Labyrinth(NES) FAQ/Walkthrough version 1.0.0
by Andrew Schultz schultz.andrew@sbcglobal.net

Please do not reproduce for profit without my consent. You won't be getting 
much profit anyway, but that's not the point. This took time and effort, and 
I just wanted to save a memory of a great game and the odd solutions any way 
I could. Please send me an email referring to me and this guide by name if 
you'd like to post it on your site.

This guide is accompanied on GameFAQs by maps for the entire game. Referring 
to them will enhance the FAQ greatly. You may not even need the descriptive 
"Go right/left/up/down" bits much, or you may even find them clunky. If you 
want to use maps along with the guide, right-click on a link to a map to open 
it in a new window and resize as needed. You can have this document in 
another window.

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      OUTLINE

  1. INTRODUCTION

  2. BASICS

    2-1. CONTROLS

    2-2. ITEMS

  3. STRATEGIES, ENEMIES, ETC.

  4. WALKTHROUGH

    4-0. THE INTRODUCTION

      4-0a. LEVEL LAYOUT

      4-0b. ABOUT THE UNDERGROUND

    4-1. THE BUILDING

    4-2. THE HEDGES

    4-2a. THE OLD MAN IN THE HEDGE

    4-3. THE GRASSLAND AND RIVER

    4-4. THE SWAMPS

    4-5. THE CASTLE

    4-6. DISORIENTATION

    4-7. THE TOWN MAZE

    4-8. THE STAIRS MAZE

    4-9. BUZZSAW MAZE

    4-10. THE SHIFTING GARDENS

    4-11. THE GREY AREA

    4-12. OUTSIDE THE CASTLE

    4-13. THE CASTLE MAZE

  5. CHEATS

  6. VERSIONS

  7. CREDITS

================================

  1. INTRODUCTION

Though Labyrinth is in Japanese, you don't need to know the language to get 
through the game. It's a bunch of mazes, some intertwining, with monsters to 
distract you and the occasional teleport. Early in the game you are exposed 
to an underground area with multiple compartments where you can see stairs 
you can't access, and it creates some anticipation.

Labyrinth has twelve initial areas. The object of each area in Labyrinth is 
to get the key piece and the coin. Once you do, you can go to the multi-level 
maze inside the castle. Each level also has a blue man that gives you hints, 
and once you find a part of the key you are kicked back to the hedges to talk 
with the king who gives you a new mission--and once you have the key and coin 
for an area, it is no longer accessible.

While maps of the mazes makes the game much easier, the levels have enough 
variety for it to be entertaining anyway. The maze of teleport-stairs is 
really beautiful and fun to work out, and they mix up the 3/4 perspective 
mazes and the ones with multiple stairs really well.

Labyrinth is based on the movie by the same name, but you don't need to know 
anything about that. There's enough maze crawling in the game itself to keep 
you busy a while.

  2. BASICS

    2-1. CONTROLS

You can move diagonally, sort of. The priority of directions is L<D<R<U. So 
if you hold LU you will go U, but you can release U to inch left when you 
need.

The A button fires. You can shoot diagonally as well.

The B button holds your friend in place. You can even ditch him this way. 
Your friend follows you at his speed.

Select pauses the game. So does Start in a manner of speaking--it pops up the 
inventory. On the first screen, you will have

Once you are stunned you can move freely a bit, unless you've run into a 
monster, but you can't pick up treasure. You can always turn, though it won't 
register graphically. Also you risk being bumped into a stair if you are hit.

    2-2. ITEMS

Coin 2000--3 allow you into a swamp area
Heart 1000--give them to Hoggle, Ludo or Didymus to resurrect them
  4+ items means they can shoot
  You can only have one at a time
Key 1000--each one you get sends you to the old man who opens a new area to 
visit from the hedge
Clock 1000--gives 3 minutes, up to the maximum of 13
Necklace 500--gives 10 blue hearts
Book 500--gives 5 minutes when you use it
Treasure chest 750--recalls a friend
Sphere 1000--returns you to the old man's hedge area. Note it's not critical 
to take every sphere you find. You can get through the game without a single 
one. But 

Just treasure
=============

These generally appear in hard to find detours. They don't help you power up 
but are fun to find nonetheless.

