Guidance for "Midnight. Swordfight."

by Chandler Groover

At the game's beginning, you're intended to die a few times. Eventually the text in the 

room description will change and tell you to "wake up." Do that. "Waking up" again will 

return you to the Stroke. You can "wake up" indefinitely to toggle back and forth.

If you ever get stuck, the first thing you should do is examine your playscript. Its text 

changes in every room and tells you what you ought to be doing. However, mechanically 

speaking, there is no way to get stuck. You cannot lock yourself into or out of any situation, 

so don't worry about that.

Your actions in this game are limited to the verbs listed in your playscript. There's no 

need to try testing other verbs. Most other verbs will not work.

More explicit hints are given below. 

Don't continue reading unless you want to see them.

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You want to survive the duel with the countess. You can achieve that by changing 

her weapon or your weapon or your costume. To change her weapon, drop a 

replacement Behind the Polar Bear. To change your weapon, drop a replacement on 

the Grand Staircase. To change your costume, wear another when you are inside the 

palace; when you "wake up" and you are On the Stroke, you'll still be wearing it.

There are three available costumes.

Different costumes allow you to use different verbs when you wear them.

You begin the game wearing your motley.

You can find a pig carcass in the Cloak Room.

Take the hands from the grandfather clock in the Black Salon and then talk to the Red 

Death to obtain the graveclothes.

There are four available weapons.

When the game begins, the cutlass is already on the Grand Staircase and the rapier is 

already Behind the Polar Bear.

You can find a tremendous kielbasa in the Banquet Hall.

When you wear the pig carcass, you can fly to the Moon from the Landscape Garden or 

the Fountain to obtain the vorpal blade.

Finally, you can talk to Matilda in the Fountain when you are wearing the graveclothes.

This game has no "optimal" ending. It has over twenty-five different outcomes, and

therefore "reaching the ending" is not the game's main objective. It is designed to be 

explored and reconfigured until every player has come to their own understanding.

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Explicit walkthroughs to reach three endings will be given below. They take the shortest

possible routes and bypass many features in the game.

Don't continue reading unless you want to see them.

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To sabotage the countess:

X countess

X Ferdinand

X Onegin

X garden

ATTACK countess

WAKE UP

F

F

CC

P

TAKE kielbasa

F

C

DROP kielbasa

WAKE UP

ATTACK countess

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To infect the countess:

X countess

X Ferdinand

X Onegin

X garden

ATTACK countess

WAKE UP

F

F

CC

TAKE hands

TALK TO Red Death

WHAT

HOW

WHAT

WHAT

WHAT

HOW

WEAR graveclothes

WAKE UP

INFECT countess

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To kill the countess in a swordfight:

X countess

X Ferdinand

X Onegin

X garden

ATTACK countess

WAKE UP

F

F

CC

P

CC

WEAR pig

P

P

FLY

TAKE vorpal blade

FLY

F

F

C

F

C

P

DROP vorpal blade

WAKE UP

ATTACK countess