HeroQuest Quest Format

Format type	Map/level
Map type	2D cell-based
Layer count	N/A
Viewport (pixels)	320×200
Cell dimensions	26×19 (isometric)
Viewport (cells)	max 6×5 (one single room)
Games	HeroQuest

This page describes the mapping of the QUEST##.BIN files in HeroQuest, which are used to describe one mission level. These files contain everything that is needed to generate a quest. The maps of the game, like in the board game, are always laid out as 26×19 squares.

In theory, with this information, it could be possible to create a mission editor for the game. The only known restrictions are to stick with the Special events list, since it is hard-coded, and that no new missions can be added (at the moment) to the 2-page in-game list. So to add missions, you need to overwrite the original quests. Since the second page is for the "Return of the Witch Lord" expansion, a new expansion (fan made, or based on official expansions like "Kellar's Keep") could be added as patch.

Format quirks

The game crashes if the file exceeds 2760h (10KB) in length.
Some special event are hard coded in the engine, and not in the file.

Overall structure

The overall structure of the file is the following:

Offset	Description & Notes
0x000	Map layer for rooms layout
0x200	Map layer for walls layout
0x400	Hero positions for all four heroes
0x40C	Special Events per room for treasures
0x437	Special Events per room for traps and hidden doors
0x462	Population block, with Monsters, Objects and Quest Text

The following sections will describe each of these in detail.

Map Layers

The file starts with two layers specifying different properties of the same map tiles; first the rooms layout, then the walls layout, with each block using one byte per tile. These blocks only need 26*19 bytes to contain all their data, but are padded to blocks of 0x200 bytes each.

Rooms Layout

This block starts at the beginning of the file. The rooms layout determines which area on the map is part of which room. Since the game is limited to showing rooms with a maximum dimension of 6x5, all paths are chopped up into different 'rooms' as well. Rooms have numbers from 0 to 42. A value of 0 means the room is not used. Rooms 1 to 20 (0x14) are the pathways. The remaining range, from 21 to 42 (0x15 to 0x2A), are the main rooms.

The default rooms layout with coordinates:

     00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
    
00   01 01 01 01 02 02 02 02 02 02 03 03 03 03 03 03 04 04 04 04 04 04 05 05 05 05
01   01 15 15 15 15 16 16 16 16 17 17 17 03 03 18 18 18 19 19 19 19 1A 1A 1A 1A 05
02   01 15 15 15 15 16 16 16 16 17 17 17 03 03 18 18 18 19 19 19 19 1A 1A 1A 1A 05
03   01 15 15 15 15 16 16 16 16 17 17 17 03 03 18 18 18 19 19 19 19 1A 1A 1A 1A 05
04   01 1B 1B 1B 1B 1C 1C 1C 1C 17 17 17 03 03 18 18 18 19 19 19 19 1A 1A 1A 1A 05
05   06 1B 1B 1B 1B 1C 1C 1C 1C 17 17 17 08 08 18 18 18 1D 1D 1D 1D 1E 1E 1E 1E 0A
06   06 1B 1B 1B 1B 1C 1C 1C 1C 07 08 08 08 08 08 08 09 1D 1D 1D 1D 1E 1E 1E 1E 0A
07   06 1B 1B 1B 1B 1C 1C 1C 1C 07 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 09 1D 1D 1D 1D 1E 1E 1E 1E 0A
08   06 1B 1B 1B 1B 1C 1C 1C 1C 07 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 09 1D 1D 1D 1D 1E 1E 1E 1E 0A
09   06 06 06 06 07 07 07 07 07 07 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 09 09 09 09 09 09 0A 0A 0A 0A
0A   0B 20 20 20 20 21 21 22 22 0C 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 0E 23 23 23 23 24 24 24 24 0F
0B   0B 20 20 20 20 21 21 22 22 0C 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 0E 23 23 23 23 24 24 24 24 0F
0C   0B 20 20 20 20 21 21 22 22 0C 0D 0D 0D 0D 0D 0D 0E 23 23 23 23 24 24 24 24 0F
0D   0B 20 20 20 20 26 26 26 26 27 27 27 0D 0D 28 28 28 28 23 23 23 24 24 24 24 0F
0E   0B 25 25 25 25 26 26 26 26 27 27 27 0D 0D 28 28 28 28 29 29 29 2A 2A 2A 2A 0F
0F   10 25 25 25 25 26 26 26 26 27 27 27 12 12 28 28 28 28 29 29 29 2A 2A 2A 2A 14
10   10 25 25 25 25 26 26 26 26 27 27 27 12 12 28 28 28 28 29 29 29 2A 2A 2A 2A 14
11   10 25 25 25 25 26 26 26 26 27 27 27 12 12 28 28 28 28 29 29 29 2A 2A 2A 2A 14
12   10 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 12 12 13 13 13 13 13 13 14 14 14 14

