Notice!

This is a guide for the optional content of Might and Magic Book One. For other parts of the guide, visit my two other pages:

Caution!

Other than first few sections, the rest of this page will majorly spoil Might and Magic Book One to you. The game is by far the most fun if you figure it out on your own, so I recommend you to stop reading this guide after the Useful Spells chapter. Feel free to do it anyway, but I urge you to reconsider. You’ll be cheating yourself out of a large amount of enjoyment by following a guide the first time around.

Party Creation Guide

On your first playthrough, go with one of each class. On subsequent playthroughs you can experiment, but honestly, only the archer and the knight are expendable, in which case you can replace them with another paladin and sorceror/cleric, respectively.

Each class makes good use of most of the attributes, with only a few being completely irrelevant for that class. You can increase all your attributes later in game, so if you don’t feel like rerolling into eternity, here’s a few things that can be extremely useful, in order of relevance:

A high speed sorceror is a godsend in the early game and never really loses that much use.
Amount of health per level is determined by your class and endurance bonuses, so you should start with high endurance on all of your characters.
Your physical damage dealers should have accuracy early on. Good strength is always great, but you can increase any attribute later. Low accuracy will give you headaches early on.
Everyone benefits from high speed, actually. Just don’t forget about the sorceror.

Useful Spells

For the most part, status change spells do very little against enemies – you’re usually far better off casting direct damage spells on the enemy and protective spells on yourself.

Aside from Location, Light and Lasting Light later on, which are spells you will use constantly, there are a few useful protection and miscellaneous spells you should use:

Leather Skin is cheap and reduces damage, so always cast it.
Turn Undead is surprisingly effective throughout the game.
Awaken is a lifesaver against that occasional Centaur ambush.
Early on, cast the various protection spells when you need them. Later on, cast them all, after every rest. Much later on, just cast Protection from Elements and Protection from Magic.
Levitate helps you avoid a lot of dangerous traps. If you’re in a dungeon, use it.
Psychic Protection helps you avoid death from some traps in the Dusk dungeon. More importantly, it protects you from sleep, so cast it if you plan on fighting monsters which cast sleep. I think it might also help with paralysis.
Don’t be afraid to use Time Distortion when it looks dangerous. It’s always better to keep the items and experience you have on you.
The damage spells to use early on: Flame Arrow, Electric Arrow
The damage spells to use from the moment you have them: Fire Ball, Lightning Bolt, Acid Rain, Dancing Sword and Meteor Shower. Others can be used occasionally, but these are your go to spells.
Clerics only really have Moon Ray and Deadly Swarm for those few levels when they don’t have Moon Ray yet.
Power Cure will be your critical healing spell from around level 5 onwards. Before that, it’s First Aid and Cure Wounds. Cure Wounds is actually useful throughout, for those rare turns when you have nothing else to do with your cleric.
The instant death spells have a low chance of success, so I don’t use them, but some versions of the game actually have a far greater chance, so Disintegrate becomes the most awesome spell in the game.
Might – Portsmith Dungeon, 0-12
Intellect – Outdoor Area E-2, 3-13
Wisdom – Outdoor Area D-2, 12-12
Luck – Ruins of Castle Dragadune, Level 1, 1-1
Accuracy – Dusk Dungeon, 15-15
Speed – Dusk Dungeon, 14-5
Endurance – Outdoor Area A-1, 12-1

Stat Increase Locations

How to get more than one Stat Increase per Location?

Go to ruins of Castle Dragadune, to the lowest level. Find the Clerics of the South in a room on the south wall at 12-0 and talk to them. Use Etherealize to enter locations 6-0, 8-0, 0-6, 0-8, 15-6, 15-8. Pick any two of these. Repeatedly enter them until you hear three distinct noises – loud, mellow and sharp. Talk to the clerics again and you can now reuse the stat increases.

You can repeat this for as many times as you like, though it’s possible the stats won’t go beyond 30.

