Hints and spoilers for Eye of the Beholder I.

Graciously provided by Shanil Misra the Great.

Whew!  This (and the rest of this series) is one of the meanest and
most difficult RPG's I have ever come across.  The puzzles are
fiendish and the combat is really tough.  I really can't bother about
combat too much, so I cheated by editing the save game files and gave
myself LOTS of hit points (HP).

The start party I chose was a Paladin, a Fighter/Thief, a Mage
(essential) and a Cleric (essential).  One of the puzzles in this game
requires strength, so make one character VERY strong.

Some global hints

1.  Doors can be opened in the following ways:
    - a key that fits the lock
    - forced open (by a strong party)
    - opened with a button/lever on the door or wall nearby
    - your thief can pick SOME locks (careful - lockpicks break!)
    - activating some special mechanism or solving a puzzle

2.  Check the walls carefully for hidden buttons - they reveal secret
    passages containing valuable items.

3.  Pressure plates can be stepped on to open doors etc. or you can
    leave something on them - carry additional rocks for them.

4.  If you don't have maps, make maps!  Otherwise you can spend your
    time walking around in circles like a madman.

5.  The flashing purple lights are teleporters - they transport you to
    some other location on the same level.

6.  By the way, there are 12 "levels" in this game, each level being a
    32x32 grid of blocks (every time you move in a direction, you move
    one block), with the level incrementing when you go down a
    stairway and vice versa.

7.  Portals are doors with strange symbols on both sides.  Notice that
    one symbol is missing from each portal - place the matching "stone
    item" (eg. stone dagger in level 2) on this symbol to transport to
    ANOTHER LEVEL, and you can usually transport back as well.

8.  Gameplay - hope you have a mouse!!!
    I used the cursor keys to move, Home and PgUp changes direction.
    To use objects (eg. weapon, potion, spellbook) click the RIGHT
    mouse button on a hand of a character.  Some items are better than
    others especially magical ones (use detect magic), and some wands
    can be used this way (limited magic however).
    The LEFT mouse button is used to pick/drop items and select menus.
    You can use it to fight by picking up a weapon and clicking on an
    enemy - I prefer the latter way however.  The other functions are
    logical (hopefully!).

Level 1

Just kill a few goblins and slugs and find the staircase down - this
is behind a door near a pressure plate - put something on the plate
and press the button nearby.

I managed to find a Special Quest for this level - put a dagger into a
rectangular hole on a wall somewhere, and it turns into a magical
dagger "Guinsoo"!  If anyone has found any more special quests, please
make a posting to the Internet!

Level 2

You are faced with 3 doors (E,N,S) and one key.

Open the E door first.  Watch the pits, some have to be opened and
closed with pressure plates.  Get the key and other stuff and return
to the 3 doors.

Open the S door, and you come to an intersection.  If you go W, you
will see a wall with a strange rune - you can walk through this wall.
Later on you will see other walls like this, and with other writing or
objects, that you can go through.  If you go E, you'll be in a mini-
maze that makes you go in circles - watch your compass change
direction.  E, through two walls is a key and some stuff.  Come back
to the maze, which has two blocks in the centre.  Go in the centre and
look W at a wall with a rune - go through this wall, then using Home
and PgUp, turn until you spy a passage going W - freedom!

Open N door, carry on till you're in a 3x3 room (force open certain
doors) - this room has a secret passage to N.  Go back towards your 3
doors again - just before these doors, a passage has opened up to W.
Go there, somewhere here you'll find a stone dagger - this, and 7
other stone items are used to travel through portals which you will
see later.

The way to the next level is behind a N door near a teleporter - you
need a key however.  The key you get as follows:  somewhere there is a
W door leading to a one-block room.  Step inside, close door, press
button on wall - the room moves - step out and you are elsewhere.
Step in, repeat procedure, step out - elsewhere.  The third time you
do that, you are back to your starting place.  The key is in one of
these elsewhere places, and other stuff too.

Level 3

Straightforward level.  There is some stuff in a room with pressure
plates.  Walk around until you find a blue gem in a wall somewhere.
You will find a wall with 2 eyes - place this gem in the missing eye.
Walk around the walls with the eyes (watch your compass here!) and
find 3 more gems (4 in all) and place them in 4 eye slots - the eyes
will turn purple when you are successful.  A wall will open up in the
eye-walls, and two stairways go down here.  Take the S first, get some
items in a 3x3 room, then return here and take the N door.

Level 4

Go N beyond some illusionary walls and walk around.  The way down is
easy to find here.  Kill some spiders (hack their webs with a
longsword) and the stone sceptre is found in one of the spider lairs.
This level also has a portal (extreme N) that takes you to level 7
area 2, and the oracle of knowledge E of the portal (MUCH later on you
find an orb of power which you can place here - this releases power
that tells you the true nature of your magical items eg. some weapons,
rings, amulets.

Level 5

Dwarf level.  LOTS of fake walls here (behind silver objects and
runes).  There are 2 stairs down, but the "easy" one is blocked on the
next level, and the "difficult" one is beyond the room of teleporters.

