Dragon Quest IX: Walkthrough Chapter 1
You begin the game in the Celestrian Observatory and the first thing you're tasked with doing is speaking to the Major whose found on the floor just above yours. Prior to speaking with him though I would recommend running around and collecting all of the treasures as well as speaking to people you come across in the Celestrian Observatory.
This is one of the only tips I will give you for playing the game - make use of the L and R buttons which rotate your camera and learn to check every room you're in using them if there is no obvious way forward. There are tons of treasures and puzzles which require you to rotate the camera.
When you are ready to advance the story forward, go to the upper floors and speak with Apus Major there (shown in the screenshot above). After speaking with him, speak with Aquila in the room to the left of Apus Major.
The Yggdrasil Tree can be found by going out the southern door on the second floor then up all of the staircases until you reach the tree. On your way up to the tree you'll pass three treasure chests, shown in my screenshot below. Interact with the tree once you get there, speak with Aquila then head back to Apus Major.
Apus Major will send you to a young lady standing next to the portal on the first floor of the Celestrian Observatory; speak with her to be sent to the town of Angel Falls. In this town you'll need to complete some simplistic tasks which will reward you with Benevolessences, the same thing we gave the tree of Yggdrasil earlier.
To make things easier I have created a quick list for all three of the Benevolessences that we need to collect. If you find it easier, use the map below - all three are marked on that as well.
Benevolessence #1: Clean the stables in the southwestern part of town.
Benevolessence #2: Bring the Keepsake Ring back to the old lady in the church.
Benevolessence #3: Speak with the lost spirit in the northeast part of town
With the third and final Benevolessence in hand Aquila will bring you back to the Celestrian Observatory where you'll want to head straight to the Yggdrasil Tree and give it your Benevolessence to advance the story forward. Watch the long scene at the tree and when everything is said and done you'll be back in Angel Falls - this time without wings!
First thing that you'll need to do in Angel Falls is speak to the Mayor (the house furthest west in the village). After speaking with him you'll want to return to Erinn's house, on the eastern most side of the village and enjoy a meal here. You'll also spend the night at Erinn's house, after which you'll be able to leave the village.
Our first stop is the place on the map above that says 'Mountain Pass'. Here you will find the crashed Starlight Express and watch a scene with Ivor required for progressing the story and speak with Ivor again by the land slide. In addition to this you'll also find a treasure chest here with a Gold Ring. Return to the Mayor's House in Angel Falls once you have both things completed.
Before heading to the next official destination, The Hexagon, you'll want to level up your main character a bit first - level 5 is a good level to stop at. When you need to rest speak with Erinn in Angel Falls, she'll let you rest for free at her house. Before leaving for The Hexagon be sure to stock up on Medicinal Herbs too. We'll run out of Mana pretty quick so you'll want an alternative way to heal. Use my map above if you need help finding the dungeon.
Inside The Hexagon the first thing you will want to do is examine the stone inscription along the northern wall, this will cause a ghost to spawn which you'll want to follow to the statue in the west and hit the switch you discover. This will move the stone inscription blocking the path and let you pass.
The rest of the dungeon is rather straight forward; you'll find Patty - the person you need to speak to in order to advance the story forward and to trigger the boss fight of the dungeon on floor B1. Use my maps above if you're having trouble navigating the dungeon and finding the treasure chests without. You probably don't need help though.
When you're ready to fight the boss of the dungeon heal up and speak with Patty. Honestly the boss isn't that difficult at all - I was level 6 and only had to heal a single time throughout the whole fight. Return to Angel Falls after you've saved Patty and go inside of the Inn for a cutscene.
After the scene speak with the ghost out front of Erinn's house for another scene, you'll also now have "Battle Records" available for whenever you wanna take a look at them. This ghost will also tell you about a gold statue he has hidden behind the Inn. Go to the same location you see me standing in the screen shot below and examine the bush to find an Inny, the gold statue he was talking about.
Show the Inny you just found to the ghost and then to Erinn inside of her house. Once you've watched all the scenes and fully updated the story, leave Angel Falls and return to the Mountain Pass area we were at earlier. Approach the train that's here and examine the door to trigger a scene with Stella.
