Talk to the right guard this time, and answer No-Yes-No-No for a small event.
The controls for this game are fairly straightforward:
0.1 (April 5 2010) – Main walkthrough complete through Forest Temple.
0.2 (April 7 2010) – Main walkthrough complete through Desert Temple, started a map and special signboard section.
Some enemies will have a crown over their head at random. These enemies are faster than their normal counterparts, and often times much more dangerous. Be careful around them, and if too many spawn in an area try exiting it and coming back, as they re-spawn at random.
0.7 (April 19, 2010) – Completed the swords section and briefly outlined key items and event checklist sections.
R1 is the guard button, which makes you use the shield.
L1 is the map button, and bring up the world map. In temples it will instead bring up the temple map.
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After a small inspirational speech, you are once again on the main field. As before, we could head straight to the next temple, but there are various useful and optional things available. Also, some things from now on require a fair amount of money, so at this point it is worth mentioning a decent early-game grinding spot. If you head east from the castle, you will soon reach a long bridge. If you cross it to the right and change screens and come back, you can get the Octons to respawn every time. Wait for them to spawn close to the bridge and then swing at them. It helps immensely if youve upgraded your swords strength and length somewhat. The Octons drop silver coins and occasionally gold ones as well. Also, I recommend sticking with the Ancient Sword until after the Desert Temple (although you probably have no other swords yet).
Note: For a map of this or any other temple, check out Neslibs work in theSupplementary Temple Mapssection.
The Start button pauses the game. From the pause menu you can save, load, take snapshots, view your bestiary, and tweak settings such as camera style and text speed.
Now go north and then east, using your lastKey. There are 3 movable blocks here. Push the left and right ones up, and then push the middle one sideways and head north. The stone in the northeast corner will give deliver a cryptic message, but it translates to kill all enemies in the room and youll earn aSmall Block. Hit the 3 wall switches to open the door and proceed west. Continue north, and kill all enemies to open the door and go west. Hit the floor switch in the northeast corner to activate a portal to the temple entrance.
Key items are items that you receive from various sidequests and events. They arent usable in any way, but they do show up in your Key Items list which is on one of the menus when you press the menu button. They dont do anything practical in it of themselves, but some events do lead to rewards such as swords or upgrades. And before you decide to ignore useless events, consider that one of the games most powerful swords requires you to have 100% event completion to obtain. See theKey Itemssection for details.
Since most swords dont give you enough upgrade points to max them out, you often have to prioritize what matters. In general, the most important attribute is pierce. If your sword has the ability to add pierce, it should be the first thing you do, due to how useful it is for your sword to be able to pass through obstacles and walls. Next would be spin, although most swords that can spin come with the ability from the start. Next you probably want to focus on strength and length. Width is not as important on a sword that can spin, and beam is practically useless. Actually, beam can work against you when youre trying to selectively attack enemies. Swords with a special feature are generally worth upgrading in that category first, most notably the Wing Sword which increases your speed. Make sure to max out a special ability like that before anything else on that particular sword, as those swords will be outclassed as actual weapons by other swords anyways.
0.4 (April 12, 2010) – Main walkthrough complete up until the Dark Tower. Some English translations modified.
However, there are two items of interest in that you can get by straying from the path. Go Up, Right, Up, Left, and Left. Now instead of going Down, go Up. A treasure chest in the northwest corner of the area contains aSmall Block. From here, head down 3 times. A chest at the south end contains aMagic Up. Now resume the intended route by heading Up, Left, and Up. Youll see an old man hanging out by some bushes. If you talk to him youll find out hes Indigo, the second sage. He fled from the monster-infested temple. Talk to him if you wish and then go north and enter the Forest Temple.
Square is the dash button that you use to dash once you obtain Dash Boots (or Miracle Boots).
