
There are also a whole bunch of new items that help make your character stronger if you can find them. In conjunction with the new mini-map that gets filled out as you explore, navigating the dungeon is a lot less confusing than it used to be. That is to say, if you leave the fifth floor and come back, it will still have the same layout as it did the first time. There are numerous changes to the game, but the one that works most to the player’s general benefit is that the floors are set for each playthrough. Potentially a lot more, depending on the difficulty setting you choose. The iOS version is a bit more lenient in its challenge. There was no saving, no resurrection if you ran out of healing items, no continuing, and absolutely no mercy. It was even possible to reach the floor the sword was on and find there was no path to reach it, forcing you to return to the stairs and hope for a new layout for the map that could be solved. You really needed an solid run of luck, even more so than in most modern games in the genre. That’s if you even managed to get the sword in the first place. This meant that after getting the sword you had to stumble through entirely new floors on the way out, which made it incredibly hard to get out in time. In the C64 version of the game, the levels changed to a new layout every time you left the floor and came back. New monsters will spawn in over time as well, which can lead to more than a few unpleasant surprises. They can and will move around while you’re just standing around. Unlike many other roguelikes, the monsters don’t take their turns in step with yours. You can engage in combat with enemies simply by pushing your character into them, and if you defeat them you’ll earn some experience points towards gaining a level. There’s a temple on each floor that acts as a safe haven where you can heal up without monsters attacking you, and of course stairs that go up and down.

Each floor of the dungeon is randomly generated, filled with monsters that will try to kill you, loot that will help you, and treasure boxes that may do either.

After laying your hands on the sword you have exactly 2000 seconds, or just over 33 minutes, to get back out. The dungeon is 20 floors deep, and in the iOS version, the sword rests on the final floor. Your quest is to descend into the dungeon to retrieve the legendary Sword of Fargoal.
