Unlike modern RPGs, The Five Ordeals does not hold your hand. If you enter with a poorly balanced party, you will not pass the first floor.
The Golden Rule: Always have a full party of 6 characters. Solo runs are for challenge streamers only.
Recommended Starting Party:
Alternate: Swap a Fighter for a Bishop to identify items automatically, but beware – Bishops level slower.
Stat Priority:
Final Tips and Strategies
Conclusion
Wizardry: The Five Ordeals is a challenging and rewarding game that requires strategic thinking and character management. By following this walkthrough, you'll be well on your way to completing the game's five ordeal challenges and saving the world from the dark sorcerer, Malyster. Good luck, brave wizard!
Mastering Wizardry: The Five Ordeals requires more than just high stats; it demands tactical patience and a deep understanding of classic dungeon-crawling mechanics. This walkthrough provides the essential strategies for party creation, early-game survival, and navigating the default scenarios included in the Steam and Switch versions. 1. Essential Character Creation and Party Composition
For a balanced start, the "standard" party remains the most effective for beginners and veterans alike.
Front Row: 3 High-HP melee fighters (Fighters, Samurai, or Lords).
Back Row: 1 Thief (for chest traps), 1 Priest (for healing and buffs), and 1 Mage (for crowd control). Pro Tips:
Avoid Early Bishops: While great for identifying items, Bishops level up and learn spells significantly slower than pure Mages or Priests. It is better to use a dedicated Mage/Priest and class-change them later or keep a "town Bishop" for free identification.
Bonus Points: Do not obsess over rolling 20+ bonus points. Tactical use of spells like Sleep is far more vital for survival than a few extra points in Strength or Agility. 2. General Gameplay Strategy
Aggressive Spellcasting: In early levels, use your Mage’s Sleep and the Priest’s Charm spells liberally. If you encounter a monster you don't recognize, it can likely kill you quickly—neutralize it immediately.
Short Excursions: Do not push deep into a dungeon on your first trip. Return to town frequently to rest, level up, and identify gear.
Saving Throws and Accuracy: Character level is a hidden modifier for nearly every important roll, including saving throws against instant death and your chance to hit. If you are missing often, you simply 3. Walkthrough: The Five Ordeals Default Scenarios wizardry the five ordeals walkthrough
The game features five distinct scenarios, each with its own flavor and difficulty curve. Wizardry: The Five Ordeals Part 1
Wizardry: The Five Ordeals is a "scenario-based" dungeon crawler. Because it includes multiple official scenarios and thousands of user-made ones, there isn't one single walkthrough. However, for the base game (The Five Ordeals), 🛡️ Party Composition Essentials
You need a balanced front and back row to survive the early "difficulty spikes."
Front Row: 2 Warriors, 1 Thief (Essential for disarming chest traps).
Back Row: 1 Priest (Healing/Buffs), 1 Mage (Crowd Control), 1 Bishop (Identifying items for free).
Tip: Don't start with "Elite" classes (Lord/Ninja/Samurai). Their XP requirements are too high for level 1. 🗺️ Early Game Survival (Floor 1)
The "Elevator" Method: Fight near the stairs. If you take damage or run out of MP, go back to town immediately.
Mapping: If playing the Steam version, use the Auto-Map feature. If playing classic/hardcore, always keep the DUMAPIC (Mage Level 1) spell ready to find your coordinates.
Identify Traps: Never open a chest without a Thief or the CALFO (Priest) spell. Exploding chests kill entire parties. 🪄 Key Spells to Master Spell Name KATINO Mage Lvl 1 Puts enemies to sleep. Essential for large groups. DIOS Priest Lvl 1 Basic heal. Always keep 2-3 casts in reserve. MONTINO Priest Lvl 2
Silences enemy casters. Stops them from wiping you with fireballs. MAHALBA Mage Lvl 3 First major AOE damage spell. Use for "level grinding." 🗝️ Common "Ordeal" Progression Most scenarios follow a specific loop:
Level 1-3: Grind near the entrance until you have enough gold for better armor.
The Key Item: Every floor has a "Key" or "Pass" (often guarded by a fixed encounter/boss).
The Elevator: Once you find the elevator or shortcut, use it to bypass easy floors to reach your current objective. 💡 Pro-Tips for "The Five Ordeals"
Permadeath is Real: If a character dies and you fail the resurrection at the Temple, they are GONE (Ash > Lost). Save often if you aren't playing Iron Man.
Bishop Identifying: Put a Bishop in your party (or keep one at the Tavern). Identify items yourself to save thousands of Gold.