The game only seems to accept 32 different rooms on one quest map. If a map exceeds this amount, the higher ones after 32 are used are displayed on the overhead map, and you can enter them, but no tiles are displayed. This is probably an engine limitation. Because of this, any inaccessible areas in the quest map are cleared to room 0. The numbers of the used rooms don't need to be consecutive, though, so the actual layout of the numbers is generally not changed. The few changes to room layout definitions that exist in the files all seem to be map errors. Some maps do have corridors that are shortened because of an obstruction, and in such cases the room type is generally also cleared to cut it off at that point.

Example of the first level, "The Maze". 00 bytes have been replaced by "--" to more clearly show the layout. You can see that room 0x12 was cut off towards the north.

01 01 01 01 02 02 02 02 02 02 03 03 03 03 03 03 04 04 04 04 04 04 05 05 05 05
01 -- -- -- -- 16 16 16 16 17 17 17 03 03 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 05
01 -- -- -- -- 16 16 16 16 17 17 17 03 03 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 05
01 -- -- -- -- 16 16 16 16 17 17 17 03 03 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 05
01 1B 1B 1B 1B 1C 1C 1C 1C 17 17 17 03 03 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 05
06 1B 1B 1B 1B 1C 1C 1C 1C 17 17 17 08 08 -- -- -- 1D 1D 1D 1D 1E 1E 1E 1E 0A
06 1B 1B 1B 1B 1C 1C 1C 1C 07 08 08 08 08 08 08 09 1D 1D 1D 1D 1E 1E 1E 1E 0A
06 1B 1B 1B 1B 1C 1C 1C 1C 07 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 09 1D 1D 1D 1D 1E 1E 1E 1E 0A
06 1B 1B 1B 1B 1C 1C 1C 1C 07 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 09 1D 1D 1D 1D 1E 1E 1E 1E 0A
06 06 06 06 07 07 07 07 07 07 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 09 09 09 09 09 09 0A 0A 0A 0A
0B 20 20 20 20 21 21 22 22 -- 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 0E 23 23 23 23 -- -- -- -- 0F
0B 20 20 20 20 21 21 22 22 -- 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 1F 0E 23 23 23 23 -- -- -- -- 0F
0B 20 20 20 20 21 21 22 22 -- -- -- -- -- 0D 0D 0E 23 23 23 23 -- -- -- -- 0F
0B 20 20 20 20 26 26 26 26 -- -- -- -- -- 28 28 28 28 23 23 23 -- -- -- -- 0F
0B -- -- -- -- 26 26 26 26 -- -- -- -- -- 28 28 28 28 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 0F
10 -- -- -- -- 26 26 26 26 -- -- -- -- -- 28 28 28 28 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 14
10 -- -- -- -- 26 26 26 26 -- -- -- -- -- 28 28 28 28 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 14
10 -- -- -- -- 26 26 26 26 -- -- -- -- -- 28 28 28 28 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 14
10 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 12 12 13 13 13 13 13 13 14 14 14 14

Walls layout

This block starts at offset 0x200, and, like the room IDs, is one byte per tile. The values determine the walls around each tile, any doors set in them, and any special properties of these walls or doors. South and East walls and doors are not defined, since you can get the same effect by placing a North or West ones in the adjacent room, and the southern and eastern border of the entire map are automatically walls.

Note that the perspective is isometric, so only the west (top left) and north (top right) walls are visible while playing. Because of this, some maps have errors where there are missing walls on openings that seem to lead to unused areas with room ID 00 when going to the east or south. In reality, the game will never indicate openings towards room 00 as passable, so the lack of wall makes no difference.