3D Dot Game Heroes FAQ/Walkthrough by EgHeadFool aka Hapkido
Open the treasure chest in house 4 to collect an
Head east and walk into the middle of the room. Note the other new trap introduced here. Watch out for similar spike traps in future rooms and dungeons. Note that if you dont move at all upon entering a room, you are not technically in it yet, and thus traps wont activate and enemies cant hurt you. If the enemy positions are annoying, you can leave the room and come back and see if they respawn in a more favorable location. Either way, head east.
1.9 (May 26, 2010) – Added a 7th level of Block Defense Plus, minor typo fixes.
After the intro, you are immediately thrust into a flashback/dream. You control the hero of legend. Your goal is to place your sword for safekeeping now that evil is gone. You start in front of Dotnia Castle. Head east one screen and then north across the small bridge. Dont worry about enemies or money. You dont keep any of the coins you collect here and you cant take damage. Continue north into the Sacred Forest and follow the path around and north again. A cutscene ensues.
Walk in front of the woman in the center and youll find
As Eelagon gets faster, he becomes harder to dodge. Your shield will protect you from Eelagon himself, just not his projectiles. Once all of his segments are gone, you will need to strike his head several times to finish him off. You no longer need to wait for him to glow, so hack away.
0.5 (April 14, 2010) – Main walkthrough complete. Spelunker mode section added. Minigames section in progress.
It doesnt always take the form of a sword, but this is your weapon. There are 24 different swords in the game, each with its own attributes. Depending on the sword, you can upgrade it in seven stats: strength, length, width, spin, beam, pierce, and special. Pierce makes your sword go through obstacles and walls, beam makes your sword fire projectiles, and special varies by sword (for those that have it to begin with). Spin makes it so that you can rotate your sword after striking, effectively sweeping it in an arc. Note that all upgrades you apply to a sword require you to be at full health to take effect. Different swords will be better in different situations, but in general you will probably be sticking mainly to a single sword for large portions of the game at a time. For in-depth information, see theSwordssection.
If youre hurt, break the pots to try to get some health. If that isnt enough, you might consider warping to the start and exiting the temple to refill, although the boss battle isnt terribly difficult. When youre ready, use the Boss Key to open the boss door.
The man in the shop next to the blacksmith will let you play Dash Circuit (Block Circuit). Beat it in under 25 seconds for 100 gol, and under 20 seconds for a
Event: Talk to the man at the inn and hell tell you he wants to make a 3D mech game. This is the first step of a game-long event and
Enter house 1 at the north end of the village and talk to the man inside, Dic. Answer Yes and he will give you the
I originally wrote this guide based on the Japanese version of the game. All ambiguous names and items were Romanized or translated by me. I believe I have fixed all the translations with the English release, but it should still be easy to follow and understand even if some names are off. I still appreciate any corrections you happen to notice. This applies not only to translations but also to accuracy of information, typos, or any other mistakes. Please email me at the address listed above if you have any input!
Exit the cave and head west then north. Youll come to Wardnas House. Inside, the first man on your left is obsessed with signboards. He calls himself a Sign Master. If you answer yes to his questions, hell ask you to find all of the signboards hes put up around the world map. There are 10 in total. If you find 5 of them hell give you aLife Shardand if you find all 10 hell give you aMagic Up. More importantly, it allows you to get the Super Key, which will open all the colored doors found throughout the game (red, blue and green), instead of having to buy colored keys. You cant reach most of the signs until beating the Desert Temple, but for a list of them see theSpecial Signboardssection.
In house 2 youll find a bit of cash in treasure chests. Talk to the old man and hell ask you to kill 10 monsters. Accept and come back after killing 10 Crystal Slimes (at any time from now on), and hell reward you with a
2.4 (June 11, 2010) – Added temple maps with abbreviated strategies under Supplementary Temple Maps. I think the guide is just about done!
Talk to the girl in Raejack who should be somewhere between the potion shop and the inn for the
You know, that thing you use to block. There are a few shields in the game, each better than the last and each replacing the last once you obtain it. You cannot upgrade stats on a shield. For more information, see theShieldssection.