When you're done exit Mountain Pass to the northeast and head to Stornway which is the large castle-like building found in the center of this area. This is the next town and also where we're going to get out whole party coming up!
Here's what you're going to want to do in Stornway, speak with everyone at the Inn then exit the Inn and run around town collecting all of the goodies. There's tons of stuff in this town and it'll take you a good few minutes to collect it all. Don't forget the well and the stairwell going down into a basement near the Inn.
After you've collected all you can find return to the Inn and Erinn, Patty and everyone else will be behind the counter now. Speak with Patty and she'll allow you to recruit three different party members to make up your team or create your own three party members. There are more classes than what are currently available from Patty - but you can't unlock them until later in the game.
The team I decided to go with was a Priest, Martial Artist and a Warrior. Both the Martial Artist and the Warrior are DPS while the Priest is there to keep everyone alive, basically the most rounded out team you can make. You can copy my team setup or not - it really doesn't matter.
Once you've got three new team members the first thing you're going to want to do is level them up and gear them up.... Yup you've guessed it - that means a TON of grinding! You'll want your whole team to be about level 7 - 9. If you got a lot of gold to buy them all weapons and gear a lower level will work just fine, if they're all almost naked you're going to want to get them a bit higher in level.
If you find the enemies just south of Stornway to be too easy I would recommend traveling east across the bridge to the other piece of land. The enemies over here will be a tad bit harder and give a bit more EXP.
Note: In the area southwest of Stornway you'll find another entrance to The Hexagon with a treasure chest and some other goodies in pots next to it. It's the path that leads up into the woods on the map, it's impossible to miss.
When you're finally ready to advance the story forward, inspect the sign post in the center of Stornway to learn about the King's request. After you've done this you can enter the castle by talking to one of the guards at the entrance.
As you can imagine there is a ton of goodies for you to collect in this castle and people to talk to. Sometimes when you talk to someone in Dragon Quest 9 they'll begin a side quest, these sorts of side quests are all extremely short and there are almost 200 of them in the game. They usually have you complete very basic things, like bring an NPC a few items or go find an item in a nearby area and bring it back to them etc etc.
You may find a few of these quests throughout Stornway town and castle when talking to the NPCs. I'll only cover the important side quests in this guide.
Sidequest #004 (Pick Me Up A Panacea)
Task: Make the man a Panacea
Reward: Gleeban Guinea & Alchemy Recipes
Sidequest #005 (Herb'list)
Task: Give the man 1 Medicinal Herb, 1 Antidotal Herb & 1 Moonwort Bulb
Reward: Gleeban Groat & Quest 006 Unlocked
Sidequest #006 (Get Well Water)
Task: Bring the man 1 Angel's Tear
Reward: Seed of Life
Sidequest #007 (Curious Crevice)
Task: Bring him 1 Slimedrop (dropped commonly by slime enemies)
Reward: Seed of Strength
Sidequest #008 (Don't Cry Over Spilt Ink)
Task: Bring him Magic Water
Reward: Seed of Magic
Sidequest #010 (Wings of Love)
Task: Bring him Wing of Bat
Reward: 200 Gold
Continuing with the story... If you're having trouble finding the King, go up the stairs in the central part of the castle to find the throne room.
The Wight Knight is found north of Stornway, cross the small bridge directly north of town and go north again when you're in the new area. Almost directly north of where you enter there's a clearing next to the river, you'll meet/fight the Wight Knight here (screenshot below). The fight itself is really simple, he doesn't hit hard at all and his only special attack isn't that much more impressive than an auto attack.
Once the fight is over return to Stornway and speak with the King. When you try to leave the castle his daughter Simona will grab your attention and ask to speak with you in her room about Brigadoom. She tells you our next destination, the town of Zere. It's found northwest of where we fought the Wight Knight (on the map above it's the heart shaped area at the top of the map).
Continue to Chapter 2 (Zere, Brigadoom, Coffinwell, Quarantomb, Alltrades Abbey, Tower of Trades)