Pink fish 30000
Owl ?????
Teddy bear ?????
Door knocker ?????

    2-3. COMPANIONS

Hoggle is slow and gets in your way.
Ludo is neutral, maybe a touch faster than you.
Didymus is fast. Be sure to press B to hold him before he goes off the 
screen.

Once a companion gets four hearts, he can shoot too. Companions get lost if 
they follow you and get tripped up. Companions are more trouble than they are 
worth and sometimes appear randomly after you lose them off the screen.

If a companion blocks your way, go sideways, hold B and retreat sideways to 
pass him. If you are in tight quarters, back up.

  3. STRATEGIES, ENEMIES, ETC.

Since enemies disappear if you go off the screen, you should be prepared to 
backtrack and return. This works best against big powerful enemies, or if 
there are too many to navigate.

The magician
He can appear on any level at any time. He immediately starts draining your 
time. You must hit him 'til he goes away to regain that time, and you get 200 
for each time you hit him. If he appears on the very edge you may want to 
run, but if he's up close shoot him down. He's not a risk then so much as the 
other guys trying to fire at you, but remember shooting him gets time back, 
so duck and re-fire.

Pixie
Seen on intro, levels 1, ...
Pixies take 1 hit, give 20 points, and zap you for 5 seconds per hit.
From behind they will run straight at you. You can turn to blast them. If 
they approach from in front they will swerve towards you and you need to time 
a shot just before they are in front of you.


Archer 4 hits, 300 points
Bugbear 2 hits, 100 points, big target, slow to fire

Green bugbear
Seen underground, they take 4 hits and generally do not fire much. They are 
big targets.

Owl 1 hit, 100 points
Beetle 1 hit, 50 points.

Buzzsaws
Seen on level 9, they are indestructible and zap you for 90 second losses.
If you need to go through a buzzsaw to get a clock, it's worth it. Otherwise 
the best way to deal with these guys is to fire up at them--in fact 
anticipate if they are off-screen. Then try to sneak up and right to the next 
passage.

Yosemite Sam 2 hits, 300 points
Seen on level 1, they are fast and small

Giant undead warriors
Seen underground, they can just bull you into a corner and chip away huge 
chunks of time. Retreat and return when you can.

Pink Kamikazes
Seen in area 13, these guys don't shoot you, but they run at you quickly. 
They take 4 hits.

  4. WALKTHROUGH

    4-0. THE INTRODUCTION

This isn't too hard to visualize but the twirling fairies will be a bit 
annoying. Head right and tap up when you see a root. Eventually you'll see a 
necklace which you'll want to grab--it'll be a bit above. Then go down to 
grab a heart in the DR corner. It doesn't matter who you give it to--I 
generally choose Didymus because he does not trip me up. Then go straight up, 
tapping left at an impasse. There'll be a necklace and another heart. You can 
run left past the lake--1 second after passing it, go down and get the final 
necklace. You should be able to backtrack up and right and open the door. 
Head left and talk to the person lying down. You get 10 blue hearts and are 
kicked to the building.

      4-0a. LEVEL LAYOUT

Each level has the following:
--blue person that gives hints and sells stuff to you for hearts
  30 = box
  60 = sphere
  120 = book
  If you have 8 of an item you can't buy more.
--coin to give to the king
--key that teleports you back to the hedge center

Each level also has a gimmick and they've exhausted the different basic types 
of mazes pretty well.

      4-0b. ABOUT THE UNDERGROUND

Here's a detour about a place you'll be visiting a lot. The underground is 
made up of passages referenced from stairs to/from other areas: 1, 3, 5, 6, 
12 and a dead end in 7. The monsters are the same, and there are also some 
dead-ends that kick you back to a predetermined spot. For instance, you can 
fall down holes in level 1 to a small central area with stairs up, kicking 
you to the DL. Enclosed areas on the top lead you to the start of levels 3 
and 6. Level 12's underground trek is useless(except to gain time) as one 
staircase doesn't work, but it gives a glimpse of 13.

