Set Difficulty	3/10
Approximate time to master	2-4 hours
Number of missable achievements	N/A

Rune Master II is an interesting combination of RPG and board game. You and three other players are knights looking to defeat an evil warlord Azasor and bring peace back to the kingdom. Each turn, you roll dice to move, visit towns for equipment, fight monsters for gold, bet on turtle races (!), take on quests, and more as you try to be the first to reach the big bad himself while also making sure you're strong enough to actually take him out and win the game.

The game is fun even if it's not terribly deep. Weapons and armor all function the same, just with higher stats. Combat is a simple series dice rolls to see if you hit/avoid hits and how much damage you deal, with most fights virtual pre-determined by your equipment. While you're competing against 3 "opponents," you have virtually zero direct interaction against your friendly competitors and are generally more of a very loose time limit than an opposing force. I still had a lot of enjoyment treating it like a bite-sized RPG adventure!

The path to mastery is pretty straightforward:

1. Beat the game (aim for deathless achievement on this run)
2. Cleanup everything else
3. OMAKE mode (or do this first...or in the middle. Really doesn't matter).

• The shop menus go to two pages, which is where the best (and most expensive) equipment is.
• Character choice means nothing...unless you're using the non-Oasis patch technically, in which case Zap (the green haired guy) will crash the game upon start.
• On that note, I highly recommend the Oasis patch version. You will likely need to reset runs a lot, and not having to deal with the Zap crash bug will save you a lot of time and frustration.
• Armor trumps weapons/magic in terms of purchase priorities.
• Magic is certainly workable in this game, but I found sticking with regular ol' weapons was the better option.
• Outside health/magic potions, every other item you can buy at the shop is fairly meaningless, at least against the AI. More movement is fine but not neccessary and the item that sabotages your opponents is completely not worth it. Even HP/MP potions are less useful than just saving up for armor and weapon upgrades.

Gatekeeper (5)
Defeat Gyzar.

Rune Knight (25)
Defeat Azasor and save the kingdom.

Gyzar is one of the tower mini-bosses roughly around a third to half of the way through the board, and the only one besides Azasor you have to defeat to win the game. Beyond his mandatory status, he's not terribly tough as long as you have some decent armor.

Azasor is the final boss located at the final space of the board in a giant castle. Azasor has the best stats in the game and will require at least an above-average armor and decent source of damage (weapon or magic) to best. Otherwise, he's a fight just like any other.

You'll have to get this while doing a deathless run, but if you're only interested in beating the game, just remember to save up until you can afford a decent armor (anything on the second page of the armor shop will serve you well), then try to grab a half decent weapon (the spear at the bottom of page one of the weapon shop will be plenty) and you should be fine. Death is almost completely devoid of penalty and your three rivals take an exceptionally long time to complete the game (I only lost once when purposely stalling/grinding for an event achievement), so you shouldn't feel much pressure.

Hero of Fleart (25)
Complete the game without dying.

The hardest achievement, although it's more annoying than painful. The easiest way to basically guarantee your victory is to get the magic armor ASAP. The game's best armor is extremely powerful - no one except Azasor and a few enemies shortly before him will be able to do any damage to you, and even they'll be doing scratch damage. Only problem is it's extremely expensive, at 3780 gold.

The best way to get this armor early is to gamble big on the turtle races. Start a run, immediately gamble your initial 500 on one bet when you reach the first town (should happen in the first turn or two), and gamble until you get to or close to 3780 gold for the armor (a 500 bet win gets you 2500 gold, for reference). If you have enough, purchase it there. If not, you can leave town and play normally up until the second town, hoping you get gold from chest or monster drops before the second town. After the second town, enemies ramp up in how dangerous they are, so you'll probably want to have the armor before leaving there.

Once you have the magic armor, you should be able to steamroll through the rest of the game. You will need a good source of damage before the endgame to damage Azasor, but the regular spear or even the hand axe will likely be enough and cost relative pennies. You can take on the side quests with ease with the magic armor, which will help you afford some better weapons (and clear out those achievements as well).

Please refer to this map as needed (credit to the following Tabletop Simulator mod for this) to help better figure out where you'll find each event.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race (5)
Win gold betting on a turtle race.

Location: any town

Turtle races are available to bet on in any town. The races seem completely RNG-based - I didn't notice any turtle or turtle winning more than others, so pick whatever you'd like.

It's highly unlikely you'll get the deathless achievement without using the turtle races. If for some reason you're looking to get this ASAP, start a new game and bet 100 as soon as you reach the first town until you win.

Lots of Troubles (2)
Defeat Niksy to aid the nearby village.

Location: First town, then the tower immediately after.

To do this, select "Elder" in the first town to take on the first subquest of the game. Niksy is found in the tower shortly after (but only if you accept the quest from the elder). She isn't too difficult, but you will need some type of armor or weapon (pretty much anything will do) to reliably win. The rewards aren't astonishing, so it may be best to start a game just to do this quest and restart after.

Bartering (5)
Exchange a Trade Product for something more useful.

Location: Random spaces, then any town.

