Regarding the Enchanter Trilogy magic system

You must learn (memorize) a spell before you can cast it. In most cases doing so immediately beforehand will suffice, so memorization will generally not be mentioned in this walkthrough. Most spells will work in either of two syntaxes: cast [spell name] on [object] or simply [spell name] [object].

Type spells to find out what spells you currently have memorized. In Spellbreaker you permanently know gnusto, frotz, and rezrov. When you sleep, you forget any other spells you had previously memorized.

Read your spell book to find out what spells you can memorize. Whenever you get a scroll, read it and then gnusto it, to commit the spell to your spell book. (You must be holding your spell book in your hands to do so.) Some spells cannot be gnustoed and this will be noted.

In Spellbreaker your spells may fail, especially early in the game, so you may wish to save the game immediately before casting a spell, just in case. Your chance of success goes up generally as you collect more of the "featureless white cubes" and specifically if you happen to have the two cubes whose elemental properties relate to the spell you are trying to cast. Blorple always works.

Eating, Drinking, and Sleeping

Spellbreaker omits eating and drinking entirely (thank Frobozz!). Sleep when the game tells you you're tired; everywhere I've tried is safe, but avoid obviously dangerous locations like the roc's nest or the ogre's cave.

In the beginning...

Hang around the Council Chamber for four turns until everyone gets turned into amphibians and reptiles. (What is going on here is that the power of magic is deteriorating, and the guildmasters of the other guilds think that the Enchanters are responsible for the failure of all the practical spells they use.)

Follow the shadowy figure outside. Get the fish and bread. Go south into Belwit Square and wait seven turns for the smoke to dissipate, or cast the lesoch spell, if you can manage it. Pick up the featureless white cube. Frotz yourself (this may take a few tries). Memorize blorple three times (you're going to be using it a lot in this game!). Then blorple the cube.

For Your Amusement:
Try to leave, talk, attack whoever is speaking, or cast a spell.
Examine Orkan, Sneffle, Hoobly, Gzornenplatz, and Ardis both before and after they become amphibians.
Examine or smell the orange smoke.
Yomin one of the amphibian enchanters.
Try to follow the shadow from Belwit Square.
Try to cast a spell on the guard that blocks the exit south from Belwit Square (to the "storied Manse").
Try repeatedly to cast difficult spells now, before you have any cubes, to see the different failure messages.

Packed Earth, Soft Room, Water Room

Go east. When you enter the Hall of Stone, the cube will reappear in your hand. While you were in Packed Earth you were actually inside the cube, you see. From the nature of the room inside the cube, you may have surmised that this cube has something to do with Earth.

You're going to be encountering a lot of "featureless white cubes" in this story, each with a different elemental property, so it will be useful to easily tell them apart. Use the burin to write something identifying on the cube. Your labels can only be a maximum of 6 letters and you must use quotes around words that are already in the game's dictionary, such as "earth". (The names I've chosen in this walkthrough do not require quotes.) For example, you could write terra on cube. You can then later refer to this cube by its name, such as blorple terra. (If you decide you don't like a name you've chosen, you can simply write on that cube again.) Whenever you are carrying only one cube that hasn't yet been written on, you can refer to it simply as "cube".

Go south to the Ruins Room. Get the zipper. This is similar to an AD&D bag of holding: you can put any number of things in the zipper and it will never fill or weigh more, so put all your belongings in it whenever possible. It is also watertight when closed. Right now, open it, reach into the zipper (this command is necessary the first time), and get the flimsy scroll. Read it. (girgol: stop time) You cannot gnusto girgol. Hang onto it; don't put it in the zipper.

Blorple the "terra" cube again. This time, go down through the hole. No, really, go down through the hole. Wait a few turns while a roc grabs you and takes you to its nest. (If the roc doesn't show up and you die, just head north from the Boneyard and blorple the earth cube again.) Grab the stained scroll; don't take the time to gnusto it right now. You also can't take the cube while the mama roc is here.