Each byte in this block is made up of bit flags that can be combined. Here are the meanings of each separate bit:

Bin value	Hex Value	Effect
00000000	0x00	None
00000001	0x01	Do not draw this wall. Doors show up as a frame only. This is done with walls when the area goes around a corner behind the walls, to prevent them from overlapping the floor tiles.
00000010	0x02	Unknown (only appears once in Quest 3)
00000100	0x04	The door is Open (can't be applied if secret)
00001000	0x08	The door is Secret (can't be applied if open)
00010000	0x10	Door to the West
00100000	0x20	Door to the North
01000000	0x40	Wall to the West
10000000	0x80	Wall to the North

Example of the first level "The Maze". 00 bytes have been replaced by "--" to more clearly show the layout:

C0 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80
40 C0 80 80 80 C0 80 80 80 C0 20 80 41 -- C0 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 41
40 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- 41 -- 40 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 41
40 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- 10 -- -- 41 -- 40 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 41
40 C0 80 80 80 C0 80 80 80 40 -- -- 41 -- 40 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 41
40 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- 18 -- -- 40 -- 40 -- -- C0 80 80 80 90 80 80 80 40
40 40 -- -- -- 10 -- -- -- C0 80 80 -- -- 81 81 80 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- 10
40 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- 40 C0 80 80 80 80 80 40 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- 40
40 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- 40 40 -- -- -- -- -- 40 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- 40
40 81 81 29 80 80 80 80 80 -- 10 -- -- -- -- -- 10 81 81 21 81 81 80 80 80 00
40 C0 80 80 80 68 80 C0 80 C0 40 -- -- -- -- -- 40 C0 80 80 20 C0 80 80 80 40
40 40 -- -- -- 40 -- 10 -- 40 40 -- -- -- -- -- 40 18 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- 40
40 10 -- -- -- 40 -- 40 -- 40 80 80 80 80 C0 80 -- 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- 40
40 40 -- -- -- 60 80 80 80 40 -- -- -- -- C0 80 80 20 41 -- -- 40 -- -- -- 40
40 C0 80 80 80 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- C0 80 80 -- -- -- -- 40
40 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- -- -- -- 40
40 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- -- -- -- 40
40 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- -- -- -- 40
40 81 81 81 80 80 20 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 20 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 00

Visualised as image, you get this:

Different rooms are indicated in different colours. Doors are shown as white, secret doors as purple, and walls with the draw-suppression bit enabled are dark grey instead of black.

Hero Positions

At 0x400, after the two map layers, starts the hero positioning info. This gives the following structure for each hero:

Offset	Data type	Block Name	Description & Notes
0x00	UINT8	HeroX	Cell position X-coordinate of the barbarian
0x01	UINT8	HeroY	Cell position Y-coordinate of the barbarian
0x02	UINT8	HeroFacing	Animation frame for the hero, determining the facing.

This structure occurs four times, in this order: Barbarian, Dwarf, Elf, Wizard.

This table gives the facing frames for each hero:

Hero	North	East	South	West
Barbarian	0x23	0x1D	0x20	0x26
Dwarf	0x2F	0x29	0x2C	0x32
Elf	0x3B	0x35	0x38	0x3E
Wizard	0x47	0x41	0x44	0x4A

Special Events

The next sections, starting at 0x040C, are the Special Events. There are two of these: one for treasure searching (at 0x040C), and one for searching for traps and hidden doors (at 0x0437). They each take up 43 bytes, one for each of the room numbers specified in the Rooms Layout. The lists seem to include the unused room 0.

The list of special events:

Hex ID	Dec ID	Where	Event
0x00	00	None	No event.
0x01	01	Chest	Trapped, you disarm it
0x02	02	Chest	Trapped, -1 body point
0x03	03	Cupboard	30 coins + potion of healing
0x04	04	Chest	Trapped, -1 body point, +100 coins
0x05	05	Weapon rack	Spear
0x06	06	Chest	50 coins + potion of healing
0x07	07	Chest	250 coins of prince magnus, the weight slows you
0x08	08	Throne	Melar's key
0x09	09	Generic	Talisman of lore
0x0A	10	Generic	Borin's armour
0x0B	11	Chest	Karlen's 200 coins
0x0C	12	Chest	150 coins + wand of recall
0x0D	13	Chest	100 coins (and the chest vanishes)
0x0E	14	Generic	Shield
0x0F	15	Chest	Trapped, beware
0x10	16	Chest	Trapped, gargoyle awakes
0x11	17	Generic	Spirit blade
0x12	18	Chest	200 coins
0x13	19	2 Chests	200 coins x2
0x14	20	Chest	300 coins
0x15	21	Chest	100 coins + potion of healing
0x16	22	Chest	Trapped, -1 body point
0x17	23	Chest	Trapped, you disarm it
0x18	24	Table	Agrain's keys (100 coins)
0x19	25	Chest	200 coins
0x1A	26	Chest	350 coins
0x1B	27	Chest	250 coins
0x1C	28	Throne	500 coins
0x1D	29	Chest	Potion of healing
0x1E	30	Generic	Mine entrance + 5000 coins, cannot attack (Coins are fake only in the "Castle of Mystery" mission)

For example, in QUEST17.BIN, the (hexadecimal) event contents are the following. Again, 00 bytes have been replaced by "--" to more clearly show the data.

