******************************************************************************* Scurge: Hive FAQ/Walkthrough by Ishtar Dark ******************************************************************************* E-mail: ishtardark@email.t-com.hr | This document is Copyright 2006 Ishtar Dark. ---------------------------------- [VERSION HISTORY] 0.2 - just started walkthrough, decided to upload to gamefaqs just to offer some help to the people starting out 0.3 - finished Excerpt 3 0.4 - finished Excerpt 4, Excerpt 5 will take a bit longer, as I've got school 0.5 - finished Excerpt 5 1.0 - the walkthrough is finished(!!), made some tweaks here and there and added a couple of sections 1.1 - added the Weapon Guide section __________________ \TABLE OF CONTENTS \ ------------------- /--------------------------------------------\ | I. Introduction | | II. About Me and Legal Stuff | |III. Controls | | IV. The Walkthrough | | IVa. Excerpt 1 - Rude Awakening | | IVb. Excerpt 2 - Marooned | | IVc. Excerpt 3 - Stench | | IVd. Excerpt 4 - Into The Tiger's Lair | | IVe. Excerpt 5 - Before we knew it... | | IVf. Excerpt 6 - Braving the storm | | IVg. Final Excerpt - Ashes of the fallen | | V. Optional Stuff | | VI. Weapon Guide | |VII. Credits | \--------------------------------------------/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I. Introduction ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Scurge: Hive, a long-anticipated but very delayed game from Orbital. Offering an exciting and filling isometric 2D experience, Scurge: Hive can and will remind many people of Metroid, in so many ways. Yes, the theme is very similar, and so is the system, and outlay, and... um... ^_^' Anyway, this game is one of the rare gems the GBA has produced since the reign of the DS (there's a DS version too, though it's a quite inferior one). Do yourself a favour and buy it, even if you (like I) are not a big Metroid fan - Scurge: Hive offers plenty, and though Metroid comparisons are inevitable, it should be played as an equal, and not a spinoff. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ II. About Me and Legal Stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As I hate this section in general, I'll just give basic information. My name is Dario Papic (alias John Parker), and naturally, this document is copyrighted to me. You may e-mail me on ishtardark@email.t-com.hr if you wish to put this up on your site. The latest version can always be found on GameFAQs. Also, I'd be very happy if people got involved in this game and wanted to contribute. Send mails to the aforementioned address with your suggestions for the walkthrough, or corrections, or notes on something I've missed, or... whatever you think might improve the walkthrough. :) You will be credited. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ III. Controls ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Scurge: Hive's control scheme is very well thought-out and easy to use. A Button - as usual, selecting things, advancing conversation, and jumping B Button - cancelling selections, firing your weapon Right Shoulder Button - weapon switch Left Shoulder Button - tether gauntlet upgrade START Button - main menu SELECT Button - map and status menu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IV. The Walkthrough ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (Note that these few first chapters will be heavy on hand-holding, since I always assume complete newbies are playing. However, the hand-holding will stop a bit into the game, as you grow more accustomed to it.) Well, this is it. The walkthrough. Let's get started, then. After plugging your cart in (or using another method of turning the game on *wink*), you'll see a few logos, as usual. After them follows a scene, but I suggest you skip it by pressing A, since you'll be forced to watch through the exact same scene a bit later on, and that would just be boring. At the title screen, since all the other options are currently unavailable, select Game Start. Choose one of two save slots, and choose New Game (or tamper with the Options a bit, but they're nice as they are so there's not much point in that). Choose the Normal difficulty, as the other two are grayed out, and you'll be taken to that aforementioned scene. Now you'll be given a short briefing of your (Jenosa Arma's) assignment. Apparently, a research lab that was studying a newly discovered alien race named Scurge sent out a distress call 48 hours ago. Scurge is known for its ability to infect and control biological, mechanical and energy based systems. Taking in consideration the lab's delicate work and the distress call, it is safe to assume something's gone wrong with the Scurge specimens they were studying.For this task you have been given a suit designed to slow Scurge's infective abilities, allowing you more time to investigate and complete objectives. You are also given a projectile weapon immune to Scurge. Your task is to find all remaining technology and research, killing everything you find along the way since the creatures are probably infected by Scurge. Now we go to Jenosa... ============================0 Excerpt 1 - Rude Awakening 0 ============================0 You'll immediately notice how freaky Jenosa's hair looks. ^_^ Though it's really nicely animated, it's quite weird, even for a game character. Anyway, you are on Jenosa's spaceship, having just reached Planet Inos (the location of the Scurge research lab). There will be some talk between Jenosa and Magellan, her personal assistant program. After trying to lock on to the research lab, a beam of concentrated energy hits Jenosa's ship. Strangely enough, it came from the research lab. Luckily, it did a tiny bit of damage - however, it seems to have brought something aboard. Life forms. More specifically, Scurge. After you gain control, jump around a bit, shoot random things, just to get a little feel for the controls. A piece of advice: during combat, do NOT forget about jumping. It will save your life, trust me. When you're done, examine (with A) the glaring control pad which has red Alert! signs floating over it. Now you'll be given a quick tutorial on how to use your map, accessed by pressing SELECT. Now the northeast hatch will open and you're free to proceed, so enter the next room. Examine the Alert Panel (as I shall call it henceforth) here to open the southeastern hatch. Proceed through and there you'll meet your first enemies. They might surprise you since they move pretty fast and are quite nasty. Do NOT just stand in one place and shoot around, supposing you'll hit them with no problem. Never forget about jumping. Anyway, after you kill a couple of enemies, you'll notice (and you'll be told about) green blobs they leave behind after dying. These blobs, when collected, heal you a bit (yay!) and add to your exp. After you get enough exp, you level up. No surprise there. Overall, don't be worried if you get hit a couple of times (which you probably will). After ridding the place of those insect pests, go to the northeast and examine the Alert Panel to open the northwestern hatch in the previous room, then go there. Immediately upon entering you'll be swarmed with those insects. Remember, jumping is key. Just slaughter them all and examine the Alert Panel northeast to open the final hatch in the center room. Go through there. Something here seems to confuse Magellan's program, as he suddenly starts putting in new warp coordinates and initiates the warp sequence. Quickly rid the room of insects (gaining a level while doing so) and proceed northeast to the Alert Panel. What the malfunctioning Magellan will tell you here pretty much means there's a big boss ahead. ^_^ Go through the newly opened northeast hatch. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=BOSS=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Scurge Infected Specimen Beta-327, SCYLLA -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=BOSS=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Now this is what I call an alien attack mood. The music becomes very intense, you get scared (and disgusted...) at the sight of Scylla, which looks like (and is) a tough first boss. You'll notice that there's a life gauge in the bottom of the screen. This is Scylla's. As you can also see, there is a '2' to the left of it. This indicates that Scylla is a two-stage boss. Once you defeat her first form, her second one comes into play. Note that she'll occasionally spawn little bug creatures, but they're not worth mentioning (except for the fact that there is an infinite supply of them, and each gives 2 exp, so this is a nice place to gain one or two levels, since Scylla's first form has no attacks). If you try shooting Scylla, you'll notice that immediately after shooting her, her life quickly regenerates. The four outer bulbs are the key here. Each one gives a tiny regeneration rate to Scylla, but when all four are combined, it's massive. What you need to do is quickly destroy three or four (three is enough) of the bulbs, approach Scylla, and just shoot like crazy (by holding down B). Her life will go down fast and puf... After you destroy the first form (quite easily), in comes the second, more scary form. The central blob bursts and its yucky content is revealed - six round heads with sharp teeth. This part of the battle isn't much different than the previous, except for the fact that now each of the heads can shoot poisonous gas at you. You really shouldn't worry about it, though, as it isn't nearly enough to kill you. Just remove the four surrounding bulbs and start whacking away at the heads. One by one they'll go down, and eventually (after a bit more bulb- bursting, as this form has more HP) it'll go down. Congratulations! Now, however, crisis insues. The two warp cores in the previous room burst, and you are infected with Scurge. Luckily, your suit slows it down, so you have sometime before your body becomes Scurgefest. If the gauge that shows your infection level ever reaches 100%, you'll start losing health rapidly. Stepping on the red Scurge matter on the ground speeds the infection up - make sure you pay attention not to step on it. Now quickly make your way back two rooms, into that small crossroad-room, where you should examine the Alert Panel. Jenosa will jump into the open shaft, and you'll see a scene of your ship falling to Planet Inos' surface. ======================0 Excerpt 2 - Marooned 0 ======================0 Down here, Jenosa will activate a backup Magellan program that was installed in her suit. You'll now have the Target drawn on your map - the research lab. You must make your way due northeast, killing a new kind of nasty creatures. These babies take 3-4 hits to kill, so don't take them lightly. Also, remember that your infection is spreading at a steady pace, so don't linger. Anyway, eventually you'll reach an area of red Scurge bio-matter (the thing that speeds up your infection), so be careful not to step on it. You'll find a new enemy that emerges from the bio-matter and spews poison gas at you, but it is fairly easy to defeat since the poison is easily evaded. The lab is just a few more steps northeast. Magellan analyzes the facility and discovers that most things inside have already been infected with Scurge, and that the facility is operating at minimal auxiliary power. Enter the lab. You'll hear a pulsing sound as you enter, and Magellan will identify the object in sight as a Security Card. Some doors require you to collect a certain amount of Security Cards before they'll open (you can see the amount required by looking at your map). The northeast door of this room is like that. Anyway, jump the ledges here and collect the card in the middle. Now either beat up some more enemies here or proceed northeast. We're saved! Yay. ^^ This room contains a Decontamination Platform. As you might expect, these babies reset your infection back to 1%. Since the Scurge infection is basically the game's way of keeping you on your toes, these things are very useful. They are also, basically, save points. Now jump up onto the platform and press A to recover. Now jump off and examine the Alert Panel northwest to get the locations of all Decontamination Platforms on your map, which is quite nice. Now, you could just return to the previous room and train a bit. Gaining levels is useful as it increases your total HP, and staying alive is a priority. Since you've got a DP (Decontamination Platform) nearby, this is a great place to level up. Once you get tired of it, though, return back to this room, decontaminate (if necessary), and proceed northeast. Here you are told some confusing stuff, which I didn't quite manage to get. ^_^' However, the goal on your map is clear. In this room make your way east and go through the southeast exit. Here you'll meet a new, more durable enemy surrounded by fire. Just keep your distance and shoot, plain and simple. After beating them, drop down southeast and eliminate some more of their kind, then examine the Alert Panel. This is a note from one of the scientists to another, but you can realise that this is a clue. There is a tool nearby, a tool which allows you to move stuff around. We're going after it. ^^ Continue southeast. The door will seal behind you, and you'll learn about the timer seal system. Basically, there are a couple of countdown posts in every room that gets sealed. In order to unseal it, you must shoot the countdown posts - however, when one is shot, you have a limited amount of time to shoot the rest. This isn't very difficult for now, though. Anyway, your prime concern here are the three super- aggressive attack robots. Zoom around the room like crazy, as they can fling poisonous blobs at you while simultaneously shooting you with built-in