Blorple terra again. Safely back in Packed Earth, you have time read the stained scroll (caskly: cause perfection) and gnusto caskly. Go south to Cliff Middle. Get the dirty scroll. Read it (throck: cause plants to grow) and gnusto throck. Go up to Cliff Top. Push a rock to start an avalanche. Cast girgol from the scroll. Climb up the boulders four times until you get to the Mountain Top. Get the coin and go west into the hut. Ask the hermit about the cube, then caskly the hut. (It's OK if the avalanche resumes while you're trying to get the spell to work.) Take the cube and blorple it.

For Your Amusement:
Malyon the cube in the hermit's hut.

Soft Room and Packed Earth again

Go south. That place was spongy, so write "spongy" on the cube. (This is the cube of Life. Write spongy on cube works because this is the only unmarked cube you're carrying, as described above.) In the Meadow, pick the weed by pulling it twice (don't use the shears to cut it, or you will kill it). Blorple terra again.

Go west, then north to Cave. Plant the weed, then throck it. Go down and get the box and dusty scroll. Go up and south to Cave Entrance. Read the scroll (espnis: sleep) and gnusto espnis. Open the box and get the cube. Examine the box. Notice the decorations of dolphins? Try putting your terra or spongy cubes in the box and see how the decorations change. This box can help you identify the property of the cube you put inside it. It also has another unusual characteristic that we'll be making use of much later in the game. For now, get the featureless "dolphin" cube and blorple it.

For Your Amusement:
Follow the rabbit in the Meadow.
Try to sleep in the ogre's cave.
Smell the ogre. Try again after casting snavig on him.

Water Room

Learn blorple. Put everything except the "terra" cube and the rye bread into the zipper and close the zipper. Go south. In Mid-Ocean, drop the bread for the grouper. Get the cube (which is sinking), then the bottle (which is floating). Blorple terra.

Packed Earth, last time

Open the zipper, get the burin, and write "aqua" on the plain cube (which is, logically enough, the Water cube). Open the bottle and get the damp scroll. Read it. (liskon: shrink a living thing) Get your spell book and gnusto liskon.

Go east, then north to Smooth Room. Liskon the serpent. Go north twice into the Temple. Climb the idol and look at its eye and in its mouth. Get the knife from the zipper, pry out the opal with it, and take the opal. Climb back down off the idol. Memorize espnis and malyon. Cast malyon on the idol, wait one turn, and then follow with espnis. Wait one more turn. Climb the idol and get the cube. Climb down. Learn blorple until you have it memorized at least twice. Put everything in the zipper except the cube and burin. Blorple the cube.

For Your Amusement:
Snavig and yomin the serpent, both before and after shrinking it.
Malyon the idol while you are on it.

Air Room

Go north to the Glacier. Get the white scroll (tinsot: freeze). Blorple the cube again. Get your spell book out of the zipper and gnusto tinsot. Go west to the Bazaar. Write "aero" on the cube (the Air cube). Go east into the Emporium. The "strange design of cubes" on the blue carpet may give you a hint that it is the one you want. Get the coin out of the zipper. Ask the merchant about the blue carpet, and buy it. Offer the merchant 400 zorkmids, then 450, then 500. Do an inventory, and notice the -- hey now!-- red carpet you have. Give it back to the merchant and you will get the blue carpet. Go west back to the Bazaar and blorple aqua.

For Your Amusement:
Tinsot the glacier.
Try to convince the merchant to sell you a carpet for less than 500 zorkmids.
Offer something other than the coin (or jewel) to the merchant.
Try to cast spells on or attack the merchant.
Caskly the red carpet.

Water Room again

Go north to the Oubliette. Memorize tinsot three times and liskon once. Put everything in the zipper and close it. Tinsot the water three times and climb onto the ice floe. Wait one more turn until the water "must have reached its level" and rezrov the trap door. Go up into the Dungeon. Get the cube. This Death cube can take you back to the start of the game, via the Boneyard (the place you go when you die). We're not going there now, but go ahead and open the zipper, get the burin, and write "boneyd" on that cube to distinguish it.

