avoid a fire ball. Then jump via the platform over the chain to the left onto the next elevator and repeat the sequence. When you exit to the right, a bloody chameleon (BC) and TG are waiting. MC them. 6 statues have treasure and some nutrition. Now you have an easy crossing via sliding planks and crumbling pegs. Get the TG and BC on the other side with a MC, and drop down to Safe Point 1. You don't really need the catnip before SP1.

Climb the ladder after SP1. On the top step, if you move to the right, you trigger a fire ball above. Start running to the right immediately after it. Without breaking stride, jump via the crumbling peg to the right. Keep running and jump for the ladder above to the right. If you kept your finger on the right arrow key all the way across, you can reach the ladder. Pick up the 2 crowns, and climb the ladder. I often take a hit or 2 by the fire balls, but if you keep moving, the damage is minimal. Take the fire sword and use it on the TG. Pick up the skull, then jump on the crumbling peg on the left and drop down through the coins onto a stationary elevator. Move right, via a crumbling peg to another little platform with a TG. Jump over him and hit him from the right with the fire sword, so you get his treasure. Fire your fire sword to the right also, to take care of a BC waiting there, then jump across and get the treasure. Crouch to look for an elevator moving below. When it's right under the coins a health potion, moving to the left, jump onto it. Try to avoid the lava geysers and bomb thrown by the lava hand. At the left end of the travel, jump for the skull and coins, land back on the elevator, and immediately jump again to avoid another lava hand. At the right end of its travel, jump off the elevator. A BC and TG wait there. Again I had better success with getting the TGs treasure by jumping over him and using a MC from the right, otherwise I lost a ring into the lava all too often. Now you have to go up some sliding planks and elevators. Here is the timing that worked for me: I wait till the elevator crosses the lava fall while the lower plank is out. The next time the lower plank is there, I jump on it, then on the next plank up. Now the elevator is there to jump on, and from there I can reach the next plank and safe ground. At the first stop, get the TG and the statue. At the top level, there's a BC and a TG, again, get them with a MC or 2. 6 statues have nutrition and a little treasure.

Jump down to the right and duck to avoid a fire ball. You now have to cross a series of lava falls via elevators, picking up some treasure, and avoiding fire balls, floor spikes and dropping lava. It cost me a lot of points to do that at first, but practice makes perfect, and things really did improve for me with practice. It does not pay to spend a lot of time here, keeping an eye on floor spikes and crossing fast worked for me. I could not get the fire sword and treasure right there jumping from the elevator. What worked for me was to jump to the platform to the right timed with disappearing floor spikes, having waited for the fire ball to across above. Then jump to the left for sword and coins, and land on the elevator. Now cross that last platform and jump to the right. You don't need the sliding plank, drop down along the right edge of the lava fall, you land on an elevator. Immediately duck, and you enter a warp.

This warp has TGs, BCs, treasure and statues. The BCs seem to be pretty immune to your normal sword. The TGs jump around. The best way I found to deal with this warp is to jump and shoot MCs like crazy. Move right first, pick up everything, then left. After getting both extra lives and all statues exit via the chain and the ladder above. If you leave some TGs or BCs alive behind, don't worry, they only carry health points, no treasure.

After you exit move to the right, killing some enemies. Dynamite the BC. Don't for get the 8 statues in this area! Take the horizontal elevator to the right, and jump for the chain. From the chain, pick up the catnip by jumping on the sliding plank and back on the chain. You need the catnip to jump up to the fixed plank above the elevator. From there, you can jump on the elevator above and get the skull, then jump to the right onto another fixed plank. Now jump for the chain. From the chain, jump for the crown and surrounding coins, and re-grab the chain. At the right end of the chain swing, jump straight up for the ladder. Take the 2 statues at the top of the ladder, and cross on the next chain. You face 3 sliding planks that are nearly synchronous. You need to jump with very fast, very small jumps to make it across! On the next platform, if you wait on the right, you trigger fire balls, and I found it very hard to time an ascent from here both with the sliding planks and the fire balls. Luckily, if you wait a little further to the left, you don't trigger the fire balls. Observe the sliding planks, and time your departure to catch the lowest plank just as it materializes. Once again, you have to take very minimalistic jumps to make it up to the next platform. Get the skull, and jump on the elevator which starts moving when you get on. On your way to the right, you have to dodge fire balls by ducking under the high ones, and jumping over the low ones. Watch out, they are not simply alternating! There will also be some coming from the left. It's not all that bad, really. You get an extra life and some coins once you make it.

Exit via the warp, it'll put you back on the main path. A TG waits for you there, be ready with a MC. Jump on the elevator on your left to grab a few coins and some health points, don't forget the statues, and continue to the right. More statues, and enemies are along the way, but nothing tricky. After 2 chains you get to SP2.

