__ __ __ __ __ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /__ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /__/ /__/ /__/ /__/ /__ /__/ /__/ __/ / / / / __ __ / / / /_/ /_ / / / / / /__ __ / / /__/_ __ __ __ / / /_ / _ / /\ / /\ / / /\ / / _ /__ _/ /__ /__/ / / \/ / \/ / / \/ /__/ Populous: The Beginning Playstation 1 This is a FAQ/Walkthrough Created by gamefan1221 FAQ Copyright: March 2004 Game Copyright: 1999 Bullfrog Productions Ltd. Versions: ------------------------------ Version 1.0> This is my first FAQ ever, so I’m just getting the hold of things. I think it will turn out ok…I hope. - Completed in March 2004 Version 1.1> Just had to go back and fix a few errors that I made. Should have other facts up soon. 4/3/04 Version 1.2> Few more errors I missed. Sorry about all that. 4/5/04 Version 1.3> I finally added the buildings guide. This should tell you everything you need to know about the structures. 4/6/04 Table of Contents: ------------------------------ I. Copyright A. legal info II. Introduction III. About the game IV. Controls (default) A. Menu controls B. In-game controls C. Analog Controls D. Spells and Buildings Menu E. Followers Menu V. Short Story VI. Game Screen A. Information Panel B. Map C. Query Panel D. Artifacts E. Miscellaneous Tips F. Followers G. Spells H. Construction VII. Winning and Losing VIII. Game Options A. Front End B. Options Menu C. Pause Menu IX. Building info A. Basic Huts B. Warriors Huts C. Priest Hut D. Guard Tower E. Fire warrior Hut F. Boat House G. Balloon Hut H. Spy Hut X. Credits I. Copyright (legal stuff) ----------------------------------- Last revised as of March 2004 This guide is copyrighted by gamefan1221, March 2004. It may not be, and shall not be in any way, shape or form, rewritten, copied or used unless under the permission of the author, who is me. Any selling, commercial portraying, or plagiarizing of this document shall be dealt with to the furthest extent of the law. Violation of the contract is a punishable offense. II. Introduction ----------------------------------- Just to add more to the above stated. I may sound harsh, but I am only doing what’s best. If any of this guide would like to be used by anyone, I will more than likely say yes. I hope this guide will help you in figuring out this extremely difficult, yet addicting and fun game. I found that it may be a hard game to learn, but a guide like mine will lower that stress you may have learning how to do everything. I would like to point out again that this is my first guide, and I will keep it updated till it is perfected. For now, I’m just going to have the basic and in depth knowledge of the game, but later I will include a full detail on all the levels which will give you an idea what to expect of them. Feel free to contact me of any errors I may have in this guide. III. About the Game ----------------------------------- “It’s time to become a god.” - Quote In Populous: The Beginning, you play the commanding lead of a god known as a Shaman, a spiritual leader of an Indian tribe. Your goal is to become a deity, a god for all eternity over every living thing. Throughout the game you must battle other tribes known as the Chumara, the Dakini and the Matak. You must battle and conquer each world you enter, crushing the enemies who stand in your way. Using your knowledge of magic power, you must build huge armies of men and unleash massive powerful spells in order to defeat your enemies. Only by achieving domination over every planet will you gain omnipotence. IV. Controls (default) ----------------------------------- Menu Controls: Action: Command: * Highlight Menu Item * Directional arrows up and down * Cycle Menu Items * Controller button (X) * Return to Previous Menu * Controller button (triangle) In-Game Controls: Action: Command: * Move Cursor * Directional Pad * Action (select objects or buildings * Controller Button (X) And command followers) * Cancel (selection of action) * Controller button (O) * Shaman (first press selects, second * Controller Button (triangle) press zooms) * Cast Spell * Controller Button (square) * Rotate Left * Controller Button (L1) * Rotate Right * Controller Button (R1) * Scroll Map * Controller Button (L1 + R1 + directional pad) * Toggle Spells/ Buildings Menu (press Twice across to access Buildings menu) * Controller Button (R2) * Toggle Followers Menu * Controller Button (L2) * World View * Controller Button (select) * Pause Menu * Controller Button (start) Analog Controls: Action: Command: * Move Cursor * Left Stick * Scroll Map * Right Stick Spells and Buildings Menu: Action: Command: * Move Menu Highlight * Directional Pad * Action (select) * Controller Button (X) * Toggle Spell ON/OFF * Controller Button (square) * Send Followers to Building * Controller Button (X) * Open Buildings Menu (when in * Controller Button (R2) Spells menu) * Close Menu (when in Buildings * Controller Button (R2) menu) Followers Menu: Action: Command: * Move Menu Highlight * Directional Pad * Action (select one follower) * Controller Button (X) * Deselect All * Controller Button (O) * Select All * Controller Button (square) * Close Followers Menu * Controller Button (L2) You may be wondering why I put all this down. Well the reason is that Populous is an extremely rare game for the Playstation and an old