What can you do as a free member?

Member benefits illustration

Create your free account today and unlock all our premium features and tools to enhance your gaming experience.

Member benefits illustration

Create your free account today and save articles to your watchlist and get notified when they're updated with new information.

Member benefits illustration

Create your free account today and save your favorite games for quick access later, synced across all your devices.

Member benefits illustration

By creating a Game8 account and logging in, you'll receive instant notifications when someone replies to your posts.

Comment rating feature illustration

By creating a Game8 account and logging in, you can make use of convenient features in the comments section, such as rating and sorting comments.

Premium archive feature illustration

By creating a Game8 account and logging in, you can access Premium articles that are exclusively available to members.

Site Interface

Guest
Free Member
Article Watchlist
Game Bookmarks
Cross-device Sync
Light/Dark Theme Toggle
User Profiles
Direct Feedback
Comment Rating

Game Tools

Guest
Free Member
Interactive Map Access
Interactive Map Pins
Interactive Map Comments
Interactive Map Pins Cross-Device
Check List
Event Choice Checker
Deck Builder Cross-Device
Message Board Notification
Message Board Cross-Device
Build Planner
Stat Calculator
Diagnostic Tool
Weapon/Armor Wishlist

Want more information?Learn more

Dragon Quest 1 HD-2D Remake (DQ1)

Tips and Tricks: Beginner's Guide to DQ1

Add to Watchlist

☆ Interactive Map of Alefgard
┗ Secret Spots | Sparkly Spots | Mini Medals
★ Learn how to get through Weirdwood!
★ Here's where to find Zalen!
☆ Trophy Guide: How to Get Platinum
★ Playing the sequel? DQ2 Wiki here!

Dragon Quest 1 - Tips and Tricks
This is a beginner's guide that teaches new players tips and tricks on how to beat Dragon Quest 1 HD-2D Remake (DQ1). Check out some beginner tips for combat, exploration, and more here!

List of Contents

Erdrick Trilogy Attention! This page contains major spoliers for Dragon Quest 1 HD-2D Remake! Continue reading on at your own risk.

Beginner's Guide to DQ1 HD-2D Remake

Understanding Character Stats

Character Stats
HP Maximum health of the character, and they die if it's reduced to 0.
MP Maximum mana of the character, which is used to cast spells.
Strength Combines with Attack to increase physical damage dealt.
Resilience Combines with Defence to decrease damage taken.
Agility Used to calculate the turn order in battle.
Stamina Determines a character’s maximum HP and how much their HP increases when levelling up.
Wisdom Affects the power of magic spells and may influence MP growth when levelling up.
Luck Influences resistance to status ailments and may boost critical hit rate and physical attack performance.
Equipment Stats
Attack Combines with Strength to increase physical damage dealt.
Defence Combines with Resilience to decrease damage taken.

Your different stat points as the Hero determine your performance in combat against the many monsters plaguing the land. These stats will automatically increase whenever you level up, and are augmented by equipment.

You can also find Seeds (such as the Seed of Strength) to increase specific stats by 1-3 points for each seed consumed.

All Stats Explained

Don't Return the Princess Immediately

Dragon Quest I Green Dragon Princess Gwaelin

After you defeat the Green Dragon and rescue Princess Gwaelin, it's recommended not to bring her back to the castle straight away. This is because she can assist you in battle , and bringing her with you on your journey also plays unique cutscenes and interactions.

How to Rescue Princess Gwaelin

Make Sure to Get the Sunstone Before the Princess

As a note, you can only bring the Princess with you for the entirety of your journey if you get the Sunstone before rescuing her. If you don't you'll be forced to return her to Tantegel before you can get the stone.

How to Get Sunstone and Effects

Sell Cursed Equipment

Whenever you come across a piece of cursed equipment, you can sell it for gold instead of keeping it. This is because they provide negative effects to the Hero, and are never worth using.

List of Cursed Equipment

Store Gold at a Bank

Whenever you fall in battle, you will lose half of your gold. To prevent this from happening, it's recommended to store excess gold you don't plan on using in a bank, especially if you're about to face a boss.

List of Bank Locations

Upgrade Your Equipment

Dragon Quest I Store

You'll need the best gear possible to defeat the Dragonlord and save the land, and to that end, you'll need to buy and find gear upgrades along your journey.

Some rarer pieces of equipment, like the Magic Armour, can convey powerful benefits like passive healing or damage reduction.

Two strong early pieces of gear to get are the Iron Axe and Chain Mail, which can ease your time fighting in the early game considerably.

List of All Equipment

Level Up to Learn New Spells

Dragon Quest 1 - Spells

Dragon Quest uses a straightforward levelling system to expand your capabilities as the hero. To unlock new capabilities and spells, simply level up by battling monsters.

