It was time to get to the bottom of how to enter into castles. I would also end up running most of my first dungeon in Might and Magic III. It is kind of funny looking back at it now how many dungeons I ended up starting but not fully finishing the first time around.

It might not look like much but every entrance to a dungeon in Might and Magic III looks like this. This one happened to be the Ancient Temple of Moo. I’d come to get rather excited every time I was out exploring different zones when I came across one of those.

Even more so when I walked up to it and was not told I lacked the requirements of a key to enter one. Sometimes I'd instantly head back to the exit in hopes of making it out alive. This time I had already been in there once before. As a result, the entrance was already cleared and I had time to gather myself.

Just about every time I'd forget to cast the light spell before entering into one of these. They would be dark so I'd not know exactly what was waiting for me inside.

After clearing out some zombies and skeletons I'd come across my first chest. My heart racing somewhat hoping that my robber could even get it open. Second, I'd find something massive inside. While the loot was nothing major, I did at least get some further upgrades out of it.

One thing that I was trying to get used to still is the spell system in Might and Magic III. In the previous series of the game, I just needed to memorize the level I learned a spell and its lineup number.

Things would be a little different. I no longer had to type in two numbers every time I wanted to cast a single spell. Instead, I could just select a spell from a list and every time it was that caster's turn if I wanted to use the same spell I could just double-tap C to cast it.

While this worked great at first. Once things got far more complex in this game. When I had over twenty spells on each caster. It would require a little more effort to find the spell I'd need. Thankfully unless I needed to avoid a trap or switch from dealing damage to healing. Whatever spell I had set up for my casters to use for each dungeon ended up being the one they would a lot.

While exploring around the dungeon in search of loot. I’d come across bones once in a while on the ground. Sometimes they would contain spells like Turn Undead. This was not only a great way to save some gold and get spells I have yet to purchase. Sometimes I'd be getting spells before I was even the required level to buy them.

Once in a while I'd come across the discovery of a spell and find out no one in my party c could learn it. Thankfully if including my paladin, I have three characters in the party that can cast spells. The biggest issue is if you have already learned a spell, you can waste the one you found by giving it a character that already had it. It seems there was no check to see if the character had a spell beforehand.

As a result, anytime I came across something like a spell. I’d decline it. Then go and see which of my characters if any did not have that spell yet. While early on it was easy to know of the four spells each of my casters had something like Turn Undead was not one of them. That would not be the case later on.

After traveling north for a bit. I ended up coming across a larger room. It was a dead end. I would then backtrack a bit till I found a path leading east in the middle of the dungeon. There would end up being quite a few more chambers to clear.

Then I came across another large room. In there was a statue that had some backstory. I’d also come across walls that would give me some kind of clue. Sometimes the clue was for the dungeon I was in. Other times it seemed like something that would become useful much later in the game. You just did not always know if or when such information would end up coming in handy.

This statue gave me the crusader skill as well. This would now allow me to enter into castles. In excitement to find out what castles were more about. I ended up doing quite a strange thing for myself. I left a dungeon that I could have fully cleared unfinished. While I'd later return and there should be no question about that. I had to know more about castles.

Inside the castle, I ended up finding the king of it and a couple of his people. It turns out this castle is considered the “good” one and there is an evil and neutral one as well. I had the option to bring this king a total of eleven orbs so he could do battle with the other two castles.

I could also turn in orbs of good to one of his people. In exchange, I'd get 100k experience early on. This at the time was quite a lot. I could also wait till I was declared “good” by the king and then get 500k experience instead.

It became quite clear to me I'd be working with the good, bad, and neutral castles for at least a while to get as much experience out of them as I could. Before having to pick a side.

There would also end up being some massive chests near the throne room in each of these castles. Opening them required knowing a password which at the time I had no clue what it could be. I’d have to explore further another day to discover this one. It was also best that they were locked in a way I could not get them open. That is however for another day.

Final Thoughts

I decided I had enough for the time being. I returned to the town of Fountain Head. I sold off my loot. I took some time to swap out gear on my characters as needed.

I ended up making sure the best of the best went to my first two characters. The gear then would start to flow down to the others. Naturally, there would be some expectations like stuff that was amazing for my cleric or an item that helped my robber open chests. Otherwise, I wanted to make sure my tanks were getting the best gear first.

Even though that was not as important as I was expecting it to be. Different creatures would end up preferring to attack different classes from the best I could tell. It could also be random. At least having an order, I was giving out gear to would make it easier to manage so many characters that were in my group.

I finished the day by heading over to the trainer. At this point, I'm rather shocked at just how fast the early levels were flying by. I recall in both of the first two games in the series it was quite a grind for levels. It has become clear in Might and Magic III that not as much time is expected to be grinding for the sake of grinding.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Might And Magic III.