King’s Quest 3 Playthrough Analysis

This chapter records a game-specific, clean-room reconstruction of a maximum- score winning playthrough for the local KQ3 evidence set. It is intended to become a repeatable conformance scenario, not part of the portable AGI engine specification. The route was derived from canonical logic, vocabulary, object, picture, view, and locally supplied spell-text resources without consulting an external walkthrough.

The result is currently a static candidate route. Logic control flow, messages, parser vocabulary, inventory transformations, score mutations, and room transitions support a complete 210-point route. Exact movement, wizard and pirate timing, mountain navigation, and the final input stream still require replay under the original interpreter.

Evidence Method

The reusable playthrough index can be generated with:

AGI_GAME_DIR=games/KQ3 \
  python3 -B tools/logic_playthrough_index.py \
  --output build/playthrough/kq3/index.json

The index contains 125 readable logic resources, 2,994 parser conditions, 277 room transitions, 67 score mutations, and 55 inventory slots. No logic failed to decode. Logic 101 assigns 210 as the declared maximum score.

All positive score sites total 215. Logic 14 contains two four-point position branches for completing the same spider-removal sequence, guarded by one completion flag. Logic 39 likewise accepts pet dog and get dog hair as alternate one-point parser routes to the same inventory state. Removing the duplicate four- and one-point sites gives exactly 210. No negative score action is present, so maximum play depends on collecting every intended award and avoiding mutually exclusive duplicate counting.

The seven successful spell preparations are represented by separate one-time flags and award ten points each. Their resulting inventory objects occupy synthetic locations 121 through 127 before being collected or activated. The local SPELLS.TXT supplies the exact recipes and empowering verses used below.

A direct renderer sweep produced all 97 present pictures without error. The contact sheet corroborates Manannan’s mountaintop house and laboratory, Llewdor’s forest, desert, village and bandit tree, the pirate ship, landing beach, snowy mountain labyrinth, ruined Daventry, cloud-top dragon ground, and restored castle ending.

Story and Winning State

Seventeen-year-old Gwydion lives as the wizard Manannan’s slave. He must use the wizard’s absences and sleep periods to discover a hidden laboratory, collect ingredients, and prepare magic without being caught. A cat cookie hidden in porridge transforms Manannan permanently and frees Gwydion.

The Oracle then establishes that Gwydion is Prince Alexander of Daventry and that his sister, Princess Rosella, is about to be sacrificed to a three-headed dragon. Alexander buys passage across the ocean, escapes the pirates, crosses the mountains, kills the dragon with a magical storm, and frees Rosella.

Entering the castle hallway with Rosella awards the final four points and leads to logic 74. King Graham and Queen Valanice welcome both children, the magic mirror clears, Graham throws his adventurer’s hat toward them, and the game displays its completion congratulations. The conformance route must enter this terminal sequence with score 210.

Timed House State

Manannan cycles among four broad states: awake at home, away on a journey, asleep, and returned hungry. He also assigns one of five chores: clean the kitchen, empty the chamber pot, prepare food, dust the study, or feed the chickens. Failure, forbidden-room discovery, visible ingredients, a missing wand, or detected spellcraft can cause punishment, confiscation, or death.

The static route therefore follows these invariants until Manannan is transformed:

1. Complete each assigned chore before its deadline.
2. Enter the bedroom, study, or laboratory only while Manannan is away or safely asleep.
3. Return the brass key to the closet top after opening the wand cabinet.
4. Replace the wand in the cabinet, relock it, close the trapdoor, and replace the concealing book before Manannan returns.
5. Hide all suspicious carried objects under Gwydion’s bed before an inspection, then retrieve them during the next safe interval. The first successful bulk hiding awards four points.
6. Keep ordinary bread, fruit, or mutton available for early hunger cycles. Do not offer the poisoned porridge until the cat cookie is ready.

These rules define the safe state transitions; exact timer values and the fastest deterministic schedule remain replay work.

Candidate Route

House tools and discoveries

1. Obey the opening order to sweep the kitchen. During safe intervals, climb to the telescope tower and take the dead fly’s wings for one point.
2. Search Manannan’s bedroom thoroughly. Search behind the closet contents for the magic map, feel along the closet top for the brass key, and search the vanity drawers for the hand mirror and rose-petal essence. These four discoveries award 7, 3, 1, and 1 points.
3. In the kitchen take the wooden spoon, knife, clay bowl, bread, fruit, and mutton for one point each. Take the tin cup from the dining-room table for another point.
4. In the study, move the large book and pull the hidden lever. This opens the trapdoor and awards five points. Use the brass key on the cabinet and take the wand only while actively performing spell work.
5. Descend to the laboratory for its four-point first discovery. Take the six required shelf ingredients, each worth one point: powdered fish bone, saffron, nightshade juice, mandrake-root powder, toadstool powder, and toad spittle.
6. Hide the accumulated contraband beneath Gwydion’s bed before Manannan can inspect him. Preserve the four-point first-hide award while following the replacement rules above.