There are a few items that are sold frequently and are occasionally worth purchasing. There are candles and lamps, which illuminate dark rooms. Then there are sleeping bags and magical bags. These will restore all your health or magic and create a restore point on the world map. This can be useful in certain cases, especially in Spelunker mode, although they become completely unnecessary once you purchase the Tent. The Tent restores both health and magic fully, and can be used an infinite number of times on the world map. For those annoying unexpected deaths, you can bring along Wonderdust, which will revive you when you die. Finally there are Wind Wings. These teleport you to a location of your choice and are extremely useful.
disappears once you complete the Grass Temple
2.0 (May 27, 2010) – Added an 8th level of Block Defense Plus, minor adjustments.
Note: For a map of this or any other temple, check out Neslibs work in theSupplementary Temple Mapssection.
There are 4 Demons Souls parody events in the cave that you can do right now:
Talk to the guy near Dics house where you got the Dash Boots to get the
The main walkthrough is written with the goal of obtaining a 100% clear game. If you follow it, you should be able to achieve this. In addition, Ive included sections covering the world map and all other specific topics of interest. The organized tables, details, and clickable links to specific sections should make finding any piece of information easy and intuitive. I hope you find the guide useful!
0.75 (April 20, 2010) – Completed the shields and small blocks section, and corrected some typos.
This game has 3 special types of colored locks (red, blue, and green) in temples and a few other places. The only way to open them is by buying a key of the corresponding color for 1000 gol at Jims Shack (or by finding one in one of the later temples). Unless, that is, you have the Super Key, which opens them all and eliminates the need. For information about the Super Key, see theSpecial Signboardssection.
The first thing to note is that with your current shield, you cannot block his projectiles. Dodge them whenever he shoots. Wait for Eelagon to enter the room and then run up to his tail. His last segment should be glowing, meaning you can destroy it. It should only take one hit. Every time you destroy a segment, he gets faster, so be careful not to run into him. Also, any time you hit a non-glowing segment, Eelagon will let loose a barrage of projectiles in all directions, so be careful. You will have to wait a few seconds after destroying a segment before the next one begins to glow, so simply avoid him during that period. Also note that each segment you destroy will yield an apple, so its hard to die.
Technically you can head straight to the first temple already, but there are several useful things to do first. To begin with, it should be noted that this is where you do all your weapon upgrading. The blacksmith is the house with the anvil sign in front of it, and as long as you have the cash you can go right ahead and start upgrading. You dont need to do any of that just yet, but if you want some general advice you can read my briefSword Upgrading Tips. These are the things I recommend doing right now:
Finally, talk to the castle guard again and hell reward you with a
Lots of people dont seem to realize that in this game there are ledges you can hop down. The easiest example is the cliff just south of Dotnia Castle. There are two different spots here where you can hop down below by jumping off the ledge. These spots are marked by different texturing and/or roughness. Learn to spot them, because they are required for lots of optional things as well as to reach at least one of the games temples.
3D Dot Game Heroes Guides and FAQs
2.3 (June 10, 2010) – Added a Block Defense Plus glitch as well as an awesome world map diagram someone sent me. Temple maps coming soon!
Circle is the item button, which uses a secondary item. You can press L2 and R2 to cycle through secondary items without selecting them from the item menu.
After watching Lees big failure to impress you in her knowledge of switches, head east and use Parallax. It will reveal which switches to depress. Go back to the first room and push the statues over the required switches. The two switches you can ignore are the top-left and middle-right ones. Proceed north and youll encounter the first dark room in the game. If you have a candle or a lamp with you, use that to provide some light. Youre likely to have found one in a pot or plant by now. Otherwise dont worry, the room just contains a couple of harmless Red Slimes. In general, even if a temple room is dark, you can look at your map and see the layout of the room. Pits you can fall into will show up on that. If you find yourself constantly without candles you can always buy some at a shop, but in general you can find them within temples.
. This is the first of two Dash Circuit minigames. See theDash Circuitsection for details.
Event: Talk to the Blue Slime in front of house 2 and hell tell you his dream of becoming human.