Trade Products are the small boomerang-like objects you randomly find in empty spaces sometimes. Once you pick one up, visit the ITEMS shop in any town and you will automatically trade one for a medicine, unlocking this achievement. This should come fairly naturally.

Pass the Bottle (10)
Save Noom's dying child.

Location: North fork after the second town.

One of the more annoying/RNG-based achievements. To get this, buy a potion in either of the first two towns. Shortly after the second town, you'll come to a fork. A dice roll will determine your path, but you want to go north. On the north path, you'll randomly encounter Noom and his injured child and he'll ask for medicine. Give it to him and you'll get some treasure (along with the achievement).

This requires basically two chance events - that you roll to take the right path, and that you encounter Noom on said path. If you want to try grinding it, stop in the second town first. If you take the wrong path, don't visit any other towns and try to purposely lose a fight (use fight until you'll likely defeat the monster, then run to try and take some extra hits). If you run out of HP, you'll return to the last town you visited - which will be right before the fork. Repeat ad nauseam until you get the event.

Damsel in Distress (5)
Save Mel from the beast, Hido.

Location: Fourth town, then the graveyard/castle north of town after accepting quest

Go into the fourth town, select ELDER and accept the quest. You will then travel north to fight Hido. Hido is fairly tough compared to other critters you've faced (unless you have the magic armor, of course...)

Walk the Plank (5)
Defeat the Pirates.

Location: Fifth town, then the pirate ship

In the fifth town, select ELDER and accept the quest to take on the pirates. You will then take the left path to the pirate ship. Defeat some modestly challenging pirates and you'll earn this achievement and take a shortcut!

If You Know, You Know (5)
Learn a secret from Pram.

Location: After pirate ship

You will need to complete the pirates quest from the previous achievement. If you do that, you will randomly find Pram on a space for a brief event (I'm not sure if this event actually does anything in-game...).

If you don't find Pram, don't visit any villages and try to run out of HP. You'll respawn at the fifth town and retake the Pirate quest, giving you another shot at Pram.

Comeuppance (10)
Avenge the fallen fairy.

Location: Starts in the fifth town

Arguably the most involved sidequest. Visit the fifth town but don't accept the pirate sidequest. You will head north and eventually go past the gate. If you land on the space adjacent to the first north space, you'll encounter a dying fairy (the space is next to the leftmost tree surrounded by small rocks, for reference). Shortly after, you'll run into an event to avenge the fairy, which will lead you to the nearby tower and a miniboss fight. Win and the achievement is yours!

Again, if you miss any part of this event, keep moving and try to lose a fight without visiting any other towns. You'll be able to respawn back at the fifth town and can try to find the fairy event again.

Finders Keepers (3)
Find gold in a treasure box.

Location: virtually anywhere

Treasure boxes spawn rather frequently throughout the map. Find one with gold and this achievement is yours.

Stealth Mode (3)
Sneak through a gate.

Location: any gate on the board

Throughout the map, you'll come across gates. Based on a die roll, you'll either sneak past or be forced to fight a monster. You'll end up sneaking past a ton, so this achievement is almost certain to trigger at some point during a game.

Unstoppable Force (5)
Obtain the Knight Lance.

Location: any town weapon shop

The Knight Lance is found as the final item listed on page 2 of any town's weapon store. It's extremely powerful, but pales in comparison to the usefulness of the Magic Armor. Still, if you can afford it toward the end of the game, it guarantees Azasor won't stand a chance against you.

If you're in need of getting this ASAP, you can always start a new game, rush to the first town, and gamble on turtles until you have enough to buy it immediately (restarting if you run out of cash, of course).

Immovable Object (5)
Obtain the Magic Armor.

Location: any town armor shop

I've already sung the praises of Magic Armor. This makes you literally untouchable to all but the final few enemies, and even they'll be doing puny plink damage against you at best. Buy this early to make a deathless run much easier.

Again, if you need this ASAP, you can do the same turtle race rush in town one as mentioned with Knight Lance.

Misery Loves Company (5)
Learn the Despair spell.

Location: any town magic shop

Magic is supposedly completely usable, but I never found much need compared to standard armor and weapons. Despair isn't nearly as costly as the endgame weapon and armor though, and it does hit well. In any case, you'll need to just buy it to finish off this achievement.

Dog Fighter (5)
Survive in OMAKE mode for 30 seconds without dying.

And now for something completely different...

Type OMAKE during the title screen (if your machine has a keyboard, that will work. If not, you may need to use the "virtual" keyboard to open this) and you'll unlock a silly little SHUMP over the game's board! It shouldn't take more than a few tries to survive, as you have a handful of lives to make things easier. Just keep firing and moving, staying in the center as best as possible. Watch out for the "powerups" some enemies drop upon defeat - they are actually indestructible enemies!

I hope you found this guide helpful! There were actually two other games in the Rune Master series on MSX - the predecessor with some features that were missing in this game (such as characters with unique powers) and a third game using a Romance of the Three Kingdoms setting. If there are ever set made for these, I'm certain I'll give them a try.