Dragon Quest IV Walkthrough - Chapter 1

When you first begin the game, clear the barrels and pots in the room for a Seed of Strength, Medicinal Herb and 3 Gold Coins. When you're done exit through the north. Smash the barrels outside for an Antidote Herb and head across the bridge. A frog will talk to you then head into the basement we just came from. Go into the basement and speak with the red haired girl you find in here, it's the frog's true form.

In the western most portion of the village you'll find your Hero's home, once you've spoken to the red haired frog-girl, Eliza, you'll want to go into this building and speak with the man near the table. This will advance the story forward.

For those of you unfamiliar with how this game works here is a brief run down... For the first half of the game you're going to be switching between four different characters. Each of them has their own adventure that you'll need to complete and when you're done with all four of them, you'll return to playing the Hero and the entire party will come together.

It won't take very long to complete each of these character's adventures, but there will be a lot of grinding when you first gain control of a new character. Something that is commonly recommended is that you save the Seeds of Strength/Wisdom etc items until you have control of the Hero again, then use all of these items on him.

 

Chapter 1: Ragnar McRyan

Once you gain control of Ragnar the King will explain the situation, he's put out an AMBER alert on some kids and you need to play Batman and go save them. Southeast from where you gain control of Ragnar you'll find a Medicinal Herb in a drawer, once you have that leave the castle.

Throughout this guide I will not be directing you to each and every treasure in each and every town, I will however tell you where the important ones are found. Throughout this town you'll find many barrels and pots that you can smash for items as well as some drawers and bookshelves. If you're having trouble seeing where you're going don't forget that you can rotate the Camera using the R + L buttons.

Just south of the Church you'll find a building (shown in my screen shot below) with a lady walking around out front during the day time - speak to her! It's required for story advancement. Inside of this building just on the other side of the wall near the entrance you'll find a chest with a Seed of Strength in it.

When you're done in town it's time to do some grinding! For the next 20 minutes to an hour you're going to want to grind just outside of town. When you get too hurt to continue rest at the Inn to recover your health, if you get poisoned head to the Church for a cure.

Once you've earned enough gold visit the armor shop and purchase some headgear. Spend the rest of Medicinal Herbs at the item shop then when you're confident enough to wander far from town without dying, rest at the Inn and continue northwest outside of town until you find a cave (shown in the screen shot below).

Story Requirements for Burland:

- Speak with Aigneas, Angus' wife

Burland Cavern entrance.

Burland Cavern is pretty straight forward, there's two treasure chests inside - one with 40 Gold Coins and another with a Medicinal Herb. The stairs to leave the dungeon are in the northern section. Just a tad bit east of Burland Cave's exit you'll find a small town - Strathbaile.

There are a few items for you to collect in this town hidden in pots, barrels, drawers and bookshelves. In order to advance the story forward you'll need to speak with Angus who is a prisoner in the basement. You can find the stairs down into the basement in the northeastern portion of the town next to the Church.

In order to speak with Angus you'll need to bring up the menu and select "Talk" from it, as shown in my screen shot below. Otherwise you'll just interact with the door and never be able to speak with him.

Story Requirements for Strathbaile:

- Speak with Angus, the prisoner in the basement.

- (After Speaking with Angus) Return to Burland, speak with Aigneas and bring her back to speak with Angus

After you've spoken to Angus you're going to want to return to Burland and speak with his wife, Aigneaus. She'll join your party at this point as a non-combatant; return to Angus in Strathbaile. When Angus and his wife are reunited, Angus will get his memories back.

Southeast of Strathbaile in the forest is our next destination. Before leaving town make sure you are fully healed and you have enough Medicinal Herbs for at least 20-30 fights. The next dungeon can be a bit confusing and there will be no map for it.

Basically you'll just want to wander around the forest southeast of Strathbaile until you enter a new location which will have a purple-slime river as well as a well that you can fall down to the north. To proceed, fall down into the well.

Throughout this dungeon you'll get a message that pops up when you're going in the right direction that says "Over here". Following this will lead you to Healie the healslime, shown in the screen shot below on the right. Healie is not a requirement but he is a big help since Ragnar can't heal himself without using a Medicinal Herb.

Story Requirements for The Hidden Playground:

- Grab Talaria from the Treasure Chest in the dungeon

- Speak with Healie and have him join your party

One floor above Healie you'll find a treasure chest with the Talaria in it, which is the item we came to this dungeon for. The location of this chest is shown in the screen shot above on the left. I think it's also called Winged Shoes in a different version of the game.

With both Healie and the Winged Shoes in hand, leave the dungeon and return to Strathbaile. To leave you'll want to keep going up until you reach a pit which you'll want to drop down into, shown in my screen shot below. There'll be a staircase in here which will lead to a room with a ton of treasures in it then out of the dungeon.

Return to Strathbaile, heal up and buy any new equipment that you need. Then head west of Strathbaile to our next location, Strathbaile Tower. Stand anywhere around the water's edge, like you see in my screen shot below and then go into your inventory and use the Talaria item we got from the previous dungeon. This will fly you to the top of the tower.

Try to speak with the kid standing next to the monster when you land at the top of the tower and he'll retreat inside. Navigating the tower isn't all that difficult, make sure you get the treasure chests on your way down, one has a Cautery Sword in it which has way more attack power than any other weapon you can get. Equip it immediately when you find it.

Keep heading down until you find the room in the basement with the kid and the monster we saw when we first arrived. There will also be a really old guy standing on a raised piece of stone. Speaking with this old man will trigger the boss fight, so heal up before you do!

For the boss fight I recommend taking out the Winky first, then focusing entirely on the boss. Honestly the fight shouldn't be that difficult for you, if you didn't spend the time grinding gold to buy gear then you'll want to be at least level 9 or 10 before challenging this boss.

After you defeat the boss go up one floor then exit the tower. You'll be at ground level outside. Use the Talaria item to be sent up to the top of the tower where you can turn around and walk off. This will place you back on the side of the river that Strathbaile is on.

Return the kids to Strathbaile then return to Burland; you can use the Chimera Wing to quickly shoot over to Burland if you want. Speak to the King in Burland to receive your final reward on Ragnar for saving the kids.

 

Continue to Chapter 2 - (Alena's Chapter)