House tools and discoveries contribute 39 points.

Llewdor ingredients and side quests

The following collections can be interleaved with safe house visits and spell preparation:

1. Catch a chicken and pluck one small feather. Pluck hair from Manannan’s cat. Each acquisition awards one point.
2. In the desert take the dried snakeskin and the unusual cactus for one point each. Defeat Medusa by averting Alexander’s eyes and pointing Manannan’s hand mirror at her; the reflection solution awards five points.
3. At the large oak, collect the dried acorns for one point and find the hidden rope to lower the ladder for three. Reach the bandit treehouse for two points. Later, while transformed into a fly, enter the root hole for another five-point discovery.
4. Listen to the bandits’ tavern conversation until the treehouse clue completes for three points. Enter while the resident bandit sleeps and take the coin purse for four.
5. Pet the storekeeper’s dog or explicitly take its fur. Either parser route awards the same single point. Buy salt, lard, fish oil, and an empty pouch for one point each. Make all four purchases before surrendering the purse for ship passage.
6. Enter the Three Bears’ house while it is empty. Take the just right porridge for two points and the silver thimble for one. Outside, fill the thimble with flower dew for one.
7. Take dried mistletoe near the coast, wet mud from the stream with the spoon, and ocean water with the tin cup. Each is worth one point.
8. Visit the Oracle and receive the amber stone and Alexander’s identity for three points. Find and take the eagle feather for two.
9. Complete the eagle transformation and use it to remove the giant spider guarding the cave. The two position branches converge on one four-point completion state; only one award is reachable.

These Llewdor collections and side quests contribute 48 points. Cumulative score before spell completion: 87.

The Seven Spells

Each recipe must be performed in the laboratory with the wand temporarily removed from its locked cabinet. Steps are ordered, and the empowering verse must be recited exactly. A wrong ingredient, action, sequence, or verse enters a failure branch instead of awarding ten points.

Understand creatures

1. Put the chicken feather, dog fur, and snakeskin into the bowl.
2. Add a spoonful of powdered fish bone and the thimbleful of dew.
3. Mix with the hands, separate the dough into two pieces, and put them in Alexander’s ears.
4. Recite:

Feather of fowl and bone of fish,
Molded together in this dish,
Give me wisdom to understand
Creatures of air, sea and land

5. Wave the wand.

The dough remains in the ears and permits understanding animal speech. It is useful for optional identity clues and for the pirate-hold treasure directions.

Fly like an eagle or fly

1. Put saffron into the rose-petal essence.
2. Recite:

Oh winged spirits, set me free
Of earthly bindings, just like thee.
In this essence, behold the might
To grant the precious gift of flight.

3. Wave the wand.

Dip the eagle feather or fly wings into the transformed essence to select a temporary form. Eagle begone! Myself, return! and Fly, begone! Myself, return! restore Alexander early. Use the fly form at the oak root hole and the eagle form against the giant spider.

Random teleportation

1. Grind the salt and mistletoe separately in the mortar.
2. Rub the Oracle’s amber stone in the mixture, then kiss it.
3. Recite:

With this kiss, I thee impart,
Power most dear to my heart.
Take me now from this place hither,
To another place far thither.

4. Wave the wand.

Rubbing the finished stone teleports Alexander to a random supported location. It can shorten timed returns but is not a guarantee of safety.

Deep sleep

1. Grind the acorns, put their powder in the bowl, add nightshade juice, and stir with the spoon.
2. Light the brazier, heat the mixture until most liquid is gone, remove it, spread it on the table, and wait for it to dry.
3. Recite:

Acorn powder ground so fine
Nightshade juice, like bitter wine,
Silently in darkness you creep
To bring a soporific sleep

4. Wave the wand and put the powder in the purchased pouch.

On the pirate ship, pour the powder on the floor of the dank, dark hold and recite Slumber, henceforth! to put the nearby crew to sleep.

Transform another into a cat

1. Put mandrake-root powder, cat hair, and two spoonfuls of fish oil into the bowl. Stir the oily dough, put it on the table, shape it into a cookie, and let it harden.
2. Recite:

Mandrake root and hair of cat
Mix oil of fish and give a pat
A feline from the one who eats
This appetizing magic treat

3. Wave the wand.

Put the finished cookie into the just right porridge before serving it to Manannan.

Brew a storm

1. Put the cup of ocean water in the bowl. Light the brazier and heat the bowl slowly without boiling, then remove it.
2. Add the spoonful of mud and toadstool powder, then blow into the brew.
3. Recite:

Elements from the earth and sea,
Combine to set the heavens free.
When I stir this magic brew,
Great god Thor, I call on you.

4. Wave the wand and pour the brew into an empty jar.

To activate it outdoors, stir with a finger and recite Brew of storms, Churn it up!. The corresponding early-stop phrase is Brew of storms, Clear it up!.