Otherwise, there will always be a stair at the end that leads to a new area 
you might have been able to see before you went to the underground but could 
not access. Even dead ends have a couple of clocks which can recharge your 
time left, and the monsters never get any harder, since they are the same for 
the whole area.

    4-1. THE BUILDING

I would recommend skipping to 4-2 for starters--the reason I've numbered 
things this way is that the game does so, and this is the order you visit 
places in, anyway. But the hedges are much easier than the building, at least 
to get your first key. If you get lost in there, it's vexing, but given 
there's a simple way through, you might as well see why you'll need to keep 
returning there, as well as the basic things the game throws at you--
teleports, mapping and fighting.

Getting to the hedges is rather easy--just head left to the edge, get the 
necklace below and run up. You can grab a scroll to give yourself an extra 
minute and, near the top, you can get a book below the door before you enter 
the door. You can probably walk around any monsters you see.

To get the key you may want to tackle some side bits first. Go straight up 
and hook left at the wall to get a chest. Go back right and avoid the 
stairs(they lead to a blank space in the center) and keep heading up. A 
passage hook L-U-R and you'll go by more stairs. Turn up and there is a 
narrow entry right. Get the coin in the DR of this room. Exit, then head DR 
along the UR wall. You can eventually go UR--grab the treasure if you want, 
and you can do so without falling in. Then the path will go U and hook UL. In 
a big room you have a necklace and a door to the underground where you can 
actually maneuver.

This isn't necessarily critical; it's the next door that hides the stairs 
back up to the key. But if you go exploring, you can recharge your timer and 
get another heart and basically learn about mapping. So let's detour.

L-D-R-U(a while) L D L and U-R-D to a big room. L U and a long trip left will 
show a clock above. Get it for 3 minutes. Then continue left and you get 
another clock. Retreat to the big room and go down. Follow the passage to a 
4x2 big room, not the useless dead end, then L-U-L-D-L to the stairs. This 
leads to an area you might have seen but could not access. Get the heart on 
the bottom and retreat. The stairs lead, not where you just where, but to 
where you started underground! So take the stairs again. Go down and head UL.

You can go through the door or head L-D to get another heart. Whichever, your 
path through the maze won't change. L-U-L and fly left in the big room. The 
left wall, bottom, has the next passage. D R to the next fork, and D R to the 
next where the dead end is pretty clear. D R. D to a room with stairs in the 
DR. Head R to the edge but don't get the key yet. Go D L for a book and come 
back--it's worth the time. Once you get the key part, the screen fades to the 
old man again.

I'm not sure how to get into the UR. Maybe someone else can tip me off. I 
think I've tried all the stairs, but no go. Another minute bonus and 2000 
points. Area 3 is open now!

Note that you weren't able to get to the UR area(yet)--in fact you won't be 
able to do so until level 9, and then you may just want to plow through the 
game. But in case you were curious...

    4-2. THE HEDGES

Go along the bottom path--stay in the center so you can shoot enemies that 
come by either way, or duck easily(or tap up/down to hit next time) if you do 
miss. Go up by the wall and hug it--you get a necklace and a scroll. 
Eventually you'll have to go left and up--a blue person is in the room to the 
right. You don't have to visit, but he can recharge your time--which you 
probably don't need. If/when you continue, go straight up to get a heart. 
Then back down and right and up and you'll be at the top of the maze. Walk 
left and take the first way down into the brown bit. That is a teleport to a 
new place.

Go up to the wall and detour left for your first coin. Go back right and 
follow the path. There'll be a big clearing for the first branch to the right 
when you are up against the left edge of the maze. It has a heart if you want 
it. Or you can just go to the top right away and now you can either take the 
second branch down(second teleport) or keep going right to a clearing with a 
book in the UL and treasure in the DR. You won't be able to get it later, and 
having a book is always useful for when you're in a fix.

After the teleport, go up and left and you will see your first key. Take it--
bull through enemies if you have to. The screen will fade and you will find 
yourself in the center of the hedge below the old man. Walk up to him. He 
gives you x*1000 bonus where x=# of minutes left. You gain 2 minutes too. He 
offers to sell you some hearts, but no big deal. Use up your boxes first.