submachineguns. Danger, danger! Truly, few people will get out of this battle unscathed. Don't worry if they beat the crap out of you, it happens. Just do your best to beat them. After that, stand on the center platform and face southwest. Shoot the countdown post, then just turn around and shoot the one northeast. Piece of cake. This will make a shiny treasure appear on the center platform, which you should naturally grab. It turns out to be the tether gauntlet enhancement, which allows you to latch on and pull things or enemies. You might have noticed some switches and round crates in the previous rooms. *wink* You activate the tether by pressing L. Go back northwest. Get rid of the enemies here and then pull those two crates (in lack of a better word) onto the two pressure switches. This will activate the elevator platform northwest, so ride it up and return to the large central room (remember to use your map). You might have already noticed the pulsating sound, indicating that there's a security card here. Well, drag the crate to the pressure switch here, then go left and do it again to activate the elevator (to the right). Ride it up, beat a few enemies and jump over the red bio-matter to snatch the Card. Head northwest and beat the enemies in the next room, after which you should drop down northeast and grab another Card there. Drag the crate to the northeast corner and jump up the pipes here, being careful not to get burned by the steam. When you reach the end, drop down and go through the southeast door. There, you'll find the final Card. Collect it and unlock the northeast door, then go through it. And phew! A last minute rescue. Decontamination Platform. Recover and examine the northeast Alert Panel. Now you find out that your next little gadget is a defense enhancement, and is located in Basement's Lab 04. In any case, continue northeast. Now here is a BIG room. If you look at the map, it has... *counts* 7 exits! Not counting the one you came from. I hate multiple choices. ^_^' However, in traditional fashion, most of them lead to places you can't fully explore yet, so we'll just continue through the normal path. Take the western exit, and Magellan will inform you of a new upgrade found. He'll show you it's in the Basement (the same one we found out about a moment ago), and teach you how to switch the floors your map is showing. In this room, now, there are a couple of freaky robots which are really easy to defeat. Blow them up, then stand on the center platform and press A to be transported down to the Basement! Beat the annoying blue Pacman thingies which have a need to eat you, then exit southwest. Here you'll meet a new enemy, an hovering red blob which slaps you with tentacles if you approach. Just make sure you stay away and shoot it to death. (You see, the real problems are not the enemies themselves - it's the amount and diversity. It takes just one push from one enemy for you to be thrown against another, which gives extra damage. You have to avoid them skillfully.) Drop down southwest and continue swimming that way, eventually jumping up onto another platform where you'll find one of those superaggressive green robots. Take care of him and his buddies as best you can, then jump northeast onto that platform in the middle of the water - the one with the Card on it. Grab it, then go back southwest and exit southeast. Another treasure room. ^_^ There is a massive enemy-generator thingy in this room, which will spawn an infinite amount of those easy-to-defeat blue robots which you met in the floor elevator/teleporter room. Your main concern is the big machine, so go southeast and start shooting at it. You'll have to do some serious jumping around too to allow your weapon to regenerate, and you'll destroy a lot of thos blue robots along the way, but eventually you'll beat the machine. Now go southeast and climb the hard-to-spot pipes up onto a higher platform. Here, activate the countdown and then QUICKLY make your way back northwest, stand on the center platform and shoot the other two countdown thingies to collect your prize, the EMP Gauntlet Enhancement (note how they spelled this with capitals, while 'tether gauntlet enhancement' was all normal... the humanity!). This, though, is a magnificent little upgrade. It's basically a new weapon. You'll be given a nice tutorial on how it works, and I think you'll be very happy that you got it. ^_^ A really nice feature of Scurge is that certain type of weapons are great against certain enemies, while they - are not weak against, are not uneffective against, but - make certain enemies more powerful! For example, the EMP works wonders against machines/robots, while it superifies energy-based enemies, like the floating fire thingy. Now it's time to continue, go back southeast and exit the newly opened door. You get a chance to test your new zappy out as the room is filled with those blue robots. Just kill them off and jump onto the center platform, which you may recognize as a floor elevator/teleporter. Ride it up back to the ground floor. You are given your next goal now, so go north to encounter a DP! Heal, decontaminate, and proceed north. Here you'll encounter a new feature - posts that control various functions, but are out of energy. You, however, have a source of energy now. ^^ Zap the post until the little gauge that appears by it is full and you'll raise a platform to the east. Shoot the enemies from a distance then jump across to get a Security Card! However, remember that the fire enemies are energy based, so the zap will empower them!! You do not want that. Anyhoo, drop down east and proceed north back into that large room with many exits. (Take note that there is a DP southwest of the big room, as you will see on your map. Don't let your infection get the best of you, heal as often as you can.) Take the east exit now, and in the next room drop down, quickly go north and jump up onto the big platform (using the pipe). Beat the enemies that come after you, and wait for a floating platform to come by. Jump onto it, then wait for it to take you to the south side, where you should jump off carefully between the tentacle-blob enemies and pick up the Card there. You should now have a total of three, so jump down, go north and climb back up onto the platform. Unlock the door and go through. Defeat the previously-feared machine enemy here (with the EMP), then drag the crate all the way to the right (ignore the switch) to use it so you can jump up onto the next platform. Again, beat the enemies (making sure you don't accidentaly empower the fire enemy), then drag one of the crates here all the way back west to press that switch, then return and drag the remaining one onto the switch in sight. This will activate the elevator platforms here. Jump onto the first one, kill the tentacle enemy on the second, and simply continue up and through the exit. Decontaminate, save, heal (our three favourite words), then go north. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=BOSS=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ransol Teleport Sentry, CYCLOPS -=-=-=-=-=-=-=BOSS=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Yup, boss time. You'll notice a number '4' on Cyclops' life bar. Shucks. Anyway, as soon as you gain control, quickly switch to EMP and start shooting at Cyclops! If you do it right, you'll beat the first form before he even succeeds in mounting two or three attacks. After this, though, be careful. Cyclops will zoom around the arena, then stop suddenly and fire off a huge beam! Instead of explaining how this thing works, I'll just tell you how to avoid being hit. When he starts zooming, go near the eastern bio-matter (though not at the very edge, or else he'll... well... you'll see XD) and stand there. He'll zoom east once (towards you), then west once, then all the way east again, at which point he will fire the beam! When he does that last east dash, quickly move (not jump) west. The beam should miss you if you were fast enough. (Remember, though, you can easily avoid the beam just by standing on the bio-matter. If you do this, you should jump instead of just standing, as that will slow the infection.) Anyhoo, phase two. The second phase, from what I could tell, is the same as the first one. You just can't use the speed kill method, so you'll have to do serious powerball dodging while trying to shoot Cyclops (with EMP!). After beating the second phase, he'll repeat the huge beam, and you should use the same tactic to avoid it. The third phase... *yawn*... Is the same. XD He just seems to fire off the powerballs in larger volleys, but that could be my eyes playing tricks on me. Defeat it in the same manner, avoid the huge beam, and... Yup, definitely bigger volleys... Nothing new, though. Just shoot the crap out of it like you did before and avoid the huge beam. Cyclops will blow up, so... Congrats! Now, however, you find out about a new Metroid-like feature. Bosses release largely condensed bio-matter which is then absorbed into you. It refills health, yes, it gives lots of experience, yes, but unlike enemy bio-matter, this one also improves your weapon's recharge speed, which is very useful. It also resets your infection level. Basically, it's a DP with the addition of an upgrade. Now go back down and save, then return north and proceed into the next room. Here you'll encounter the teleporter which you've been after from the start of the excerpt. After you teleport, you'll be given your score for the chapter, counting how many enemies you killed, how efficient you were (efficiency is raised by quickly moving from place to place while killing many enemies), and you'll get your rank. This bears little importance, though. ===================0 Excerpt 3 - Stench 0 ===================0 You are now in the Ransol Industrial Complex. Magellan and Jenosa will babble some confusing stuff, which basically means you can't use this teleporter to get back. ^_^' Anyway, after you gain control, you'll encounter two new enemies. They're basically wasps, and are very annoying as they tend to dash at (and chase) you if they get close, also poisoning you in the process. You have to jump over them and get away. Kill them, switch to EMP to take care of the robot northwest, then continue northwest through the exit. Examine the Alert Panel to get Magellan to mark all DPs on your map. Decontaminate, then exit northwest. Here you'll find out that the only way to the facility generator is via a Nexus. Magellan will mark the Nexus on your map, and you're good to go. In this room, feel free to shoot your EMP all over the place, there are no energy-based enemies around. First, jump onto the southern platform and zap the post here. Then go north, do the same, and you will have raised two platforms which allow you to get a Security Card. Jump onto the west platform, across the two platforms, and grab the Card. Exit northwest. If you check the map, you'll notice that our 3-card security door is here, but we've only got one Card so far. Never mind. Beat the wasps as you enter, then go west and jump up the ledges, finally jumping onto the center one to get the Card here. Exit northwest. Beat the enemies here (including the bio-matter thingies), then drag one crate northwest past the bio matter (you can still jump, even while dragging) and place it by the northeast wall so you can jump to the pipes. Jump up them, then exit northwest. Get the Card here (that's 3), and meet a new, green robot enemy. HOWEVER, do not be fooled by their robotic appearance. These things are blobbish, which means they're energy-based, so your EMP will empower them. Kill them with normal shots, then go back southeast through this room and back into the one with the security door. Unlock the door and go through. Decontaminate and proceed northeast. Go over to the north side here and examine the Alert Panel. As you might've expected, it's another note pointing you to another upgrade, which seems to work wonders against energy enemies. Woot. Go through the northeast door. You'll meet two new enemies here, a green, stronger version of those most basic blue enemies, and a new flying version of the superaggressive robot. With your EMP, though, the robot is no longer such a threat. Proceed northeast and jump down east, collect the Card here, and proceed north into a decontamination room. Save, heal, whatever, and go north into the Nexus room. Here you'll find out that in order to activate the Nexus, you'll need to deactivate six locks around the complex. Magellan will mark these on your map, and we're good to go. Go back south two times. Climb back west and exit southwest. Exit southwest again. Back here at the crossroad room (as I'll refer to it), exit southeast. Here, use the floating platform to jump across to the center, where a switch awaits. When you stand on this switch, the floating platform starts moving around the center. Your job is to stand long enough for it to reach the southeast side, where you should use it to jump to the next platform. A horde of enemies makes this task hard, though, so your priority is getting rid of them. When you succeed, exit southeast. You'll notice a 6-card door here. 0_o Crap. Head all the way southeast to where the door is (jumping up a ledge in the process and being careful not to step on the bio-matter). Collect the Card here, then exit southeast into a D-room. Decontaminate, then return all the way back to the crossroad room. From there, exit northwest. Here, deal with the swarm of spiders, then go northwest and jump up to the ledge with the door. Go a bit northeast to find a crate. Pull it down to the floor and continue pulling to the switch at the beginning of the room. Then, go around the center platform and you'll find another switch. Stand on it until you see the floating platform come above