Become invisible

1. Cut the cactus with the knife, squeeze its juice onto the spoon, and put the juice into the bowl.
2. Add the lard and two drops of toad spittle, then stir.
3. Recite:

Cactus plant and horny toad
I now start down a dangerous road
Combine with fire and mist to make
Me disappear without a trace

4. Wave the wand and return the ointment to the empty lard jar.

The single application works only where fire and mist coexist. Preserve it for the dragon’s cloud land.

Completing all seven preparations contributes 70 points. Cumulative score: 157.

Freeing Alexander

1. Put the cat cookie into the porridge.
2. During Manannan’s next hungry return, place the poisoned porridge before him. Do not offer another food first.
3. Manannan eats it without detecting the substitution and becomes a cat permanently. The completed transformation awards 12 points.
4. Retrieve all hidden possessions and the safely replaced wand as needed. Manannan no longer controls the house or its timers.

Cumulative score after liberation: 169.

Pirate voyage and treasure

1. Finish every Llewdor score event and store purchase before arranging passage. In the tavern show or give the remaining purse to the drunken captain. He takes it and awards three points.
2. Reach the dock before departure and board the ship for two points. The crew confiscates Alexander’s possessions and locks him in the cargo hold.
3. With the animal-language dough still in place, listen to the mice. Their useful account locates buried treasure five paces east of a lone palm on the destination beach.
4. Cast the prepared sleep powder in the dark hold. Climb the crates and rope ladder to escape for two points while the crew sleeps.
5. Enter the captain’s cabin, open his chest, and recover all confiscated possessions for three points. Take the shovel beside the lifeboat for one.
6. Wait until the ship anchors near land, leave it, and reach the beach. First arrival awards five points.
7. From the lone palm, move five paces east and dig with the shovel. Recovering the pirates’ treasure chest awards seven points.

The passage, ship, arrival, and treasure chain contributes 23 points. Cumulative score: 192.

Mountains, dragon, and home

1. Follow the cliff and cave route through the mountain range. Avoid falls, preserve both transformation components in the wind, and evade the Abominable Snowman. Completing the evasion awards four points.
2. Descend into ruined Daventry and speak to the old gnome if desired. His messages confirm Alexander’s identity and Rosella’s imminent sacrifice.
3. Reach the dragon’s cloud land. Use the invisibility ointment where the dragon’s fire and surrounding cloud mist satisfy its activation condition.
4. While unseen, activate the storm brew. Lightning kills the three-headed dragon and awards seven points.
5. Approach Rosella only after the dragon is dead and untie her for three points. Lead her down to the castle.
6. Enter the castle hallway with Rosella. This awards four points and starts the terminal family-reunion sequence.

The mountain contributes 4 and the dragon/rescue/return contributes 14. Final score: 210.

Score Ledger

The raw positive-site equation independently gives the same result: 215 - 4 - 1 = 210, where four is the second spider-position branch and one is the second dog-fur parser branch.

Deaths and Maximum-Score Dead Ends

• Ignore a chore, miss a return deadline, disturb sleeping Manannan, or remain in a forbidden room when he appears.
• Let Manannan see contraband, spell ingredients, the open trapdoor, or the missing wand. Repeated punishment can become terminal.
• Perform any spell step out of sequence, use a wrong ingredient, recite an incorrect verse, or omit the wand.
• Consume or lose a unique ingredient before its recipe is complete.
• Look directly at Medusa or let her touch Alexander before using the mirror.
• Touch the giant web as a human or fly, throw away the eagle transformation, or approach the spider incorrectly.
• Wake or get caught by a bandit, lose the purse before all store purchases, or miss the ship after paying the captain.
• Board without the sleep powder, storm brew, invisibility ointment, or other required possessions; there is no ordinary return to Llewdor.
• Let the pirates catch Alexander repeatedly, fall from the mast, walk the plank, enter shark water at the wrong time, or fail to recover possessions.
• Dig randomly without the mice’s coordinate, leave the shovel aboard, fall in the mountain labyrinth, or let the snowman catch Alexander.
• Expose Alexander to the dragon, activate the storm without invisibility, let the map burn in the dragon’s heat, or untie Rosella while the dragon lives.
• Reach the castle without Rosella; its doors remain closed and the terminal reunion cannot begin.

Next Validation Work

1. Turn the safe-state invariants into an exact chore, absence, sleep, and inspection schedule under the original interpreter.
2. Record parser input for every spell step and verify all seven ten-point awards, including representative wrong-step failures.
3. Resolve exact movement and timing for Medusa, the spider, bandits, ship, treasure coordinate, snowman, dragon, and Rosella.
4. Record score, inventory, room, and story checkpoints at 39, 87, 157, 169, 192, 196, and 210.
5. Package the validated input stream, screenshots, and terminal assertions as a repeatable implementation-conformance playthrough.