    4-2a. THE OLD MAN IN THE HEDGE

The old man tells you which levels you still need to clear and which are 
open. The numbers are in the last dialogue before he says good-bye, and they 
are in the good old-fashioned English alphabet. Well actually the Japanese is 
older...but the point is that you can tell which areas you need to clear. 
Basically, since there are four exits, and you have thirteen areas to visit, 
and an area vanishes once you've got the coin and key, you need to get AT 
LEAST 8 coins to get to level 12. Fortunately getting the coin is usually 
only a detour.

So you need to exit one of the four ways--one will always dissolve the screen 
and leave you in a new area. If you are emulating, you can just save your 
state and try each way until you get an area you need to go to. Or you can 
just go back to the guy, talk, etc., but he seems to change the directions 
you can go. I suspect being able to read Japanese would tell you which ways 
are open.

The old man gives you 2 minutes + 1000*(# of minutes left) bonus as above--if 
you cheat there does seem to be a ceiling. So you might as well use a box 
before visiting him.

The old man also rewards you for each set of 3 coins you get.
3 = silver rod next to the key
6 = rod becomes gold
9 = crown
12 = crown turns silver

    4-3. THE GRASSLAND AND RIVER

Get the necklace to the UL and the right. On the right edge the first enclave 
has a scroll. Cut back left and go down to the edge and right for a scroll, 
necklace and scroll. Continue to walk along the bottom--just above is the 
blue person--and you will come to a garden area with a checkerboard of holes 
and a heart among them. Falling in the holes kicks you to an underground area 
that returns you to the level start. However, if you approach from the bottom 
and go UR there is little chance of getting sucked in. Go up and note there 
are two passages--to the north and to the west, which splits.

The lower west path isn't terribly critical. It leads to stairs which lead to 
inside the forest in the garden where you started--north of the lake. Get the 
sphere and retreat if you want.

The north part leads to another coin. It's pretty straightforward, as there 
are no branches, but you may need to jiggle to kill any approaching pixies. 
You also may want to back up and return if a lot of tall cats block your way. 
A chest is just before the UR corner. A heart is in the next enclave over.

The upper west leads to the key. But in the UR area is a scroll, the UL has a 
necklace, and the DL has treasure. The stairs lead to another underground 
passage that meshes with the building's.

R to a big room, D L and in the UL of the big room, go U and follow the path. 
You'll see a big room with the stairs in the UL, but the stairs lead to the 
grassland start, so go R and to another big room. UL of this you have a 
clock, so get that. The passage to the right has a detour up. R-U leads you 
to another clock. You are just clockin' clocks(sorry. If it's any 
consolation, inadvertently thinking of this pun probably hurt me more than it 
hurt you.) Retreat to the L-U-R fork and go right. D R(avoid the dead end) D 
R and go up-ish through 2 2x2 rooms. Right of here you have stairs. They lead 
to the key in the middle of the lake. Time to see the dude again. He gives 
you two options--I don't know what the Japanese means, but it doesn't seem to 
matter what you choose. The swamps are open.

    4-4. THE SWAMPS

Go east along the bottom, curving with the terrain when it goes up. You can 
if you want go down to the first island. Stairs lead to an underground area 
where you can head UR, DR and then left to a dead-end for a clock. R at the 
3-way, U R D L D and you will find stairs. Take them to get to an island with 
a book. There's nothing to the left, but that small island SW looks odd, 
doesn't it? All you have to do now is backtrack.

Go up and east along the shore some more--eventually a DR dip leads to more 
stairs and a 3x3 room. Follow the passage--at the U-L-D go down if you 
want(R-R-D is treasure) or just U L D to a 2x2 room and you have a choice 
now.

The detour is left D L U L D R D R and up the stairs. Up, get the treasure, 
down the stairs and you can go D L U for one clock, U R D R U for another. 
Retreat, R U R D R from the stairs and go up. There's a heart on this island 
and stairs at the bottom tip. You need 3 coins not to get kicked back to the 
start. The one-way passage leads to another stair which leads to a castle 
area. This small hidden part has a treasure worth 30000--some sort of pink 
fish. It's a bit of an arduous walk back but you know the way a bit better.

