Eye of the Beholder 2 Walkthrough - The Nightmare Level
By Daniel D'Agostino, 2011-09-21 / EOB2 Walkthrough / EOB2 Info
Overview
As I already warned towards the end of the previous Skeleton level, the next level is particularly challenging because you can neither rest nor turn back. The screenshots above show what happens if you try to rest. As an interesting sidenote, you will find one of these visions familiar towards the end of the game.
Therefore, before you start this level, make sure your food levels are up, that you have all the spells you need (in particular you will need a lot of healing spells), and that you are fully rested. A neutralize poison spell is good to have, although you should have some scrolls and potions that can save your characters if you get poisoned by ants.
The monsters you will find here include margoyles, gelatinous cubes and, on a particular sub-level, giant ants. The ants are weak, but they are poisonous. Gelatinous cubes are also weak, but they can paralyse party members, poison them, or even permanently destroy some of their weapons and armour (fortunately, this is very rare). Finally, margoyles are quite tough, do quite a bit of damage, but have no particular abilities. Offensive and healing spells are particularly helpful when dealing with margoyles.
You will find many magical items in this level. Although you can't yet know the true nature of items (e.g. whether they're +2), you will get a scroll very soon that will provide this ability. Alternatively, if you got San-Raal, you should already be able to cast Improved Identify when the item to identify in your mage's hand.
Above is a very scribbly hand-drawn map I made of the level (alternatively, here is a very neat map). Basically we will approach it in three parts: the north section, the central area, and the south section.
One last thing: this level is very big. It is easy to get lost, so follow a map.
The North Section
As you go down the stairs, you are immediately warned that there is no turning back. A few steps ahead of the door is a button on the floor that you can't avoid (you trigger it by either stepping or clicking on it), and that will close the door behind you. Note: you can reopen the door on the side you came from, after you finish the level, in case you left something behind.
By turning right at the button, you will get to an area with spinners near the centre. Spinners, first encountered here, will rotate the party to face a different direction, with the purpose of disorienting you. Go round the spinner area and go through an illusionary wall on the west side.
Once through the illusionary wall, you can either go straight ahead, left, or right. There is nothing straight ahead. By going left, you will reach a gelatinous cube guarding a door. Once you kill it you get a spider key, a skull, and a potion of healing.
Through a couple of doorways, you get to the margoyle trap. On the ground are some magical items, and as soon as you touch them, two walls to the east will disappear and a few margoyles will pour out and attack you from two directions. The trap is worth it, however, as you get several magic items (including bracers of protection +5, cursed long sword "Hath Kull", a magical shield, and a magical staff +1). There is a button at the back of the room will reopen the door you came from (since it closed when you triggered the trap).
As an interesting sidenote, the bracers are the only +5 item you get in this game, and are one of two +5 items you get in the entire trilogy.
Go back to the illusionary wall, and this time take the right turn (i.e. head north). Unlock the door with the spider key you got earlier, and go down to visit the ants.
The Ant Sub-Level
This level is relatively small and all you want to do here is pick up all the loot you can find and go back up.
In the north part of the level, at the opposite end of where you start (marked as location 1 on the map) you get a spider key, a rock, and several bones.
Going south (via the westernmost main hall), in two rooms marked as locations 9 and 10, you get the +2 dagger "Sa Shull" along with more rocks and bones.
At the southernmost end of the level (location 8) is the West Wind (the third of the four horns), a helmet, a plate mail, leather boots, a potion of cure poison, and a magical long sword.
Finally, strewn along the easternmost main hall (locations 2-7) you will find a helmet, a long sword, a dark moon key, bones, a chain mail, 3 daggers, a shield, leather boots, and 3 darts.
Once you've collected everything, go back upstairs, find the beginning of the level, and head south.
The Central Area
There isn't much in the middle. At the very centre, in a place full of doors, you will find a mage scroll of remove curse, which you will want to scribe into your spell book and use whenever a cursed weapon gets stuck to your hand.
On the east side are many doors with a wall behind them, but one of the doors leads to a corridor with a locked door requiring a dark moon key. You can open it, but another similarly locked door is just behind it. A margoyle near here will drop a grey key when killed.
The Southern Section
At the southern end of the central area are three locked doors next to each other. You can open the middle one using a spider key, and the other two by pressing buttons once you're inside the room. There are nine pressure plates in this room, and the door ahead is closed. To open the door, you have to drop something on the pressure plates in the corners and the one in the middle (to form an X).
There are a lot of secret doors in the southern area, being a mixture of hidden buttons and illusionary walls. The first one is immediately to your left as soon as you enter the door, and leads back to the dark moon locked doors.
At the next room, your party members will alert you to another secret door on the north wall. This leads to the portal (reminiscent of Eye of the Beholder 1) which you will use to leave this level in a minute. Near the portal you will find several items including 3 iron rations, a spider key, a robe, a mage scroll of haste, and an amulet. The haste spell is particularly useful because it drastically decreases the cooldown of your attacks, allowing you to kill monsters much faster.
More secret doors will allow you to discover the southwestern part of the level. The niche at location 7 contains a potion of healing, a potion of extrea healing, 2 arrows, a dark moon key and a glass sphere. In the niche at location 8 you will find another glass sphere, a spider key, and the diamond-shaped stone gem that triggers the portal. There is also an axe on the floor between the niches.
Behind the final secret door you will find 8 arrows, a bow, and the +3 cloak "Moonshade".
The Priests' Quarters
You are now ready to finish the level, but first, take a brief detour to the priests' quarters. Go back to the portal and use the stone gem on it. This will teleport you to a new area of the main temple.
This is a good opportunity to get some much-needed rest, identify items (the Improved Identify scroll is in the first room you end up in), and drop some of the useless junk you're carrying.
Finishing the Level
The exit is on the east side of the level, through the locked doors. Once you have collected all the keys from the Margoyle and Ant levels, use two dark moon keys and a spider key to reach the stairs. Just before the stairs, in a niche, you will find the South Wind and a dark moon key. With all four horns, you now have everything you need to reach the Silver Tower, and leave the Underground part of the game behind you.
Upstairs you will find a lock in the wall. Put in a grey key and it will transform into a niche, containing mage scrolls of fireball, shocking grasp and detect magic; and a cleric scroll of raise dead.
Going up three flights of stairs, you will find three cursed items (the -2 dagger "Yargon", a -3 long sword, and the -2 mace "thumper").
Following the corridor, you will get to a dark moon lock. Putting in a dark moon key makes the wall disappear, and you end up at the spider sub-level from earlier in the game. From here, go back to the temple entrance, and locate the Silver Seal which will allow you to access the Silver Tower.