you. Then jump back up onto the ledge with the security door, across the floating platform and grab the Card. Jump back, unlock the door and go through. Here, Magellan will tell you he's detected another upgrade, and will mark its location in the Basement, to which you should now descend. When you get there, drop down and exit south. Now head east, beating enemies along the way, and dropdown into the crevace. Pull the node here onto the switch, and you will have activated one of the six locks. You will notice the room you're in has been de- enemized. ^^ Jump back up via the pipes, then make way to the far west side and exit through the door there. In here, zap the post to make a platform rise up. Go northwest, climb the centerplatform using the pipe, grab the Card and jump northwest across the platform you activated. If you're at 50%+ infection, exit northwest and decontaminate. If not, activate the post here then jump across and exit northeast. If you noticed that this is a treasure room on your map, you might have predicted another countdown task. First take care of the several fire enemies along with a big robotic one. In spite of his size, he's easy to deal with, justbe careful you don't get accidentally swiped by a sneaky fire enemy. After you've dealt with them, drag the two crates here onto the two switches to activate some elevators, one southeast and one northwest. Climb whichever you want, and you'll find a countdown post. What you should do is wait for the platform to reach its peak, THEN shoot the countdown and quickly make your way to the other platform, climb the elevator and activate the second countdown. Go and pick up the Dissipator Gauntlet Enhancement (seriously, was the tether so unimportant that it didn't deserve capitals?). Again, a short tutorial ensues. The Dissipator is effective against energy enemies, whilst empowering biological enemies (whatever that is...). Anyhoo, the door unseals, so you're free to go back southwest. If you try out the Dissipator on the spiders here, you'll learn that they're a biological kind of enemy. ^^ So don't. Anyway, exit southeast back into the first big room, make your way east and remove the barrier blocking the door there. Go through. And now we are introduced to a new element - pumps that raise or lower water level throughout the facility. Charming. Examine the Panel to have the water levels raised. Return to the previous room and countinue southwest past the now-crossable crevace and exit the room. If you (as I) are low on HP and infection, quickly dodge the enemies here and exit southwest, to a D-room. Decontaminate, then exit southwest. In this room filled with enemies and red bio-matter, make your way to the far south where you should find another one of those nodes. Pull it northwest and place it onto the switch to activate another lock. Afterwards, exit southeast, then cross the next room and exit southwest. In here, make your way northwest and into the water. Jump onto the central northeast platform and exit. Lower the water level, go back to the previous room, grab the newly uncovered Card, then raise the water level again. Now check your map and return to the last D-room. Further ahead lies only a floor elevator, and we don't need that now. When you reach the goal, decontaminate and exit northeast. Exit southeast, lower the water level, go back and exit northeast. Drop down drag the node here onto the switch to activate the third lock. Climb back up via the pipes on the northeast wall, then exit. Now you have to make your way back to the northwesternmost room on your map. Along the way, in the big room, enter the previously-barriered door again and raise the water level. Do so (long trip ^_^), and when you get there, activate the EMP post to the southeast and jump back across northwest, to the D-room. Decontaminate, then exit northeast. First go southeast and activate the EMP post there, then go northwest and activate the Dissipator ball. Jump onto the newly raised platform, north onto the pipes and start maneuvering them, again making sure the steam doesn't hit you. At the top, grab the Card and exit northeast to find a floor teleport. Go up! Exit southeast, then make your way southeast, beating the robots with EMP. Jump onto the lowest platform, then make your way up them, killing the tentacle enemies with your Dissipator. Collect the Card and activate the Dissipator ball to unseal the southeast exit. Go through it now. Continue southeast, and do the same for the next room. Back in the crossroad room, go northeast and cross the crevace which is now filled with water to collect your fifth Security Card. Return to the crossroad and exit southeast. Cross this room easily now that it's filled with water and exit southeast. Go east and activate the Dissipator ball here, then cross the room all the way southeast and get a much needed (at least in my case) rest. Decontaminate, save, then exit back and go through the now un-barriered southwest door. Here, lower the water level and exit southwest. Drop down, activate the Dissipator ball, then return to the previous room via the pipes on the northeast wall. Raise the water level, then exit southwest again and swim across the room. Exit northwest and collect your final, sixth card!! That took long, didn't it? 0_o Now simply look at your map and return to the room with the 6-card security door, (go southeast and decontaminate), unlock it and go through. Quickly exit northeast and go a bit north to examine the Alert Panel. It informs us of another upgrade awaiting in the basement. Oh well. Exit back and go northwest, swim across the crevace and activate the Dissipator ball. Now go back southeast and exit southwest, then southwest again and use the Alert Panel to lower the water level. Go back northeast, then northeast again, then northeast again. XD In this room (where you found out about the new upgrade), go northwest and exit through the now un-barriered door southwest. Drag the node here down into the crevace with you and place it onto the switch. Two more locks to go. Now climb back out of the crevace via pipes, then return to where you found the node, then exit southwest. Use the floating platform to transport you and exit southwest again. Magellan will mark the new upgrade on your map, so descend down into the Basement again. Exit northeast, then go all the way northwest to encounter another node, which you should pull all the way back southeast onto the switch. One lock to go. Back northwest, exit northeast and decontaminate, then go back and exit southwest. Treasure room! Deal with all the enemies here (the blob thing takes a while to kill, and it's biological, so use anything but the Dissipator). After you've dealt with them, activate the three countdown posts here (one northwest, one southeast, one southwest) and collect the new upgrade. Cryostasis. I like the sound of that. Now you'll get a little tutorial, as usual. Basically, Cryostasis freezes the enemies around you for a short amount of time, during which you can use them to press switches and stuff. You might have encountered such situations before. Now you know the solution. :) Anyway, to exit back northeast you'll have to utilise Cryostasis' power here and use some of the enemies to press down the two switches. Exit back northeast and decontaminate in the following room. Check your map and return to the floor elevator, bumping back up to the ground floor. Exit northeast, then get back to the crossroad room (two northwests). Now exit northeast, northeast again, then go east and drop down. Here you'll find two switches, and a couple of enemies. *wink* Freeze them and use their bodies as weights, then ride the elevator platform to the east and exit accordingly. Go down to the Basement from this room. Exit northeast, then cross this LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG, winding room to the end, where you'll find the last node. Drag it back to the beginning of the room (grr), and you will have finally activated the Nexus!! Exit southeast and bump back up to the ground floor. Exit west, drop down, exit north, decontaminate, exit north again and - voila! - utilize the Nexus. -=-=-=-=-=-=BOSS=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ransor Generator Sentry, ATLAS -=-=-=-=-=-=BOSS=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Boss time. You'll notice Atlas has six phases. Wonderful. Anyhoo, on to the strategy. First of all, he has three types of attacks, and each pipe is able to carry out any one of them. The first is a simple gust of wind. While it doesn't harm you, it pushes you down onto the red bio-matter, and since this is a long fight, you wouldn't want to get a 100% infection, would you? Just evade the attack when you see it coming. The second isn't an attack really. He just produces three of those green-flame enemies, which are easily dealt with if you use your Dissipator. The third and most damaging is a big hyper beam which spans a whole third of the battle area. Make sure you avoid this. You've only got a second to avoid it, and sometimes even that can be too little time. Basically, what you should do throughout phase 1 is avoid his attacks while keeping a constant barrage of EMP shots hitting Atlas (since he's vulnerable to electricity). He has lots of HP, so it'll take a while before he goes down. Keep doing this for the next two phases. With phase 4, the complete boss changes. XD Drat. Now he just keeps throwing poisonous green blobs at you. No biggie. However, this time he is empowered by the Dissipator, so don't use it. Use either the EMP or the normal shots, both are equally effective. You should basically run around and shoot occasionally. Those poison blobs pack a whallop. Anyway, after you beat this phase, one third of the battlefield will turn to red bio-matter. 0_o Drat again. Keep using this tactic, and after you beat the next phase you'll be left with only one third of clear battlefield. With only so little space to run around, you'll probably get hit more than you'd want to. Don't worry if you die on your first try, it can happen. Anyway, when you finally defeat him, you'll absorb his condensed bio-matter and fully heal. Jump onto the floor elevator thingy and rise. Exit west and go northwest to a small room. This seems to be the main generator. It seems that the generator can only be turned on and off by using the computer here. That is, manually. Which means, someone else must be here, someone who has survived the Scurge. The plot thickens. Yay! ^^ Anyway, you'll see a scene of two doors opening back in the research lab, in that big room with many exits. Nice. The southern door unseals now, so go through it. Here, a teleporter awaits, one that beams you back to the research lab. Cue new excerpt. ==================================0 Excerpt 4 - Into The Tiger's Lair 0 ==================================0 Now that you have turned the main generator back on, the facility is not operating on auxiliary power and it should be in full function. Meaning new areas to explore. :) Magellan here discovers that there is another Nexus here, one that was previously unreachable, and Jenosa wonders where it leads. When Magellan pinpoints the location, you may be surprised to find that it is actually that big room with many exits. You might have noticed the similarities between its central platform and the Nexus we just used. :) Now exit south back into the room where we fought Cyclops, then south again into a D-room. Decontaminate, then proceed south once more. Now quickly jump down and head southwest towards the exit, which leads further south. Here, Magellan will have detected a new upgrade (how DOES he manage it? XD) and pinpoint its location on your map. It is to the east, in a room that was previously unreachable because of our lack of Cryostasis weapon. Exit easy now (using the platform to transport you there). Activate the EMP post here, then drop down. Beat the two big machines here to prevent them from spawning more robots, eliminate the fire enemies and you'll be left with only those small basic enemies (which tend to be biological, so don't use the Dissipator). Simply activate the Cryostasis to freeze a couple, then drag them onto the two switches, north and south. This will activate the floating platform, so climb back up onto the western platform (via pipes) and jump across east, exiting through the northeast door there, since the other one is barriered. If you check the map, you'll find yourself in another, very long and winding room. >_< Make your way through, carefully killing your enemies and making sure you don't get killed, until you reach an Alert Panel on the north wall. Examine it to find another note from one of the scientists. Though you may not understand what this all means now (like I didn't :P), all will be explained when you get the upgrade we're after. Now continue east to find two EMP posts, to the northwest and southeast, which need activating. After doing so, jump up the newly risen pillars. Go northeast past the node-lookalike and go through the northern door into a D-room. Decontaminate then return to the previous room. Now eliminate all the enemies here and southeast of here to make sure you have a clear path. Grab hold of that node-lookalike (which, in fact, is a node ^^) and drag it east and southeast onto a switch, which will activate one of the locks on the Nexus here. Now exit southwest. Quickly get rid of the machine here and then freeze two of the wasps. Drag their bodies onto the two switches to activate the floating platforms southwest of here. Jump across them and snath the Security Card here, after which you should exit southwest, into another treasure room! The door seals behind you, and following tradition, you must defeat two stronger flying robot enemies. Luckily, they're bugs