Aquanox Mission Walkthrough (Ver 1.2)
Dec 04, 2004
by Alan Chan (joylock@hotmail.com)
The Usual:
This document is mine. Please don't rip it off or take credit for it.
That being said, feel free to post it on any site you want, provided
you a) don't make any changes to it, and b) don't charge money for it. You
don't even have to get my permission to post it (as long as it remains
unaltered), but it would be nice if you emailed me and let me know
(joylock@hotmail.com).
Why?:
I wrote this rather average walkthrough of Aquanox since one doesn't
exist yet (in English at least). Most of the game's missions are
straightforward and I've probably gone into WAY more detail than I
needed to, but a few are kind of tough and/or confusing and a
walkthrough would certainly save some people a lot of frustration.
Warning:
I don't discuss the plot in detail, but I also don't make any effort to
conceal SPOILERS. If you don't want to know what happens in the game,
don't read ahead.
This walkthrough only covers how to beat each specific mission. It
doesn't tell you the dialogue choices you have to take to make those
missions available or the specific equipment you should outfit your sub
with.
This walkthrough was written while playing through on normal
difficulty. The amount of enemies and their toughness in combat will
vary if you play on a different setting.
Contents:
Chapter 1 Missions:
- Asylum
- Terror
- Biont Scrap
- ELF-Terror
- Jumpship Accident
- Magma
Chapter 2 Missions:
- Sabotage of Turbines
- Code Books
- Kruger's Freighter
- Methane Hydrate
- Gulf Stream
Chapter 3 Missions:
- Seismobomb
- Santiago
- Crawler
- Brainfire
- Buoy
Chapter 4 Missions:
- Courier
- Coup Begins
- Vastian Griegh
- Sneakdrive
- Defeat
Chapter 5 Missions:
- Leisure Trip
- Atacama is Burning
- The Big Bang
- Sool
Chapter 6 Missions:
- Magma Eater
- War in Neopolis
Chapter 7 Missions:
- Crocell
- Forneus
******************
*Version History:*
******************
The latest version of this FAQ can be found at www.gamefaqs.com
1.0: Initial FAQ containing full walkthroughs of all 29 missions
1.1: Added linebreaks to make FAQ navigation easier
1.2: Misc corrections and additions
*******************************
*Chapter 1 (The Tornado Zone):*
*******************************
=======================================================================
ASYLUM:
Overview:
Your first mission is quite similar to the first mission in Archimedean
Dynasty. Once again, El Topo's given you a old clunker of a ship and
sent you out to blow up the scrap floating outside his asylum. This
mission should be a cakewalk, all but one of your targets is stationary
and won't shoot back. There is one slightly tricky part where you have
to protect a weak target from being destroyed, or else your mission
fails. The game is full of these and some of them can be quite
frustrating, so you might as well get used to them.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Go to the nav point and blow up all the biont scrap
Pretty straightforward. After you've blown up the larger biont parts,
the remaining pieces may be tough to find. Trying driving off a short
distance to get a different perspective, and press your targetting
button repeatedly until you lock onto some scrap. You can also crank
the detail setting on your radar all the way up to full to see the red
dots representing the scrap pieces. If you're still having trouble
spotting the scrap you might want to turn up the brightness on your
monitor. A cutscene giving you a new mission objective will show after
you've destroyed all the scrap.
Mission Objective: Escort the transport through the debris field
This part can be annoying if you're still getting familiar with the
game's control scheme. The transport barely has any health, so if it
runs into more than a few pieces of scrap it'll blow up and you'll fail
the mission. The transport moves slowly in a straight line, so try
facing the transport's side, strafing just a little bit ahead of it and
blow up all the scrap in its path. Things get a little tricky when a
biont scout shows up, as it will start shooting at the transport. Shoot
the scout a few times to get it to attack you instead of the transport,
but don't concentrate too much on the scout lest you allow some scrap
parts to slip by you and collide with the transport. The biont's attack
shouldn't do much damage to you, so you can afford to ignore it. Once
the transport's path is clear of scrap for a few seconds, go ahead and
blow up the scout (it should only take a few seconds, as the biont has
less than 1 shield energy bar) before going back to clearing the
debris.