Sooner or later you'll find the dwarves - they'll tell you their sad
story, and two objectives for you are to save their prince and heal
their king... achieved much later.  Walk around, the dwarf cleric is
somewhere N and he can resurrect the bones you pick up to become
members of your party.  Who you wish to resurrect or allow to join
your party is your choice and does not detract from the game plot.

The dwarves will give you a stone amulet which activates the portal on
this level (behind a N fake passage) - don't go anywhere now however.

Go W behind a door with a hidden switch to find some stuff.

Go S somewhere to a place with pits that open up behind you.  Open the
doors here.  There are 2 teleporters here - the E one takes you to the
W one which takes you out of this place.  You can get all the items
here, but DON'T take the boots, or you will fall through the pits.

Go E through a fake wall and you might arrive at a winding passageway
- watch your compass.  N of this passageway (and extreme E) is another
fake wall - continue N then W and you will be at the room of
teleporters.

                  Û<< in
             out  Û Û          1..9, A..F = teleporters
              ^   Û Û
             Û+ÛÛÛÛ Û          Û = wall
             Û  12  Û
             ÛF*ÛÛ 3 Û         * = lever
             ÛEDÛÛ45Û
                A 67Û             E
             Û CB9 ÛÛ            N+S
             Û Û* 8*Û             W
             Û ÛÛÛÛÛÛ

There are items here you can get if you want, but I will tell you the
way out, you spoilt person!  Here goes...

Walk into 2.  Pull lever at N.  Walk into B.  Pull lever in this
place.  Walk into 8.  Walk into 4.  Walk into 9.  Walk into 6.
Walk into E.  You are now at +.  Pull the lever around here, and
leave.  Beyond 3 doors is the stairway down.

Level 6

You need 3 dwarven keys to go down to level 7.

Beware when stepping onto pressure plates on this level - darts fly
from the walls and hit you, so step onto plate and quickly step back.
Collect as many darts as possible, there's a place where you'll need
about 20 darts.

When walking S somewhere you'll meet an evil powerful magician - run
to a larger level and avoid his magic by moving around and attacking
him, but make sure you kill him (I dunno what happens if you don't).

You will find kenku eggs in some rooms - you can eat them as food, but
save one or two for a bribe on level 7.

There's a portal here that takes you to level 10.  Don't go now.
W of the portal is a closed area with a pressure plate, and W and E of
the plate area are 2 pits - jump into both respectively (climbing up
brings you back to this area) to get 2 dwarven keys.

S of this area are 2 passageways - one is the place which has the
stairway and needs 3 keys to open up the passageway to the exit.
The other is an area beyond 4 pressure plates containing walls with
rectangular holes (cubbyholes).  Place a dart into each cubbyhole to
make the walls disappear - if you run out of darts go back to one of
the 4 pressure plates - here you will find the 3rd key and some other
stuff including a nice adamantite dart for combat.

This level has the stone ring, which you can only get much later on
coming up from level 7 to a closed area on this level.

Level 7

Drow level.  Here there are 4 main areas.

Area 1: Large, populated by lots of drow and flying fireballs -
explore fully, and eventually go down a stairway to level 8 area 2.
A stairway behind a door goes up to the stone ring room on level 6.

Area 2: A "room of portals" containing 5 portals.  This is used as a
halfway point later in the game so that you can get to other levels
easily and quickly.  Don't worry about the doors in this room.

Areas 3 and 4?
Two of a whole host of areas reached by coming up from level 8, using
methods like using certain keys or certain mechanisms.
Level 8 and 9 have these "areas" as well, all interconnected.
If I explain what to do in a certain "area", remember that an "area"
is a closed space with one or more rooms, and is reached from another
level.  These areas contain valuable weapons and magical items.  Most
areas have doors that need certain keys to open - if you're stumped at
one area, try the next and so on until you find the right keys.

Area 3: Come up from level 8 area 4, go past 3 doors, put an item in a
cubbyhole and press button - wall disappears, and you reach a room
with a pit - leap down without fear to level 8 area 3.

Area 4: Up from level 8 area 4 past 2 doors, and the door seals behind
you.  E, W and S are fake walls - E and W are many items and keys (and
baddies) and S are 4 doors that lead to area 2 on this level (I told
you don't worry about the doors).

Level 8

Area 1: Has 2 portals.  This large area can only be reached via portal
from level 7 area 2.  Explore this area as best you can - I found
items like a +3 sword and the Sceptre of Kingly Might here.  There are
stairways going down to level 9 area 1.

Area 2: This is the "centre" of the areas.  The first stair S takes
you up then back down to this level to an area (5) with a stair down
and a key.  There is a fake wall N that takes you to a door that can
only be opened with a ruby key.

Area 3: A teleporter takes you to a room with a teleporter which
takes you to area 4 on this level.