The "Reset" Button: If a combat turn goes horribly wrong, you can often "Quit to Title" before the turn ends to reload your last save. Unlike modern RPGs, The Five Ordeals does not
Which specific scenario within the game are you currently stuck on? I can give you the exact coordinates for keys or bosses if I know the name.
Since Wizardry: The Five Ordeals (released in Japan as Wizardry: Gouhou no Kenkyuusha) is a game that relies heavily on procedural generation and player-created scenarios, a single linear "walkthrough" is impossible. The game is a sandbox engine allowing users to create and play custom dungeons.
However, the vast majority of players play the Official Scenarios included with the game.
Below is a comprehensive guide to the Basics and a Walkthrough for the first official scenario, which serves as the game's primary tutorial and "main" story.
Background
Starting advice
General dungeon tactics
The Five Ordeals overview (structure and strategy)
Boss fights and endgame
Leveling, equipment, and resources
Useful spells and skills (general recommendations)
Troubleshooting common problems
Ending and tips
If you want, I can produce:
Surviving the Maze: A Guide to Wizardry: The Five Ordeals Wizardry: The Five Ordeals
requires a blend of old-school grit and modern tactical planning. Unlike modern RPGs, this "Wizardry construction set" doesn't hold your hand—it’s a hardcore experience where character death can be permanent and mapping is your only lifeline. ⚔️ Essential Survival Strategies Back Row (Support & Magic):
For those entering the "Ordeals," success depends on your first few hours of gameplay. Aggressive Spellcasting
: In the early game, if you don't recognize a monster, assume it can kill you instantly. Use status spells like
(Cleric Level 2) aggressively; they make early encounters significantly easier. The "Short Excursion" Method
: Don't overextend. Perform quick trips into the dungeon to gain XP and gold, then return to town to recover. Most fights are fixed (behind doors), so your route back is often safer once cleared. Class Planning Avoid the Bishop early
: They identify items well but level up too slowly for combat. It's better to start with a Mage and re-class them into a Bishop later. Stat Requirements
: Be mindful of alignment; Priests cannot be Neutral, and Samurai cannot be Evil. Changing your settings can allow for custom class creation, though starting stats may be lower. The Identification Grind Official Online Manual
to understand how selling unidentified items to the shop works—doing so can actually increase the shop's stock of those items. Steam Community 🗺️ Walking Through the Scenarios
The game includes five default scenarios, each with distinct challenges. Wizardry: The Five Ordeals Part 1
If you enter blindly, you will die. Party composition is 90% of success.
Recommended Starting Party (6 characters):
Stat Tips:
Alignment Matters: Keep your party mostly Good or Neutral. Evil parties struggle with shops and NPCs in this scenario.
| Problem | Solution | | :--- | :--- | | Low on HP | Priest: Dialko (Lv. 3 Group Heal). Never waste single-target heals. | | Petrified ally | Latumapic (Priest Lv. 4) or Stone to Flesh item. | | Cursed equipment | Latumofis doesn't work. Only a Bishop in town can remove curses. | | No map | Mage: Dumapic every 10 steps. | | Boss reflects magic | Use melee weapons with +Hit modifier. Fighters use Power Swing. | | Character dies permanently | Reload. Or use a Resurrection spell (Priest Lv. 7 – Di) which can fail. |
First, one must understand the game’s inherent design philosophy. Unlike modern RPGs that feature glowing waypoints and quest compasses, The Five Ordeals is a "blobber"—a first-person dungeon crawler where movement is grid-based and vision is limited. The dungeons are labyrinthine, filled with one-way doors, spinning tiles, and dark zones that render the map invisible.
A walkthrough for this game immediately distinguishes itself from one for Elden Ring or The Legend of Zelda. Instead of "Go to the golden light," its lexicon is brutalist: "At the four-way intersection, ignore the eastern corridor (it leads to a pit trap that drops you to B2). Take the north passage, but cast 'MAPOR' (the map spell) first, as there is a dark zone in the next three tiles."
The walkthrough becomes a procedural manual. It does not assume player intuition; it assumes the game is actively lying to you. Every step is a negotiation. The author of the walkthrough must adopt the persona of a combat engineer clearing a minefield, noting not just where to go, but where not to step.
Location: South-west.
Gimmick: Underwater sections – you must cast the spell Vair (Mage Lv. 3) to breathe. Without it, you drown in 10 steps.
Puzzle: A flooded room with levers. Pull levers in order: Left, Right, Middle. Drain water, then fight the boss.
Boss: Levian (Sea Serpent)