Quests

There’s plenty of quests in Might and Magic, but most of them aren’t required. First of all, there are three lords with ten quests each.

Lord Ironfist’s Quests

Find the Stronghold in Raven’s Wood – 1000 EXP

The stronghold is in B-2, at 9-9. It’s enough to just enter it and leave. You need to enter the woods from a secret entrance on the south wall in order to get to the stronghold.

Find Lord Killburn – 2000 EXP

He’s in C-3, at 6-14. Killburn also gives you the Desert Map, which allows you to explore the desert without getting lost.

Discover the Secret of Portsmith – 3000 EXP

You need to teleport into location 11-8 in Portsmith. You’ll enter an extremely dangerous fight, so you better hope Time Distortion works.

Find the Pirate’s Secret Cove – 4000 EXP

They’re in A-2, at locations 2-4 and 2-5, but you need Pirate Maps A and B from the hermit in C-3; 2-10. The hermit takes all your other items, so talk to him with an empty backpack.

Find the Shipwreck of the Jolly Raven – 6000 EXP

It’s in C-4, at 8-13. Just go there and go back.

Defeat the Pirate Ghost Ship – 8000 EXP

It’s in B-4, at 8-7. You really do just need to defeat it and nothing else.

Defeat the Stronghold in Raven’s Wood – 10000 EXP

It’s the same dungeon you needed to find in the first quest. Lord Raven is at level 2 and it’s one of the toughest battles in the game. Luckily, entering the fight and using Time Distortion to get out counts as defeating the stronghold, so you can do it that way.

This is Ironfist’s last quest, so asking for more will simply have you start back at the first quest.

Lord Inspectron’s Quests

Find the Ancient Ruins in the Quivering Forest – 1000 EXP

The Quivering Forest is the forest you get sent to through the chutes in castles Blackridge, so the Ancient Wizard’s Lair, which is what you need to find is in B-1, at 13-5. Just enter and leave to complete the quest.

Visit Blithes Peak and Report – 2000 EXP

Blithes Peak is the island in the bay of B-3. The location you need to visit is at 9-6.

Get Cactus Nectar – 3000 EXP

With the Desert Map, or without it, go to D-1 and into the desert. Trade with the nomads at 10-13 to get the nectar.

Find the Shrine of Okzar – 4000 EXP

It’s in Dusk Dungeon, at 0-15. Pray at it and that’s it. It’s good if your party leader has their original alignment when doing this.

Find the Fabled Fountain of Dragadune – 6000 EXP

It’s the fountain in level 1 of the Ruins of Castle Dragadune, the one that changes gold into experience. It’s at 13-15.

Solve the Riddle of the Ruby – 8000 EXP

The ruby is in Raven’s (Warrior’s) Stronghold in B-2. The answer is Crystal, and the ruby is at 6-11.

Defeat the Stronghold in the Enchanted Forest – 10000 EXP

The stronghold is in the enchanted forest in B-3, but you need the Ruby Whistle from the main quest to enter it. To defeat it, win the battle at level 2, against the gray minotaur, or simply enter the battle and escape using Time Distortion.

Lord Hacker’s Quests

Bring Lord Hacker Garlic

Just buy and bring Garlic. If you can fly, you can buy it in Sorpigal or Algary. The first character needs to carry it.

Bring Lord Hacker Wolfsbane – 2000 EXP

Just buy and bring Wolfsbane. If you can fly, you can buy it in Algary. The first character needs to carry it.

Bring Lord Hacker Belladonna – 3000 EXP

Just buy and bring Belladonna. If you can fly, you can buy it in Erliquin. The first character needs to carry it.

Bring Lord Hacker the Head of a Medusa – 4000 EXP

Only one medusa has the head – the one at the end of Medusa’s Lair in B-2, in the locked area of the dungeon. The first character needs to carry it.

Bring Lord Hacker the Eye of a Wyvern – 6000 EXP

Go to Wyvern Peaks of C-3 and fight the fixed encounter at 7-7 to get the eye. The first character needs to carry it.