Go up into the Guard Tower. Get the carpet out of the zipper, drop it, sit on it, and fly (or go up) to Midair. Go west four turns to a location "above a giant bird's nest" and go down to land in the nest. In Roc Nest, stand up off the carpet, get the cube, sit on the carpet again, and then fly up out of the nest. Return east four times to "above an abandoned guard tower", land, stand up, and get the carpet.

Go down, east, then north to Dungeon Cell. Rezrov the cabinet, get the moldy book, and caskly it. Read the moldy book and gnusto the snavig spell (shape change). Blorple the (still plain) cube you got from the roc's nest.

For Your Amusement:
Read the carpet label during flight.
Land the magic carpet other than at In Roc Nest or Guard Tower.

String Room

Go south to the Enchanters' Retreat. Write "string" on the cube (the cube of Connectivity). Ask Belboz a question (such as ask Belboz about magic) and he will give you a test question. The answer you need is in the six Enchanter Cards that came with the game package. Look up the answer and say "[answer]". Belboz will give you a key. You can ask him about the cubes, the shadow, the snake, magic, and the key; his answer in regards to the cubes is particularly informative.

When you're finished, blorple aqua again.

For Your Amusement:
Give a wrong answer to Belboz's question, then try to use the key he gives you later in the game.

Water Room yet again; Light Room; Water Room for the last time

Memorize blorple and snavig. Put everything into the zipper except the fish and close it. Go south to Mid-Ocean. Drop the fish. Snavig the grouper and swim downward to the Ocean Floor. Wait four turns until you become yourself again, then get all to take the zipper and both cubes (you don't have time to take each item individually). Swim upwards and blorple aqua again. Go north to the Oubliette. Blorple the plain cube you picked up underwater.

Go west to Volcano Base. Open the zipper, get your spell book, and learn tinsot. Wait for a lava fragment to "drop right at your feet." Tinsot the fragment and pick it up. Blorple aqua and go north to the Oubliette once more. Pause a moment and write "lumos" on the still-plain cube (the Light cube).

Now, memorize liskon and blorple, and put everything into the zipper and close it. Liskon yourself and go down to In Channel. Go west twice to an In Pipe location and get the cube. Go west again, then up to the Ruins Room. Wait three turns until you return to your normal size ("You are growing"). Blorple the cube you got from the pipe.

For Your Amusement:
When you're a grouper, try swallowing things.

Changing Room

Go north to the Bare Room. Get the compass rose. Open the zipper, get the burin, and write "change" on the cube (naturally enough, the cube of Change). Blorple change. This time, go west to the Carving Room. Put the compass rose in the carving. Get the rose again and go north to an Octagonal Room.

The lead runes represent directions you cannot go, while the silver runes are directions open to you. You can go in each direction only once. There are four possible routes through this maze: W NW NE, W NE NW, NW NE W, or NW W NE. First touch the desired rune with the compass rose, then move in that direction. When you get to the room with the gold rune in the west wall, rezrov the alabaster plug and go west. Get the cube and blorple it.

No Place - the Plain

Go south to the Plain. Write "none" on the cube (the cube of Mind). Get the fragment from the zipper. Say hello to the rock. Give it the lava fragment, then climb on. Save the game.

The picture below shows the initial position of this puzzle. It may help to draw a sketch of the grid and use something as counters. What you are trying to do is get onto the same grid-point as the brown-eyed (or "brown") rock, which moves every turn. Move yourself by saying rock, [direction].

The brown-eyed rock moves after you move, and will try to stay diagonally across from you if it can. The general idea is to chase it into one of the three corners while positioning yourself in the analogous position to the brown-eyed rock's starting place. Then, no matter which way it moves, you can catch it. The following sequence may work (though it depends on exactly how the brown rock moves): west, northeast, east, south, south, and east. If you are successful, the brown-eyed rock will be mesmerized by the green-eyed one, and you can now jump to brown rock. Get the cube and blorple it.

