Player’s Guide

Those Magnificent Men
Flying isn’t easy, but then you already know that. There isn’t any real secret to it, and a few enthusiastic words from us aren’t going to make the task in hand less painful, but a lot can be gained from practice! Levels 1-10 are specifically designed as practice levels, no matter how difficult they seem at first. Focusing on various skills and features, these initial levels allow you to adapt to the enemies, casting spells, handling your carpet and other wizards without too much opposition, in readiness for the major onslaught facing you from level 11 onwards. Make use of the precious time. There are a few tactics you should be honing during these levels:

1) With the mouse acting as your general ‘rudder’ it is all too easy to forget about using the keyboard for direction change as well – don’t! The left and right cursor keys are not only ideal for dodging incoming attacks, they are an excellent addition to turning ‘on a dime’. This follows the same rules as reversing in a car; to turn quickly to the left press the right cursor key and backwards simultaneously or to turn right press the left cursor key and backwards – the results are extremely advantageous.

2) When attacking an opponent’s castle, to avoid getting hit by the archers use the left and right cursor keys to fly sideways around the castle walls, thus avoiding the archers arrows.

3) If you don’t have the Acceleration spell and you are in need of some extra ‘Oompf’ to get you out of a jam, quickly turn 45 degrees to the left and then press the right cursor key and forward together. This manoeuvre will swing you back round to the direction in which you were originally facing and catapult you out of the jam quicker than if you flew in a straight line. (Note: you can reverse the manoeuvre by turning 45 degrees to the right and then pressing the left cursor key together with forward – this has the same effect.)

4) If you are being chased or circumvented by some creature or another, press backwards, and your adversary will appear in front of you as you scream into reverse!

5) Sometimes your opponent will build his castle at the foot of a mountain, which gives you a major advantage. To avoid his Archers use the mountain as cover, emerging at regular intervals to take pot-shots at the castle – this tactic will also cover you from your opponent’s spells if he is shooting at you from within the confines of his castle.

6) If you find that you can’t reach a spell because it is located at the bottom of a steep crater that has too drastic an incline to fly down, you should use the walls of the crater like a ‘Wall of Death’ and spiral gently downwards until you reach the bottom and whatever it was you’re trying to reach. Some craters or chasms, however, are too small to fly down with these or standard tactics. Therefore come to a perfect halt and hover over the opening of the pit, or whatever, and gravity will do its thing by pulling you slowly down to the bottom – to get out, simply fly into one of the walls.

Fly, Be Free!
There is no right or wrong way to play Magic Carpet, you’ve just got to get in there and work out what your carpet is capable of and how the various creatures react to attack (See ‘Dirty Dozen’ section). However, we can point you in the right direction, so here’s a few things to take into consideration:

Collecting Personal Mana
If you’re running low on the old mana front, try possessing as many of the buildings in the townships as you can. The mana collected doesn’t get transported back to your castle but it does bump up your personal count. Surprisingly enough, other wizards tend to ignore collecting mana in this way.

Collecting Mana
Here are a couple more tips for collecting mana:
1) This tip only applies to the levels where there is more than one wizard competing for the level. Sometimes you will reach an impasse where you and other wizards are fighting for one particular pool of mana, constantly clicking on your Acquire spell to turn the mana back to silver. Forget it, you’ll be there all day! Instead let the other wizards get on with it and find yourself another creature to destroy, nothing too fancy mind. As soon as this smaller pool of mana becomes available steam it back to the large pool of mana and start reclaiming – what invariably happens is that the other wizards automatically home in on the new pool, leaving you to claim the big bucks as your own.

2) Sometimes you will find that after collecting an impressive bounty of mana an opposing wizard will hover above his loot waiting for his balloons to arrive. As soon as you start claiming it he automatically claims it back as his own, thus giving your balloons little opportunity to get to the pool. Therefore move out to the edge of the pool and concentrate on claiming just one ball, the other wizard will move and turn it straight back to his own colour. Keep doing this until your balloon arrives and then as he claims it back dash around and acquire all the mana, firing every which way. This way, even though the other wizard is repossessing the mana, your balloon is in the area collecting balls one by one.

Building Castles
Build your castle out in the open, away from walls and mountains and most importantly away from your opponent’s lair. You need space to expand as you get more and more powerful, so think big! Also, remember that you’re a wizard and can build wherever you damn-well please – the Ocean proves to be a good location as you have plenty of room to expand, plus land-based enemies such as riders, skeletons and worms can’t travel over the water and ultimately attack your castle.

Using Your Castle As A Weapon
Bees are real buggers, and no matter how powerful you are, a full scale bee attack is going to cause you numerous problems. However, the construction of your castle can be used as an effective and often devastating defense. Building your castle in the midst of a giant swarm will wipe out many of the blighters in one fell swoop, reaping oodles of mana for you in the process. Your castle may get destroyed if the swarm is particularly huge, but you can always build again and take out yet more of them. This tactic not only works on bees but most creatures, especially those that move in groups. The stronger they are, of course, the more likely the need for you to build a castle time and time again. This tactic also enables your balloons to swoop out of the castle and collect escaping mana extremely quickly, making you powerful very quickly.