Two particularly useful spells include Snooze, which can temporarily put a monster to sleep, and Fizzle, which prevents monsters from casting spells. These status spells are learned at Level 7 and Level 10, respectively, and can ease tough encounters and give you breathing room in combat to heal when needed.

EXP Farm: How to Level Up Fast

Prevent Encounters with Holy Protection

Dragon Quest I Battle
Dragon Quest 1 uses a random encounter battle system that can put you into battle with monsters at times when you might not want to fight. To mitigate this potential frustration, try using Holy Water or the Holy Protection spell, which temporarily prevents encounters with weak foes.

Though the item and spell are less effective in dungeons (due to the higher average level of dungeon foes), it can give you some temporary safety when trying to exit a dungeon or while exploring the overworld. That said, using it too often may slow your levelling progress, so apply Holy Protection judiciously.

List of All Spells and Abilities

Use Cop Out Against Physical Attackers

Cop Out
Early on in the game, Cop Out will be an incredibly useful ability since it redirects attacks away from you. Use this as much as you can when you're against physical attackers since it allows you to deal damage while simultaneously protecting yourself.

Do note, however, this isn't guaranteed to work, and sometimes the attack won't be reflected back towards the enemies.

Activate Your Objective Marker to Help With Navigation

Objective Marker

Activate the Objective Marker from your System Settings to help you better navigate the areas of the game and help you find your next objective on the map.

Set Battle Speed to Ultra Fast

Battle Speed

Setting your Battle Speed to Ultra Fast can help you breeze through enemy battles more quickly, giving you more time to explore new areas and help optimize your plans for EXP farming.

Set Running to Toggle

Run Toggle

Change your Running to Toggle so that you can simply press the running button once if you want to travel faster, which eliminates the need for you to hold down the button when running.

Use Seeds to Increase Stats

Seeds

Consume any Seeds you find in the game to permanently increase your stats. Given that there is no need to divide your seeds as there is only one main character, using the seeds instantly can help get your character stronger.

List of All Seeds and How to Get Them

Use Abilities That Target Multiple Enemies

One of the disadvantages in playing Dragon Quest 1 HD-2D Remake is that there is only a single member in your party, meaning that monsters will only target your character and no one else.

Take advantage of abilities that target multiple enemies so that you can eliminate a group of enemies instantly. One of the earliest you can learn is Sizz, which you can learn at Level 4.

List of All Spells and Abilities

Lower Difficulty When Battles Get More Difficult

Difficulty Options

If you've been enjoying the game for its plot, you can simply lower the difficulty settings of the game so that you won't struggle progressing the game when it comes to enemy battles.

Best Difficulty Setting and Differences

All Tips and Tricks

All Tips and Tricks Guides

General Guides
How to Rescue Princess Gwaelin Metal Slime Farming Guide
How to Remove Cursed Equipment List of Bank Locations
How to Save the Game All Status Effects and How to Cure Them
How to Land Crits How to Safely Cross Damaging Floor Tiles
How to Get Erdrick's Equipment Set Best Difficulty Setting and Differences
Zalen Sidequest Locations List of All Keys
List of All Crafting Materials and Items How to Farm Stat Seeds
Frequently Asked Questions
Is There Post-Game Content? What Happens When You Die?
Does the Protagonist Have a Canon Name? What is a Puff-Puff?
Is There New Game Plus? Is There Autosave?
When Should You Use Seeds? -
Stat Guides
All Stats Explained What Does HP Do?
What Does MP Do? What Does Strength Do?
What Does Resilience Do? What Does Agility Do?
What Does Attack Do? What Does Defence Do?
What Does the Stamina Stat Do? What Does the Wisdom Stat Do?
What Does the Luck Stat Do? -

Dragon Quest 1 HD-2D Remake (DQ1) Related Guides

Dragon Quest 1 HD-2D Remake
Dragon Quest 1 HD-2D Remake Wiki Front

Guides by Category

DQ1 - Walkthrough PartialWalkthrough DQ1 - Tips and Tricks PartialTips and Tricks
DQ1 - Bosses PartialBosses DQ1 - Spells and Abilities PartialSpells and Abilities
DQ1 - Locations PartialLocations DQ1 - Equipment PartialEquipment
DQ1 - Items PartialItems DQ1 - Enemies PartialEnemies
DQ1 - Seeds PartialSeeds DRAGON QUEST I & II HD-2D All CharactersCharacters
DQ1-2 - Latest NewsRemake News -

