Hello:

I'm just about to read the manual and install the game. Does anyone have any tips for someone who doesn't play that many RPG's?

Jean

Hi Jean,

I really don't consider zanzarah a true RPG. The closest thing I would compare it to would be Pokemon.

In the very beginning of the game you can choose from 3 fairies: water, stone and nature. I would recommend you get the stone fairy. Water fairies are very weak and even when they level up to the mid teens they only have around 40 hit points. Nature fairies are very common in the area you are in so it will be easy to capture one. The stone fairy that I started with is still my best fighter in the sense he dishes out the most damage. Take advantage of the free trainer. Besides raising your fairies level, you will make some money too. If you are not sure what do go back and talk to Rafi and he will give you some hints. He is the first one you talk to when you arrive from London.

The games only uses one save slot. It continually over writes itself so what I do is at the start of each session is back up the save just as a precaution. Just today I realized the game automatically saves itself when you enter a new area. I used a cheat to beat a super tough battle as I just wanted to see what was beyond. I entered a new area and then when I reloaded as I did want to do the battle legit I found that I was in the new area.

Thanks for the tips, Zanthia. I'm going to load it up this afternoon. How did you back up your saved games?

Jean

HI jean,

The save is just one file. I have been just doing copy and paste in to the same directory. it will say copy of file name then next time it will be copy 2 of file name and so forth.

Hi Zanthia.

I didn't realise the "saving" in Zanzarah was silly "one slot" style

Are you saying, then, that every time you save and want to "keep" that save, you have to quit the game and do the copy/paste routine via Win.Explorer ??

Well, hmmm. I lasted a few hours and decided this game isn't for me. I did manage to figure out how to do a fairy fight, but as soon as I killed it another one popped up and I got killed. I tried several times. Those things just move too fast for me.

It's too frustrating, and frustration isn't the reason to play a game. Sigh.

On to Jazz and Faust!

Jean

Hi Jean,

I am sorry to hear you are giving up so quickly on Zanzarah. I was hoping there would be another player so we can help each other out as there is no walkthrough.

You can escape from a battle once it starts. If oyu are fighting a fairy that is more than level 3 in the beginning it will be too tough for you. YOU can easily train to level 8 or 9 with the free trainer.

Enjoy J&F. It was fun but kind of short.

Mad, If you want to have frequents backups than yes you would have to quit the game each time you wanted a permanent save at the point at where you were in the game. The file is very small so space is not an issue. At first I did not realize it had this type of saves as there are 6 slots but what it means is that you can have 6 differnt games going on at the same time. for a saveaholic, this is the worst type of save scheme. Diablo 1 and 2 does the same thing.

HI Mad,

I was able to revert back to an older save by using the backups I created.

The saves are found in the directory called C:\ Zanzarah/saves.

The name of the saves are _000#.dat. For example if you use the first slot it will be _0000.dat.

To make a backup of the save just copy and paste into the same directory. The backup will be called copy of _0000.dat. If you do this again after playing somes more it will now be called copy(2) of _0000.dat. You always want to make the copy from the actual save.

If oyu need to replace your current save with an older one for some reason , first back up the current save. Next copy the copy into another directory such as the root directory of zanzarah- C:\Zanzaah. Next rename it so it called _0000.dat. Now you need to copy the renamed filed into the save directory. It will ask you if you want to replace the existing file. Say

Hello everybody!Just to let you know that the official Zanzarah forum is back again on line, in german and english:
http://www.zanzarah.de/phpBB/index.php
I hope you enjoy the game as much as I and my daughter did! <img border="0" alt="[kiss]" title="" src="graemlins/kiss.gif" />

I am really an adventure game player, but I have to say I have really enjoyed the graphics - seems a lot like Darkened Skye- but the fighting is very quick once you progress in the game. Training was easy and I'm glad I spent the time there to make my little stone fella happy (love the sounds he makes when he wins)but I'm now at a point where I can't hardly see the fairy I'm fighting much less win. I'm trying to enter the new city, and I'm fighting a stone guy, but it does say he's level 5, and I can't get past him. I guess I could go back and train some more - is there a limit to the levels that are increased by just training?
I picked up a very good fairy around the area where I first entered, but I also made the mistake of picking up a water fairy, and an even more hopeless fairy from the fairy garden that just screams when it goes into combat. Is there a way to let them go?

HI Nickie,

You can train as much as you want. After level 8 or so it just takes too long to go up with the free trainer. If you want to change your party you have to go back to london in order to do it. You can change the order of the 5 fairies at any time.

I'm going to reload this weekend and give it another try! One question I have is, when you are training, do you just stay there in that mode?

In the beginning there is someone to train with. Once you are at that spot, how long do you stay there and how do you get out? Also, when you are in a real fight with fairy, kill it and have another one pop up, do you keep fighting or get out?