compared to our EMP, so just blast them away. Now freeze two of the smaller creatures here and drag them onto the two switches, as per normal. However, do this quickly, as they will unfreeze much faster than the ones before! As soon as they're in position, approach the southeastern floating platform and jump on it. When it reaches the top, fire a shot at the countdown post, then quickly jump northwest and you should make it in time for the floating platform there. Wait for it to rise and shoot the other countdown post, allowing you to snatch the newly-materialised Grapple enhancement. Now you can latch onto sentry orbs and pull yourself across gaps. It kind of reminds me of Zelda. Anyhoo, exit southwest for an explanation of sentry orbs. After defeating the several enemies here, activate the Dissipator ball to unseal the door northwest. Now, latch onto the sentry orb, go as far southeast as you can without releasing the latch, then press A and woosh! You're across. ^_^ Go through the door to find yourself back in a familiar room. Now make your way west into what is now the Nexus room. Magellan will mark the node locations on your map (though we've already found one ^_^). Exit southwest to decontaminate, return and exit northeast into a new area. Here, solve a simple switch puzzle by freezing two of the enemies and dragging them onto the switches, as usual. Use the floating platform to continue northeast and pick up a Card, then make way back southwest into the Nexus room. Decontaminate in the room southwest if you wish, but eventually exit northwest. Head all the way northwest here, then climb the northeastern platform via pipe. Electrify the robots which stand in your way, then use the sentry orbs to, first, pick up a Card, then activate the Dissipator ball and unbarrier the northwest door. Take note, however, that since this is an isometric game, the place where you end up after using the sentry orbs might be a little off. Do some brain calculous and you should figure out where you should stand. Anyway, go through the door now. Magellan will receive a transmission here. Some scientists seem to be in trouble, but they are only transmitting, not receiving, so you can't communicate. Magellan will pinpoint the location of the transmission. Use the floor elevator here now, then exit southeast into a large room. Go all the way southeast, then climb the northern platform there using pipes. Now, latch onto the sentry orb northwest and stand close to the edge, then press A to be thrown over. Now latch onto the southwestern one and stretch the tether by walking northeast, then press A to be thrown across. Now latch on to the southeastern one, stand near the edge again and press A. Collect the Card, then exit back northwest and go up the floor elevator. Exit northwest now. Go northwest and deal with the medusa enemies (vulnerable to Dissipator), then drop down the huge hole. Deal with a swarm of medusas and one robot, then head east and collect the card there. That's five, one more to go. Drop down, exit southeast and use the floor elevator to get back up, then return to the place where you dropped down the hole. Go west and collect the final Card. Further west, exit south and decontaminate, then go back. Now unlock the door here and exit north to another teleporter. You'll arrive at a field research facility, and Magellan will inform you that the transmission was produced from a Nexus. Unsurprisingly. He'll mark it on your map, and you're good to go. First head all the way southeast and climb the southern platform to collect the Card there, then exit northwest into a D-room. First check the Alert Panel here, which will cause Magellan to mark the D-rooms on your map. You will realize that this place has the most D-rooms so far. 0_o It must be either really huge or really dangerous. Decontaminate, then proceed northwest. You will probably notice the pulsating sound that indicates a Card is here, but alas, we cannot reach it for now. Drop down southwest, deal with the enemies here and go south, jump over the small ledge, drop down south and continue til you see an EMP post. Charge it, then go northeast and climb up the pipes to find a Dissipator ball. Activate it, then simply jump northwest across the platform you raised and exit through the unbarriered door.God, don't you just hate these big, spacy rooms. Luckily, we can get the Card here. From the beginning, approach the northwest corner of the platform you're standing on and you'll spot a sentry orb. Use it to jump over west, then use the one southwest to jump over there and grab the Card. Note that from now on, when I say 'jump over' and you see a sentry orb, it simply means to use that sentry orb.) Now jump over northwest using another sentry, and then jump over north. Activate the Dissipator ball here, jump back south, then jump over west. Now jump over northwest and exit through the now-unbarriered door. Here's the queen mother of all giant rooms. :( Head northeast, jump a ledge, continue northeast, jump a north ledge, then make your way west-southwest till you get to a switch. Freeze one of those little enemies here and place him onto the switch, thus activating a floating platform which will take you to your third Card. Just be careful not to fall down. >_< Return back across the floating platform, then go a bit northeast and turn southeast at the first chance you get. Jump over to the southeast here and exit east (through a hard- to-see door) into a D-room. Decontaminate, return back west, jump over and go northeast to that 3-card security door. Unlock it and go through. (Note that I was right at the beginning, when I said that this area was either really huge or dangerous... It is both. >_>) Immediately as you enter you're attacked by a group of robots, so dodge their shots and get rid of them. One of the reasons why I hate big rooms is because it's hard to tell you the directions. ;) Here, just head east, sticking to the lower half. Eventually, you'll find a high platform with a Card on it. Jump up the ledges north and east of you to get to a platform from which you can latch onto a sentry orb and jump over to the Card. You'll know it when you see it. Now return east and continue that was, past a barriered door, drop down the tall ledge to the south and exit south. Here you'll find that Card we couldn't reach before. Go back north, activate the Dissipator ball to the left, then go north enter enter the newly open door. Magellan will detect another upgrade and mark its location on your map. Surprisingly, it isn't in any 'basement' this time. ^_^' Anyway, we're in another large room, halfway through which there is a Nexus and D-room. Make your way east, the path is straightforward, and exit south. Decontaminate, then go back and exit north into the Nexus room. Magellan will mark the node locations, and now you have a map FILLED with tiny dots. XD Exit south and continue east. Examine the Alert Panel when you reach it to find another note. It informs you of a Combustion weapon, which seems to be deadly against biological enemies. Anyhoo, continue east and when you reach the door, go a bit northwest up a ledge to find our third Card. Exit east now. Quickly jump down south and southwest, then exit south. Treasure room! And a big one at that. Drat. Anyhoo, this will be your toughest countdown-challenge yet. Quickly make your way around the central platform (doing your best to avoid the dinosaurs here - you can try to kill them, but they're a bit too strong...) and climb up onto it using the pipe. Now, what you need to do is quickly jump over to each of the four platforms surrounding the central one and activate the countdown post there. Since you have quite a little bit of time, this will be challenging unless you're a tether-master (like myself ^_^). Just pay attention to where and how you jump, and you'll (hopefully) succeed. If you fall down or something, just start over. Grab the upgrade and you'll, again, be given a small tutorial. Combustion basically hurts biological enemies (little pests >_< finally, we can nuke them). It, however, empowers robots. I have NO idea how they figured this out - overheating that empowers robots - but who cares. You can now also burn away those dead vines/branches or whatever. Burn those to the east and exit east. Yet another large rooom. T_T Don't drop down here. Instead, go southeast and jump to the next platform. Continue jumping across them, latch-jumping along the way, till you get to your fourth Card. Jump over northeast to another big platform, where you'll find the exit northeast. Go through and decontaminate, then go back. Go northwest, up a ledge, and start climbing the pipes. Make your way west, and when you get to the end of your current pipe (with more leading up), drop down. Go a bit southwest and activate the Dissipator ball there. Then, go southwest and you'll find that you can jump southeast onto a familiar platform. Make your way back northeast, then cross the pipes once more, this time all the way to the door you unbarriered. Go through. Go north, then all the way west to find a Card at the end. Your fifth Card, if my calculations are correct. Drop down west now and exit southwest. Drag the node here onto the switch, then go back. Go southeast now, up and down a ledge, take the first turn north and go all the way up. Use the pipes to climb the ledge on the right then approach the door leading northeast. Burn the dead ivy and go through. Get rid of the enemies here and a bit northeast (you can deal with the dinosaurs easily now that you have the Combustion), then go back to the beginning and go a bit north to find a node. Drag it northeast and place it on the switch there to activate the second lock. Exit south and decontaminate, then go back. Climb up the northeastern wall and follow the path. Jump over to the next ledge using the sentry orb, then drop down northwest and activate the Dissipator ball. Climb back up northeast using the pipes, then jump over northwest again. Jump over west now and exit through the southwest door. Exit southeast now, which leads you back into the previous room. However, you are now on a high platform. Simply jump over east and pick up the Card, then jump back west and exit to the previous room. Eliminate the few enemies here (just a couple, so they don't get in the way), then quickly latch onto the sentry orb southwest and jump over. Follow the platform to a 6-card security door. Since we have six Cards, unlock it and go through. ^_^For now, you can only go around the room counter-clockwise, as you can't reach the higher platform. Exit southwest. In here, get rid of the robots then burn the dead ivy. Jump down the hole. You are now in the floor named 'Tunnels'. Small, cramped spaces where you can't jump. :( Me no like. Anyway, move along the tunnel as you kill your share of enemies, and when you reach the end, jump up and enter that room where we couldn't reach the higher platform. Burn the ivy on the other hole here and drop down. Go through the short tunnel and exit into the room where you first entered a tunnel, only this time on the higher platform. Climb the northwest ledge and exit. Yay! Much needed decontamination. Now exit west. First of all, in this thin, but complex room, head south and drop down. Activate the Dissipator ball here to remove the barrier on a door that leads back to the Nexus (and, subsequently, to an easy-to-access D-room)! Climb back north now and exit west. Now make your way south and deal with the group of enemies here. A bit southwest, activate the EMP post to raise a pillar. Go back north, climb up the pipes, then go west and collect the Card. Proceed southwest and drop down the ledge to find another EMP post. Activate this one, too, to raise another pillar. Jump across them and exit east. Here, quickly latch onto the sentry orb and jump across. Grab the Card, then go back to the previous room. Drop down here and make your way west, then north when you can and go through the small door there. Go northeast and climb the platform you arrive to to grab your third Card! Jump over east and exit northeast. In this old room, kill the enemies and make your way east - ignore the node, we'll be getting to it later - and examine the Alert Panel. Whilst telling more about the story, it also tells you about an Adrenaline Rush upgrade. Sounds nice. Go a bit east and exit north into the D-room, decontaminate, then go back and exit southeast. Magellan will discover a new upgrade and mark it on your map. Drop down here and get rid of the big, yellow-flamed enemies, then freeze a couple of the small ones, which will activate the floating platform. Jump back west using the ledges and use the floating platform to jump over east and grab the Card there. Proceed east, jumping over a ledge and burning the ivy, and exit east. Quickly head southeast here and jump over the ledge. Proceed east to the platform's end and jump over north, where you'll find yet another Card. After adding it to your ever-growing collection, jump over west. Make way a bit northwest and exit west. Decontaminate, then proceed northwest. Oh, shyte. A treasure room. And a labyrinthish one at that, you'll notice. I'll make a map here, noting the locations of the countdown posts so we can use it later. [e][c][e] [c][e][c] [e][t][c] [c][e][n] n - nothing e - enemy c - countdown post t - treasure Jump west and deal with the big, red enemy there (using the Dissipator, as he isenergy-based). Jump further west, but do not activate the countdown post. First, as usual, we need to get rid of the baddies. Be careful when you proceed north, because that big red enemy will ambush you. Seemingly invincible, there -is- a way. Hug the right wall, and this will cause the enemy to turn and shoot southeast instead towards you. Shoot him while he's like