How to Play

Adventure is parser-based interactive fiction. The game describes your surroundings in text, and you respond by typing short commands. You are not choosing from a menu. You are having a tiny, stubborn conversation with a very old computer cave.

The basic idea

Read each room description carefully. Important objects, exits, hazards, and clues are usually hidden in plain sight. Your job is to explore the cave, solve puzzles, collect treasures, and bring valuable items back to safety.

Most commands are simple verb-noun phrases:

• LOOK
• INVENTORY
• TAKE LAMP
• LIGHT LAMP
• EXAMINE GRATE
• UNLOCK GRATE
• GO NORTH
• N
• DROP KEYS
• SAVE
• RESTORE

You can usually abbreviate directions:

• N, S, E, W
• NE, NW, SE, SW
• U for up
• D for down

First things to try

At the beginning, explore the area around the small building. Go inside, gather anything useful, and investigate the outdoor locations until you find a way into the cave.

A good opening habit:

LOOK
INVENTORY
ENTER BUILDING
TAKE ALL
LOOK

Not every version understands every convenience command, so if TAKE ALL feels too modern for the cave goblin, take items one at a time.

Mapping matters

Make a map. Seriously. The cave is the true final boss wearing limestone armor.

Draw each room as a box and label the exits. Do not assume that going north and then south will always return you to the same place. Some passages are twisty. Some are intentionally confusing. Some are rude little geometry gremlins.

Inventory limits

You can only carry so much. This is part of the puzzle design, not a bug. Think of the game as a logistics challenge with bats in the attic.

When you find a safe central location, consider using it as a staging area. Drop objects you do not need immediately, then come back for them later.

Light and darkness

The lamp is one of the most important objects in the game. Underground exploration depends on it, and it will not last forever. Avoid wandering aimlessly with the lamp on. Save your game before long expeditions.

Useful commands include:

LIGHT LAMP
EXTINGUISH LAMP

Save early, save often

This is an older game with older manners. It may allow you to make poor decisions, waste turns, lose treasures, strand yourself, or get clobbered by cave wildlife with union representation.

Use:

SAVE
RESTORE

Save before trying strange commands, entering suspicious areas, or using important objects.

Parser expectations

The parser is clever for its era, but it is not a modern chatbot. Try short, direct commands. When a command fails, rephrase it simply.

Try:

GET BOTTLE
FILL BOTTLE
POUR WATER
THROW AXE
WAVE ROD
SAY XYZZY

The game may understand some magic words directly without SAY.

Scoring and treasures

The classic 350-point version rewards exploration, puzzle-solving, and treasure collection. In general, if something sounds precious, weirdly ornate, or too specific to be scenery, it is probably worth investigating.

Treasures usually need to be brought back to the proper safe place to score fully. The game is not only asking, “Can you find it?” It is also asking, “Can you get it home without turning the expedition into a mineral-flavored yard sale?”

New player advice

Do not rush to a walkthrough. Adventure is at its best when you are building your own mental cave system, testing verbs, and muttering at the screen like a wizard arguing with a filing cabinet.

Start with the spoiler-light hints. Use the walkthrough only when you are truly stuck or ready to see the machinery behind the stalactites.

Historical note

Adventure began as Will Crowther's cave-exploration game, inspired by real caving in Kentucky and fantasy role-playing. Don Woods later expanded it into the version that became famous across early networked computing culture. This Advent.z5 build represents the classic 350-point tradition in a portable story-file format.

Walkthrough

Spoiler warning: This page gives structural guidance for the classic 350-point Adventure / Colossal Cave Adventure route. It is not intended as a perfect command transcript. Random events, parser differences, inventory limits, and the exact Advent.z5 build can change the cleanest path.

If you want the real first-time experience, start with How to Play and Hints first. Use this page when the cave has started chewing on your boots.

Goal

Your broad goal is to explore the cave, solve its puzzles, collect treasures, and return those treasures to the proper safe location. A full-score run is as much about planning and inventory management as it is about solving individual puzzles.

Phase 1: Prepare outside the cave

1. Explore the starting area.
2. Enter the building.
3. Collect the essential supplies.
4. Find the grate.
5. Unlock and open it.
6. Enter the cave with the lamp.

Useful command patterns:

ENTER BUILDING
TAKE LAMP
TAKE KEYS
TAKE BOTTLE
TAKE FOOD
UNLOCK GRATE
OPEN GRATE
DOWN
LIGHT LAMP

If your version supports TAKE ALL, it may speed up the opening. If not, collect items individually.