The way to progress is right. A clock and a stair in a 2x3 room. Up the 
stairs, an island with a chest and stairs down at the bottom. The passage 
goes one way(D L U R) to a big room--go up from there to see stairs. Past 
them, D L, is a clock. R U and let's see what's by the stairs.

If you go up there is a stairway to tiptoe around to get to the other part of 
the island, which holds a globe and then a coin. The stair at the far end 
kicks you to the start. But you don't want to go there, so climb down the 
stairs on the isthmus. D R(long way) U R D R(DR corner) U L D L and there is 
a clock in the DL and stairs up in the UL. Take them to a small island, but 
if you go down you wind up in the room you thought was isolated! Take those 
stairs back up to a new area.

Take the chest on top, and if you go to the bottom of the island(and if you 
took the detour), you'll see the 1-way strip that was present on the 
rightmost island. Don't go on it--just get the key.

    4-5. THE CASTLE

This is not abstractly a hard level, but the sheer distance I had to walk 
caused me to have to redraw my map. However, it's nothing to be afraid of. 
You can even back out from enemies easily enough.

You have three doors to choose from here. All go to the underground part 
tangled in with the building. The top two loop to each other, although 
there's a cool owl treasure there too, and the bottom one leads to a couple 
new areas--though one is just a vista. The other new area is the castle 
proper.

For the detour, which is optional but very lucrative, take the middle door, 
and go left and down. Keep going down/left and you'll see a clock. Then down 
some more and there'll be two down passages. Take the right one for the owl. 
It's worth 15000. Go up and right and continue to go up trending right--
there'll be a 2x2 room to the left with a clock, so stop in there.

Take the bottom one. Go right and down--there'll be a 2-U dead end and if you 
want the vista, go D to the DR and L. Otherwise, go L-L-U-L-D and L from the 
big room.

The stairs back up are one-way and don't leave you with much choice at first. 
So go D and L.

Down, you have a dead-end with a treasure chest. But given how long it takes 
to move around here, it might not be worth it to you personally. Depends on 
how patient you are.

Right and down, following the path leads to a necklae and a coin. It takes a 
while, but you sort of need coins, so why not. Then retreat to where you 
were. ??

Right and up, you will go U R D R U L U and the path branches. L D is a heart 
and book--worth it if you're patient. R D is a necklace. The hint giver is R 
U of here but R D L(detour: L U for a globe) D R U L leads to the stairs to 
the inner part of the level.

This is the part you saw while choosing betgwenen the 3 doors. There's 
treasure just above the DL, a scroll on top and a heart on the left. The key 
is in the very DR.

    4-6. DISORIENTATION

You'll be seeking refuge in the underground before this is over. There aren't 
a lot of twists and turns here except the ones in your own head. When you 
enter area 6, the directions on your keypad will be turned around. NO 
direction you push will make you go that way. There are 9 possibilities for 
this.

UDLR(intended) -> DLRU DRUL DURL
                  LRUD LURD LRDU
                  RLDU RUDL RLUD

Basically there are 24 possibilities, but the ones starting with U don't 
work. If you try the 6 starting with D, 3 work, but nothing is special about 
D.

Now you can cheat if you have an emulator, but that's just not in the spirit 
of the game! If you do decide to cheat, remember that if, say, the right 
arrow moves you down, then you'll want "right" to be mapped to the down 
arrow, etc. If you map down to the right arrow, there's a 2/3 chance you'll 
be in just as big of a mess as before. You can also climb down and back up to 
get a new alignment(non-cheating) and there's a 1/9 chance you'll get the 
intuitive U/L D/R switch. Having a clockwise/counterclockwise shift is 2/9 
but the remaining 3 options are a mess.

Just see which keys move you in the 2 directions you need to go and move them 
when needed. There's not really much to do here, actually; you'll want to 
head into the UR open joker mouth, but if you can find the time to go U L and 
get the coin in the middle of those mouths, that is a good idea. Then you can 
head straight right. It's frustrating to move around here because you will 
get hit a lot. Tap one direction to see where you can go and pause to write 
things down if you have to.

n n . . n y
n n . . n n
. . n n . .
. . n n . . (you start in the center.)