Room ID:  00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1A 1B 1C 1D 1E 1F 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 2A
Treasure  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 15 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 16 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Traps     -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 17 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Population

The population block, starting at 0x462, takes up the rest of the file. It has a header that specifies for each section where the data can be found. All pointers in this section are relative to the start of the population block.

Offset	Data type	Block Name	Description & Notes
0x00	UINT16LE	TextBlockStart	Relative pointer to where the Quest Text Block starts. This is normally put at the end of the file.
0x02	UINT16LE	TextBlockSize	Size of the text block.
0x04	UINT16LE	MonstersBlockStart	Relative pointer to the Monsters Block. Each block is 10 bytes. This is normally put directly behind this header, at offset 0C.
0x06	UINT16LE	MonstersBlockSize	Size of the Monsters block. Divide by 10 to get the amount of monsters.
0x08	UINT16LE	ObjectsBlockStart	Relative pointer to the Objects Block.
0x0A	UINT16LE	NrOfObjects	Number of objects in the Objects Block.

After this come the sections, normally in the following order:

Monsters Block
Objects block
Quest Text Block
A padding byte. This is sometimes two bytes. Might be needed to serve as end of the last text item.

Monsters Block

Typically starts at offset 0x46E. Each monster block takes 10 bytes. The length of the full block is specified in the header in MonstersBlockSize. Divide it by 10 to know the amount of monsters.

Layout

The monster layout is the following:

Offset	Data type	Description & Notes
00	UINT8	Seems to be a set of bit flags. It apparently needs to be 0x81 to have a properly functioning monster. If it is set to 0x00, the monster does not appear on the map at all. If it is set to just 0x80 or just 0x01, the monster can't be attacked except by spells. Only the Death Mist on Quest 17 uses value 0x01, but its special scripted code means it can not be interacted with at all.
01	UINT8	X starting position, from 0x00 to 0x19. Changes during the game as the monster moves.
02	UINT8	Y starting position, from 0x00 to 0x12. Changes during the game as the monster moves.
03	UINT8	Placeholder for Monsters's current room. See Rooms Layout
04	UINT16LE	Placeholder for Memory location of Monster's position on the Walls Layout in memory at [0B6B:546F]
06	UINT8	Monster condition, 01=alive. Changes when affected by spells 03=tempest 05=sleep. the Death Mist on Quest 17 has the highest bit of this enabled.
07	UINT8	Unknown. Generally 10, 12, or 13.
08	UINT8	Monster type; see table below.
09	UINT8	Monster type, again. Changing this duplicate value seems to have no effect.

The first monster in the list is used as the "wandering monster" that might show up when you search a room. Its first byte is usually put to 0, so it won't show up on the map and acts purely as wandering monster template. However, it is perfectly possible to have a monster both serve as wandering monster and appear as physical entity on the map.

Monster Types

Original Monsters

Hex ID	Dec ID	Monster	Notes
0x00	00	Goblin
0x01	01	Orc
0x02	02	Fimir
0x03	03	Chaos Warrior
0x04	04	Skeleton
0x05	05	Zombie
0x06	06	Mummy
0x07	07	Gargoyle
0x08	08	Orc Warlord Ulag	Uses the Gargoyle graphics
0x09	09	Orc Lord Grak	Uses the Orc graphics
0x0A	10	Balur the Fire Mage	Uses the Gargoyle graphics
0x0B	11	Stone Chaos Warrior	Uses the Gargoyle graphics
0x0C	12	The Witch Lord	Uses the Gargoyle graphics

Dummy Monsters

The next range, which are the indices between the original game's monsters and the expansion's monsters, seems to be filled with dummy / junk data. Despite their name, they all show up as Gargoyle.

Hex ID	Dec ID	Monster	Notes
0x0D	13	The Witch Lord
0x0E	14	Goblin
0x0F	15	Orc
0x10	16	Fimir
0x11	17	Chaos Warrior
0x12	18	Chaos Warrior
0x13	19	Zombie	Defeating this in Quest 1 gave the message that it dropped the Star of the West.

Expansion Monsters

Then follow the expansion pack monsters.

