Doll level guide

The Basics

• Halfling chefs carry casseroles; they're vis-death.
• Zombies are aggro, and summon other zombies. Many zombies formed in a room = death.
• Carrying food past a zombie feeds the zombie and leaves you food-less.
• You drop food in the room to the control the movement of the doll, and want to get the doll to the end of the level.
• You control the speed of the doll by pushing and pulling. Say 'go' to start it. But don't do this yet, until you know what you're doing!

Hey Doll

Normally, the doll always moves with their "right hand on the wall". Let's say the room has exits N, E, S and W. If the doll enters from the North, you can imagine that it keeps its right hand on the wall, and then exits through the West exit. The other way of thinking about it, is it takes the exit that is the sharpest right turn available. So entering from the North, it'll take NW, W, SW, or S if available, in that order. There's an exception: the doll will never turn LEFT in this way. If it's entering from the north, and there's no exit to the NW, W, SW, or S, it'll "bounce" of the south wall and go back the way it came. (This last 'bounce' condition may have changed, as last time I was in DoA (early 2010) it was different. It seems to bounce back even if there was a south exit available following the above example)

If there's food in the room, it changes this to "left hand on the wall". If the doll enters from the North with exits N, E, S, W, the doll exits through the East exit. So it takes the sharpest left turn available, EXCEPT it won't do a 45 degree sharp turn (enter from North and go Northeast). So entering from North, it'll go either East, Southeast, or South, in that order, if available. If there's none of these three, it bounces off the south wall and turns around. (This last 'bounce' condition may have changed, as last time I was in DoA (early 2010) it was different.)

Strategy

Don't start the doll when you get into the level. Walk around first and try to find both the start and the end.

Generally the doll gets stuck in a box of 4 rooms, going around clockwise, with its right hand on the wall. My general strategy for this level is to slowly move the doll closer one square at a time. You'll find that you can place one food when it's stuck in the box of 4 rooms, and pick it up immediately, and that will cause the doll to change its pattern and get stuck in a different loop of rooms. The trick is to figure out where to place the food such that the doll goes towards the goal.

Figure out where the start and end of the maze is. "Simulate" the doll by walking pretending to be the doll, using the mechanics above. Once you're in a loop (which could be small [4 rooms], could be huge [20-2 rooms]) figure out the best place to put the food through simulation. Repeat, getting closer and closer to the goal. Generally you won't need more than one or two foods -- don't try to lay out multiple foods in a complex path, zombies walking by pick up the food off the ground and screw you over.

Once you get the doll to the end, return to the START of the level, where you'll be shown down to level 10.

Other tricks

• Be invisible at all times on this level - the cooks will perform Knave skills if you are visible. IE - Moving slightly faster than you are able to track, a halfling cook sneaks in an attack and gets you on the body.
• Shadow imps or charmies make good mules for casseroles. Order them to get and drop food. Shadow imps are especially good because they don't join combat, and follow you when you flee. Change: shadow imps won't work period. Giving the casserole to it and it will eat it automatically. Same with ordering it to pick up the casserole. Since zombies don't pick up the casseroles normally, it'd probably be the same thing with shadow imps.
• Keep the doll nice and slow.
• The start and end rooms are no-mob, and you can hide from zombies here.
• There's about a 50% chance of sneaking by a zombie with food. However in March 2011, this seemed to have changed to a 0% chance of sneaking by a zombie with food.