Stage 14: Tomb of Varn: The Control Cube (Hardest Dungeon)
Approx. level 36-44 Dragonsand
With all four Memory Crystals seated, the Oracle sends you after the fifth and final piece it needs: the Control Cube, buried deep in the Tomb of Varn in Dragonsand. This is, by every source's reckoning, the single hardest dungeon in the game — gigantic, packed with magic-immune Guardians of Varn and elemental genies, and gated behind a six-scroll password puzzle defended by radiation rooms. Bring your best gear and a fully mastered party (roughly level 36-44), and budget real time. Reach the pyramid via the New Sorpigal → Dragonsand warp and enter at the top to the northwest.
Getting there & the golden rule
From New Sorpigal, take the invisible Dragonsand teleporter (the same warp you used for the Shrine of the Gods power-start) and fly to the large pyramid in the northwest of the region; the entrance is at its top. Before you commit, understand the two mechanics that define this dungeon. First, deep inside are radiation rooms that drain your party constantly — you neutralize the radiation by holding a Crystal Skull on screen, and you cure accumulated radiation by bathing in any of the cleansing pools scattered through the tomb. Second, the exit puzzle only activates once you are carrying all six code scrolls; if you skip even one, the pools will not prompt you for a password. Plan to grab every scroll and at least one Crystal Skull before attempting the codes.
The most important survival step in the whole dungeon: set a Lloyd's Beacon in the huge central pyramid room, before you ever push into the radiation areas. The genies and Guardians will pin you in corners, and the radiation rooms can wear the party down faster than you can heal. With a beacon planted in the relatively quiet main room, you can recall out the instant a fight or a radiation drain turns deadly, rest and re-supply in town, then warp straight back to your spot. The walkthrough explicitly recommends beaconing out after collecting each cluster of scrolls rather than grinding through in one breath.
Two enemy families fill the tomb, and both punish careless casters. The Genie / Djinn / Efreet line are elemental glass cannons — each shoots its own element (Genie: cold, Djinn: lightning, Efreet: fire) and is immune to magic as well as to its own element, so a fire spell does nothing to an Efreet and any pure-magic spell does nothing to any of them. The Defender / Sentinel / Guardian of Varn are far worse: jackalmen with huge HP (227 / 467 / 617) that hit for heavy physical plus energy and cast Psychic Shock. The top-tier Guardian of Varn is immune to every element AND to magic (only Physical gets through, and even that is resisted 30%), and it breaks weapons on hit. Lead every engagement from cover, pick enemies off with arrows and physical melee, and keep Protection from Magic / elemental resist buffs up against the Psychic Shock and breath attacks.
✅ Clear
- Defenders / Sentinels of Varn near the entrance halls and on the main-room ledges (good XP, and a Sentinel drops the Back Door Key)
- Genie / Djinn / Efreet packs blocking the scroll rooms (kill them with arrows and physical hits; magic is wasted on them)
- Guardians of Varn guarding each code-scroll chest (they hold the path; hit them physically only, they resist or shrug off all magic)
- Patrol / Enforcer / Patrol units in the final Control Cube vault (clear them before opening the chest)
⏭ Skip
- The outside dragons, wyrms and elemental lizards (Red/Blue/Gold Dragons, Great Wyrm, Thunder Lizard) on the way to the pyramid — fly over them; a Gold Dragon can KO a character in one hit
- Long corridors of genies between the Water Temple ledge and the library — the guide says to simply RUN past them rather than fight every one
- Any Guardian you can squeeze past on a narrow path — their weapon-breaking and magic immunity make them poor value when you only need the scroll behind them
Entrance halls. Genies guard both sides of the first hallway. Clear them, head east through more genies and a few Defenders of Varn, and go down the ramp. The lower area has masses of genies and a couple of Sentinels — kill the Sentinel to take the Back Door Key. Turn right into the enormous main room of the pyramid.
Main room (set your beacon here). Enemies are few and hide in the upper corners and on the far-right ledge. Drop your Lloyd's Beacon now. Go right toward the ledge, pick off the four Defenders above you with arrows, then enter the door below them. Kill the Guardians inside, take the west door, kill the genies, and press the switch to reveal a chest holding gold, a Crystal Skull (your radiation shield), the Flame Door Key, and the Captain's Code Scroll. Leave through the secret door to the east, which returns you to the main room.
Red door & the first radiation room. From your entry point, head to the red door on the north side. Activate the enemies behind it and shoot them through the center gap before opening it; an onslaught of Guardians waits. Hold the Crystal Skull on screen as you enter or you will take radiation damage — bathe in any pool to cure it. Clear this room fully (it matters later), then fall down the hole on the right. At the bottom, run down the hall ignoring the monsters until you reach a four-way room. Take the red-walled path; at the tee go north, then follow the path as it angles off into a room full of enemies. Fight from behind the wall in turn-based mode, then use Telekinesis to spring the chest's trap and open it from range: gold, the Water Temple Key, and the First Mate's Code Scroll. Beacon out and rest if you need to.
