Dungeon Master Encyclopaedia

Hint Oracle

The Atari ST and Amiga versions of Chaos Strikes Back include a built-in hint system named the 'Hint Oracle' that is found on the utility disk. The Japanese versions (X68000, PC-9801 and FM-Towns) do not have this feature.
You can consult online versions of the Hint Oracle:
Chaos Strikes Back Hint Oracle (English Release 1)
Chaos Strikes Back Hint Oracle (English Release 3)
Chaos Strikes Back Hint Oracle (French)
Chaos Strikes Back Hint Oracle (German)

Hint Books

Walkthroughs

Tips and Tricks

Ending animation

To watch the ending animation, you can replace the introduction by the ending animation:

• Chaos Strikes Back Amiga: Delete the file "ANIM.DAT" on the utility disk (make a backup before), copy the file "ENDA.DAT" from the game disk to the utility disk and rename it to "ANIM.DAT". Boot the utility disk and click "Introduction".
• Chaos Strikes Back X68000: Rename the file "ANIM.DAT" to "ANIM.BAK" and the file "ENDA.DAT" to "ANIM.DAT". Boot the disk and click "Introduction".

FulYa Pit tips

[Submitted by Paul Stevens]
Dodge the fireballs
If you throw something else than a Corbum into the FulYa Pit, fireballs will kill your party. However there is a way to dodge them:

1. Open the door to the FulYa Pit on level 0. Lighten your load so you can move fast.
2. Go to the left or right of the pit but not in front so the door remains open.
3. Throw any item (not a Corbum) across the opening to the pit and it will be redirected towards the pit.
4. Quickly run to the door without waiting.
5. Observe the giant fireballs going around the room.

Keep playing after throwing the fourth corbum
If you throw the fourth Corbum in the same way (without facing the FulYa Pit directly), you are not teleported in front of the Grey Lord. You can keep playing until you decide to go in front of the FulYa Pit.

Make creatures move faster

You can bump into creatures to make them move faster (this is used in some records by Antman for example, check Chaos Strikes Back for Windows Competitions).
Paul Stevens confirmed this by studying the CSBwin source code. Bumping in a creature creates another timer entry for that creature so that it will move sooner.

Item storage

[Submitted by Beowuuf (beowuuf@yahoo.com)]
You can dump items at either the "Run and jump" pit (04,21,20), or down the pit in the "Supplies for the quick" area (05,20,27) and they will appear at the junction of ways, which means you don't need to get bogged down carrying around a lot of stuff, especially on a single player game.

Don't need the Ros way

[Submitted by Antman (braceg@actrix.gen.nz)]
You don't need to do any of the Ros way at all (at least in the Amiga version). At the Ku corbum place the pit at (01,33,22) is fake. Once you walk on the fake pit the Ros corbum pits activate. This allows you to get the Ku and Ros corbums at the same time.

Do not get lost

You can drop Zokathra spells on the ground to keep track of where you have been in the dungeon. This may be useful in some mazes. You could drop any other items, but you can produce as many Zokathra spells as you need.

Do not get lost II

[Submitted by Matthew Hill (Gambit, thegambit@hotmail.com)]
If you cast the spell Oh Gor Dain, any Zokathra spell on the ground will appear as an orange cross on the magic map. Note: the magic map is not available in the Atari ST version.

Starving in Prison is not an issue

If you train your champions in the Prison, don't worry if they get hungry and start to starve. When you move on to the dungeon by using the Utility Disk "Make new adventure" function, your champions will not be hungry anymore.

Permanent skill and statistics bonuses

[Supplied by Meynaf]
The Chaos Strikes Back utility disk allows you to import your existing party from Dungeon Master. Before doing the import, prepare your saved game in Dungeon Master and equip your champions with as many items that give skills and statistics bonuses as you can. During the import all the champion possessions will be removed, but the skills and statistics bonuses will stay and become permanent. This bug works only on the Atari ST. This bug was fixed in all other versions (Amiga, PC-9801, FM-Towns, X68000)

Secret character

Copy the file "MINI.DAT" from the Chaos Strikes Back Utility Disk to your save game disk, rename it to "CSBGAME.DAT", then load it as your saved game. You will have the following champion:

Portrait, Name, Gender and Skills (Level in each hidden skill)	Statistics		Equipment
/ Amiga, FM-Towns, X68000 / Atari ST In the PC-9801 version, the portrait is all black. Halk Gonzo Barbarian (Male) Artisan Fighter (Swing: 6, Thrust: 6, Club: 2, Parry: 2) Apprentice Ninja (Steal: 2, Fight: 2, Throw: 2, Shoot: 2) Apprentice Priest (Identify: 2, Heal: 2, Influence: 2, Defend: 2) Apprentice Wizard (Fire: 2, Air: 2, Earth: 2, Water: 2)	Health Stamina Mana Luck Strength Dexterity Wisdom Vitality Anti-Magic Anti-Fire Load	602 126 204 77 82 72 67 77 72 67 76	In Atari ST version only: Chest [Lock Picks, Boots Of Speed, Corbum (4), Iron Key (2)]

It works with all versions of the game: Atari ST, Amiga, X68000, FM-Towns and PC-9801.
Note: There are two additional bytes at the beginning of the MINI.DAT file from the Amiga version (DEADh) and X68000 version (5223h) that you need to remove with a hexadecimal editor, otherwise the saved game won't load.

Cheats

Super Characters

Misc-SuperCharacters.rar

[Supplied by Steve Debnar (dmman)]
This archive contains a saved game for Chaos Strikes Back for Amiga. This saved game has been hacked to set the champions' skills and statistics to their maximum.

Magazine articles

Chaos Strikes Back Guide published in unknown Japanese magazine

CSB-Hints-Japanese-Part2.pdf Pages 186-189
CSB-Hints-Japanese-Part3.pdf Pages 172-175 (Dain)
CSB-Hints-Japanese-Part4.pdf Pages 130-133 (Ku and Neta)
CSB-Hints-Japanese-Part5.pdf Pages 144-147 (Ros)
[Supplied by Jim Ratkos, one of the authors of the Hint Book - Chaos Strikes Back Adventurer's Handbook]

Missing: Information about the unknown Japanese magazine where this guide were published
If you can help, please E-mail me! Check Contributions wanted for a list of other missing content.

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in French magazine 'Atari Magazine', Issue #9 February 1990, Pages 66-67

[Source: Abandonware Magazines]

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in German magazine 'Power Play', February 1990, Page 29

[Source: Kultpower]

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in British magazine 'ST Action', Issue #23 March 1990, Pages 48-49

[Supplied by RAF68]

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in French magazine 'Atari Magazine', Issue #10 March 1990, Pages 55-56

[Source: Abandonware Magazines]

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in British magazine 'Advanced Computer Entertainment', Issue #30 March 1990, Page 79

[Supplied by Steve Hood]

Chaos Strikes Back for Atari ST Guide published in French magazine 'Joystick', Issue #3, March 1990, Pages 80-81

[Supplied by Pierre Monnot]

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in French magazine 'Joystick', Issue #3 March 1990, Page 84

[Supplied by Pierre Monnot (Greatstone)]

Chaos Strikes Back for Atari ST Cheat published in French magazine 'Gen4', Issue #20, March 1990, Page 81

[Source: Abandonware Magazines]

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in German magazine 'Power Play', March 1990, Pages 35-36

[Source: Kultpower]
Zoom provided an english translation of these hints:
Note: MH - is Michael Hengst, this guy did the german translation of the CSB manual.

Power Tips for collection

Choosing champions is of utmost importance: after all, you drag this party around for all the duration of the game. If the good man does not know how to cast spells, you stand there cursing and angry because you did not take the right one. In the box, you see a list of all new champions found in the "Prison" of Lord Chaos, not only the names of the characters you find enclosed, but also all skills and character abilities.
Who is not pleased with the described abilities, may (just like in "Dungeon Master") not only "Resurrect" but even more so "Reincarnate" to give them life. Unfortunately, the champions lose all up to this point learned abilities and half of accumulated health, stamina and mana points. Of the other values, like strength and dexterity there will be deducted a "round" ten percent. Obvious that the chance for survival with these meagre characters isn't all that great; in exchange to that these will be considerably faster to level up. Better you just don´t mess around with the big Monsters.... mh

Name and Race ... other column titles are self explanatory.

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in French magazine 'Joystick', Issue #4 April 1990, Page 74

[Source: Abandonware Magazines]

Chaos Strikes Back Guide published in French magazine 'Gen4', Issue #21, April 1990

This booklet was a magazine insert.