Hex ID	Dec ID	Monster	Notes
0x14	20	Spirit Rider	Uses the Gargoyle graphics
0x15	21	Death Mist	Has no graphics, can be passed through, and does not show up on the minimap. Only seems to work on Quest 17, even when its data is configured identical to Quest 17.
0x16	22	Bellthor	Uses the Gargoyle graphics
0x17	23	Skulmar	Uses the Gargoyle graphics
0x18	24	Doomguard	Uses the Gargoyle graphics
0x19	25	Witch Kessandria	Uses the Gargoyle graphics
0x1A	26	The Witch Lord	Specific expansion version, probably with different stats. Uses the Gargoyle graphics

Going beyond this first gives a monster which identifies as "Orc", and even higher values produce junk monsters with strange names (e.g. those of spells) which tend to crash the game when attacked or when defeated. It is unknown whether the Orc is an actual dummy entry like the ones in between, or if it is already junk data that coincidentally references the Orc's name.

Objects Block

Each object block takes 3 bytes. The length of the list of objects is specified in the header in NrOfObjects. The full block length is NrOfObjects * 3.

The object layout is the following:

Offset	Data type	Description & Notes
00	UINT8	X position, from 0x00 to 0x19.
01	UINT8	Y position, from 0x00 to 0x12.
02	UINT8	Object type; see table below.

Objects appear to be stored in order of their ID, though it is unknown if this is a requirement.

Multi-cell objects are made up of a defining indicator on the north-west origin-cell of the object, and filler objects on the other cells. These fillers are technically invisible objects, but they are important to ensure the entire object is considered impassable by the game. Each type has its own filler type; e.g. the tables in both directions both use the "table filler block". It is important to use the correct type, since this determines the name that shows up when holding your mouse over these cells on the minimap. For example, Quest 5 has an Alchemy Table with Fireplace filler blocks, and the minimap will indeed show the wrong name on all tiles except the top left one.

The Stairs that indicate the end (and sometimes start) of the Quest map are a special case in this; each of the cells is specifically defined.

Here is the full list of known object types. Types indicated with (*) are unused in the game levels, but might exist in-game for other reasons (e.g. sprung traps).

IDs outside the range indicated in this list usually spawn bugged monsters which won't move or attack, and can't be attacked with normal weapons because they are always deemed "out of range".

Hex ID	Dec ID	Object
30	48	Rock
31	49	Rock^(*)
32	50	Pit Trap - Hidden
33	51	Pit Trap - Opened^(*)
34	52	Falling Rock Trap
35	53	?
36	54	Spear Trap
37	55	Teleport
38	56	Stairs Block 1 (NW)
39	57	Stairs Block 2 (SW)
3A	58	Stairs Block 3 (NE)
3B	59	Stairs Block 4 (SE)
3C	60	?
3D	61	?
3E	62	?
3F	63	?
40	64	?
41	65	?
42	66	Table (Filler)
43	67	?
44	68	Torture Table (Filler)
45	69	Tomb (Filler)
46	70	Alchemy Table (Filler)
47	71	Fireplace (Filler)
48	72	Closet (Filler)
49	73	Library (Filler)
4A	74	Armour Rack (Filler)
4B	75	Table 2x3 (Origin)
4C	76	Table 3x2 (Origin)
4D	77	Torture 3x2 (Origin)
4E	78	Torture 2x3 (Origin)
4F	79	Alchemy 2x3 (Origin)
50	80	Alchemy 3x2 (Origin)
51	81	?
52	82	?
53	83	Tomb 3x2 (Origin)
54	84	Closet 1x3 (Origin)
55	85	Armour Rack 3x1 (Origin)
56	86	Library 1x3 (Origin)
57	87	Fireplace 3x1 (Origin)
58	88	Library 3x1 (Origin)
59	89	Fireplace 1x3 (Origin)
5A	90	Closet 3x1 (Origin)
5B	91	Armour Rack 1x3 (Origin)
5C	92	Chest (South)
5D	93	Chest (East)
5E	94	Throne (South)
5F	95	Throne (East)

Quest Text Block

This block contains the briefing at the start of the Quest. Its X and Y positions are offsets on the scroll on which the text is shown.

The full block consists of any number of text chunks, without any bytes in between the chunks. The 00 byte behind the last text chunk seems to serve as end point. If this 00 byte is not present, the game will ignore the length set in the header and will keep on reading and interpreting text entries. The 00 byte is not included in the text block length in the header.

Each text chunk contained in this block is preceded by a small header consisting of an entry separator value and the X and Y coordinates.

Offset	Data type	Description & Notes
UINT8	Separator	Always 0x11. Is probably used to detect where the previous entry ends.
UINT8	Y position	Y position in the scroll's matrix offsets; effectively the line number.
UINT8	X position	X position in the scroll's matrix offsets, to nicely center the text.

This header is immediately followed by the text.