Normally this would be trivial, but with the instructions mixed up there's 
also a chance an enemy will shoot you into a hole. It's not a huge 
inconvenience if you were having trouble with the controls anyway--just go 
right a couple screens and back up the stairs--but it can get tedious.

The underground bit is pretty trivial--U L 2U(detour here U to the corner and 
R for a clock) R 3U R(big room) exit right and U and R and take the 2nd down. 
L to a very big room where you can head straight down, or grab the clock on 
the right wall(middle) and go back left then down. There's a bend R D and go 
back L and then L and U when yo can to get to the stgairs.  A clock is DR of 
here and probably worth your time.

When you ascend you will be in the UL of the playing field, around a bunch of 
smiling holes, but they all lead back to the inner circle--the ones that 
work. You just need to find the key and get out. It's outside of the left 
inner wall, so take baby steps to figure which way to go. Stay away from the 
holes when traveling, but go 2 1/2 holes south then east a ton. Then go south 
when you see the wall end. The key will be against it.

    4-7. THE TOWN MAZE

This is not a tough maze, but it has the slight curveball of three teleports 
in annoying positions and oddly sized entryways, and walls being possibly 
extended a half-length of what they were in previous levels. Go up to start, 
and if you want, detour DL for a heart before going back UR. Then go DR and R 
and U--back UL to an opening. Go up along the left wall and eventually you'll 
have a passage west that opens up to something wider. There'll be the small 
square you may have seen if you took the up/middle stairs in the castle.

Run left y it and godown at a wall. You'll be left ofa long tunnel. At the 
bottom in the right corner you will have a coin. Go back up along the right 
wall. Go down the tunnel--that will trip a teleport to the right side. Go 
right when out of the tunnel and get the heart. U L(to before the tunnel) D. 
You will pass a single pillar to your left--below it is a teleport that 
shields the key area. Go down and through a narrow opening with a block to 
the right. When the area to the left opens up, go left. The key is in the DL.

    4-8. THE STAIRS MAZE

This is a 4x4 maze of rooms where you can just see over the edge of the 
barrier into others. Knowing what's on the edge of the room, coupled with 
knowledge of where the location-edge walls are, can help you deduce which 
rooms are adjacent, and consequently which rooms are where. In fact, about 
half the time a stair leading in one of the eight cardinal directions from 
the center leads to the room in that extended direction, allowing for maze 
wrapping. So it is possible to blunder through--although, if you wish to map, 
you may want to hold off on grabbing treasure, since that helps you ID the 
rooms.

Or you can just use my handy text based guide below and grab all the treasure 
you run across.

The simple-stupid way to get the key: take the DR stairs to the UL room. Take 
the left stairs to the UR room. Take the only stairs to the key room.

There are two other items to pick up on your way here.

Coin:
--DR to 0,3
--U to 0,0
--UR to 2,2
--DL to 1,1
--U to 1,2 (then UL L DR for the key)

Foot:
--DL to 2,3
--DR to 3,2

To put these all together, DL DR(foot) UL UL D L U UR DL U(coin) center L DR 
get key.

    4-9. BUZZSAW MAZE

This is not a hard maze, but the monsters drain you for 90 seconds if you 
touch them. Go up in your little room and head right after one saw passes. Go 
up and fire up before you see someone. It will freeze them long enough so you 
can get to the passage U and R. There's a book on the other side--look both 
ways before crossing. The enemies are well nigh indestructible too so don't 
try to kill them.

Duck to the right and go up and duck right a couple of times to get to a 
clock. You can duck some more to get to the very top. Once you are at the 
very top, the buzzsaws won't come down. Head right again and you can go down 
and detour for the heart if you want--otherwise you can keep going right.

Again wait for buzzsaws--at the top is a blue person with advice. Or you can 
just go down and right.

Here you have a choice--you can go up and get a heart(hearts aren't advisable 
here as your pal can impede your progress) and up to the top, you can duck in 
for the heart, or you can go straight down. At the bottom you have a clock 
but if your time was already full it may be an unnecessary risk--you'll 
probably get hit once--so go up top instead if you're near full. If not, you 
can and should sacrifice a 90-second hit to gain 3 minutes.