Guide de l'Avenfou N°1: Chaos Strikes Back

[Supplied by Pierre Monnot, Source: Abandonware Magazines]

Chaos Strikes Back Guide published in German magazine 'Power Play', April 1990, Pages 48-54

[Source: Kultpower]

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in German magazine 'Power Play', May 1990, Page 64

[Source: Kultpower]

Chaos Strikes Back Guide published in German magazine 'Power Play', May 1990, Pages 73-77

[Source: Kultpower]

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in British magazine 'Zero', Issue #8 June 1990, Pages 73-74

[Supplied by Steve Hood]

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in British magazine 'ST Format', Issue #12 July 1990, Page 73

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in British magazine 'ST Action', Issue #27 July 1990, Pages 89-90, 92-93

[Supplied by RAF68]

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in German magazine 'Power Play', July 1990, Page 59

[Source: Kultpower]

Chaos Strikes Back Guide published in German magazine 'Power Play', July 1990, Pages 68-69

[Source: Kultpower]

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in British magazine 'ST Format', Issue #13 August 1990, Page 63

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in German magazine 'ASM', August 1990, Pages 36-38, 40-46, 48-51

[Source: Kultpower]

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in British magazine 'ST Format', Issue #14 September 1990, Page 69

Dungeon Master And Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in British magazine 'Amiga Action', Issue #12 September 1990, Page 15

[Supplied by The Boggit]

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in British magazine 'ST Format', Issue #15 October 1990, Pages 89, 93

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in French magazine 'Tilt'

[Source: Abandonware Magazines]

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in British magazine 'ST Format', Issue #17 December 1990, Pages 136, 139

Special Supplement 1 - Chaos Strikes Back Guide published in Japanese magazine 'Login', Vol 9 No 24 21 December 1990, 16 pages

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in German magazine 'Power Play', January 1991, Page 102

[Source: Kultpower]

Special Supplement - Chaos Strikes Back Guide published in Japanese magazine 'Login', Vol 10 No 3 01 February 1991, 16 pages

Supplement 1 - Chaos Strikes Back Companion Guide Guide published in Japanese magazine 'Popcom', Vol 9 No 2 01 February 1991, 20 pages

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in German magazine 'Power Play', February 1991, Page 87

[Source: Kultpower]

Supplement - Chaos Strikes Back Companion Guide II Guide published in Japanese magazine 'Popcom', Vol 9 No 3 01 March 1991, 20 pages

Chaos Strikes Back for Amiga Hints published in British magazine 'CU Amiga', March 1991, Pages 96-97

[Supplied by Steve Hood]

Chaos Strikes Back for Amiga Hints published in British magazine 'CU Amiga', April 1991, Pages 82-83

[Supplied by Steve Hood]

Chaos Strikes Back for Amiga Hints published in German magazine 'Amiga Joker', April 1991, Page 94

[Source: Amiga Magazine Rack]

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in German magazine 'Power Play', April 1991, Page 78

[Source: Kultpower]

Chaos Strikes Back for Amiga Hints published in British magazine 'Amiga Action', Issue #20 May 1991, Page 24

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in British magazine 'ST Format', Issue #26 September 1991, Page 85

Chaos Strikes Back Guide published in Czech magazine 'Excalibur', Issue #6 October 1991, Pages 20-21

[Supplied by DJ Oldgames, Source: oldgames.sk]

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in British magazine 'Zero', Issue #25 November 1991, Page 111

[Supplied by Steve Hood]

Chaos Strikes Back for Amiga Hints published in British magazine 'Amiga Action', Issue #24 September 1991, Page 25

Missing: Scan of Chaos Strikes Back for Amiga Hints published in British magazine 'Amiga Action', Issue #24 September 1991, Page 25
If you can help, please E-mail me! Check Contributions wanted for a list of other missing content.

Chaos Strikes Back Hints published in SynTax disk based magazine

Issue #5 1990 http://www.syntax2000.co.uk/issues/05/csback.qht.txt
Issue #8 1990 http://www.syntax2000.co.uk/issues/08/chaos.qht.txt
Issue #24 1993 http://www.syntax2000.co.uk/issues/24/dd.asc.txt
Issue #32 1994 http://www.syntax2000.co.uk/issues/32/george32.qht...
Issue #32 1994 http://www.syntax2000.co.uk/issues/32/dm8.art.txt
Issue #33 1994 http://www.syntax2000.co.uk/issues/33/chaos1.sol.txt
Issue #34 1995 http://www.syntax2000.co.uk/issues/34/chaos2.sol.txt
Issue #34 1995 http://www.syntax2000.co.uk/issues/34/chaos2mp.sol...
Issue #35 1995 http://www.syntax2000.co.uk/issues/35/chaos3.sol.txt
Issue #35 1995 http://www.syntax2000.co.uk/issues/35/chaos3mp.qht...
Issue #36 1995 http://www.syntax2000.co.uk/issues/36/chaos4.sol.txt
Issue #43 1996 http://www.syntax2000.co.uk/issues/43/varhints.qht...