Hexen - Death Kings of the Dark Citadel

Hints and walkthrough from the Hexen FAQ
homepage at http://www.cco.net/~arne
---------------------------------------

Preliminary walkthrough and help file by Arne Michaelsen
Cheezy pre-release version 0.1 (First hub only)
April 23rd 1996

email me at arne@cco.net
See the Hexen FAQ at:
 http://www.cco.net/~arne 

----------------
1. Introduction
----------------

Well, at long last the Hexen expansion, Death Kings of the Dark Citadel 
(DKotDC) has arrived.  This is a 20-level, 4.5 meg WAD file to be used
with the registered version 1.1 of Hexen.  There is NOT any "free" upgrade 
for Hexen owners to Death Kings like there was for the Heretic expansion.
You have to buy it.  It comes in the stores or by mail order in a nifty
brownish box with a blurry knight-looking fellow on the front.  For those of
you still living with Hexen 1.0, the CD version (I don't even think there
is any disk version) has the 1.1 upgrade on it already - the Death Kings
levels are designed for 1.1 and above and will make Hexen 1.0 crash.

If you still don't know about the benefits of upgrading from 1.0 to 1.1,
here's the main lowdown : 8 Player network games!  woohoo!  It also doesn't
crash as often as it used to.

Death Kings is an external WAD file that you must name with the -file
command when you run Hexen (or use a batch file or whatever).  The filename
is "hexdd.wad" so when you run Hexen, the full command line would look
something like this:

c:\hexen\> hexen -file hexdd.wad

A note to the WAD aware - hexdd.wad is an IWAD file, not a PWAD, so most
wad editors out there right now don't like looking at it.  As a result,
I can't look at the level maps or the scripts yet.


-------------------------
2. What's New in DKotDC?
-------------------------

20 new, infuriatingly difficult, well designed levels.

There are no new monsters, and I don't think there are any new graphics
besides the title screen (Although I havn't checked yet since my editors
don't like opening hexdd.wad).  There seems to be NO MUSIC in the levels.
I don't know if it is just my system or maybe if it is supposed to be that
way to enhance the mood.

The levels are very well put together.  They look terrific, and they are
quite challenging.  I have been playing for one day now and it took me
2 hours of playing time at skill 2 (pretty easy level) just to finish the
first hub, and I still havn't found the way to the secret level for that
hub yet!

-------------------------------
3. Enough talk, give me hints!
-------------------------------

This section is for those of you who want a little help, but don't want
to spoil it entirely.  Section 4 will be a total spoon-fed walk through,
so don't read it if you want to keep the surprise, just read this section.

Sorry, but I have only been through the first hub myself yet, so this
walkthrough will only pertain to it for now.

Hub one starts at "Ruined Village" and the #2 weapon for each class is right
at the start of the level.  That gives you a hint about how hard it is going
to be ;)

Some of the main doors on this level don't really look like doors too much,
so you might miss them.  But when you have nowhere else to go, you will
probably find them easy enough.

When you start up the large staircase, you see what looks like an altar
with a minataur statue on it.  Behind him are several pillars leading to
a courtyard where you can see a portal on the back wall.  I still don't know
how to get into that courtyard yet, but the portal leads to the "secret"
level of the hub.

Upstairs by the ruined wall and the wooden houses, there is the first
segment of the super-weapon up high on a ledge.  You can try some fancy
jumping, but the best way to get up there is through a secret door somewhere.

You will have to make two trips up the waterfall.  After the first one,
check inside the wooden houses for new rooms and a switch.  Then go upriver
again and you will find a new section to explore.  After that, you have to
go back to nearly the beginning of the level.

Once you have the silver key, it will open a door very close to the start
of the level.  A button in that room opens the exit portal just outside.
The portal leads to the main "hub" of this section, and once you go there
you cannot get back to "ruined village".

The main level for the first hub is called "blight" and it leads to four
main levels, and exits to the next hub once you complete all the puzzles in
each of the four branches.  At the center of Blight there is a diagram
with 5 missing jewels.  You actually only find 4 jewels to fit into the
diagram, and each one can be found by completing each of the four branch
levels.