For Your Amusement:
Sleep on or pet the green-eyed rock.
Give fish or bread to the green-eyed rock.
Show (rather than give) the lava fragment to the rock.
Cast a spell (other than blorple) at the Plain.

Dark Room

Frotz the knife or some other handy object. (It is easier to do so here, where you definitely can cast the spell, than in the magically darkened area you are about to enter, where you almost certainly will not be able to.) Go down to the Dark Cave. Write "nyght" on the cube (the cube of Dark). Memorize blorple and snavig. Extinguish me (to end the frotz spell on yourself) and drop your lit object here. (This will bleed into the next room and shoould prevent you from getting eaten when you go down again, but it might still be a good idea to save the game.)

Go down again into the Grue Cave. Snavig a grue. Save again. Go down into the Light Pool, then climb pillar. Get the cube. Climb down, then go up and up again to the Dark Cave you started in. If you have not yet "become yourself again", wait until you have. Pick up your lit object. Blorple the cube.

For Your Amusement:
Snavig a grue without extinguishing yourself first.
Yomin a grue.
Look at and attack or eat a grue while you are a grue.
Eat an inventory object while you are a grue.
While a grue, slaver or gurgle.
Read the pillar.

Fire Room

Frotz yourself again and extinguish the object you lit. Go north to the Volcano. Write "fyre" on the cube (obviously, the cube of Fire). Examine the outcropping. Get the boneyd cube (just to give it a use) and the box that we haven't used all story long. Put the boneyd cube in the box, then get it again. Throw the box to the outcropping. Blorple boneyd and go west through the "magic" exit. (Each of the cubes has one of these "magic exits" that "you can't seem to force your way through" without first putting the cube in the box in the way you just did. When you go through such an exit, you are transported to the location of the box, if it is sitting on the ground.) On the Outcropping, get the box and cube. Gee, this seems to be a rather special magic cube, doesn't it? Of course, it's the cube of Magic. Write "majik" on it with the burin. Get the "none" cube from the zipper and blorple it.

For Your Amusement:
Fly to the Outcropping on the magic carpet. Try casting tinsot on the carpet first.
Melt the lava.

The Vault

Go east. Ignore the treasure and memorize jindak three times and blorple once. (Notice that you "easily" learn spells now, after picking up the Magic cube.) Put everything in the zipper. Rezrov the door. Save the game just in case you get the following sequence wrong, and go north into the Outer Vault.

This is, joy of joys, a coin-weighing puzzle. Follow the clues below:

Clue 1: TAKE X1, X2, X7, X8. JINDAK. (X3, X4, X5, and X6 on the first pile. X9, X10, X11, and X12 on the second pile.) If the piles are even, read clue 2. If the piles are uneven, notice which pile is brighter, then read clue 5.

Clue 2: TAKE X3, X4. PUT X1, X2 ON THE FIRST PILE. JINDAK. (X1, X2, X5, and X6 on the first pile. The second pile remains the same.) If the piles are even, read clue 3. If the piles are uneven, read clue 4.

Clue 3: TAKE X1. PUT X7 ON THE FIRST PILE. JINDAK. (X7, X2, X5, and X6 on the first pile. The second pile remains the same.) If the piles are even, BLORPLE X8. If the piles are uneven, TAKE X7. BLORPLE IT. Now read clue 9.

Clue 4: TAKE X1. PUT X7 ON THE FIRST PILE. JINDAK. (X7, X2, X5, and X6 on the first pile. The second pile remains unchanged.) If the piles are even, BLORPLE X1. If the piles are uneven, TAKE X2. BLORPLE IT. Now read clue 9.

Clue 5: PUT X1, X2, and X7 ON THE SECOND PILE. GET X9, X10, X11, and X12. PUT X9 ON THE FIRST PILE. GET X6. PUT X6 ON THE SECOND PILE. JINDAK. (X3, X4, X5, and X9 on the first pile. X6, X1, X2, and X7 on the second pile.) If both piles are equal, read clue 6. If the piles are uneven in the same way they were in clue 1, read clue 7. If the piles are uneven in the opposite way they were in clue 1, read clue 8.

