Might and Magic VIII
The Planes
The Plane of Air The Plane of Earth The Plane of Fire The Plane of Water
Prison of the air Lord Prison of the earth Lord Prison of the fire Lord
Once you’ve dealt with the tamer beasts in the earthly regions, you’ll need to go to the Planes of Earth, Air, Fire and Water to get your Necromancer promoted to Grandmaster for each of the elemental magic skills. These areas range from tough to murderous, but it’s worth it (a) for the spells – Mass Distortion, Lloyds Beacon, Incinerate and Meteor Shower – and (b) for the added power and time span when using existing spells.
There’s also the Hearts quest, required so that you can get the key to Escaton’s crystal.
The Plane of Earth– entry from Dagger Wound Islands
This is one of the toughest areas. First of all, it’s a 3-D maze, and very hard to read the map. Second the monsters (Juggernauts, Earth Elementals and Boulders) are extremely tough and they’re generally immune to earth magic and very resistant to physical damage. They’re also immune to Mind magic, so Berserk doesn’t work. Slow doesn’t work, but Paralyze will about one time in three. I found this area took me longer that just about any, but I eventually killed everything and ended up with a lot of experience, gold and treasure. Back to Top
The Plane of Fire – entry from Ironsand Desert
Fairly tough.. Fire Elementals are immune to Fire magic, but only moderately resistant to everything else, so they go down fairly quickly if you have tough, fast knights. Only problem here is that you’ve got to stay on the plateaux and there are lots of monsters, and of course, there’s no temple. Use Fly to search the area, and get to the house of Burn. You’ll have to do an exhaustive search, as there are a lot of identical little houses (unless you cheat and use the map). If your Necromancer gets stomped you’ll fall into the lava if you’re not over a plateau, so try to keep him conscious. It’s probably a good idea to find the Castle Of Fire fairly early and clear out the first couple of rooms to use as a healing area. Actually, I think you can hide behind the castle, too.
The Castle of Fire is a wonderful, difficult maze. It’s a catwalk that runs over molten lava. It’s very narrow, and very twisty, so you can’t see down well enough to judge where you are, i.e. it’s very easy to fall off. If you fall off, it’s a run back to the beginning over molten lava, so save often. Of course, you’re being attacked all the way along the catwalk, too, and the monsters will be below you or above you a lot of the time.
The War Camp is fairly easy, as long as you don’t run around too fast. Stepping on the chessboard squares opens the rooms around the perimeter. Walk slowly and let the monsters come to you, or kill them with your little bows and arrows. Back to Top
The Plane of Water – entry from Ravage Roaming
Long, long maze with a lot of Sprites, Tritons and Water Elementals. The Sprites are surprisingly tiresome, as they move very fast. Once they are out of the way, however, the going gets easier. You have already killed all the tritons in Balthazar Lair, haven’t you? Lloyds Beacon is such a useful spell! Black Current’s house is hard to find without the map, so be prepared to kill everything that gets in your way and just do an exhaustive search.
The Plane of Air – entry from Murmurwoods
This is probably the tamest of the Planes. There’s nothing to fall off, and the monsters practically have to be coaxed into attacking you. When they do, they’re not that tough. Back to Top
Escaton's Crystal
There are Sapphire, Ruby and Emerald Dragons here, all of which are fairly tough. There's a control panel consisting of six colored crystals. You have to click on them in the right order, then step between the electrodes in the middle of the room to get to The Plane Between the Planes. If you've played Myst, this one should be easy.
The Plane Between the Planes - entry from Escaton's Crystal
Or, to be more correct grammatically, I suppose it should be The Plane Among the Planes. And you thought it was tough getting here! Ha! You can fly above the monsters if you like, but they're a lot of fun to fight. You now have to rescue the four Elemental Lords. The Prisons all have chests with decent treasure.
This is another very tough area. Probably the toughest in the entire game, actually. The ground is molten lava, so unless you enter with very high fire resistance, you’re dead within a few seconds. Even if you are resistant (my guys were between 80 and 130, you’ll cook pretty quickly if you don’t get on to the walls and keep moving. The walls slope down, so you slip as soon as you stop to fight. The monsters aren’t that nice either: Fear, Terror and Nightmare are all immune to physical damage and range from about 400 to over 1000 hit points.
Naturally, the Air Lord is buried in the ground. It's just a simple tunnel maze, nothing special except that there is a danger of paralysis from the Crystal Walkers.
Although this area is relatively tame, it's a fairly difficult path. The prison is a column of air, with steps floating in it like a spiral staircase. Look down, press shift, then X and forward arrow to jump from one step to the next. Save frequently: if you fall off a step, you get to start again. There are a few air elementals, but not enough to worry about.
The Fire Lord is in an ice prison. The Crystal Dragons are fairly tough, and there are some Water Elementals. Remember to press the button when you enter the prison, or you'll just walk through the doors to the outside again.
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