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Volunteers: Come And Take Your Medicine
Posted By: Mark LevinDate: 10/11/01 11:11 p.m.

Wow, I think this is the longest single level description I've done yet... And for such a "short" level, too :P Sorry this is so late, I was alternately fighting my homework and my computer all day. OS X 10.1 apparently has some issues when trying to deal with unreliable DHCP servers.

The opening of this level can be a bit of a surprise if you're not ready for it. And once you survive the Drones, get ready for your old friends the Troopers and Compilers to pop out at you as soon as you go through the door Durandal points out in the first terminal (Speaking of the first terminal, it's got some fun new information in it, such as the "chance discovery" that led to Durandal's rampancy, and Durandal's stop on Earth during his seventeen-year search).

Completing the mission is dead simple: Head on down, punch the panels, and beam out. But why leave such an intriguing level? This place is HUGE: A wide moat surrounds a complex, multilevel fortress and several associated buildings. Let's start the magical mystery tour by jumping out the small window directly to the west of the terminal. Look down, there's open windows on the floor directly below you, opening onto a room with a pattern buffer. This room is accessible from the route Durandal gives you, if you deviate a bit. Hmm... That's an interesting bright corridor nearby. Let's go through it.

This corridor leads through some interesting architecture and drops you off on the outer rim of the level. Watch out for Drones and Compilers frolicking in the water as you make your way north, until you reach a door that lets you into a secondary building at the north end of the complex. Hang a left, shoot the unfortunate sentry in tbe back, and continue on until you find a Compiler guarding the secret terminal on this level, a mysterious message from the S'pht. Durandal would be very interested in this; too bad he only ordered you to explore somewhere else :P ) When you take this guy out, beware of ambushes from many sides, including monsters jumping over the nearby wall and troopers teleporting in on the ground in the distance.

Past the terminal is a wide door, leading to a ledge from which you are sniped at by Troopers, and a locked door (well, it was locked for me, because I forgot about something until later, but I'll turn off here anyway). Time to get wet: Jump down into the pool here and go through the south door. Heading northwest will get you to a number of elevators which return you to earlier in the level; you can go to either the pattern buffer or the terminal/recharger, but beware of various Drones that you'll wake up while exploring this route. Heading southeast in the same canal brings you to a rocky, almost unfinished area that also lets you out onto ground level near the panels you smashed earlier. Go exploring outside if you want, but be warned that you will trigger big piles of enemies.

The next fun part comes when we return to the pool we first dived into and take the northeast passage leading out of it. Halfway along, there is an elevator flush against the west wall that raises you up to a series of ledges. Look for the thin blue wall and pop it open: Behold the almighty Sixth Panel. Did anyone ever figure out what this does, or did? Keep going into the brown room: Behold the almighty Pfhor Door! This is the only door in the entire series that the aliens can open at will but you never can. The nearby lift will raise you to a ledge above the room from which you can access two lookout posts filled with ammo (and Troopers).

There's one more secret area on this level. Go back to the route of your main mission, down to the room with the first Trooper, and smash every single panel available if you haven't done so already. This does two things: It opens a locked door in the northeast corner of the room (you may remember this door as the door that halted our northern exploration earlier) and reveals a switch on the wall next to it. Pushing that switch activates a small platform across the hall which will bring you up to a ledge running around the tank. Cross this to the door on the other side, then turn right and voila: The new Alien Weapon, apparently left here by an absent-minded Enforcer on another numblingly boring inspection of the garrison. Further exploration through the U-shaped door at the other end of the area will net you a bit more ammo, including a pair of rockets(!). On the way back, when retracing your steps, look for a small door set into the wall slightly below you, to the south across some water. Jumping in there will give you access to several more sniper spots, as well as a good chunk of ammo on a high ledge.

One last point of interest: Jump back in the water and make your way to the far west end of the moat, under the bridge. Look up... Notice anything odd? Some hapless (or, more likely, sleepless) Bungie dude accidentally put a landscape texture up there, but with the wrong transfer mode.

Head back to the terminal (the quickest way is probably via the north end of the moat and back around) to teleport out. So Durandal already knows about the S'pht, does he? What if you hadn't read that secret terminal? :)

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Replies:

Volunteers: Come And Take Your MedicineMark Levin 10/11/01 11:11 p.m.
     Re: Volunteers: Come And Take Your MedicineMark Levin 10/11/01 11:16 p.m.
           Re: Volunteers: Come And Take Your MedicineRyan 11/8/03 1:57 a.m.
                 Re: Volunteers: Come And Take Your MedicineYossarian 11/10/03 3:50 a.m.
                       the clash *NM*elliott 11/11/03 11:00 a.m.
                       That's your theory? *NM*Andrew Nagy 11/13/03 2:37 p.m.
     Re: Volunteers: Come And Take Your MedicineSidoh 10/12/01 3:33 a.m.
     Weird TextureAlfred Mordeir 10/12/01 12:12 p.m.



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