one as well. In that case, it may be hard to find this game to rent or purchase. And in like most cases, and I say this from experience, not many people still have the manual for this game, so it is hard to find a complete game. And this is one game where you will need the manual to learn the controls. So I wrote up the controls for those who forgets them and doesn’t have a manual to look off to remember. Instead you can just print these off to use. V. Short Story ----------------------------------- Before I actually get into the game I just want to explain a little more of the story and the on game screen in a little more detail. Please bare with me. “To realize the ultimate dream of becoming a god, you must conquer all the worlds in the Solar System. There are twenty-five worlds in the Solar System, divided into small groups of moons orbiting major planets. You start on the furthest moon from the sun and must work your way inward.” - Passage from manual (Page 7) Along with the controls in the game, there is an information panel to look off of. VI. Game Screen: ----------------------------------- *Information Panel: Blast is a special spell and is the spell you start off with in the game and it doesn’t require manna to cast and, therefore, doesn’t need to be charged like other spells. Things you will find on the Information Panel: (located on top left of screen) Enemy Tribes Icon: Appear only if that enemy tribe is on the world. This will be displayed as one of three colored blocks, each representing the tribes color. - Yellow- Matak - Green- Chumara - Red- Dakini Followers Selected: Number of followers you have selected. This is displayed below the Enemy Tribes Icon Shaman: Current activity of the Shaman and her health. If you have a dual shock controller activated, it vibrates when Shaman is under attack. This is located on the middle of the information panel. Currently Selected Spell: If the casting point is out of range of the Shaman, a red circle with a slash appears. If you use up all of your available shots, the selected spell defaults to Blast. This icon is located on the upper right on the information panel. Enemy Spell: The spell currently being cast by an enemy Shaman, displayed in the color of the enemy tribe. This icon is located in the lower right on the information panel. *Map: First, to be able to check out the map, the controller button (select) must be pressed. Once on the map, what can be viewed is: - Your Shaman which her icon looks like a blue square - Your Followers which are indicated by a blue dot - Your Enemy’s Followers which are indicated by the color of their tribe - And your Spell Charge Rate: the rate at which your spells are charging with mana. This is indicated by a colored bar at the bottom of the screen. *Query Panel: > To access the Query Panel, press (X) on a building, vehicle, or artifact - anything that requires followers to work. BUILDINGS: Displays the number of people in the building and the maximum it can hold. HUTS: Displays the number of people in the hut, the maximum it can hold, and two bars: birth progress at the located at the bottom. When each bar reaches it’s maximum, either a new Brave is born of the Hut is upgraded. TRAINING BUILDINGS: Displays the number of people in the building, the maximum it can hold, and the training progress. ARTIFACTS: Displays the maximum number of people required to worship the artifact and the worshipping progress. *Artifacts: > Each artifact must be worshipped to unlock it’s secret. (secrets are usually spells) > To worship an artifact, select either the Shaman or a number of followers, then move the pointer over the artifact, and press (X). - If you query the artifact press (X) while over the artifact. A Query Panel displays the maximum number of followers required to worship it. You don’t need to fulfill the maximum, but worshipping it is faster if you do. - When the followers are worshipping an artifact, the bar on the Query Panel indicates worshipping progress. There are four artifacts to discover in your Explorations. These are: STONE HEAD: An artifact that grants a prayer, to say In fancy words with either a single use spell or building. Single shots can only be used once, but they don’t require any charging to be able to use. OBELISK: Only a Shaman is allowed to worship this artifact. Otherwise nothing will happen. It often triggers an event important for conquering the world. TOTEM POLE: When this type of artifact is worshiped, it triggers a spell that is beneficial to you and your tribe. This could be an attack at your enemies, or an increase in your people or land. VAULT OF KNOWLEDGE: A monument that contains some kind of knowledge about the enemy. Once again, only your Shaman can worship this artifact, and any spells or buildings discovered are permanent and will stay with you for the rest of the game. *Miscellaneous Tips: (brought to you by Bullfrog Productions) - Reincarnation Site: Each Shaman has a site where she enters the world whether you are just starting the level or you have died and come back to life. It cannot be destroyed nor built on; however, it can be used as the starting point of a settlement. -Wildmen: Wildmen are men who belong to no tribe and instead just roam the lands looking like idiots. You can convert these men to become part of your