Spells
You can’t use a new spell immediately, so you’re going to have to remember what you’ve collected. The best way to do this is to assign your new spells to a specific key position on the keyboard (1-10) as you never know when you’re going to need it and there’s nothing more destructive to your well-being than having to faff around selecting spells in the height of battle!

Attacking Powerful Castles
You will find that, during the latter stages of the game, your opponents build large and extremely powerful castles very quickly. If this is the case, you can confuse creatures and lure them into your opposition’s base and let them destroy it for you. Creatures such as Griffins are good for this purpose. Find a reasonably large group near your enemy’s castle and wade into the group. As soon as you fire they will home in on you, following you wherever you move. Now retreat into the center of the enemy castle firing some more and, thinking the castle’s yours, the Griffins will attack, leaving you free to make a hasty escape. Now, in theory, the Griffins will blast away until the castle crumbles into ruin and once the creatures have dispersed you can return and collect the mana.

Forest Fires
Some creatures, such as worms, like to hide in forests and instead of posing a problem this actually makes your life a lot easier. Simply set fire to the forest and let nature take its course, more often than not wiping out the creatures leaving nothing but mana ready for the taking. Very effective on Skeletons and Archers.

Defending Your Castle
There will come a time when nothing you do is going to save your castle, the enemy hoards are just too strong for you to handle. Drastic situations call for drastic measures and there’s often nothing more you can do than press SHIFT and L together to level your castle altogether! This not only ceases the attack but if you’re quick enough, you can rebuild and trap your enemies in the construction (See ‘Using Your Castle As A Weapon’ section) allowing you to reap the ensuing mana.

The Dirty (Baker’s) Dozen
You’ll meet all manner of unfavorable creatures in Magic Carpet, and it’s not always that easy to defeat them. Here are a few pointers for all you rug-rats…

Apes
These creatures are cumbersome, so you will have enough time to pick them out one by one as they are slow to home in on your position and they attack with great inaccuracy at first. Don’t steam into a group with all guns blazing, keep moving and pick out the stragglers first.

Archers
These guys only attack you if you attack them first, but don’t be too worried because they are slow in responding and have very little resistance to your missiles.

Crabs
Crabs are a real pain in the butt. Although they yield little mana and take an inordinate amount of hits to kill, they can turn into the most malicious creature in the game, spitting more than just fireballs if left to roam. Kill on sight! When they are small, a few, well-aimed fireballs will suffice. However, as they grow you’ll need a combination of fireballs and lightning (remember to attack from behind). When they are full size, though, you’ll need at least a meteor to get rid of them!

Dragons
Dragons are very easy to kill. Approach them and when they home in on you keep slightly in front of them and then slam your carpet into reverse, keeping a constant but safe distance away from them. They will continue to follow you and when they fire, use your left and right cursor keys to dodge their attacks. Emu Riders Again, like the Archers these guys only attack when provoked and have very little resistance but they do move fairly fast.

Genies
Don’t bother with Genies unless you have the Meteor spell, whereby you can blow them out of the sky (if you have a good aim) or at least create a good sized crater beneath them. Try destroying your castle if they’re proving to be a real pain (See ‘Using Your Castle As A Weapon’ section), then rebuild it to collect a completely stupid amount of mana.

Griffins
Griffins won’t attack first but when they do enter into combat, they prove to be very dangerous. Lightning works very well on Griffins as they manage to dodge most missile attacks, but only attack when you have the means to destroy them – Griffins bear major grudges!

Krakens
Krakens are very powerful but they are extremely susceptible to fireballs. If you get caught in a Kraken’s Duel Spell, launch a barrage of fireballs when you get pulled close.

Skeletons
Skeletons are very good at demolishing your castle as this is their only aim in ‘life’, but if you take our advice and build in the ocean, you will save yourself a lot of aggro! Skeletons multiply if they come into contact with humans, creating a formidable army.

Trolls
Much the same as Apes, attack them one by one rather than wading into a group firing aimlessly. Trolls regenerate far quicker than Apes and are extremely dangerous when in groups.

Vultures
Vultures are extremely easy to kill and you can simply wade into a large group and fire randomly without too much opposition. However, they can be difficult to target, so as an effective tactic lure them back to your castle and let them attack the castle instead of you. They do very little damage but they rather blindly swoop in formation around your flag-pole, leaving themselves easy for the taking.

Worms
These react in much the same way as the Dragons and can be killed in the same way. Approach them and when they home in on you keep slightly in front of them and then slam your carpet into reverse, keeping a constant but safe distance away from them. They will continue to follow you and when they fire, use your left and right cursor keys to dodge their attacks. One extra thing though; they can’t travel over water, so lure them on to the shore and if you are having particular problems with a group of them, you can at least use the open ocean as a retreat.

Wyverns
These are the big, bad nasties of Magic Carpet. Only approach them if you have the means to destroy them, which you’ll fine involves possessing the Meteor spell – launch about ten meteors one after the other to kill them or just blast a few craters beneath them.