Area 4: Reached from level 9 area 3, or area 3 this level.
S of the stair down are two fake walls with a key.
N of the stair is an area with a mounting device and cubbyhole.  Put
some kind of key into this hole, press button and a gem will appear.
Put gem in mounting device and go through door.  Two stairways lead E
and W - E goes to level 7 area 3 and W goes to level 7 area 4.

Level 9

Area 1: Reached from level 8 or a portal from level 7 area 2.
There are some magical items here such as Stoneskin scroll and the
wonderful +5 "Severius" sword.  Go S beyond the Oracle of Devouring
and you will come to a stairway that goes to level 10.
You will come to a room that asks you for 4 items - a sword, armor,
rations and arrow, and a door will open.  Continue and you will arrive
at a place where "Severius" is found (6 fake walls) and some other
items are beyond here, with puzzles I could not solve.

Area 2: Storage - reached from level 8 area 5.  Some stuff.

Area 3: A place with 2 stairs up.  You need keys for every door in
this place.  You MUST have a gem for this place (can't remember where
I found one) - place gem in cubbyhole and you will get a key to open a
door to the S, which goes up to level 8 area 4.

Level 10

Reached from level 9 area 1 or a portal from level 6.  The portal from
level 6 takes you to a room with 2 portals, 3 doors and a passage S.
The E portal takes you back to level 6, the W portal takes you on a
ONE-WAY trip to level 8.  Don't worry about the teleporters to the S -
if you can solve them then congrat. but it isn't necessary.
The E-most door leads you to some items.

The W-most door leads you to the dwarf Prince - heal him and take him
back to the dwarves (using portals) and they will tell you of a way
out of this place.  Then return here.

The middle door takes you to a large place you can explore and fight
mantis creatures.  Eventually you will come to a place where you will
see a button on a S wall.  Press this button twice - turn and look N
and hey presto, a passage appears.  Walk N and press the button on the
W wall twice.  Another passage appears to the N.  Walk into the room
and leap down - this is the only way I managed to get to level 11 for
the first time.

Level 11

You will arrive in a room with a portal that can only be activated by
the stone symbol, found elsewhere on this level.  But first a few
tricks...

Around the portal block is a square wall with buttons, a star and a
fake wall as you would have gathered.  If you walk out of the fake
wall, you will come to a larger square wall with the same setup, and
out of here yet a larger square wall (the final one, whew).  If you
have read the signs, you would have seen "fate lies in stars" and
"alignment must be true".  This simply means that the stars must lie
in a straight line.  Less simply, it means that the stars in the inner
two square walls should point to one direction if you wish to exit
from the outer square wall.  So press the buttons on the inner walls
(pressing a button makes the wall rotate) until both stars point to
one direction (ie. if you look at them directly in front of you, your
compass direction must agree).  Another weird rule is that if both
stars point in one direction, you can only exit in the opposite
direction (eg. N for S).  So for starters, one would make the stars
point E, then press the W button on the outer wall to Go W.  So follow
the order I give you:

Go W: Here you will find the +4 "Slasher" sword.

Go N: Walk E, and a door S leads you to the "room of lever" where you
will find the potion to heal the dwarf king.  Come out and go E again
(be ready, the battle is tough here) and make your way S till you come
to a 3x2 room, the "room of the key".  A BIG but camouflaged switch
(damn the makers of this game) on the W wall opens a passage where you
can find the stone orb.

Go E: Arrive at a room with 3 inner blocks - the centre block has a
switch the opens a passage where you will find the stone symbol.  The
orb of power is around here in a secret room as well.
Caution!  There are some powerful creatures lurking here - try to
avoid the death spells (etc.) they hurl at you, then attack.

Now you have the stone symbol, you can go back to the dwarves using
the central portal.  They will be overjoyed and will give you the wand
of Silvias.  If you wish you can use the orb of power in level 4.
Then return to this level using the stone symbol.

Go S: Walk W and you come to a N-S passageway.
N leads you to a magical room where if you walk round and round in
different directions, you can pick of certain magical items.
S leads you to a W doorway that opens a 3x3 room.  The S wall of this
room has a switch that open to a large room.  Beyond a door lies a
portal, which by using the stone orb, takes you to level 12.  At last!

Level 12

I didn't worry about puzzles or items in this level, I just wanted to
find Xanathar.  I fiddled around with lampshades and switches, picked
up a few things and eventually found him E of a 2x2 room with 4
pressure plates.  Well I was told the wand of Silvias will help me -
it didn't do much for me, I can tell you that (can someone fill me in
here?), but to defeat Xanathar one can do one of 2 things - run to a
large area and avoid his death spells (etc. etc.) and attack him
repeatedly, or as I did, cheat.  All I did was alter my save game file
EOBDATA.SAV to bring my dead back to full health.

Sit back and enjoy the fantastic ending with extensive animation and
music (he he he).

Remember to keep your save game for Eye of the Beholder II (OH NO! NOT
AGAIN!)  Well, for the masochistic amongst you, comparing Xanathar to
the main dude in EOB2 is like comparing a mouse to a dragon (he he he)