Anyways, traverse the room and head north into the next one. Note the cracked wall to the west. That means the wall can be bombed (Zelda fans are going duh), but you dont have bombs yet. Also note the two contraptions on the north wall. They are traps that will shoot arrows at you when you pass in front of them. Be sure to look for them from now on to avoid taking unnecessary damage. You can walk by with your Iron Shield out and block the arrows as you pass, but its really not necessary in this case.
2.2 (June 3, 2010) – Finished Block Defense Plus.
Dashing seems like a faster way to get around at first, but every time you hit a wall it causes you to crash and stall for a moment, which is annoying. This is greatly reduced if your sword has pierce, because then it will not hit the wall left and right. In Spelunker mode the time penalty for hitting a wall is even worse, but it does make you invincible for a few frames in that mode. You also accelerate every time you turn, which is what makes the Dash Circuit so difficult.
Walk around in front of the man by the pit and a message will pop saying Its safe here.
Talk to the woman near the potion shop in Raejack and shell give you the
Answer Yes to the king to receive theSwordandShield. Exit the throne room and take either staircase downstairs to the first floor and exit the castle. Retrace your steps to the Sacred Forest. Now you have health to worry about, so be sure to take care of any Killer Rabbits and Evil Trees in your way. When you reach the top, you will have to fight two Guardians. They stomp around in a roughly circular motion and should be fairly easy to avoid. After 2 hits they will start making bigger leaps, so look at their shadow and follow them to their landing spot to deliver the final blow. 3 hits to each is enough. Once the Guardians are gone, continue north and retrieve theAncient Swordfrom the pedestal, which will automatically equip. The fairyLeewill also join you. Return to the castle and talk to the king again. Answer Yes and then exit the castle. Go west to Raejack Village.
This is a time-sensitive event. It disappears after clearing the Desert Temple.
Love Letter event sequence (must be done in order):
Open the door to the west by hitting the wall switch with your Boomerang. Watch out for the arrow traps. Head west and then north, watching out for traps again (you might find your shield useful). Kill all the enemies in the room to earn a chest containing 100 gol. Exit south and then west. The four tiles in this room are of the same material as the big slabs from before, and using Parallax will reveal which switches to depress. Push the two east statues onto the two west switches to open the door and head south.
When you start a new game and every time you load up a save, you can pick which character you want to play as. This is not just for aesthetics. The first difference to note is between genders. Male characters get an automatic +1 strength boost on all swords, and female characters get an automatic reduction in spell casting cost by 1 magic vial. In addition to this, the characters vary in terms of their skill at magic and their stamina. High stamina characters will have extra health whereas high magic characters will have extra magic vials. Choose a character suited to your play style. In general, being stronger and having more health is more important, unless you are going to heavily use magic for a specific situation.
In 3D Dot Game Heroes, any sword that has the spin attribute can be rotated after pressing the action button to attack. This means that once the sword is already out in front of you, you can sweep it in an arc and hit things all around you. If you are a Zelda fan, most likely youll instinctively walk right up to an enemy and then attack it. However, youll quickly learn that in this game that is not the safest way to attack. It is much more effective to position yourself diagonally opposite the enemy, where it cannot easily hit you, and then extend your sword and rotate it in the direction of the enemy, hitting it with the sweep. This is also extremely effective for hitting multiple enemies at once.
Event: In house 3 there is a young man trying to decide who to marry. Talk to him and help him decide (it doesnt matter who you pick).
1.2 (May 13, 2010) – Corrected the naming for many more swords, key items, and trophies. Fixed a few assorted minor mistakes.
The basic unit of currency in Dotnia. It drops in the form of coins, of which there are three varieties. Bronze coins are worth 1 gol, silver coins are worth 10 gol, and gold coins are worth 100 gold. The maximum you can hold is 9999, and there is no way to upgrade your wallet.
2.7 (November 30, 2010) – Fixed and updated several minor things within the last few weeks, so Im giving it a new version number.