Bring Lord Hacker a Dragon’s Tooth – 8000 EXP

A fixed encounter in A-2, at 11-3, will give you the tooth. The first character needs to carry it.

Bring Lord Hacker the Ring of Okrim – 10000 EXP

Defeat Okrim in the Ancient Wizard’s Lair in B-1 to get his ring. The first character needs to carry it.

Note that all of these items remain in your inventory after you solve the quest, or at least they do in the GOG version of Might and Magic Book One.

Lord Alamar’s Quest

The false Lord Alamar will give you a false quest, which you cannot solve and need to get rid of with the cleric’s Remove Quest spell.

The Castle Prisoner Quest

This isn’t exactly a quest. You need to interact with the prisoners, one in each of the five castles of Might and Magic Book One, including the Ruins of Castle Dragadune. Based on each of your character’s alignment and how you interact with them you get a different reward at the judgement statue near Dusk in E-1. The more appropriate your interaction was to your alignment, the better the reward. It isn’t really worth it, though.

The Wheel of Luck

There’s a wheel you can turn in A-3, at 3-6. This provides gold, experience or gems to each of your characters separately. The more of the four great beasts you kill, the better the reward you receive, and you can do this as many times as you want. The four great beasts are located at:

The Dark Rider is in A-1, at 5-2.
The Great Winged Beast is in D-4, at 9-9.
The Gargantuan Scorpion is in D-1, at 10-5.
The Great Sea Beast is in A-3, at 7-9.

The reward grows exponentially, so it can be worth it, but by the time you can routinely do it, you’re basically strong enough to beat the game easily.

The Trivia Island

There’s an island in the south of B-4, where you get asked questions. There are five questions in total, and the reward for each is just 50 gems. In case you’re interested, these are the questions and the answers:

Who be ye? I be me
Who rules Castle W.W.? Lord Ironfist
Who is the Voluptious One? Lara
Who’s lost sight? Og
Where’s the very latest? Current trends

Climbing the trees in D-3

A guy in D-3 asks you to climb all the trees in the area. This is tedious and annoying and the reward is gold, gems, or a random magic item, not guaranteed to be of high quality. If you ask me, it really isn’t worth the trouble, but solving the quest is straightforward – just climb all the trees in the area without leaving.

Solve the Magic Square in D-3

This one is actually worth the trouble. The dungeon in D-3 is a giant magical square. A magical square is a mathematical puzzle where you need to input n² numbers into an n by n square so the sum of the elements in each row and column is the same. There’s a method to solving it, so it isn’t a difficult problem.

The square in the game is a 4 by 4 square, so the sum of all elements in a row or a column needs to be 34. All the numbers 10 and above are already there, so all you have to do is distribute the numbers 1-9 into the empty fields. The solution is

16	3	2	13
5	10	11	8
9	6	7	12
4	15	14	1

As a reward, you get +2 to intellect on all of your characters, which is definitely worth it, but should probably be delayed until after you max out on stat gains from pools (30+ intellect).

Help Og get His Sight back

Throughout the world of Might and Magic Book One, there are checkered rooms. Some of these rooms are empty, but two can be searched for two items – the Black and White Queen Idols. These two rooms are located at

Level 4 of the Fabled Building of Gold in E-4, at coordinates 0-15.
Level 2 of the Ancient Wizard’s Lair in B-1, at coordinates 0-15.

You need to bring these two items to Og, the blind Seer, who is at an island in the area of D-4, at coordinates 7-1. He will give you a cryptic puzzle:

Queen to queens level 3.

The answer is hidden within three hints, also scattered through the world of Might and Magic Book One

The first part is female (queen).

The second part is more valuable than the first (king).

The last part is the first (1).

Basically, the answer to Og’s puzzle is

Queen to kings level 1.

You need to type it in that way exactly to restore Og’s sight. When you do this, you gain 25000 EXP per character, and Og tells you to go find the prisoner at Castle Doom, so this quest is just a pointer for the main quest.