that, and voila! Go east now, then jump north and deal with another enemy. (Note that the enemies move randomly, so you might end up in a tight situation or an easy situation. You now know how to handle the tight ones, though, so no biggie.) Kill it, then go east to another countdown post. Go north and kill the bio-matter enemy, then jump west to another countdown post (deal with the two bio-matter enemies here, too). Jump west and kill the enemy here too. Now it's finally time to activate those countdown posts! It's quite easy, really. Just do them like so: [<][1][ ] [2][>][3] [ ][ ][4] [5][<][<] Now get the treasure. Magellan tells you that the adrenaline rush makes everything around you appear to move much more slowly. *glitter* Eye of the Storm FTW! Non-Prince of Persia fans, ignore that. XD You select the Adrenaline (as I'll refer to it) by moving the d-pad down and right while holding R. When selected, you need to press and hold B to keep it active. It just allows you to slow down things for everyone else, you can't kill anything since you can't use any other weapons. But it's useful for people like me, who like speeding through rooms and laughing at oversized dinosaurs trying to eat you. Now then, go to the far northeastern enclosure and exit northeast. Here, make your way to the far southeast end (I adore Adrenaline) and exit northwest. Now make your way around this room to eventually find a Card. Now exit southwest and activate the Dissipator ball here, then jump down and exit southwest through the now-unbarriered door. Meet the shabby room - someone, fix that roof! Falling stones = bad. Falling stones with Adrenaline = a bit less bad. Make way southeast, past the falling stones and latch onto the node. Activate Adrenaline to make things easier, then drag the node northwest onto the switch, activating yet another lock. Exit southeast now. Decontaminate, then drop down the hole. 0_o Loooong tunnel. Well, at least it's straightforward. Can't complain. Make your way through, then exit at the other end. Yahoo! Old room, way back. Collect the Card and drop down, decontaminate if you need to then exit south. Just two more nodes to go! (Well, three, but this one is always within reach, so it doesn't count. XD) Move to the west side of the room and exit north. Now that you have Adrenaline, you can cross this room. Why couldn't you before? Because of speedy falling rocks, that's why. Make your way west, ultimately climbing up using the pipes, then go all the way east. Climb up the pipes there and land on the western platform (the eastern holds a barriered exit). Now, approach the pipes to the west, climb them and when you think the time is right, activate Adrenaline and quickly make way west, past the falling rocks! It's really hellishly easy with Adrenaline. Do it again with the next platform and you'll arive at the Dissipator ball. Activate it, then make your way back east (not via the pipes, you can't make it past the rocks in this direction - just jump down) and exit through the newly opened door. But of course, they couldn't just give us a nice, clean room with a node in it. No. It has to be infested with enemies. Deal with them as best you can, then make your way northwest and freeze a spider here. Move it onto the switch, then use the floating platform to get to a higher platform. Go southeast, latch onto the node and drag it northwest to the switch. Yay, another lock bows to our puzzling might. Now, exit south twice to get back to that old room. Make a quick visit to the D-room, then get back here and exit southwest. Make way southwest and exit south (just activate Adrenaline and rush through - did I mention I adore it? ^_^). Go east past the EMP post, turn north and continue that way, climb the ledge, go southwest and drop down, then jump over west using the sentry orb. Unlock the door and go through. Kill the enemies, then activate the Dissipator ball to the east to remove the barrier on a door here. Jump down and head northeast. Climb the platform where the Card used to be, then jump over northwest and go through the newly opened door! Make your way west-southwest (be wary of the first ledge, there are rocks falling, so time your jump right) and enter the D-room your see on your map - to the northwest. Decontaminate, then go back. Jump down and burn the ivy covering the southeast exit, then go through it. Don't jump into the water. Instead, latch onto the sentry orb southwest and jump over. Jump over some more platforms until you finall reach a Card. Jump into the water, then climb out onto the northern platform, burn the ivy and exit north. Kill the enemies here so they don't get in the way, then latch onto the sentry orb to the north and jump over to another platform, which holds your sixth Card! Drop down and exit northwest. Another rock room. No biggie. We know how to handle them now. ^_^ Climb the pipe, activate Adrenaline and laugh at the rocks as they miss you one by one. At the other end, unlock the door and go through. Woohoo, pitfall. Burn the ivy and drop down. You are now at theeeee... Northeast corner of the tunnel, I believe. Now, make your way to the far west end and exit. A bit east of you, activate the Dissipator ball, then drop back down. This time, go to the far south and take the exit there. Go southeast and climb the northeast platform. Make way northwest, then jump over to the southwest platform. Go south, burn the ivy and drop back into the tunnels. Make your way to the other end and exit. You'll now be near the door you unbarriered a few moments ago. Enter and decontaminate, then climb the high platform using the pipes to the northeast, make way west, burn the ivy and drop into the hole. Again, make your way to the other end and exit to find yourself in an old room, but on a higher platform. Use the pipes on the north wall to climb east and drop into the hole there (I will stop mentioning the ivy from now on, unless it's critical that I do so). Ooo, complex tunnel. Still straightforward, though. As usual, exit at the other end and you're finally in the room with the node! Yay! Go east and use the sentry orb to jump over east, then grab the node and pull it west with you, down onto the switch, to activate our second-to-last lock. Now, however, I'm disappointed. No short route back? :( Nope. You have to make it back to the last node aaaaall by yourself. There's nothing new along the way, so when you get there, let me know. *goes to read a book* ... ... ... You're back? Excellent. Go to the east part of the room and exit north to quickly decontaminate, then return and finally grab hold of the node. Drag it down the ledge south with you and place it on the switch. At last! Now simply make way south and enter the Nexus room. See why I told you to leave this one for later? ^_^ Jenosa will use the Nexus to teleport to Jormungand (mentioned in previous notes of the scientists), the next boss. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=BOSS=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Native Specimen Beta-267, JORMUNGAND -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=BOSS=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Jormungand is... A giant worm. I hate giant worms. Don't you? Anyway, first of all, burn the ivy covering the hole here. Bugs will start popping out at once, bugs you can get rid of by shooting them once with any weapon. However, be prepared - the hole will suddenly start sucking everything up. Do NOT get suckedin. The solution to this aren't the sentry orbs. Rather, by activating Adrenaline, you don't get sucked in -at all-. However, activate it only when you're close to falling in, as keeping it on for too long will either drain your energy, or just plain take too long. XD When the sucking stops (no funny jokes >_<), a volley of rocks will come bursting out of the hole. Use Adrenaline to avoid these, too, and then Jormungand will emerge, marking the start of phase 1. Jormungand basically stays in the center and has only one attack. He shoots some web onto you, then quickly exits his hole and hits you, while also causing rocks to fall onto you. This is REALLY easy to avoid if you can press the D-pad fast enough (to shake the web off), but if not, you can always use Adrenaline. After one such attack, Jormungand is open. Hit him with Combustion, as he's weak to it. Dissipator makes him stronger, and the others are just plain ineffective. Just repeat this over and over until phase 1 ends. Now he will turn crimson and rise further from the hole. 0_o He will descend and start doing a swirling gas attack for a while. It's easy to avoid, just jump over it. When he's finished, phase 2 begins. It's the exact same thing, only this time, when Jormungand appears, his attacks will be a teensy bit faster, though you should still have no problems with them. Beat with Combustion until dead. Anoter gas swirl attack, and phase 3 begins. Same shit. ^_^ Use the same tactic and it's a piece of cake. Phase 4 is the same, though Jormungand is notably faster and has a bit more HP. He'll go down like the rest of them, though. Your infection should be nearing critical by now, but don't worry, his energy will heal you. Muahaha. XD Jenosa will jump down the hole where you'll find Jormy's dead body. Awww, so cute. Go east to find a webbed up corpse, and a scene ensues. It seems someone is trying to establish two-way communication. Magellan patches him through. He seems pissed that you're not 'reinforcements', but just a single bounty hunter. It seems your Commander cares more about the important, 'secret' data stashed here than about his scientists. Then again, he may have thought they were dead, so who knows. Random funny quote time! Jenosa: 'My objectives may not be search and rescue but you do count as valuable data if that makes you feel any better.' XD So cold. After a bit more chit-chat, you find out that this doctor/professor/whatever has barricaded himself somewhere in the mines. Now your job is to go get him. Go east and jump up to find yourself in a small, secluded room. Jump down and Jenosa will teleport. Woohoo. End of Excerpt. =================================0 Excerpt 5 - Before we knew it... 0 =================================0 Magellan will now mark the entrance to the Mines on your map. It seems to be located in the Basement. Exit south now and you'll receive another transmission from that scientist, who seems to be named Derad. Derad tells you of a new upgrade, then Jenosa asks for its location... Derad: 'That's classified information...' Jenosa: 'Which should mean nothing to you right now since you're screwed if I can't get to you.' Don't you just love her? ^_^ You'll get the upgrade's coordinates now. It's right around the corner. XD Exit south and decontaminate if you want, then go back and exit west. Go a bit west, burn the ivy and drop down. Go through the tunnel and exit. Quickly jump over east using the sentry orb and drop down again. Follow the tunnel and exit once more. Exit south and... Treasure room! First of all, kill all the enemies in the room! After that's done with, go back to the top and activate the countdown post there. Immediately turn on Adrenaline and make your way to the southern post, activate it and collect the treasure. This is your basic double-jump upgrade. 'Bout time. Exit south now. Drop down and exit east, then make your way back to the Nexus room. Decontaminate in the southwest room if you want, then exit northeast into a room you previously visited. Go to the far northeast here and you'll notice a pipe high on the wall. You couldn't reach this before, but now you can. Jump up to it, then jump again onto the highest platform. Exit northeast. Descend down the floor elevator here. Exit northwest. In this large room, note that there's a D-room to the northeast, so feel free to use it at your convenience. For the purpose of continuing with our goal, though, go southwest and exit through the door. Now jump make a quick trip southwest, northwest up the ledge and north through the door. Here, just head straight north and jump up the ledge there to pick up your first Card in this area. Now go west and drop down. Take care of the enemies here, then freeze a spider and drag it onto the switch. Use the activated elevator platform to the north, beat the enemies there, then go further north and jump up the ledge. Drag the node down to the switch to activate the second lock. Exit west now to decontaminate, then go back and exit east. Shyte, a big room. Go northeast, north, northwest and exit northwest. Go northwest and activate the EMP post here, then go all the way east, jump up to the platform and jump across west using the new pillar you raised. Now make your way across the pipes, being careful of the steam, and in the end go southeast and exit south, back into the previous room, but now on a higher level. Go southwest and double-jump over to the Card. Jump back and make your way east and around south, following the straight path and exiting south... ... Which is where the final Card awaits, and we're on a high enough platform to get it now. :) I just love how things fit in this way. Unrealistic, perhaps, but I love it. Now jump over several platforms using the sentry orbs until you get the Card, then simply drop down northwest, unlock the door and go through! Piece of cake. Jenosa will now use the teleporter here to teleport into a new, huge area for you to explore... and me to describe. :( Bummer. Derad will contact you after you 'land', filling you in on some more of the story along the way. It seems that, other than researching the Scurge, the scientists here were working on Yggdrasil, one of the Commanders little side- projects. Yggdrasil is the name for, basically, a huge teleporter, with which they could easily travel the Solar System. However, the