The next way right is in the middle. You can skip to **KEY** below if you 
want or get the coin.

Once you go that way you may wish to sacrifice another 90 seconds to get the 
coin by going up. If you are very lucky you can maybe avoid buzzsaws. The 
coin would be R-R-D.

Or you can just go R-D-R-D to get treasure and duck back UL to wait for the 
next buzzsaw. Fire ahead after going L U and maybe you can get to the narrow 
bit on the right wall(turn right when you can) for the coin.

Once you have the coin, L D L.

**KEY**

Go down to where you need to go R D R U R U. A narrow passageways but 
buzzsaws can't get in. R D and now you can just get the key if you want.

Or you can tap left and up and when you are next to the key, if you are close 
enough you can enter the stairs. That will lead to the UR of the building. U 
for a globe and a door knocker, then L D L for a teddy bear. Lots of points. 
Use the globe to get back to the king--there are no teleports/stairs back. 
Note that this requires you to run through the maze again. You will wat to go 
to the top ASAP since the power-ups are gone. Just run through it.

    4-10. THE SHIFTING GARDENS

This is not really a tough level. You can fumble around to advance. Basically 
you need to get to the UL for the key and DR of that is the coin. The forests 
seem blocked off, but if you muddle around the edges and enter the niches you 
can pretty quickly get where you want to go. First, go all the way right to 
the DR, and then go up several times until you get to a place with a blue 
person enclosed in a bunch of trees. Poke around the outside to get in to 
talk to him or just to be able to go left to a similar area, then left again 
to where there is a coin. Now you need to go left and/or up. Up is more 
critical so even if a way opens right/up take it. The shrubs at the top spell 
"ATLUS" and inside the A you'll find the key. Step in the shrubs below it to 
wrench it open. One of them has to work.

    4-11. THE GREY AREA

There are a lot of teleports here--some seem to depend on the direction you 
face, but really what makes this so hard is that teleports are either next to 
each other, or they teleport you next to each other. The game does enjoy 
teasing you as the key is in the passage below you to start, but it is 
completely insulated from you walking there by teleports.

If you do choose to map this area out without this walkthrough's help, use 
the blue person in the center as a reference point, and backtrack to make 
sure you haven't been teleported anywhere.

Fortunately I was able to stumble onto the way to get the key by accident, 
and given that the maze is of blocks instead of walls, it has that many fewer 
passages to navigate than, say, the town maze. Go right until you see the 
scroll below. Get it and go down into the wall, right and D-R-U to get around 
that wall. Turn left at the intersection and there is your key--you hit a 
teleport to get there, by the way.

The coin is in the DR and is a bit trickier to get. To get the coin and key, 
instead of D-R-U just go down. Go left to get the scroll then all the way 
down. Go into the right corner and get out. Wait a minute! You got kicked to 
the DL corner! No problem. You can just feel your way back right(U-R-D, see 
the heart, R 'til you hit a wall) until you note the place where you went 
into the DR--a grey left-right fence above. Then retrace your steps U-
R(wall)-U and inch R and go U at the T-intersection when blocked above. Back 
left gets you to the key.

    4-12. OUTSIDE THE CASTLE

While this is a great stretch of land, the map, if shrunk down, is pretty 
simple. You are at the bottom area and each passage leads to the top(left and 
right edge.) The path is winding and wide but doesn't have any branches. In 
the center of the maze, you have the castle(part 13) and the final key piece 
just above. Monsters are vicious here but you can run by them and there's a 
lot of healing on the way. The underground is a pit stop, too, though it 
doesn't lead anywhere. Given the long trek there back you'll probably lose 
over 3 minutes of game time so I say don't bother unless you want to see the 
complete game.

**UNDERGROUND DETOUR**

Go to the DL corner first--there is a book there. If you want you can go up 
through a narrow corridor, right and down to get a scroll and treasure, and 
back. But that will maybe take more than a minute of your time remaining. So 
go up the right side next--you can pretty much run from any monster here due 
to the wide open space. You can dodge even the giant bullets going up so 
don't worry about fighting either.

