The first order of business is to read the manual, because there are a lot of new features in this game, not the least of which is creating an individual character, much along the lines of a typical RPG, such as an Ultima or a Phantasie . All are initially set to a value of 1, and you have 60 points to distribute among them, however you like. If you prefer, however, you can choose one of the pre-created characters already on disk or have one randomly generated for you. And even that could be changing from moment to moment. Since intelligence is the easiest attribute to increase and likely the first one to go up, you can start with a fairly low score here.
Endurance is by far the most important attribute.
It governs how much punishment you can take before dying. Fortunately, you can always back out of an encounter, go to a safe place, and rest until your Endurance is back to normal. They Did The Monster Bash One thing to keep in mind as you play Beyond Zork is that the monsters are not merely monsters. Many of them are, in a way, miniature puzzles to solve or obstacles to be overcome by methods other than sheer brute force of fighting. They simply fight on, no matter how gravely injured, until defeated.