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I recently finished playing Zanzarah: The Hidden
Portal, and let me tell you
it was a blast. It's a very odd game- think Pokemon meets The Longest Journey-
but the graphics and sound provide a convincing, immersive atmosphere that I'd
never experienced before.
The game world of Zanzarah is a huge and complicated, and the 32-page manual
that comes with the game only tells you a fraction of what you need to know.
Well I'm here to help. Following is some information that should give you an
idea about what you need to do get to the end without spoiling the game for you.
Note: I assume that you've already read through the game's instruction
manual, so I don't repeat any information here that you can read there.
Shopping For Spells
Every magic merchant offers selections from a different set of spells. No
single merchant sells spells for every kind of fairy. Here's a list of who sells
what:
| Location |
Types of Spells |
| Tiralin magic shop |
Nature, Stone, Water, Water/Nature hybrid |
| Dunmore shop |
Psi, Water |
| Catacombs |
Chaos, Ice |
| Realm of the Clouds (outdoors) |
Air, Light |
| Realm of the Clouds (indoors) |
Light |
| Monagham shop |
Fire, Psi |
| Shadow Realm |
Chaos, Dark, Fire, Ice |
Buying Other Items
You can purchase and trade for other items in the game, but the costs vary
depending on where you go, and not everyone accepts the same form of payment.
| Endeva Shopkeeper
Denomination: Coins
Notes: This elf won't be able to sell you anything until you help
her out. |
| Item for sale |
Cost in coins |
| Small healing potion |
5 |
| Medium healing potion |
10 |
| Big healing potion |
20 |
| Healing herbs |
15 |
| Mana potion |
30 |
| Tiralin
Denomination: Coins
Note: She will sell you the Dunmore Rune for 5 crystals. She'll
sell you other items in exchange for coins, though. |
| Item for sale |
Cost in coins |
| Small healing potion |
5 |
| Medium healing potion |
10 |
| Big healing potion |
20 |
| Healing herbs |
20 |
| Medicine |
25 |
| Tiralin Fairy Sphere Seller
Denomination: Coins |
| Item for sale |
Cost in coins |
| Silver sphere |
60 |
| Gold sphere |
150 |
| Crystal sphere |
300 |
| Tiralin Dwarf Money Changer
Denomination: Coins and Crystals
Notes: This dwarf charges a bit of a tax for his services,
depending on what you want. |
| Item for trade |
Cost in coins/crystals |
| 1 crystal |
10 coins |
| 5 coins |
1 crystal |
| Tiralin Tavern Keeper
Denomination: Spheres
Notes: Most of her items are overpriced, considering that a silver
sphere is worth only 60 coins to the Tiralin Fairy Sphere Seller. (Plus,
the moulding magic is a waste of your money in any denomination.) |
| Item for trade |
Cost in spheres |
| Gold sphere |
3 (180 coins) |
| Crystal sphere |
5 (300 coins) |
| Garlic atomizer |
1 (60 coins) |
| Moulding magic |
1 (60 coins) |
| Tiralin Elf (the guy with a Pixie loose in
his basement)
Denomination: Coins |
| Item for sale |
Cost in coins |
| Golden carrot |
250 |
| Moulding magic |
40 |
| Garlic atomizer |
40 |
| Mana potion |
20 |
| Dunmore Swamp Goblin (in the shop)
Denomination: Coins
Note: He has the best deals on some of his items. This is the place
to shop for healing herbs and big healing potions, and the garlic
atomizer. |
| Item for sale |
Cost in coins |
| Small healing potion |
5 |
| Medium healing potion |
10 |
| Big healing potion |
15 |
| Healing herbs |
15 |
| Garlic atomizer |
30 |
| Monagham Dwarf (in the shop)
Denomination: Crystals
Note: Except for the very affordable mana potion, there's nothing
special about the prices here when you consider that you can get 5 coins
in exchange for 1 crystal from the money changer in Tiralin. |
| Item for sale |
Cost in crystals |
| Medium healing potion |
3 (15 coins) |
| Big healing potion |
4 (20 coins) |
| Mana potion |
3 (15 coins) |
| Medicine |
5 (25 coins) |
| Moulding magic |
4 (20 coins) |
Training Your Fairies
By the end of the game, you will need to have at least 3 or 4 level 59
fairies in your deck in order to beat your foes. Here are some things you can do
to rapidly beef up your fairies to get them ready for the final battle:
 | Fairies don't have to actually fight in order to gain experience points in
battles- they just have to make an appearance. After a victory,
experience points are divided evenly between all surviving fairies. So, if
you have a really weak fairy you're trying to train, make her the first one
in your deck. Begin the battle with her, and then immediately switch to a
fairy with more fire power who can better dispatch the enemy. Both of your
fairies will benefit equally from the fight. (Note that fairies who reach
15,000 experience points can't gain any more after that, so they are the
exception to this rule.) |
| If you can afford it, use the Dunmore trainer. It costs you 60 coins per
fight, but he has two fairies, and they're tougher than the one that belongs
to the Endeva trainer, which means means more experience points. |
| The number of experience points required to reach the next level increases
with every experience level. At first your fairies will reach a new level
every time they win a fight, but once it starts taking longer, you should
start using golden carrots. They're expensive, but once you start pushing
the higher levels they're worth every coin, by gum. (Plus, if you use the
gold cheat, the carrots are virtually free!) When I needed to build up my
deck fast, I would give a golden carrot to every fairy who was more than 30
points away from reaching the next level. I'd start a fight with the Dunmore
trainer and make sure that every one of my fairies at least got a chance to
flap their wings a bit during the mayhem. I spent maybe 3 or 4 game playing
sessions doing nothing but that and it really paid off. |