Water Temple. Back in the main room, go to the northeast corner and follow the path that juts left up an incline to a locked door. Use the Water Temple Key, enter, and kill the Guardians stuck on the descending path and the one at the bottom. The chest there holds the Bibliotheca Chest Key, the Navigator's Code Scroll, and a second Crystal Skull.
The Bibliotheca (library). Return to the first room and, on the high ledge above that door, walk off backwards to land on the ledge above the doorway. Inside, kill more Guardians, round the corner by the lamp on the floor, and drop the three genies. The cleanest route now is to run past the rest: east into a genie room, immediately right, and down a hall packed with genies and Guardians into the library. Cross to the far side of the tables, go turn-based, and use the Bibliotheca Chest Key on the chest for the Doctor's Code Scroll and the Varn Chest Key. Two scrolls remain hidden — see the spoiler note below. Beacon back to the main room.
The radiation pools (codes). Go forward into the final radiation room. Stand in each pool one at a time and type the code from the matching scroll. Do the Captain's code LAST. The exact reversed codes are in the spoiler block. When the waters part, fall down the new hole, open the northwest door, and destroy the Patrol / Enforcer units inside. Use the Varn Chest Key on the chest for lots of gold, some fine items, and — at last — THE CONTROL CUBE. Beacon out; you are done with the worst dungeon in the game.
The two hidden code scrolls
The library chest gives you only the Doctor's Code Scroll and the Varn Chest Key — but the exit puzzle needs all six scrolls. The final two are concealed right next to that chest, and you will not be prompted for a password until you have them. The exact trick is in the spoiler block below.
Show spoiler — SPOILER: the two hidden library scrolls
SPOILER: the two hidden library scrolls
After looting the library chest, click the two pictures on the far north and far south sides of the chest. The north and south paintings hand over the hidden Communications Officer's Code Scroll and the Engineer's Code Scroll — the fifth and sixth scrolls. With all six in hand, the radiation pools will accept passwords.
Show spoiler — SPOILER: the six radiation-pool codes (Captain LAST)
SPOILER: the six radiation-pool codes (Captain LAST)
Each code is the role's password spelled backwards. Stand in a pool and type its code; finish with the Captain's code, which parts the waters and opens the way to the Control Cube vault:
- Engineer's Code —
YTTOCS - Communications Officer's Code —
ARUHU - Doctor's Code —
YOCCM - Navigator's Code —
ULUS - First Mate's Code —
KCOPS - Captain's Code (do this one LAST) —
KRIK
The Tomb of Varn is the textbook case for the beacon network you built around Master Water Magic. With Master Town Portal you can hop to any of the six towns to heal, repair weapon-broken gear (Guardians and lizards both break items), and re-buff between scroll runs, and Master Lloyd's Beacon holds long-lived markers so the main-room beacon survives every detour. Treat the beacon as your save-and-retreat button: warp out the moment a Guardian pack or a radiation drain spikes, recover, and warp back. Many parties that "can't survive Varn" simply forgot to plant the beacon first.
On the GrayFace patch, Town Portal pauses the game and skips the unnecessary autosave, and Lloyd's Beacon no longer autosaves immediately after you spend the spell points. That matters here because you will be casting both constantly to shuttle in and out of the radiation rooms — the old autosave stutter on every warp is gone, so retreating is smooth.
⚙ Patch note: Town Portal now pauses the game and avoids unnecessary autosaves; Lloyd's Beacon no longer autosaves right after spending the spell points.
Two of the open-air fountains in Dragonsand are traps: one grants +10 Elemental Resistances permanently and another grants +10 to all statistics permanently, but both eradicate the drinker. Only a third fountain (+50 hit points) and the Shrine of the Gods (+20 all stats) are safe. Do not let a thirsty character drink the "+10 all stats" fountain expecting another power-up — it kills them outright. (The Shrine of the Gods +20 was already claimed back in the prelude.)
The Control Cube completes the Oracle's fifth and final retrieval quest. Beacon back to Free Haven, take care of any training first (Ironfist is a great place to grind levels), then enter the Oracle to turn in the Cube — this opens the Control Center and kicks off the Archibald / Ritual of the Void endgame chain in the next stage.
✅ Clear
- Defenders & Sentinels of Varn (entrance halls / main-room ledges) - solid XP, and a Sentinel carries the Back Door Key
- Genie / Djinn / Efreet packs blocking each scroll chest - they're magic-immune, so kill them with arrows and melee
- Guardians of Varn at the code-scroll chests - immune to all magic + all elements (Phys only), so hit them physically and watch for broken weapons
- Patrol / Enforcer units in the final vault before opening the Varn Chest
⏭ Skip
- Outside Dragonsand dragons/wyrms/lizards (Gold Dragon can one-shot a character) - fly over them to the pyramid
- The genie/Guardian corridor before the library - the guide says to run past, not fight, on the way to the scrolls
- Any Guardian you can slip past on a narrow ledge - weapon-breaking magic-immune tanks are poor value when you only need the scroll
- Tomb of Varn — now