Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom/Walkthrough

Overview
Like almost every other Wizardry game, the player needs to assemble a team of up to six characters to plunge the depths of a multi-leveled dungeon to save the world/reclaim an ancient artifact. The characters have to find The Gatekeeper, who is needed to close a rift in the Heart of the Maelstorm that threatens to destroy creation.

The SORN is the big bad of this game, having trapped the Gatekeeper in the rift in the Heart of the Maelstrom as he entered to seal it. Save the Gatekeeper and defeat the SORN and all will be good, until Wizardry VI. This game isn't so simple though, as the player must navigate a massive dungeon laden with pit traps, teleporting tiles, halls of mirros, inescapable death traps you have to pay to "have fun" in, and large empty rooms with no entrances or exits that serve only to trap parties unlucky enough to set off a teleport trap or botch a Malor.

The Maze
Like in earlier games, the maze is located beneath the castle. Although the dungeon walls look like the other ones in the Llylgamyn Saga, the layout is no longer restricted to a 20x20 grid, with certain areas lying as far out from the Castle as 101 squares!

This isn't the place to post a walkthrough, but a brief overview of key places and items on each level is below.

Level 1
As Wizardry V is much more complex than the earlier games, already the first level boasts a large number of interesting items and places to find and explore.
 * The Temple of the Brotherhood
 * The high priest G'Bli Gedook
 * A statue asking a riddle
 * The dwarf Ironose
 * A locked silver door with stairs behind it leading to Level 2
 * The Castle Transport elevator leading to Level 2
 * The Motor Room
 * A conveyor belt
 * A machine that operates the conveyor belt
 * The Bag of Tokens
 * The hidden Silver Key
 * A portal leading to the Den of Thieves (Level 4)
 * Strange Marks spelling "TIME"

Level 2
Arguably the least interesting level in the Maze, it boasts a large blue beast and... a few plot coupons.
 * The Hurlke Beast
 * The Jeweled Sceptor
 * A mixing stand for potions
 * The Ruby Warlock
 * The Bottle of Rum

Level 3
Flanked by a long corridor on three sides, this level consists mainly of a very large maze in which the Mad Stomper can be found. To the North is the Temple of Kama Kazi, where Lord Hienmitey can be found.

Level 8
This is the "final" level of the dungeon, and boasts some of the hardest enemies in the game. Hell, even Mafretti's Ghost makes an appearance.

It exists soley to host the SORN, and four groups of clone characters that are potentially THE hardest enemies in the game. You know how you spent all that time looping through LalaMooMoo's chamber to get all that mystical magical swag that makes you nigh invincible? This game's grinding check forces you to fight four of your party members with all that swag. Compared to that the SORN is a pretty big pushover, and for conservatively played games, the largest challenge to be found on the eighth floor is manipulating everyone's inventory to allow you to equip the right staves to unlock the SORN.

Level 777
No, it isn't Hell, it's Hades. This is Nintendo.

No, you can't teleport down here, you have to teleport to level 6, then take a ladder to level 7, then slide down to level 777. Attempting to teleport here will most often bounce you back, but you could also wind up teleporting into solid rock. If you do, when you see the "hit any button to restart" message, the game is referring to the big purple reset button on the console itself. If you have a party that can teleport, and you aren't attempting some ridiculous self-imposed challenge like the one that marked my last serious playthrough of Wiz 5, reset the game.

You do not need to fight ANYTHING down here. The best items aren't drops here, and what you get is inferior to what's sold in Manfretti's Shop. Refer to the glitches and tricks on this Wiki to find out how to break Manfretti's Ghost's shop wide open and buy enough to take your party of adventurers from being able to barely make it to this floor, to being able to kill Archdemons for fun inside of a few hours with zero combat.

This is also the start of the famous LalaMooMoo loop. I'll get around to posting a detailed analysis of completing it, but it is the only way to get the best weapons and armor in the game. It is also able to be completed at levels as low as 17~18 if you check out my glitch guide.

Seriously, check it out. I want someone to benefit from the hours of testing I put in to get something close to a consistent gamebreak.