| A defeated fairy gets no experience points. Don't let a fairy die just
because you're waiting for the next one to come out. Always try to bail them
out before they receive a death blow. |
| Replenish mana during training, as needed. Your fairy is rewarded with
mana each time she advances to a new experience level, but it's not always
enough to finish the next round. And you never want to get into a situation
where fairies have to start draining life energy in order to finish a fight. |
| Don't use fairies with 15,000 experience points in fights unless you have
to. Once a fairy gains 15,000 experience points (level 59 and sometimes 60),
she can't gain any more, and employing her in a fight will just steal
experience away from your other fairies who are still developing. During the
fights near the end of the game, you'll need every fairy in your deck- but
until that time, let your inexperienced fairies learn. |
| After your fairies are completely trained and can't gain any more
experience points. Fighting random fairies who attack you in the woods or
wherever are just a waste of time. Keep a ton of garlic atomizers on hand to
assist in shooing them. |
Winning Fairy Fights
| As a rule of thumb, you should bail a fairy out of a fight before
it looks like she needs it. Your foes have no problem getting a few good
shots in while you're busy paging down to select the next fairy to send out,
and some of the fairies you fight near the end of the game can pack a super
punch. |
| Get the most out of every shot. Each shot you fire takes away one
offensive mana point for that spell. You may as well get your money's worth
and fire full-strength salvos instead of wimpy half-hearted ones. Charge up
the spell until you hear the big drum hit and then let 'er rip. After you
hear the sound, don't hold the spell for more than two seconds or it'll
injure your own fairy- just shoot it and start charging up another. Since
you never want to get caught in this situation where you have to waste a
fully-charged spell, you should try approach your opponent before you're
completely charged up. |
| If you fire a fully-charged shot at a fairy and you see the
"Ineffective" message, hit that middle mouse button and switch to
your backup spells. If you get the same results, switch to a different kind
of fairy. |
| Never forget about those backup spells- the ones you buy from magic
merchants are usually better than the ones your captured fairies come with. |
| Be careful what you do after a victory. You usually have a few seconds to
collect coins after beating your opponents before the experience points get
tallied up. It is still possible at this point for you to die by falling off
of the fighting stage, or to flee by flying into the light. If either of
these things happen before the fanfare begins, you will lose the fight and
forfeit your points! |
| Keep moving. Use your jump abilities often to avoid being hit. Use your
training sessions to practice difficult moves. It's sometimes tempting to
just tail a powerful enemy really doggedly and just fire away as soon as
you're charged, but you can sustain a lot of unnecessary damage doing that,
when you could be hiding just around a corner or just behind a wall waiting
to pounce. |
| If your aim is to capture a fairy, don't use your most powerful fairies to
beat them down. Eventually you'll have fairies who can kill an aggressor
with a single shot, which will prevent you from capturing the little bugger.
Also, once the "Capture The Fairy" message comes up, stop firing
and switch to the fastest fairy in the deck (who still has some hit points
left) to swoop in and grab the fairy before she flees. Even though the
fight's over in your eyes at this point, your opponent doesn't feel the same
way, and she will keep firing at you til she's taken- dead or alive. |
| Replenish the mana and life energy of your fairies at all times. You never
know what's going to jump out and fight you. Whenever your fairy reaches
another skill level her health is restored and she gets some (but not always
all) mana restored. |
Cheating
There are some things you can do to make life a little easier. I used the
gold cheat to buy a bunch of golden carrots to assist in training. I actually
didn't use any of the others. Don't read this section if you don't want to be
tempted!
Here are some codes that you can type at any time during the game (except
during fights or when a menu is open), and what they do. I have heard that the
health one works during fighting, but I never tried it myself.
| Code |
Effect |
| gold |
Gives you 1,000 gold coins |
| crystal |
Gives you 500 crystals |
| health |
Completely heals all fairies in your deck |
| deckon |
Allows you to alter your deck without having to go to London |
Also, I have read about a "console" cheat that supposedly lets you
instantly win fights and obtain special objects. I know that this cheat
definitely does not work on my version of the game, which says Ver. 1.010,
Release, German when it starts up. (Which is weird because my game was all in
English.) You can find information about this particular cheat around the web.
Building The Perfect Deck
During the final fights of the game, you can use any set of fairies you like.
But in order to reach the end, you will have to find (or create) the following
fairies at one point or another in your quest:
- Stone fairy (any kind)
- Nature fairy (any kind)
- Air fairy (any kind)
- Suane (light fairy)
- Segbuzz (chaos fairy)
- Psi fairy (any kind)
- Fire fairy (any kind)
- Pix (happens to be a fire fairy)
More Information
Here are some good places to look for more help and information on Zanzarah:
The Hidden Portal:
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