Small Blocks are traded to King Block in areaE2for swords. See theSmall Blockssection for details.
1.8 (May 25, 2010) – Added another level of Block Defense Plus. Up to 6 now!
When hes finished, collect the coins and theLife Upand head north. A cutscene ensues, in which you meet the first sage, Indy, and receive theYellow Orb. Indy will also give you the magic spellParallax, and a few vials of magic to start you off. Then head south, warp to the temple entrance, and exit.
Head west from the Grass Temple. If you immediately go north, you will come to a staircase leading to some woods. Instead of following them, go west and youll see a cave. The old lady inside is willing toupgrade your quiverfor 200 gol. She can actually do this 3 times, increasing your arrow limit to 30, 60 and finally 99. Youll never need to have 99 arrows with you, but you should definitely upgrade it at least to 30 and maybe consider 60. You can always come back another time if you dont have the gol or dont feel like spending it just yet.
This is another dark room. Use a candle and notice the three movable blocks at the top. Ignore the west one (which is one square above the other two) and push the middle one down and then the east one right. Claim theTemple Mapfrom the chest in the center of the room. If you dont have a candle, ignore this room for now until you find a candle (or not, since you dont really need a map if youre following a FAQ). In any case, head west, then kill all the enemies to open the doors (while watching out for traps) and head south.
There are two varieties of apple: red and green. Red apples will recover one point of health each, whereas green apples recover one vial of magic each.
To reach the chest, push the southeast block
This next room is dark and pretty annoying if you dont have anything to illuminate it with. The door shuts behind you and you must kill all enemies in the room to open it. You can check your map for the block arrangement in the room in case you need to navigate it blind. Your sword will also illuminate your surroundings slightly, so that helps. When all the enemies are dead, a chest appears in the southeast corner of the room. Take theKeyfrom it and exit back to the west, then use the key to open the door to the north and go through.
for 100 gol. If you dont have enough, come back later and buy it. It allows you to block basic projectiles like Gobles arrows.
Backtrack a little and go west at your first chance. You will come to some stairs, which you should follow and then head west from there. Keep following the path west in areaA3and youll see a cave to the north called From Cave. This is where the long event unfolds that started when you talked to the man at the Raejack inn who wanted to make a 3D mech game. He will now be in the cave if you talked to him (the top-left man), otherwise the event is gone for good. Talk to him again to continue the event.You must do this before clearing the Desert Temple.After that, you must talk to him after every subsequent temple to complete the event. If you do it right, youll notice more and more people in the cave every time you visit.
2.5 (July 9, 2010) – Fixed a few typos and included some Youtube videos sent to me for Block Defense Plus.
Walk next to the left-most standing man and a message will pop up saying Im in trouble! Please recommend this message! Say yes.
0.8 (April 21, 2010) – Completed the Life Shards, magic ups, and world map area details sections.
. You can now dash with the Square button.
2.6 (September 24, 2010) – Added changes due to the new 1.01 patch! Also fixed an incorrect sword stat.
0.6 (April 16, 2010) – Completed the minigame section as well as the trophies section.
Talk to the left guard in front of the castle and hell give you the
1.5 (May 18, 2010) – Added strategy and videos for Dash Circuit as well as strategy and a video for a quick Small Block farming level of Block Defense Plus. Other minor corrections.
Potions will restore different amounts and combinations of health and magic. They require empty bottles to store in. There are a total of 4 empty bottles in the game. See theEmpty Bottlessection for details.
1.0 (May 3, 2010) – Read through the guide and proofread, tweaked, and added a bit.
1.4 (May 17, 2010) – Updated information about booking Onyx, the Moon Sword, Spelunker mode, and various small mistakes/improvements.
1.1 (May 12, 2010) – Naming overhaul commenced. Place names, major item names, character names, and enemy names should be correct. Corrected the first few trophies and a few swords and Key Items. New Game+ info added. More to come.