In the UR corner you will see stairs down. This leads to a detour that is 
more trouble than it is worth. You'll want to go all the way down and then 
left. After the first wall coming from the bottom you will have a dead-end 
passage up with stairs that don't work. Keep going left and you'll be pushed 
U-L-D and left to the DL corner. Exit the room to the UR and go U L U to a 
2x3 room. Exit right and now U R U leads to stairs that give you a glimpse of 
level 13--a dead end, but you can see the retro San Diego Chargers themed 
final dungeon. Or if you head DR there'll be a dead end to the right and up 
with a clock, and another down and right with an owl.

Now go back.

**END DETOUR**

Left of the stairs you have a chest, a necklace and, in the UL, the final 
coin. Down and right--necklace and book. D L U L and there is the key! Just 
beyond, you have a scroll, but you can get that later, actually.

    4-13. THE CASTLE MAZE

This is so much easier to draw a map for than to explain, but what's going on 
here is that you have a 3-story maze where the levels intermesh. You must 
first take the ruby, which you can see at the start but is hard to get, to 
fit into the key to complete it. Then you will be able to open the lock that 
is guarding your baby sister.

After leaving the hedge you wind up just below the castle. You can detour D L 
for the scroll if you didn't. Enter the castle gate and now here is how to 
get the ruby. Any direction means--go that way 'til the next intersection.

L U R U L D L D L and there will be stairs to the north. Take them.

L U L U R D R, down the stairs.

L U R D D L D R U, up the stairs.

L U R(to wall) U, up the stairs.

(Note: there is a detour ere to get the pink fish. Go U just before the wall, 
U U L U L and down the stairs. Then R U L D L R U R D L and back up, and R D 
R D D D to return on your way.)

D L U L D L U L L D L U L, down the stairs.

D R D R D R D, up the stairs.

U L D R(edge) U L U L and you can get the ruby now if you want--or run past 
to get the owl in the dead end U R first. Little risk in doing so.

Next time around, we can open the gate.

L U R U L D L D L and there will be stairs to the north. Take them.

L U L L D R D L. Take the stairs down.

U R D L D R U R, past the stairs(which kick you outside) U R D L, up.

D R R(the door D would be nice if it weren't one way) D L(R is another one 
way door.) D L

R U to the UR corner L to the wall D L L L(2nd door above) U L D D L L U L 
U(near UL corner) R D, take the stairs down.

L D L U R U U R D, take the stairs down

R U and open the lock to win the game.

On doing so the King has a message for you, then Ludo, Hoggle and Didymus 
dance around below you. Then you get the credits and "END" in script stays on 
the screen until you kill it.

  5. CHEATS

You can edit some bytes to get a big advantage. It may ruin the challenge, 
but it helped me map while I couldn't figure the monsters out. The following 
are byte values verified in the FCEU hex editor's RAM.

4bd = seconds(decimal expressed as hex, i.e. 0x59 = 59 seconds)
There is no penalty for setting 59+ seconds.
4be = minutes(decimal expressed as hex)
Warning: if you go for 99 minutes and get a clock you wind up with 02. It 
rolls over. You also max out your time if you grab an award with 13+ minutes.

These 3 bytes edit your score, which is useless but fun:
4b8 = tens/hundreds in nibbles
4b9 = 10000/1000 in nibbles
4ba = 1000000/100000 in nibbles

4c8 = # of spheres
4ca = blue-hearts/cash on hand
4cb = # of chests
4cc = # of books

End of FAQ proper

================================

  6. VERSIONS

0.7.0 sent to GameFAQs 10/04/2006, with the first 9 key parts found
1.0.0 sent to GameFAQs 10/06/2006, with all key parts/coins found, but I need 
to describe all the monsters.

  7. CREDITS

Thanks to the usual GameFAQs gang. They know who they are, and you should, 
too, because they get some SERIOUS writing done. Good people too--bloomer, 
falsehead, Sashanan, Masters, Retro, Snow Dragon/Brui5ed Ego, ZoopSoul, War 
Doc, AdamL and others I forgot. OK, even Hydrophant in his current not-yet-
banned message board incarnation.
Special thanks to AdamL for mentioning this game to me.
Thanks to the NES Completion Project folks for all their work, too. Helps 
keep me inspired.

--use stairs to shake monsters too