"Blight" is segmented into four quadrents, each leading to a key and a
portal for one of the main branch levels.  As you complete various
quadrants, they start to open up to eachother so you won't have to go all
the way around to reach some of the new ones.  Each quadrant of Blight has
an area where you must find a key and pull a switch, and a locked door
that requires the same key found in that quadrent to access the portal to
the level represented by the key.

The four branch levels are : Sump, Catacomb, Badlands, and Brackenwood.  
Each of these levels has portals back to the center of Blight, plus portals 
to two of the other three branch levels.

In Sump, you must find three firemasks and place each into the side of a
pillar near the start of the level.  As you place each mask more areas will
open up for you.  The areas that open up have a pull-switch that will
open up a path to the next firemask, or the path to the jewel if it is the
final area.

In Catacomb, you must find four firemasks and place them in the sockets
around a large pit with the levels jewel floating above it.  If you try 
and jump across the pit before completing the puzzles, you will be
teleported to the beginning of the level.  Unlike Sump, you can do this
level in pretty much any order you like.  Some masks are harder to find than
others.  (One requires you to do some firewalking, but look out for long
drops!).

Badlands took me a while to figure out.  The main puzzle is to figure out
how to light the statue in the center of the stone colomn in the swamp area.
If you get stuck like I did, try examing the outer edge of the colomn from
below (in the swamp) and pay close attention to any inconsistancies with
what you see with your eyes and what you see with the auto-map.

Brackenwood has four (count em, four) Death Wyverns on it.  Luckily, you do
not HAVE to kill them to beat the level, but it helps.  The level has a main
ring surrounding a huge pit with the jewel being held aloft by a large
crane arm over a firey colomn.  When you complete the puzzle, a switch will
light up a glowing stairway to the jewel.  You do NOT have to finish the
puzzle to enter the pit area and find any treasures in the center though.
The puzzle is a little tough, but when you find the tiers with a button
beside them, you can actually push on the tier to change the symbol on it.
Somewhere on the level there is a guide to tell you which symbol you want
to have showing when you push the button... if you have the wrong one, a
swarm of creatures will warp in around you.  There are four tiers to be set,
and the same guide will help you with each one, so go back there often to
see if it changes.

Once you set the four jewels into the diagram on Blight, a portal appears
behind you and a Wings of Wrath artifat appears.  The portal leads to the
next hub, so if you go through it you lose the wings, *even if you havn't
used them*!!!  So use the wings and go back through the levels you just beat
to see if you can find any treasures that are only accessible to flyers.

The next hub starts with "Constables Gate" where you get to fight a
Heriesiarch in a rather confined place.  Wheee.  I havn't beaten that hub
yet, but when I do I will add it to this walkthrough!

That ends the "hints" portion.  The next section will really spoil it, so
don't read it unless you want to lose all the fun.  You have been warned!

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############# SPOILERS BELOW ############## SPOILERS BELOW ##############



















############# SPOILERS BELOW ############## SPOILERS BELOW ##############

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4. I'm lame.  Tell me everything
--------------------------------

Well, here's all I know about the first hub.  I do not yet know how to get
to the secret level or what you do once you are there.  I do know (from
warping) that it is called Pyre, and exits back to Ruined Village.

Here is a rude ascii map of the hub:


                  Ruined Village <--------> Pyre
                        |
                        |
                        |
                        +-->  Blight -----> (Constables Gate)
                             ^ ^ ^ ^
                             | | | |
            +-> Sump <-------+ | | +-----> Catacomb
            |      ^           | |          ^    ^
            |      |           | |          |    |
            |      v           | |          v    |
            |    Brackenwood <-+ +--> Badlands   |
            |         ^                 ^        |
            |         |                 |        |
            +---------------------------+        |
                      |                          |
                      +--------------------------+


Ruined Village is the start of the hub.  Pyre is the "secret level" that you
don't really have to visit to beat the hub.  Blight is the main center of
all the other levels.