Head east and north. The doors will close until you kill all the enemies in the room. Claim theTemple Mapfrom the treasure chest in the center of the room before exiting west. Use your key and head north. The blocks in the center of the room will shoot at you. Even with an Iron Shield, they are unblockable, so just avoid getting hit and go east. In the next room, walk up to the two red wall switches and depress them with your body. Push the movable block in the northwest corner to claim theBoomerangfrom the chest that appears. Head north and use the Boomerang to hit the wall switch. Take theKeyand the 10 gol from the other chest. The Boomerang is useful not only for hitting switches but also because hitting enemies with it will stun them momentarily, after which you can attack and re-stun them.
Character Battle X is coming soon, fill out your bracket today!
Examine the corpse on the left and receive the
0.3 (April 8, 2010) – Main walkthrough complete through Aqua Temple, filled in the world map and signboard details.
X is the action button. It is used to open doors, talk, swing the sword, etc.
There is also a cave at the southeast end of the village with a wishing well. For 20 gol you will receive a random benefit, which can range from 1 gol to various items. There are a few wishing wells throughout the world map, and most of them have one unique item that you can obtain at random. This particular wishing well has a chance of giving you aLife Shard. However, it could take thousands of gol before you get it, so now is definitely not the time.
1.6 (May 21, 2010) – Added strategies for 4 more Block Defense Plus levels; fixed/added minor things.
2.1 (May 28, 2010) – Added a 9th level of Block Defense Plus. Only one left (strategies welcome)!
Head northeast from Wardnas House and youll come to the Forest of no Return. Sound familiar? Anyway, this is your first chance to test out Parallax. If you got curious and tried to use it, you probably noticed the game wouldnt let you. In fact it can only be used where there is a surface such as the big slate on the first screen of the Forest of no Return. Using the spell will reveal the writing on the slate. What it shows you is the path to the Forest Temple. If you stray from the path, you end up back at the start of the forest. The full path isUp, Right, Up, Left, Left, Down, Left, Up, Up.
The shop next to the blacksmith sells an
Once youre ready, exit the village to the west. As soon as you do, head north and open the treasure chest for aSmall Block. Then head west and enter the Grass Temple (you cant miss it, but temples are marked on your map if you press the map button). If you didnt talk to the king, guards will be blocking the entrance.
Now you have to backtrack to the room near the start of the level where you got your first key (northeast of the temple entrance). You can now use the boomerang to hit the switch on the east wall and open the door. Go through, and then head east again. Kill all the enemies for anotherKey. Go west twice (using a key). Carefully avoid the projectiles and go north again. Pressing all 4 switches will earn you theBoss Key. There is a locked door to the north, beyond which there is aLife Shardbut it requires a Red Key, which isnt obtainable at this time, so ignore it for now and return south and then east.
1.3 (May 14, 2010) – Finished correcting the names for swords and key items. Trophies should also be pretty much done. Fixed several mistakes and added extra information. I also finished following my own guide, confirming that it will result in a 100% file!
1.7 (May 24, 2010) – Added a video for Block Defense Plus. Added a Miscellanea section which includes shops, bottles, and info about the Anchor Rod. Fixed a few minor mistakes/typos.
If youd like to use your browsers search function to find something across the entire guide, please scroll to the very bottom of the page and select one of the options where it says View as a single printable page. Otherwise youll only be able to search on the current page of the formatted FAQ.
Triangle is the menu button, which opens up the item menu. Using R1 and L1 you can switch to the status screen and the sword screen.
In the starting room, step on the red switch to open the door. Head north and then east and retrieve theKeyfrom the chest. Be sure to kill the enemies in your way. Then head west twice and use your key to open the locked door. Head west again. Lee will mention that some of the blocks are different. If you look at the middle two on the bottom, the pattern on them is different. It looks like a D-pad instead of like a Lego block. In this game, that denotes that the block can be pushed. Push the rightmost movable block up two spaces and claim anotherKeyfrom the chest.
Magic containers will restore one vial of magic.
0.9 (April 26, 2010) – Completed the event items, event checklist, and bestiary sections. Initial guide finished!