Clue 6: Take all of the cubes off of both piles. PUT X10 ON THE FIRST PILE. PUT X11 ON THE SECOND PILE. JINDAK. If the piles are even then GET X12. BLORPLE IT. If the piles are uneven in the same way they were in clue 5, GET X11. BLORPLE IT. If the piles are uneven in the opposite way they were in clue 5, GET X10. BLORPLE IT. Now read clue 9.

Clue 7: Take all of the cubes off of both piles. PUT X3 ON THE FIRST PILE. PUT X4 ON THE SECOND PILE. JINDAK. If the piles are even, TAKE X5. BLORPLE IT. If the piles are uneven in the same way they were in clue 1, GET X3. BLORPLE IT. If the piles are uneven in the opposite way they were in clue 1, GET X4. BLORPLE IT. Now read clue 9.

Clue 8: Take all of the cubes off of both piles. PUT X6 ON THE FIRST PILE. PUT X1 ON THE SECOND PILE. JINDAK. If the piles are even, GET X9. BLORPLE IT. If the piles are uneven, GET X6. BLORPLE IT. Now read clue 9.

Clue 9: If you've ended up in the Sand Room: congratulations! If you've ended up in the Nondescript Room: too bad, you didn't follow the directions accurately.

For Your Amusement:
Try to cast spells other than jindak or blorple.
Hit the alarm fairy.

Sand Room

If the room description reminds you of an hourglass, you've got the right idea. Going either up or down from this room sends you back in time, so you need to (re)set both of the rooms you wind up in to the ways that they were when you first entered them earlier in the story. Get your spell book and memorize blorple twice.

Go down into the Dungeon Cell. Get the burin and write "sands" on the "x#" cube. (This is, of course, the cube of Time.) Get the key, unlock the cabinet with it, and open the cabinet. Take the vellum scroll. Put your spell book in the cabinet, close it and lock it again with the key. (It will become moldy on its own in time.) Rezrov the cell door. Blorple sands.

Go up to the Ruins Room. Get the sack and open it. Take the flimsy (girgol) scroll. Copy girgol onto vellum, then empty zipper into sack. Put the flimsy scroll into the zipper, close it, and drop it. Get the majik cube and blorple it.

Magic Room

Make sure you are holding the vellum scroll in your hands, as well as a non-magical object like the knife, bottle, or key. Exit to the east. Wait one turn and a shadowy figure will appear. Attempt to attack the shadow and it will freeze you in place. Now wait and listen for five turns while you thaw out. Continue waiting three more turns, until the shadow "prepares to jump into the hypercube". Cast girgol. Remove the majik cube from the center of the hypercube and put your non-magical object in the tesseract.

Congratulations, Scientist!

For Your Amusement:
Yomin the shadow.
Leave the center of the hypercube empty (don't insert any item).

For Your Amusement at various times:
Eat something other than the bread or fish.
When in a dark room (except the area off the Dark Room), frotz a grue.
While falling (not flying) in Midair, try to move around.
Try swear words.
Cast yomin on all the characters in the game.
Slaver or gurgle while not a grue.

Extras

For further entertainment, you may be interested in:
Lists of bugs in Spellbreaker: Nathan Simpson, Graeme Cree, XyzzyNews
Posts about this game at The Digital Antiquarian, The Adventure Gamer, and SPAG
Source code

Points

Action	Points
Get white cubes	25 each x 14 = 350
Get scrolls	10 each x 7 = 70
Blorple cube (first time)	15
Get the zipper	10
Get golden box	10
Get blue carpet	10
Get moldy book	10
Caskly the moldy book	15
Get key from Belboz	25
Get compass rose	10
Drop zipper with flimsy scroll inside	25
Break the tesseract	50
Total	600

Last updated: 3/23/2021