Sump, Brackenwood, Badlands, and Catacomb are all main wings of the center
(Blight).  Each must be solved to get a jewel to place in the diagram on
Blight.  Each one can be beaten seperately in any order.  If you can't make
any sense of my ascii map above, each of these four levels has a portal
back to Blight and to two of the remaining three levels.  Constables Gate
is the beginning of the next hub and is only reached after leaving this hub
permanently.


Step one : Ruined Village

First, step into one of the alcoves to open them up and find your weapon.
The small room at the end of the hall (with a serpent in it) can be opened
from the back (the door kinda blends with the wall).  Inside there is a
switch that opens a door behind you.  Through that door there are stairs with
pillars on either side.  As you climb the stairs serpents will teleport
around you.

On the second flight of stairs, step behind the pillars on the right side.
Behind them there is a section of wall with more decorations than the rest.
It will open up and lead up to the first segment of your superweapon.

At the top of the stairs you see a ruined wall and (behind it) some wooden
shacks.  There is a well, if you fall in you will get hurt a little, but
you get a porkulator and the water will rise up so you can get out.

Go to the stream behind all the buildings (you'll have to break some trees).
Go up the river and find the switch.  Once you hit it, two more rooms open
up in the shack nearest the stream.  Go in there, turn the wheel, and a
message tells you the waterfall has opened.  Go back upstream, and enter the
waterfall.  Don't let the current sweep you away (it will dump you at the
start of the level, plus hurt you a bit).  In that room (left once you enter
the falls) you will find another switch.  This one says a door opened in the
chapel.  Go back almost to the start of the level and two pillars have risen
revealing a room with a teleporter.  The teleporter takes you to a closed
room.  Push on the left side of the stone wall and it will lower.  Step
on and you will rise up and see the silver key on table.  Grab it and
go to the very beginning of the level where the locked door was.  Enter and
push the button you find there to open the portal to Blight.

Main Hub : Blight

You start in a tower in the center of the level.  The diagram that the
jewels fit into is ahead of you.  There are four winddows to jump out of.
Any is as good as the next, though you can choose them by the design of the
locked doors that you can see from the windows - the green design leads
to brackenwood, the skull leads to Badlands, the frog leads to Sump and the
mottled one to Catacomb.  Fighters should start with Brackenwood.  Mages
should start with Catacomb.  I havn't tried with the cleric yet ;)

Each window leads to a quarter of the map.  Each quarter has 4 exits - two
doors leading to the neighboring quarters (these are closed and locked), a
locked door needing a key, and an open passage to a cave or corridor of some
type depending on which quadrent you are in.

Each corridor leads to some trap room where you find the key to that
quadrant's locked door, and a switch (or switches) to let you back out.
The switches also openthe doors between quadrants, but only to the ones you
have also pulled the switches in.  Thus, the first quadrant you visit will
not open any of the doors, but if the second one you visit is next to the
first one, then the door between those two will open next time.

Each quadrant has different traps to kill you with when you try and get the
keys, but they are all pretty straightforward.  Some of them will trap you
until you pull more than one switch, but they are not hidden (just usually
at the four corners of the room or something obvious like that).

Each of the four main branch levels has a certain puzzle to be solved in
order to reach the gem at the end.  None of the levels affect eachother in
any way however - you can do them in any order and each level has everything
needed to solve it within itself.

A : Sump

You must find three firemasks to place into the pillar near the levels start.
First, find a mucky room with a large jello-mold of slime standing up by
itself on one end.  At the top of it you will find the first firemask.
When you place it, one of the three rivers nearby will lower, allowing access
to a new room.  These rooms can be done in any order, but each one will have
some important switch at the end.  The first two of these will open up paths
(near that first jello-mold) to reach another firemask.  The third one you 
complete will raise the swamp around a piller near the center of the level
to let you grab the jewel.  Then you can leave and never come back to Sump ;)

One of the three rooms is a pretty straight fight.  It is a glowing room
with a serpent in it.  When you kill it, another level lowers with another
serpent on it, and it repeats until you empty the whole room.  Another part
is a swampy maze with a few hidden holes that are deep enough to kill you.
The third is a pentagram in a pool of lava.  Once you pull the switch you
can jump down to it to teleport out.