tribe by using the Convert Spell. - Water: Your followers will drown if they fall in water. A Shaman will also. The only way you will end up going in the water is if you are hit into it by the opposing tribe. - Trees: Trees provide the necessary materials for building buildings. Each tree holds a maximum of four pieces of wood and will grow back whenever the tree is reduced. A completely cut down tree takes a lot longer to grow back. *Followers: > The followers menu is a table displaying how many of each type of follower you have and the jobs they are currently doing. The left-hand column, listing the total number of followers of that type, is always visible on screen. > To toggle the Followers menu ON/OFF, press controller button (L2). Selecting Followers from the menu: - To explore the menu, use the Directional Pad in any direction. - To select the highlighted follower, press (X); to select all followers, press (square). - To deselect all Followers, press (O). - The number of followers selected at the time is shown on the information panel like I have already told. NOTE: The maximum number you can have on at any time is 250. Selecting Followers from the game screen: - To select a follower, move the pointer over him, then press (X). - To select multiple followers, position the pointer on the ground, hold (X), and then move the pointer away. A white selection box appears. When you let go of (X), any followers within the box are selected. - To deselect your followers, press (O) - To select the Shaman at any time, press (triangle) On the followers job list, each row from left to right show the total; followers, idle followers, housed followers, working followers, the number of balloons with one or more followers inside, and the number of boats with one or more followers inside. *Spells: Selecting a spell from the manual: > To navigate the menu, use the directional pad in any direction. > To select the highlighted spell, press (X). The menu closes. When spells are displayed with a white box, that means that spell is unavailable. A spell that is available on the world but has not been discovered yet is displayed with a question mark. A single shot spell is a spell that can only be cast once and once only. It shows a white dot above the spell. A spell that has been turned off from charging shows no charging box below the spell. Press (square) to toggle the spell ON/OFF. When off, it doesn’t charge that spell but it charges other spells faster. Spells that are charging show a bar at the bottom of the spell to show how much it has charged. A spell that is fully charged will show the bar at the bottom, but no activity will occur. Casting Spells: > To cast a spell, move the pointer over the land, then press (square). If the target is out of range, then the Shaman walks over there till she can cast the current spell. - If you cast a spell on an object, building or person, the spell is fired directly on it. - If you have a dual shock controller activated, it vibrates when a land- alternating spell is cast, either by you or by the enemy tribe. - When your selected spell has run out of shots, it defaults to the Blast spell and the narrator will notify you of it sometimes. *Construction: To access the Buildings menu, press (R2) twice. Pressing it once opens up the Spells menu. To construct a building: 1. Use the directional pad to navigate the menu, then press (X) to select the highlighted building and close the menu. > When the menu closes, you have a yellow rectangle in the shape of the building with a ghostly image. This is the amount of space the construction of the building is going to need to be built. > You can place your building only next to existing buildings or the Reincarnation site. The only exception to this is the Guard Tower, which you can build anywhere. > If you cannot place it down on a particular spot, the rectangle is colored red. 2. When you find a spot of placement, press (X) to place the plan down. > To rotate the plan, hold down (X) and use the directional pad left or right. When you release (X), the plan is then placed down. < You can place the plan as many times as you want. To remove the plan from your cursor, press (triangle). 3. Braves are the only followers who can construct buildings, and they do so automatically. To command more Braves to build, select them and press (X) over the building that you want built. > To dismantle a building, select the deconstruct Icon from the Building’s menu, and then press (X) over the building you want destroyed. (crash) VII. Winning and Losing: ----------------------------------- In order to conquer or defeat each world, you must carefully follow all the instructions then narrator provides you with throughout the entirety of the level. On some worlds you may simply have to destroy the opposition, while on others you may have to perform some specified actions without being killed yourself. And last, you may have time limits on certain levels in which they must be beaten by a certain time. Losing is another matter. If all your followers are killed and your Shaman dies as well, you will lose the level. This is because you have no follower- generated man flowing to you, and so your Site is powerless. VIII. Game Options: ----------------------------------- Front End: NEW GAME: Begin a new game from the