Jean

Thanks Zanthia! But if I go back to London then I would also lose the stone fairy (my main fairy), right? Maybe I will just start over, and desist picking up every fairy I see! They seemed a lot tougher when I was fighting them, to being so wimpy when they are on my side.
Jean, when you are training, you are there until someone wins, and then you are taken right back to where you were when you said you wanted to train. If you want to continue training, you have to ask the trainer again. When you first start training, the fairy you are against runs around giggling and doesn't attack until you activate.I don't think you can leave until either you or the opponent/s have won/lost.

Nickie: You do not lose any fairies by going back to London. There is no need to restart unless you want to start with a different fairy. You should always capture any fairy you do not currently have as long as you have the globes.

Nickie and Jean: When you train, the fairy(s) that you train against do not attack you. I have never tried to leave a training session. The first trainer is free and the second one cost 60 but you get a ton more experience.

There are 2 main types of real battles.

The first one is the random fairy battle. These are against a single fairy. IN these battles you can flee by flying into the bright white light. This is usually in the center but later on in the game you mayy have to fly around before you find it but it will be there.

The second type I will call boss battles for lack of a better word. These are NOT random as it starts by talking to someone. You will encounter these battles in various ways. For example a person blocking a path. Make it a practice to always save before talking to anyone. Some of these battles once you talk to the person you will automatically enter and some you can decline the battle. These battles are against 2 or more fairies. You cannot flee from these battles.

Zanthia, is there a way to give mana to the fairy when you are in the middle of a battle? I know pressing the enter key doesn't do anything.

Nickie,

There is no way to give a fairy any mana or health during a battle. Don't forget that only the fairies actually in the battle get the experience even if they are in just for a second.. When you level up you will regain all your hi tpoints and a few mana. Soon you will fina place that you can refill your mana compaletely for free and there will be a rune that takes you directly to it. Too bad there is no place that refills your health.

Good advice, thanks. I tend to rely too much on my main fairy. One more question - I really don't understand the levels. For instance, my main fairy shows to be at a higher level than the one I am facing at the next town, but when they go into battle, and they're face to face,both hitting direct hits,the other fairy just wallops us. Is this because that lower level fairy has better spells?

Hi Nickie,

YOu need to check out the table of how effective one type of fairy is against another. There are 12 types of fairies. Nature may be good against one type but bad agaist another. That is what you are seeing. YOu can access this table by pressing F1 and using the arrow keys to change the screen.

THe two that I mentioned are both stone fairies, and even though my level is higher, the other stone fairy seemed much stronger. But it's a moot point now, I got past that as I played into the wee hours of the night. I picked up a few more fairies and a real nice item from the enchanted forest, and am now just wandering around trying to see what else I can get into, nothing so far. I've probably missed something, so I'll retrace my steps. I don't have enough money to get the rune, so guess I'll find some more battles. Have you gone a lot farther, Zanthia?

Nickie: I am quite a bit further than you. I jusst finished the arena boss battle which is the first one I had to cheat to get by. I didn't have any good fairies that were good against the fairies in that battle. waater was good but the ones i had even when leveled up were so weak they had no chance to survive and the other good fairies I had not caught any yet.

Jean: Good luck. It is a fun game!

I went through my first training session, and that turned out fine. I'll do it again to get more experience.

When are you supposed to fire? It looked to me like sometimes I was able to fire when the crosshairs were red, and sometimes when it was gray. I really couldn't tell.

Jean

Jean, I think when it turns red you have powered up the spell (held the button down longer)and it does more damage than when you just fire right away (gray).

Hi jean,

This is what Stitchaman said when I had problems with firing:

"It seems that you need to hold down the fire button for a few seconds until you here a thump before it can fire. the length of time before you can fire depends upon which fairy and what spell is being used. the stone fairy takes 2-3 seconds."

ALso if you hold it down too long it will backfire on you and cause your fiary damage.

More questions! I've been training my fairy, and have myself up to 11. Several times in the training I've run out of mana. Does that mean that I'm out of it for real, even though it was just training? And how can I find out what my mana level is when I'm not in a fight?

On the first screen you get to when you hit return, under the first line which gives your life points, etc, there is another icon which looks like a little green volcano, but it doesn't say what it is. What is it? Mine now says 0/15.

I accidently gave my fairy the mana I got from the village earlier, so don't have more. Where can I get more?

Sorry for all the questions. This is all new to me.

Jean

Jean:

That 0/15 is indeed the mana indicator. It means you have zero mana left out of a maximum of 15. The amount of mana varies depending upon the spell being used; it is usually 15 or 30.

There are 4 ways that you get mana. (1) When your level increases, you get some back. (2) You can buy mana at some of the shops (3) you get mana in an item bag after defeating other fairies. (4) The scarecrow outside the cottage gives you free mana once you beat the fairy bothering him.

The shop in the fairy garden town does sell mana, but the seller won't sell you anything until you capture the pixie in the store.

You need to leave town and find the cottage, there will be a scarecrow in the garden. The man inside will give you a bag to capture pixies in. Once you get the bag you can go back to town and capture the pixie and then be able to buy mana.

If you are completely out of mana, you'll need to run from the battles along the way.

Stitchman