Scurge Source figured it out that the scientists may use it to escape, so it completely infected it and centered its Hive around it. A little funny chat ensues here, ridiculing the game's way of constantly throwing deactivated Nexuses at you. XD Love it. Derad will give you the Nexus' location and you're good to go. You'll notice that the Mines' map has an orange color instead of the common plain blue. ^_^ Cool. Exit northwest and examine the Alert Panel to get all the D-rooms on your map. You'll notice that there aren't really many, and they're separated on different 'Levels' (floors), so I'm expecting this to be rather easier than the previous Excerpt. Decontaminate, then exit northwest. Despite its size, this room is amazingly simple. Go north, jump up, collect the Card, then continue northwest and north into the next room. Ooo, our first corridor-type room. It's long, thick, straight, like a... um... <_< >_> Never mind. Anyway, you will have to do some serious jumping in this room. First of all, melt the ice here using your Combustion, then go a bit east, and instead of dropping way down, do a double-jump to the right. Make sure you jump off right at the -edge- of the platform, as you won't succeed otherwise. It's a tricky jump, but isn't really hard once you get the hang of it. Go a bit right and do the same thing again. Continue right (noticing, perhaps, a Card you can't reach yet) and exit right into a big circular room. South is a D-room, so use it, and north is the Nexus room, so go and have the nodes registered on your map. Go back south and exit east now. Another corridor. Make your way straight east, melting some ice along the way, and when you get to the far-east door (the central one being barriered), don't go through, but jump to the higher platform west. Continue west till you get the Card. Jump up east now and activate the Dissipator ball there to unseal the door. Drop down and go through the far-east door now. Take the elevator up now. Hey, the floors are color-coded! Yay. :) I have no idea why I'm happy about that, but I love seeing diverse maps. Exit southwest now and Magellan will discover a new upgrade and mark its location on your map. It's way up on the next level though, so yea... Anyway, go northwest and use the pipes to climb up. Use Adrenaline to easier avoid the spires falling from the ceiling, and when your climb is done, get the Card and exit west. Make your way west here, climb the pipes, continue east, climb the pipes again, unlock the 3-card door there and go through. Decontaminate and exit north. For 'mines', this place is the most geometrically organized one yet. Perfectly circular rooms, perfectly straight corridors... Funny. ^_^ Note that this room (and probably ones on the next few floors) is exactly above the circular room on the bottom level, the one leading to the Nexus. I smell shortcut. Exit north now.You will find a slippery floor here, and I'm guessing you aren't going to love it. Go a bit northwest and activate the EMP post there, then make your way up the ledges northeast, jump onto the pillar you just raised, jump north on the pipes and use them to get to the east platform. Collect the Card and exit south. Drop down east, then jump over west to get the Card. Exit west now and activate the Dissipator ball, then drop down and head through the now-unbarriered door. Here, jump across west and use the sentry orb to propel yourself further west. Climb up the pipes, then land on the western platform. Exit west, decontaminate, go back and this time head east. Jump up east and west along the linear platforms until you get to some ice. Melt it and get the Card, then continue jumping up and exit north. Use the elevator here. Exit east, then simply make your way east, up the ledges. When you get the chance to jump west, though, do so and move west, avoiding the spires, and drop down (hugging the right wall) at the end to collect the Card. Return east and exit. There's a handy D-room here, to the north. Decontaminate, then go back. Examine the Alert Panel west. You'll find a note from Derad telling his personnel that they should all have light enhancements for their suits, and that it is located on Level 2. Well, yay. Now, big job - clear the room of all enemies. It will make your task easier. When you're done, go back to the exit to the D-room, and go south to find a switch. Freeze some spiders here and put one on the switch. Quickly make your way southeast and around to find another switch, put another piece of ice onto this one and use the newly-activated floating platform to climb up and get the Card. Now just make your way back north, decontaminate, and exit northeast from this room. Make way east, beat the enemies, melt the ice and jump up the pipes here. Eventually, you'll reach the Card. Just jump over west now, and seeing as how you have 6 cards, unlock the door and go through. Take the elevator here. Exit southwest into a big room. Beat the enemies to get them out of the way, then use the sentry orb to propel yourself southwest and get the Card. Do it again and exit south. Jump your way east, eventually climb up some pipes and activate the Dissipator ball at the top. Now jump your way west past the spires and exit through the door there. If you want, you can exit west here and take the first door south to decontaminate, but it isn't necessary. Exit south. Drop down here and beat the enemies, then freeze a spider and put it on the switch. Climb up onto the eastern platform using the pipes, jump onto the moving platform and ready your Dissipator. As soon as it approaches the west platform, start shooting (as you can't actually jump on it) to activate the Dissipator ball here. Continue east now and exit. Melt the ice here and drop down to find yourself in a new room on Level 2. Climb up the pipes, evading the spires, and eventually exit north. Decontaminate, then proceed west. Yay, a multi-puzzle room. Kill all the enemies if you want, then go to the central platform. Freeze two spiders here and place them onto the switches. Head southwest, use the moving platform to get to the EMP post and activate it. Go back to the center and this time head southeast, jumping across the newly raised pillar, collecting the Card and activating the Dissipator ball. Finally, exit northwest. Treasure room time! This treasure room, however, involves no puzzling but double-jumping across platforms. Go west and climb onto the central platform using the pipe. Jump northwest, activate the countdown post there, jump back, jump southeast and do the same, jump back again. Jump northeast across the platform, then jump northwest and southeast again to activate the remaining countdown posts. It is doable without Adrenaline, but if you're unsure of your double-jumping capabilities, make use of it. Drop down and collect the treasure. It simply illuminates dark rooms. Yahay. I just HOPE it isn't a small circle around Jenosa... Exit northwest now. ... Yup, small circle around Jenosa. God I hate this. Jump up the high platform northwest, then proceed west to find a node. Drag it a bit east onto the switch, and you will have activated the first lock. Go west and drop down, then continue west onto another high platform. Follow it around and activate the Dissipator ball at the end, then go through the door northwest. Make use of the elevator. Exit west. Drop down and continue west here, then activate the EMP post. Go back east, climb up on the first platform, then jump west over the pillar and south using the sentry orb to collect the Card. Continue northwest and around the room to find the exit. Derad will contact you again. It seems he's angry that you've been activating the locks on the research lab's Nexus. ^_^' Oops. He tells you about a new elemental weapon, the Plasma Bomb, and of a toxic-resistant upgrade that you'll need for later. He sends you the coordinates, but then something happens to him. Drat. Go east and get the Card here, then drop down and decontaminate in the southern room. Go back and continue east to the exit. Exit east now. Make your way through this room - it's as linear as it gets. In the next room, jump northeast and melt the ice there, then drop down. Exit southeast. Jump onto the bluish piece of land here, then use the sentry orb west of you to propel yourself to the Card, HOWEVER, you must double jump to actually reach it. Remember to do that from now on. Drop down and exit southwest. Go south and around the room to find a switch. Freeze an enemy and put it onto the switch, then quickly make your way back to the beginning where you'll find a newly activated floating platform. Use it to get up to the higher platform, head west and activate the Dissipator ball here. Drop down and exit northwest. Head west-northwest here and exit west. This is Level 2's equivalent of the other levels' circular rooms, so yea... Exit north and decontaminate, then go back and, since you can't jump and get the Card here, exit west. Exit west again. Here, make way south and southwest, use the sentry orb to jump across to the Card and collect it! Now go back to that room with the 6-card security door (east of the circular room), jump up the ledge northeast, unlock the door and go through. Big puzzle room with node. Oh boy. First of all, of course, travel northeast to find two switches. Freeze the enemies and place two onto the switches to activate a floating platform back at the beginning. Go back there, mount it and activate the EMP post up top. Go northeast and jump over the newly raised pillar. Use the pipes on the next platform to climb up to the final platform, where the node and switch await. Activate yet another lock, then return to the circular room. Decontaminate in the room up north, but then drop down in this room to land on the floor below. Exit to the east now that you have the illumination upgrade. Now then, make you way east, but don't jump up onto the platform. Instead, go below and press the switch there with an enemy to activate the floating platform. NOW jump up, use the platform and exit east. Make your way around this room, KILLING the enemies along the way, until you find a node. Drag it back to the switch to activate another lock! We're making progress. Now go back to where you found the node, jump up and exit south. Pick up the Card here then go back to the circular room. Exit west this time and drop down the central hole. You'll land in a room we visited 'long ago', which had a Card in it but we couldn't reach it. Now we can. ^_^ Grab it, then go east into this level's circular room. Decontaminate to the south if you want to, then proceed east. Here, you'll remember, you unbarriered a door, but if you tried to go through, it was too dark. NOW go through, and go southeast. Grab the node, then drag it with you west, then down the ledge southwest and onto the switch. Exit southeast now to decontaminate, then proceed east. Kill all the enemies here, then climb the northern platform. Activate the EMP post, go back to the starting platform using the pipes here, then use the newly raised pillar along with some sentry orbs to grab the card on the far east side. Go back to the D-room, heal if you need to, and go southwest. Treasure room! I should think the elusive Plasma Bomb awaits here. Yummy. First of all, note that there are two switches to the east and west of the central platform. First, place an enemy on the western one, then on the eastern one to activate a moving platform above you. Quickly climb the central platform and use the moving one to get across east. Here lies our first countdown post. Activate it, then drop south and activate the one east of there. Quickly go back west and northwest and activate the two there (northwest and southwest of the central platform) and we're done! That wasn't so hard (especially if you, like I, adore using Adrenaline ^_^). Grab the treasure from the central platform now. Surely by now you've noticed piles of gravel and rock blocking our path, just like the dead ivy used to. Well, the Plasma Bomb takes care of that. It also allows you to send enemies flying away, bursting apart large groups. Yummy indeed. However, it takes some practice since you 'throw' the bomb ahead and it has some fuse time before it explodes. But anyway... If you select the Plasma Bomb with R+D-pad down, you'll notice its icon looks just like a Pokeball. XD Bomb the northern door and go through. Use the pipes on the north wall to climb up and grab the Card. Drop down east and make your way back northeast (stopping to decontaminate along the way) and exit north. In this long corridor again, just go east and exit south. Use the elevator. Here, you won't be so happy to realize that you have to go all the way to the other elevator on this floor. :) When you get there, use it to travel to Level 2. Here, see the elevator east of your position? Go to it and use it. ^_^' On Level 1 now, make way to the circular room. Here, you'll notice some gravel in the center. Blow it up and drop down. The elusive Card is ours! One more till we have 6. Jump over west now and exit west (do NOT fall, you don't want to backtrack here, do you? 0_o). Exit west again, then go southwest in this room to find an exit covered in rocks. Blow it up and exit north. And our sixth Card, along with the security gate, is here! Jump across west till you can jump on the pipe on the north wall. Do so and climb all the way east, where the Card awaits. Go back west and unlock the door, then go through. All the way north in this room (as you can see from the map) is a node. Go grab it, then drag it all the way back to the center and put it on the switch. One more to go. Go northeast now and blow up the rocks blocking the exit, then go through. Head along the linear path and exit south. DO NOT FALL DOWN! Instead, use the sentry orb to the west to propel yourself over, then drag the node onto the switch. And we're DONE! Now drop down and exit south, drop down again and exit east, drop ALL the way down to the bottom, decontaminate in the room to the south and enter the Nexus room to the north! Jenosa will use it to teleport to the boss. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=BOSS=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Energy Being Specimen Gamma-267, HEIMDALL -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=BOSS=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Jenosa seems pissed. Heimdall is quite hard, actually. It is basically a blob of goo, but a dangerous one at that. He just keeps floating around the room, firing energy balls everywhere. These energy balls can rebound off the wall, so be careful! Alright, here's what you need to do. While he's a blob, he's invincible. To get rid of that, you'll need your Plasma Bombs. See, if you throw a Plasma Bomb in Heimdall' direction (basically, if you throw it at him), it will get stuck in his goo and explode inside him. From what I've seen, it takes 7 bombs in total to blow up phase 1. So, just run around throwing bombs at him (you can throw more than one inside him, they fit ^_^) until he explodes. Now watch yourself! He will separate into thousands of little pieces which will form an ever- expanding and -contracting circle on the ground. It doesn't really have a pattern, so you'll have to be quick on the jump button to avoid it hitting you. However, don't just avoid! This is the only time at which Heimdall is weak! Hit the little pieces with your Dissipator (since the others are pretty ineffective, and he's weak to it) as much as you can. Eventually, though, the pieces will reform blob-Heimdall. Repeat until dead. Phase 2 is the same until you bomb him (also requires 7 bombs). When you do, this time the little pieces don't form a circle. They actually form a flying snake-thingy which follows you around and is quite annoying. However, with some jumping technique and shooting expertise (and the fact that they don't reform for quite some time helps too) you'll be able to bring it down to 1/4 of its health quite easily. When they reform, just repeat until dead. In phase 3, I actually don't know how to describe the little pieces' formation. You just have to see it. As usual, run around, staying outside the pieces' reach and shoot them with the Dissipator. Eventually, they'll die. Congrats! (Unless you're on a wicked high level, you'll probably die to Heimdall, as he deals crazy damage. Don't worry, just try again and try to better avoid his powerballs.) After the battle, Jenosa makes a really weird comment. 'Always too late...' Too late for what? Anyway, she drops down the hole here and uses the teleporter. End of Excerpt. ==============================0 Excerpt 6 - Braving the storm 0 ==============================0 Now you'll get your next target - the forest research lab Derad mentioned. Naturally, it's straight up north from the central Nexus room - through the door blocked by rubble. Anyways, go twice southeast and use the elevator. Now go to the Nexus room, blow up the rocks blocking the northern exit, and go through! A node awaits you here, and its switch directly northeast. Place it to activate the third lock. Activate the EMP post northeast of here to raise a pillar. Jump on it then jump northwest and exit. Go northwest and activate the Dissipator ball. Go northwest to the end of the platform, then go west and activate the EMP post there. Go to the pillar, jump up and exit northeast. In this room, go north and drop down to the lower level. A bit west is a Card, so get it, then go back and use the pipes to climb back up. Now cross the room along the upper level and take the exit back into the previous room. Collect the Card, then return to the Nexus room. Decontaminate (to the southwest) if you want, but eventually exit southeast. Ride the elevator down here. Exit southeast and drag the node you find here east to its switch to activate the fourth lock. Continue northeast and exit. Climb up the northeast wall using the pipes and collect the third Card there. Now go back to the elevator, use it, decontaminate southwest of the Nexus room, then go through the north exit again and this time unlock the security door with your 3 Cards. Go through. Head northeast but don't go through the northeast door. Instead, head northwest up the ledges and exit northwest to teleport to the forest research lab! I have a feeling this is the last large area we're going to be exploring... The end draws near. Magellan will mark the Nexus now (it's waaaaay southwest from your current location 0_o). Just drop down and exit southwest. I feel like I'm going to hate this place - a 'forest'. Anyway, examine the Alert Panel here to get the locations of the other D-rooms (which seem to be far and in-between), decontaminate, and proceed southwest. Here, Magellan will detect the toxic- resistant upgrade and mark it on your map (while you'll get a glimpse of just how massive the current room is...). Here, jump south onto the platform, then southwest onto another and southeast to get the Card. Southeast is a poisoned room, so let's go northwest. Jump northwest, then west and northwest again to get to the exit. Another huge rooooom. T_T Go west and use an enemy to press the switch here. Now quickly make your west, northwest and around till you get to that higher platform from which you can jump onto the moving platforms you just activated. Use them to cross over east and follow the path, past the exit and get the Card. Now exit northeast. Blow up the rubble here and drop down. Go through the short tunnel and exit to find yourself in the previous room, but on the higher platform. Get the Card, drop down southwest and exit. Take the southeast exit here (to the room you were in before) and this time go through the southwestern exit. Exit south here, decontaminate, exit south again to get the node locations, then go back north twice. Here, freeze and enemy and place it on the switch. Jump up north, then west and use the platforms to cross over east. Collect the Card, but to the east lies a poison room, so exit north (northeast) instead. In this room again, go to the northeast and climb up again, jumping across the platforms to reach the northwestern exit - go through. Go west to find more rubble. Blow it up and jump down. Traverse the tunnel here, exit, go south and blow up the rubble there, drop down again, go through the tunnel again (take the east path), exit again... Drop down here and activate the Dissipator ball. Now go north and northwest to collect the Card, then return back and enter the tunnel again. Now go to the far western exit. When you arrive to the new room, first go a bit east and use the pipe on the northern wall to climb up. Activate the EMP post there, drop down south and continue that way, then southwest and activate the Dissipator ball there. However, first jump up the pillar here and collect the Card up top. Also destroy the rubble and enter the tunnel. Go through and exit at the other end. Drop down east and freeze the numerous spiders. Drag three of them onto the three switches to activate the floating platform to the east, then use it to go up, pick up the Card (your seventh 0_o), destroy the rubble here and enter another tunnel. Go through and exit to find yourself in a familiar room, as it often happens. Jump up the ledge southeast and collect the Card here. Now drop down left to the lower level and into the hole there. Make your way to the western tunnel exit and in the next room, climb up the wall north of you (using the pipe on its east side) and exit northeast. Decontaminate, then proceed northeast again. You will find a node and switch here. You know what to do. This is our first lock for the area. Now jump up northwest, blow the rubble up and drop down. As usual, follow the tunnel and exit into a new room. First drop down and place the node onto the switch, then climb back up onto the starting platform and go to the west end, then double-jump to the next one. Proceed west to find your ninth Card, then drop down south of the Card and blow up the rubble there, then drop in. Proceed through the tunnel and exit to a room with (OMG!) a 9-card security door. ^_^ First of all, drop down northeast and activate the Dissipator ball to open the door to the southeast, leading to a D-room and serving as a shortcut back. Decontaminate if you want, but back in this room, jump back up to the security door platform, unlock it and go through. Humungous room ahead - and a treasure one at that. :) Firstly, slaughter all the enemies as there are no switches here. Next, go southwest of the entrance and activate the EMP post there. Now go north of the entrance and do the same. Go a bit east, climb the pipes and jump onto the pillar. Jump across west to find the first countdown post. Now, activate it. Quickly jump up the pipes and activate the next one, then use the pipe here to cross over east. Proceed east to find another one, then just follow this high path to the end to find the last one. It's perfectly doable without Adrenaline, but as usual, it gives you a nice boost. Drop down west to get the treasure, which grants you resistance to those poison-filled rooms. Drop down and exit southwest through the now-unbarriered door. Grab the Card, then drop down here and exit southeast. Decontaminate, then proceed southeast. Exit southeast again, and in this room, take the southeast exit we ignored because of the poison behind it. When you enter, you'll notice that - despite what Jenosa implied - you take NO damage from the poison now. Head all the way east, destroy the rubble and enter the tunnel. Proceed to exit it and activate the Dissipator ball here, then use the pipe on the western end of this platform to get the Card, then go back and jump across east to proceed northeast through the door. There is a D-room to the east (exit leading south), so decontaminate if you want to. First of all, climb the platform north of the entrance and exit northwest. Now jump around up the ledges to get the Card up top, then return southeast. Now, on this high platform, go northeast to the security door. Double-jump STRAIGHT southeast of the security door to land on a platform with a switch. Step on this switch until the platform moves to the edge of the screen (note, not until it disappears until you see just a small piece of it - literally, until it moves to the edge), then step off and jump across it southeast to another platform. Use the sentry orb southeast to jump to another platform and grab the Card there. Now go back northwest, unlock the door and go through. To the left of where you enter (past the platform) you'll find the switch. You'll find the node, of course, in the far north end of this room. XD Drag it southwest to the switch to activate the third lock. Now go back to where you found the node and jump up onto the high platform. Approach its eastern southern end and use the sentry orb to the south to propel yourself over. Do the same with the southwestern sentry orb here, blow up the rubble and enter the tunnel. Do as usual, then go left in the new room and blow up the rubble here. Repeat the process, then in the next room, drop down and make way southwest, jump up the ledges and enter the tunnel here (I will not mention the rubble anymore). Go through. In the next room, use the pipes to climb up northeast then exit northwest. Decontaminate and return to the previous room, where you should enter the tunnel on the higher land. Go through to be back in a familiar room. Use the pipe north of you to climb around to the -other- tunnel entrance you haven't used, then use it. At the other end, make way northwest where you'll find a node. Drag it southeast with you to activate our fourth lock. We're done here, so make your way back to... umm... how to describe it... Well, the room that wasn't poisoned. XD You know the one I mean. When you get back, take the southwest exit here. It's time to activate these platforms again. Drop down, place an enemy on the switch, then jump back up quickly and make way to the eastern exit. Go through. Activate the EMP post here, then go towards the southeast exit (which is east-southeast) and activate the EMP post there too. Now climb the platform north of you and use the two pillars you raised to get the Card. Exit southeast and go northeast to activate the Dissipator ball, then return to the previous room and exit south this time. Go southeast and climb the platform, then climb the one north of you, but don't exit yet. Instead, jump over west then south to get the Card here. Now take the northeast exit. Grab the Card north of you and drop down. Southeast is a D-room if you wish to use it. Back in this room, climb up the pipes to the north. Jump onto the pipe here and make way east, then exit northeast. Drop down and go southeast now, activate the EMP post there, jump onto the newly raised pillar and then grab the Card northeast. Use the pipe here to climb over west back to the exit. In the previous room, drop down the tunnel here. Go through, then in the next room, drop down southwest and enter the tunnel there. Take the eastern exit first. Drop down south here and activate the EMP post, then drag the node west onto the switch. One more to go! Climb up to the starting platform now (using the pipes a bit west of it) and jump southeast across the pillar you raised and grab the Card. Now jump northeast and enter the tunnel. Go to the eastern exit. In the next room, go a bit east and use the pipes here to climb over to the western platform. Go south and grab the Card there, then enter the tunnel north of you. Go through, and in the next room go all the way west to find two switches next to the 9-card security door. Put two enemies onto them, then jump up two ledges southeast to where the newly activated platform is. Use it to cross over east and get the Card, then climb back onto the northern platform and exit north to a D-room. Decontaminate, then go back and enter the tunnel. Go through, then enter the other tunnel here and take the western exit this time. Collect the Card here then go back to the security door, unlock it and go through. Northeast, up various ledges, you'll find the last node for this area. Woohoo! Drag it back down with you and onto the switch to activate the last lock. Now you need to make it ALL the way back to the Nexus, which is quite a trip. :( When you get there, however, rejoice, for another boss awaits! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=BOSS=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Captured Specimen Beta-213, MANDRAGORA -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=BOSS=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Jenosa makes taunting comments to the Source before the battle begins. First of all, Mandragora is vulnerable to the EMP, while all others are rather ineffective, so just stick to it. Now then, Mandragora has one attack, and one passive ability. The passive ability basically makes thorns pop out of the ground, hurting you if you're standing on them. This is easily avoided if you keep on the move. But there's Mandragora's real attack to count into the equation. It shoots out a laser that quickly drains you of your life and kills you. It's like that. ^_^ The laser follows you around, BUT there is a 'cure'. There are two piles of rubble here. You can hide behind them to avoid the laser. HOWEVER, remember the thorns. Basically, you need to go left-right from rubble to rubble to both avoid the laser and thorn. When the laser stops, that's your cue! Start shooting Mandragora with EMP like crazy. When you feel like the laser's coming on again, quickly make your way to a pile of rubble and repeat until dead. Phase 2 is different (OMG 0_o), though the passive thorn remains. Two tentacles appear, and they basically drop sticky goo around the battlefield, while also trying to hit you. Don't get caught in the goo and avoid the thomps while shooting Mandragora's body with Combustion (and only Combustion). When you shoot it enough, it'll open up, the tentacles will 'die' and its core will come out. This core is weak to the Dissipator, so start shooting! It'll disappear and reappear at will, leaving little floating bombs behind, so be careful about those too. Shoot until dead. Phase 3 is much of the same, really, just a bit harder. Ditto for Phase 4. Just use the same strategy until you win. You'll notice, I think, that Excerpt 6 was amazingly short compared to the others. Anyway, you'll absorb Mandragora's bio- matter, then proceed north to teleport back to the research lab. End of Excerpt. ====================================0 Final Excerpt - Ashes of the fallen 0 ====================================0 Exit southeast, then drop down and exit northeast. Place the node here onto the switch to activate our fifth lock! We're getting close. Exit back southwest, then southwest again and finally south, back into the Nexus room. Exit west now and descend to the Basement. Exit southwest, then go all the way southwest where you'll find a Dissipator ball from way back at the start of the game, when you didn't have the Dissipator. Activate it, then go through the northwestern door. Drop down northwest and use the pipes to climb up to the topmost one, then move over northwest and exit that way. Jump up the ledges north of you now and exit north, lower the water level, then return and jump onto the highest platform south of you. Drop down where the water was before to find the last node!!!! Place it onto the switch to activate the final lock, then go back to the Nexus Room, decontaminate in the room southwest, then approach the center. Dum dum dum! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=BOSS=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Infected Yggdrasil Sentry, CERBERUS -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=BOSS=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Okay, Cerberus is quite the complex boss, so bear with me. Cerberus, of course, has three different heads. Every once in a while, he chooses one head and inhabits the three slots on the battlefield (with copies of the one head). While one of the heads will constantly fire lasers at you (which don't follow you, so you just have to jump away), the other two will disappear and enemies will constantly come out from the hollows left behind. However, since Cerberus has a total of -three- different heads, their weaknesses vary. Instead of giving you weaknesses for each of them, I'll give you a general rule: Whatever element empowers the enemies that come out of the holes, that's what the current head is weak to! This is the general rule, unless someone can convince me otherwise. For example, if biological enemies keep coming out of the holes, then the head firing the laser (the one you must hit) is weak to the Dissipator - which empowers the biological enemies. Naturally, this makes the battle very hard, since you're empowering a bunch of enemies while hitting another for small damage. So, the first thing you should do when he starts firing at you is destroy as many of the enemies that come out as possible (remember, if you hit them with a weapon they're weak to, the damage will spread to others), then turn your attention to the head and hit it as much as possible. When a lot of enemies appear, repeat this process. Continue until dead. Lucky for you, Cerberus has only one phase. After you beat him, since he was just a sentry, you'll proceed into Yggdrasil's main room, the Teleport Bay. Here, you'll encounter a pretty gross thing which speaks your name. Though it's represented by an old man's face (I don't know why...), this seems to be the Source. He thanks you (for activating the Teleport Bay) and then he and Jenosa exchange some unloving words, before the final battle with the Source begins. And though it bears no official name, I shall dub it... -=-=-=-=-=-=-=BOSS=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Scurge Infection Epicenter, SOURCE -=-=-=-=-=-=-=BOSS=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- How do you like the name? :) Anyway, the Source is made out of three parts. The center blue orb which covers the Source itself (that old man), which is impenetrable, and which fires blue beams at you which take up a third of the battlefield (ala Atlas), but is relatively easy to avoid, considering you have enough time to get out of the way (the blinking doesn't harm you, it only starts to harm you when the beam solidifies). Also, you'll notice two blobs, one to the left and one to the right of the center orb. In order to actually harm the Source itself, you must burst these two blobs. The easiest and fastest way is to throw in a couple of Plasma Bombs while constantly shooting at them. This should speed up the process. When they burst, they release some enemies, but they shouldn't be a problem. When you burst them both (make sure you do it quickly), the center orb will rise to reveal the old man's body. Now QUICKLY, get in as many Dissipator shots as you can while avoiding the powerballs he starts shooting. I can't really determine it, but I think he's a bit weaker to the Dissipator. Anyway, since it has only one phase, repeat until dead (when the blobs regenerate, the center orb will cover the body once more, so you have to destroy them again)... It's a pretty long, dragged out battle unless you're on a really high level (like, 50+). And it's especially tough since it happens right after Cerberus, who is one tough cookie. However, when you win... The Source, in a desperate desire to continue living, releases its condensed bio matter like most of the other bosses and enters you. Now, the true final battle begins, and it's in your brain - you trying to fight off the Scurge's infection once and for all. This is, in lack of a better term... Who am I kidding, this is the best term - a fucked up battle. Basically, you're in an infinite space of pure white with a blue Scurge blob flying around, releasing powerballs all over while trying to hit you. You've got a new Super Shot for this battle, and it's the only thing you can use. This Source has nine life bars. Not phases, they're simply life bars. And you've got to take them all down. Anyway, first of all, every now and then the Source will approach you and create a clone from you. These clones are of a different color, so they're easy to tell apart. They will run around and damage you when they touch you, but don't worry about that. When the Source creates a total of three clones, it will drag them towards itself and start spinning them around. Keep AWAY from them, don't let them hit you. Eventually, the Source will pull you in and start sucking away your energy. It WILL suck your health away, eventually down to the last 1 HP, but it can't kill you. When it's finished (or better yet, keep pressing A) you have a chance to quickly double-jump out a couple of times, AWAY from it and the clones spinning around! Really, jump until you're safe! If the clones hit you, you're dead. Basically, it's easy from now on. Shoot from a distance, avoid the clones, skillfully jump away when it finishes sucking your health and repeat. It should be dead in no time. ^_^ (Note: You CAN avoid the suck attack by killing the clones before the Source has a chance of creating all three, but 1. it's hard and 2. there's no point, as this tactic is much better.) Now, the grand finale. Your big battle has reduced the lab's structural integrity and it's all about to explode (as usual), so you need to quickly evacuate. You will now witness the final scene, which I won't comment on, as it's very beautiful. Just watch and read through your debriefing. The credits will roll, and you will have finished the game! But, when the credits roll, you'll witness a mysterious 'To be continued...' Could that mean that we'll be seeing a Scurge 2? I sure hope so, and I hope you've enjoyed the game as much as I have. Thanks for following the walkthrough! Until next time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ V. Optional Stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After the ending, you will have unlocked the Hard difficulty and the option 'Costume' in the title screen which allows you to change Jenosa's color palette. It has many various mixes, and serves just for the fun, so you don't have to go through Hard mode as plain old Jenosa. If you finish Hard mode (and since Normal mode was quite hard, you can only imagine how hard Hard is...), you will unlock the second option here, called Boss Rush, which pretty much allows you to fight all the bosses one after the other. It's nice if you want to beat the crap out of them all over again. :) Also for beating Hard, you get the Insane difficulty. 0_o For beating Insane, you get an Ultra Mode option. When it's on, you will play through the game as super-Jenosa, your normal shot replaced with the Super Shot (the one you used in the final battle) and you with 999 HP. To tell the truth, even though Scurge is a great game, it doesn't have much replayability, and the unlockables are really not worth it. If you like the game so much, feel free to play again and again, though. ^_^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VI. Weapon Guide ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is just a basic section to run you down on what the various game 'weapons' (though it isn't a proper name for some) do. 1. Normal Shot -------------- It's just that - a normal shot. It's your basic weapon, and though you won't be using it much in the game, it is there. Basically used to activate countdown posts, though all the other shot-weapons can do it too. 2. EMP ------ An enhancement for your shot which charges it with electricity. It works wonders agains robot/mech-type enemies, but greatly empowers energy-types. Also used for puzzles, to activate EMP posts. 3. Dissipator ------------- An enhancement for your shot which charges it with a cellular-dissipating ability. Works great against energy-based enemies, while empowering biological- types. Also used for puzzles, to activate Dissipator balls. 4. Combustion ------------- An enhancement for your shot which charges it with heat. Effective against biological-type enemies but empowers robot/mech-types. Also used to burn away dead ivy on the field. 5. Cryostasis ------------- Not a weapon per se. You use it to create a big field of freezing cold air around you which instantly freezes several enemies on the screen. Some will break through the ice faster than others. Primarily used for puzzles. 6. Adrenaline ------------- Not a weapon per se. You use it to give yourself a boost of adrenaline, making everything around you seem to move slower. It's basically a time-slowdown, very useful throughout the game. 7. Plasma Bomb -------------- These little bombs latch onto targets and explode on them, dealing a fair bit of damage. They can also burst apart large groups so they're really useful in a pinch. They have a 3-second fuse, and are also used to blow up rubble on the field. 8. Super Shot ------------- Replaces your Normal Shot during the final battle and in Ultra Mode. Though not a separate weapon, it was added here for completion. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VII. Credits ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -To CJayC, GameFAQs' founder, for creating such a great site -To me, for typing this up, even though some won't like it -To Hobserk, a GameFAQs user who involuntarily helped me to defeat the final boss by posting on the boards :)