The Crazed Wizard Cave

The cave in the wilderness of B-1 is actually a secret quest to. There is a crazed wizard there who wants you to fight all 13 of the random encounters in the cave. Keep in mind that one of them is in the constantly dark room slightly above the center of the level, so you need to fight that one to.

To make it easier, you should take the eastern of the three doors first, then enter the large locked room there and trigger a switch to disable the acid slides on the two sides of the level. Once those are down, you can easily clear the rest of the encounters and get the reward – some experience, some money and an item or two.

Silver and Gold Messages

Throughout the world, there are five cryptic silver messages, as well as nine slightly less cryptic gold messages. You’re supposed to collect all of them and use two hints found and Castle Doom to decipher them. The hints are actually the sorting order for the messages.

Silver Messages

The five silver messages are:

ATIS-19-31UD54AEUPI1
RSTIA-,E1,;/11RN;/M-
IACI1;-2;ONU–G,NOT2
//SV/21;-22R,;DU1RS0
OEI/:1-33-1EK5;D-ET,
TSTST,E1,D-DS15A1DRH

The sort order is FEDBAC. If you write these messages down in that order and then read them from top to bottom, one character at a time, you get the following:

To raise statistics, visit: A-2, 12-1; E-1, 9-13; E-2, 3-13; D-2, 10-12; under Dusk, 15-15; 14-5; Dragadune, 1-1; under Portsmith, 0-12.

Basically, the silver messages tell you where the stat increase sources are located.

Gold Messages

As for the gold messages, there’s more of them, but the principle is the same. The nine gold messages are:

COMPLETION-MUST-EACH-KINGS-OF-ASTRAL-WITH-9TH-SANCTUM-AND-WONDROUS
ONE, -RIDDLES-VALUE-YOU-YOU-5-CARD-MUST-CLAIMED.-DREAMS,-…
FOR-TASKS-AND-RATING.-BE-FROM-6TH-FRUSTRATIONS!-THE-TO-IN
OF-BE-HAS-TRUE-KNOWLEDGE-PLANE-A-LEVEL-TO-REALITY-IT
SCOOP:-THE- DICOVERIES-YOUR- TO-RETURN- THE-YOUR-FOR- DREAMS-IS
BOOK-DONE.-A-SELF-THAT-FROM-KEY-YOU-BE-TO-SEEMS.
THESE-AND-THAT-MUST-CAN-DIFFERENT-SHALL-HAVE-FROM-A-JVC
THE-ARE-QUESTS,-INCREASES-IDENTIFY,-APPLY.-LOCATIONS,-END-ATTAINED-MY-SEQUEL
SUCCESSFUL-THAT-TRAINING,-THE-WORTHY-THE-VISIT-YET-INNER-REALITY,-ORDER,

The sort order from Castle Doom is 8, 5, 3, 9, 1, 4, 6, 2 and 7. Arranging them in that order and reading them from top to bottom one word at a time gives you:

For successful completion of book one, these are the tasks that must be done. Riddles and quests, discoveries and training, each as a value that increases your rating. The kings true self you must identify, to be worth of knowledge that you can apply. Return from the Astral Plane from 5 different locations. The 6th visit with a key card shall end your frustrations! Yet 9th level you must have attained for the Inner Sanctum to be claimed. From my dreams to reality, and reality to dreams, a sequel is in order, wondrous it seems. …JVC.

The gold messages are actually a fourth wall-breaking message from the developer, telling you what you need to do in order to complete Might and Magic Book One in a slightly cryptic manner.

That’s It

With that last one, I think I’ve covered all there is to do in Might and Magic Book One. It took me about 150 hours to complete it the first time, but this isn’t due to the amount of quest content. The game demands of you to take a slow and methodical approach of planning things out, mapping everything you see, writing it down and then figuring it out on your own. If you like it this way, that’s fine to, but I really do recommend to play it properly the first time out. It makes it much more fun.