first world LOAD GAME: Load a previously saved game from a Memory Card OPTIONS: Go to the Options Menu TUTORIAL: Start the Tutorial (guide in how to play the game) CREDITS: View the credits Options Menu: SCREEN ADJUST: Readjust the position of the screen to your TV SOUND OPTIONS: Music volume: Increase/ decrease volume level FX volume: Increase/ decrease volume level Speech volume: Increase/ decrease volume level CONTROL OPTIONS *Control System: Choose one of the four alternative preset button configurations *Sticky Select: When ON, any followers you select and command remain selected until you press (O). When OFF, your followers you select and command are deselected after the command is given *Push Scroll: When ON, you can scroll the map by moving your cursor to the edge of the screen *Smart Menu: When ON, when you re-enter a menu, the highlighted is on the same icon you left it on when you last exited that menu. If Smart Menu is OFF, when you re-enter a menu the highlighted automatically defaults to the bottom left-hand corner *Dual Shock: If you’re using a Dual Shock Analog Controller, this turns the rumble effect ON or OFF Pause Menu: > To access the Pause menu from the Game screen, press (start). DUH GAME OPTIONS: Go to the options menu MEMORY CARD OPTIONS: *Load Game: Load a game currently saved to a Memory Card *Save Game: Each saved game requires up to fifteen spare slots of the Memory Card MISSION BRIEF: Replay the mission briefing speech done by the narrator. REPLAY SPEECH: Replay the last speech given to you by the narrator. RESTART LEVEL: Quit your game and start playing at the beginning of the current level. QUIT: Return to the main menu. Your current game will be lost. RETURN TO GAME: Resume play from the point at which you paused the game. IX. Buildings ----------------------------------- Building buildings are the key thing to do to increase followers and increase followers powers. Build as much as possible of each in order for followers to increase in population and in strength faster. Basic Huts: Each basic hut can hold 3 people, and increases your maximum population by 3. This is ok, unless you already have a large number of followers. Huts produce new braves even if empty, but produce them quicker when full. Full huts will be enlarged after a while to hold up to 5 braves, so this is a good way to expand when space is tight. Introduced on level 1. Warrior Hut: The warrior hut takes up the same amount of room as a basic hut, but allows you to build warriors. You will probably only want one of these at a time, unless you envisage training lots of braves in a short space of time. Only one follower can be trained to be a warrior at a time. Introduced on level 1. Priest Hut: The priest hut / temple takes up a little more space than the basic hut, and is where priests get trained. Once again, only one follower can be trained to be a priest at a time. Introduced on level 3. Guard Tower: Has a small footprint, can be built away from other buildings and accommodate one 'guard'. The Shaman, fire warriors, priests and spies in guard towers gain extra reach for their respective skills, and gain a level of protection from certain attacks. Use to defend a perimeter or to start a settlement away from your reincarnation circle. Introduced on level 4. Fire Warrior Hut: Takes up a lot of space, and is used to train fire warriors. Once again, only one can be trained at a time. Introduced on Level 8. Boat House: The Boathouse has to be built near other buildings, and on a shoreline, and the right way round, so can be difficult to place. Once it's built, send in one brave for every boat you want. It is a good idea to have a few braves collecting wood and leaving it outside the door for the boat builders to use. Boats can be a devil to use, and need to be closely watched. Introduced on level 5, but you won't learn the secret of building boathouses until level 11. Balloon Hut: The need for building this immense structure can often be negated by capturing enemy balloons; the same could also be said for boats. Like the boathouse; send in a brave for each balloon you need. NOTE: a Shaman in a balloon is very vulnerable; fire warriors will pick her off very easily! You will meet balloons on level 13: be ready for them! Spy Hut: The spy hut; a small building where braves go to learn pyromania and put sacks over their heads. Spy’s are invincible to the enemy tribe. Introduced on level 12. X. Credits: ----------------------------------- Well, I finally got it all done. It only took me a couple days, but version 1.0 is complete. Now comes the hard part, and that is adding all the levels, but that is going to take a little longer and I should have it to you within the next couple weeks. I think I will also add an FAQ for the Spells and the followers as well. I would like to thank my friends at home who are a huge fan of this game as I am, and were able to help with the details on the more detailed parts in the game. Also, the manual of the game Populous: The Beginning, help me get most of this guide done without much trouble at all. Just a few hours of work. I think though, I am going to take a break in writing these FAQ’s and go back to the simple reviews for games. Thanks for checking out my guide to playing the game, Populous: The Beginning for the Playstation 1.