Go up the ladder, wait for a fireball to pass overhead and follow it to the right. Time your jump via 2 sliding planks to avoid the lava hand throwing fire bombs. Get the BC on the first terrace and smash the 3 statues. Then ascend the elevators coming down on the left with short jumps, and hop onto the horizontal elevator. I usually get the BC on the next terrace by throwing dynamite across from the elevator. Then hop over and smash the 3 statues. I find it a little easier to ascend to the next horizontal elevator if I first jump back on the last horizontal elevator, since it's a little higher up. Get the next BC as before and get the 3 statues on the next terrace. That terrace is hard to exit, I usually don't even try, but jump back down to the circulating elevators below and start over from there. Climb all the way to the top, pick up the 5 coins up above to the left, and fire a couple of MCs to the right. There is a TG and 2 BCs waiting on that level. Jump across and make your way to the right. Smash 6 statues on your way to the next ledge. Jump on the first circulating elevator. As it starts moving to the right, jump off the front of it, and hop across 3 crumbling pegs to pick up the treasure, then hop back on that same elevator. When it starts moving left, jump up to get the 2 scepters, land back on the second elevator, take a high jump to the right to pick up the cross and 2 more scepters, and land on the leading elevator of the next sequence. Repeat until you reach save terra firma at the next flag. Move right till the next ledge, killing a TG and BC. Jump over the TG and get him from the right using a MC. There are 6 statues on your way. Fire a shot across the lava fall to kill a waiting BC, then jump across via the sliding plank. You can kill the TG on the next step up, don't worry if a cross drops down on the right, it'll be there for you when you get down there.

Back to the lava fall you just cam across. You need to drop down on every other crumbling peg, to pick up catnip at the bottom, and ascend via the alternate crumbling pegs you left. You need the catnip to get onto the horizontal elevator above the sliding plank. Depending on your timing, you may be able to get there directly from the crumbling pegs and the sliding plank, or stop over on the side. If you reached the elevator, you've made it. From here, first jump up on the crumbling pegs to the right, again using every other one. Jump for the skull and coins, and curl back onto the top peg that you left, and make your way back down to the horizontal elevator. Now go up towards the left. Ascend via ladders and crumbling pegs, timing your ascent to avoid the fire balls. At the top, get the skull and coins, and don't forget the 2 statues, then jump off to the left, picking up coins and invisibility magic on the way down. Now cross back over the lava fall, go right till the next ledge, and jump down. 2 TGs are waiting there, get them from the right with MCs.

The next elevators look a little confusing, but they're not all that tough. You need to get on the rightmost one while it's on the left, and duck while it moves right. You can use the other elevators to get onto it. Once on the right, stand up, and ascend via the sliding planks. Go left first, for a skull and some coins, and don't forget the statues. Repeat this to get to the top (there are 2 more statues on your way). On the top sliding plank, I always get hit by a fire ball. As long as you're ready for the hit and can afford to lose the 5 health points, it won't hurt that bad. Go right via another sliding plank, kill a TG, and jump off on the right.

You get to some fast moving elevators. Jump on the first one, you can stay there, you'll drop through to the next cycle as it disappears. Take 2 quick jumps to the right. It's hard to describe the timing, you have to find what works for you. Since you can hang out there, you can concentrate on the second elevator. As long as your jumps are quick, and you arrive when it's near the top of its cycle, you can make it onto the fourth which is safe again. 2 more jumps take you to the final ledge where you have to kill a TG.

To the right you see the entrance to Omar's Place, but don't go there yet. There is an invisible elevator at x=30380. You can't jump on it directly, you have to build up momentum by running from Omar's Place to the left, jumping and curling around. Take the elevator to the top, and proceed to the right to find a few statues with plenty of food, a skull and 3 extra lives. That should help get you ready for Omar (who isn't really all that bad once you get to know him J )

Here is some help for Omar:

When you first see Omar, he is surrounded by fireballs. This protective ring has a hole. You have to fire an ice sword through that. You pick up the ice sword towards the right. Once you hit Omar, he loses 25 health points, and his protective ring changes to ice balls. Don't hit him again with the ice sword! If you do, he regains 25 health points. Instead, you must now get a fire sword from the left. Again, hit him one with the fire sword. If your magic sword runs out before you can score a hit, get another one of the same polarity and try again. Once you hit him 4 times, he rematerializes up top where he fires blue balls at you that really hurt. Don't get hit! Shoot 3 bullets into him, then jump across (avoiding the lava geyser!!!) and hit him with a duck attack. He loses 25 points, and moves to the left. Go and repeat this 4 times and you got him.

And that's all there is to it, folks!

If you find better ways to do something, or a neater solution to some areas, please let me know (scubaman@attglobal.net)

Rich Kleinhenz

Scores*:

* actual score appears to be unattainable because of a program error: at 10787/2465 there’s a tiger guard with inappropriate settings, he does not show up in the game.

** subtract 7000 for the a cross, a ring and gold bars carried by the misplaced tiger guard, practical score is thus 329100.

*** again, subtract 7000 for the unattainable treasure, practical score is thus 677300.

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