Phase 2: Establish your cave route

Once underground, begin mapping immediately. Early rooms teach you the game's logic: passages may loop, descriptions matter, and useful items are often placed near the puzzle they affect.

Early priorities:

• Learn the route between the building and the deeper cave.
• Locate the cage.
• Notice the black rod.
• Find the bird.
• Identify the snake obstacle.
• Discover your first treasure areas.

Important reminder: the bird may not cooperate if you are carrying the rod. Drop the rod before trying to capture the bird.

Phase 3: Solve the first creature puzzle

The snake blocks progress in an important area. You do not usually solve this by attacking it directly.

General solution path:

1. Get the cage.
2. Capture the bird.
3. Bring the bird to the snake.
4. Release or drop the bird where the snake is blocking the way.

This opens more of the cave and makes additional treasures reachable.

Phase 4: Use objects where the cave hints at them

Some classic objects have very particular uses:

• The black rod affects certain cave obstacles when waved.
• The bottle can carry liquids.
• The food is not merely a snack.
• The axe becomes important after the dwarf encounter.
• The pillow matters for at least one fragile treasure.

Do not assume treasure can simply be grabbed and hauled out. Some treasures require a setup step before they can be safely moved.

Phase 5: Use magic words as shortcuts

The game contains magic words that function as travel shortcuts or puzzle mechanisms. When you discover an odd word, write it down exactly and test it in the place that seems connected to it.

Important magic words include:

XYZZY
PLUGH
PLOVER

These are not random Easter eggs. They are part of the cave's transportation logic.

Phase 6: Collect and deposit treasures

A treasure run usually works best in trips rather than one heroic loot-goblin sprint.

Recommended rhythm:

1. Explore a region.
2. Solve the local puzzle.
3. Collect one or more treasures.
4. Return them to the building/well-house area.
5. Drop them there.
6. Save.
7. Re-enter the cave for the next region.

Expect to juggle inventory. The lamp is usually non-negotiable underground, so plan around it.

Phase 7: Handle hazards

Dwarves

After the dwarf event introduces the axe, retrieve it and keep it available. Later dwarf encounters may require quick violence, because apparently cave labor relations in the 1970s were complicated.

Typical pattern:

THROW AXE AT DWARF
TAKE AXE

Parser wording varies, so simplify if needed:

THROW AXE
GET AXE

Pirate

The pirate may steal treasure and hide it. This is annoying, but also part of a complete game. If treasure disappears, keep exploring and map the maze carefully. His stash can be found.

Darkness

Do not wander without the lamp. Do not waste lamp time if you are lost. Restore from a save if needed.

Phase 8: Solve the maze

The famous maze is intentionally hostile to casual mapping.

The classic technique:

1. Carry several low-value objects.
2. Drop a different object in each maze room.
3. Move one direction at a time.
4. Record where you arrive based on which object is present.
5. Build a room-by-room map from your markers.

This turns the maze from nonsense soup into a graph. A very rude graph, but still a graph.

Phase 9: Late-game treasures and special regions

As you reach deeper areas, puzzles become more object-specific and less forgiving. Watch for:

• Fragile treasure that needs protection.
• A plant that responds to liquid.
• A troll bridge puzzle.
• A bear-related solution.
• A dragon that invites a very direct question.
• A clam/oyster sequence involving another object.
• A tight passage that restricts what you can carry.

If a command seems absurd but the game asks a follow-up question, pay attention. Adventure sometimes hides progress behind a joke-shaped door.

Phase 10: Cave closing and endgame

After enough progress, the cave eventually enters its closing sequence. At that point, the game changes from open exploration to a final puzzle area.

Before this happens, you ideally want to have:

• Found and deposited the treasures you can.
• Mapped the major regions.
• Preserved your lamp time.
• Saved your game.

The final repository puzzle requires close reading and one decisive action. If you have the right setup, the command BLAST becomes important.

Full-score note

A perfect 350-point solution is highly route-sensitive. Exact command transcripts exist, but they can fail if random dwarf or pirate events occur at different times, or if your specific Advent.z5 build phrases commands differently.

For this site, the friendlier approach is to give players this guided route first, then point determined treasure-goblins toward an external full-score transcript only after a spoiler warning.

External full-spoiler resources

For players who truly want the cave unmasked, look for a dedicated 350-point walkthrough for the Crowther/Woods version of Adventure. Rick Adams' Colossal Cave pages and StrategyWiki both preserve walkthrough material for the classic game.