Recommended Guides

Mini MedalsAll Mini Medal Locations ScrollsList of All Scrolls and Locations
Sparkly SpotsAll Sparkly Spots Locations Secret SpotsAll Secret Spot Locations
Best WeaponsBest Weapons and Armor Best SpellsBest Spells and Abilities Tier List
Missables List of Missables SigilsList of All 5 Sigil Locations
EXP FarmHow to Level Up Fast Gold FarmHow to Earn Gold Fast
Souped Up SkillsList of All Souped-Up Skills -

Comment

Post (0 Comments)

Author

Dragon Quest 1 HD-2D Remake (DQ1) Walkthrough Team
This article was created by Game8's elite team of writers and gamers.
    Leave feedback(Login required)
    Please participate in our site
    improvement survey
    12/2025
    Would you assist in
    improving Game8's site?
    ×
    This survey will take about 1 minute.
    Your answers will help us to improve our website.
    We are listening to our users' valuable opinions and discussing how to act on them.
    The information collected through this survey will be used for the purpose of improving our services. In addition, the information will only be disclosed a part of a statistic in a format that will not allow identification of personal information.
    Begin Survey
    Not Now
    ×
    Please rate each item regarding Game8.co's Advertisements.
    Amount of Ads
    Very Dissatisfied
    Somewhat Dissatisfied
    Fine
    Somewhat Satisfied
    Highly Satisfied
    Placement of Ads
    Timing of Ad Display
    Ad Loading Speed
    Safeness of Ads
    Content of Ads
    ×
    Please rate each item regarding Game8.co's Quality of Articles.
    Amount of information
    Very Dissatisfied
    Somewhat Dissatisfied
    Fine
    Somewhat Satisfied
    Highly Satisfied
    Frequency of updates
    Speed of new information
    Accuracy of articles
    Understandibility of articles
    Readability of sentences
    ×
    Please rate each item regarding Game8.co's Usability of the Site.
    Ease of finding information
    Very Dissatisfied
    Somewhat Dissatisfied
    Fine
    Somewhat Satisfied
    Highly Satisfied
    Loading Speed
    Use of Color
    Font Size
    Visibility of Images
    Easy to Understand Layout
    ×
    Please rate each item regarding Game8.co's Message Boards, Comments.
    Ease of Writing
    Very Dissatisfied
    Somewhat Dissatisfied
    Fine
    Somewhat Satisfied
    Highly Satisfied
    Readability
    Ease in Finding Information
    Comment Quality
    Comment Quantity
    Admin Response
    ×
    Please rate each item regarding Game8.co's Site's new design.
    Please rate our site's new design
    Very Dissatisfied
    Somewhat Dissatisfied
    Fine
    Somewhat Satisfied
    Highly Satisfied
    Do you think that the website's design change makes the site easier to use?
    Has the new design made it easier for you to find information on the site?
    Has the new design improved the overall visual appeal of the site?
    How would you rate your overall satisfaction with the new design of the site?
    ×
    How likely are you to recommend Game8 to someone you know?
    Very Unlikely
    0
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10
    Very Likely
    If you have other opinions regarding potential improvement to the website, please share them with us. We would appreciate your honest opinion.
    Note: This is a free response section, so you can proceed without entering anything.
    Note: Please be sure not to enter any kind of personal information into your response.
    ×
    Thank You
    ×
    Thank you for participating in our survey! Your answers will help us to improve the quality of our website and services.
    We hope you continue to make use of Game8.
    Close
    For other opinions or comments, go here.

    Rankings

    Popular Articles
    Message Board
    • We could not find the message board you were looking for.

    Gaming News

    Octopath Traveler 0 Review [In Progress] | Familiar, But Better

    Octopath Traveler 0 Review [In Progress]

    Popular Games

    Recommended Games

    All rights reserved

    © ARMOR PROJECT/BIRD STUDIO/SPIKE CHUNSOFT/SQUARE ENIX
    © SUGIYAMA KOBO ℗ SUGIYAMA KOBO

    The copyrights of videos of games used in our content and other intellectual property rights belong to the provider of the game.
    The contents we provide on this site were created personally by members of the Game8 editorial department.
    We refuse the right to reuse or repost content taken without our permission such as data or images to other sites.

    Dragon Quest 1 HD-2D Remake (DQ1) Walkthrough & Guides Wiki

    Quick Access
    Guide Index

    Walkthrough

    Recommended Guides

    Tips and Tricks

    General Guides

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Stat Guides

    Bosses

    Spells and Abilities

    Locations

    Towns

    Dungeons

    Miscellaneous

    Equipment

    Items

    Enemies

    Seeds

    Characters

    Remake News

    Dragon Quest Wikis

    Japanese Wiki (日本語版)