B : Catacomb

This one has four firemasks to find, but unlike Sump you can do it in most
any order you feel like.  Before you do anything you have to take the lower
caves till you find the river.  Follow this out and to the right there will 
be some stairs leading up to the area where the firemasks must be placed.
There is a blue gem hanging in the air above a pit, but if you try and jump
to it you get teleported back to the start of the level.  There is a button
down on the river that will open up the first area.  If you are the mage,
the 3rd weapon will be up here as well.  Once it is opened, go back to the
start of the level and take the high road up to the shaking room with the
unstable pillars.  With some careful jumping, you must reach three doors
around this room.  In each one you have to kill some serpents and pull a
switch.  After doing all three a firemask is revealed.

Another mask can be reached if you take the elevator beyond the gem room.
It has two stops besides the one where you start.  One has a wooden door
that leads to a ruined temple.  Use a broken pillar as stairs to find a
switch that lowers another firemask.

The other two masks are near eachother, on the bottom stop of that elevator.
To the left is a wooden floor that drops out from under you (making you die,
so don't go there yet).  To the right are some ice caves that lead to a room
full of lava.  At the top of this room there are some rocks that you can
use to hop across the lava stream and pull a switch.  The switch opens up
a grate at the bottom of the stream.  If you enter there, there are two side
passages, one with a firemask, the other with a porkalator.  But if you step
too far down the stream, you fall and die!

The wooden floor room can be reached safely if you go around and find the
back entrance, and hit a switch up there to stabilize it.  Once you are on
the floor, a switch there will make it drop very far, but slow enough for
you to ride it safely.  At the bottom is the final firemask and a teleporter.

Once all four masks are placed, you can safely jump the pit to grab the gem,
but make sure you go all the way across, or you fall and die ;)

C : Badlands

After fighting your way to the central area of the map, jump across to the
stone colomn in the center of the swamp.  On one edge of it, there is a
hidden ledge that you must drop down to (the ledge will not show up at all
on your automap, so it may be best to look for it first from down in the
swamp).  Down there is a switch and a bunch of bodies to blow up.  Once you
are there the statue up above will light up, and a bell is revealed near the
start of the level.  Ringing the bell will make a nearby wall crumble,
leading to a teleporter that takes you to an area with more switches and bad
guys.  After finishing that part, a wooden pillar back inside the stone
colomn will raise and lower, leading you to the green gem.

D : Brackenwood

This level is a ring around a large pit.  In the pit is a platform with some
goodies (including the fighters hammer).  Above that there is a gem being
suspended above a flame froma crane.  Outside the big ring is a large area
divvied up into four sections with a Death Wyvern flying in each one ;)

There is a button inside the ring that starts the process... once it is hit
a staircase opens up leading to the outer area.  Next to the staircase a
small box is raised with a symbol on it... note the symbol and remember it.

Outside, as you flee like mad from the Wyverns, you will find a small raised
section in each of the large sections.  These raised tiers have four statues
at the corners.  In one section, the tier will have a blank box up in the
middle and a switch revelaed next to the box.  You can push the box to make
it lower and re-raise with a different symbol on it.  Do this until it
matches the symbol you saw before, and THEN hit the switch nearby.  If the
wrong symbol is showing, monsters warp in.  If it is the right one, then
one forth of the puzzle is solved and some quartz flasks warp in.

Now go back to where you first saw the symbol, and see if it has changed.
Note the new symbol and find the next raised tier and repeat the process in
each of the four large zones.  Once you do all four, you can hit the switch
in the large inner pit to make a bridge to the gem.  Grab it and go ;)

Ending : Finishing Blight

once all four gems are in place on the diagram, a portal opens behind you
and some wings appear.  The portal leads to the next hub, so if you go
through it you will lose the wings!  So, before moving on to the next hub,
scour the previous levels with the wings to reach all those hard to reach
places.  I know you can get an extra Icon of the Defender in Badlands, and
some more goodies in Brackenwood once you can fly.

That does it for this first version of my walkthrough.  Any hints, help, or
comments can be sent to me at arne@cco.net.  This page originally appeared
at http://www.cco.net/~arne along with my Hexen FAQ and the original Hexen
Walkthrough (which is in a much nicer HTML format).