=======================================================================
TERROR:
Overview:
Your first optional mission pits you in a one-on-one duel against a
Neopolis terror-tourist (basically a yuppie gone bad). As duels go,
this one's a cakewalk since your opponent is too drive to drunk.
Basically, he'll just sit in place and rotate to shoot at you.
Tips:
- Don't use torpedos during optional missions if you plan to make a
profit from them. Most are fairly simple/straightforward, but pay you a
corrispondingly low amount of credits for your work. Torpedos are so
expensive they should generally be saved for situations in plot-
required missions where you'd have trouble progressing otherwise.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Defeat the Terror Tourist Randis Albion
This is a straight-out duel between you and the otaku Terror-Tourist.
The Tourist is driving a Federation Bomber, a tough ship with powerful
weapons and a large amount of shield energy. Fortunately for you, your
enemy is driving drunk and thus has problems manuevering and aimming
his weapons. Just circle strafe around him while pounding him with your
weapons, and despite his tough shields and strong guns he should blow
up before you do. The Federation Bomber's armament consists of a Doom
Mortar and a couple of plasma turrets. The D. Mortar's a powerful gun,
but its projectiles are relatively slow moving and you should be able
to avoid them by constantly strafing. The plasma shots are tougher to
dodge, but do only minor damage. If you're having trouble against the
Tourist, you can always try taking cover behind the surrounding
buildings. Also, if you circle him quicker than he can rotate, you can
attack him from his rear, his top, or his bottom where his weapons have
difficulty aiming.
=======================================================================
BIONT SCRAP:
Overview:
This is your first fight against multiple opponents, as you fight a few
Biont scouts in the midst of a field of Biont debris. The Bionts are
easy opponents, and unlike the first mission you won't have to worry
too much about protecting allied targets.
Tips:
- The Bionts are surprisingly easy opponents. They've got low health,
they don't move around all that much, don't shoot very fast, and their
green plasma shots don't do much damage to you either. The only
disadvantage you have while fighting Bionts is that their thin wedge
shape (suspiciously similar to the Millenium Falcon's) makes them
difficult to hit when you're facing them head-on, and even this is
counteracted by their slow speed.
- Like many future missions, this mission doesn't end automatically.
Instead a Mission Accomplished message will appear on your HUD. When
this happens, press ESC and select Activate Dipol to end the mission.
You can stick around and kill more enemies, but you won't be rewarded
for doing so.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Escort the Catapillar through the debris field
Harper and Bonham will circle around overhead, while Sally orders you
to escort the Catapillar through the debris field. Follow the
Catapillar, and Sally will soon warn you that one of the Biont scrap
parts is starting to come alive. The Biont scout that begins to emerge
from the debris field will take a few seconds to power up, but will
begin attacking the Catapillar once it does. As in Asylum, the Biont is
slow moving and severely weakened, so destroying it shouldn't be too
difficult. Further along the Catapillar's route you'll encounter
another Biont scout, followed by a pair of Bionts after that, but they
shouldn't be a problem. To make things even easier Sally or your
wingmates will warn you each time before the Bionts attack.
Mission Objective: Protect the Catapillars from the attacking Bionts
Once the Catapillar reaches its destination, a cutscene will play
showing a group of Catapillars under attack from three Biont scouts.
Your wingmates will enter the fray and should make quick work of the
badly weakened Bionts, but you can chip in if you want to. After the
fight is over you'll be given the opportunity to stick around and
search the debris field for more Bionts, but you don't have to. Just
hit ESC as soon as the Mission Accomplished message appears and
activate your dipol to finish the mission.
=======================================================================
ELF-TERROR:
Overview:
Your first mission against normal human enemies pits you against pro-
environmental, anti-ELF activists. The Tornado Zone scouts you fight in
this mission have full shield energy and systems,unlike the Bionts, but
use weaker weapons and are still pretty slow. Overall, another easy and
relaxing mission, especially with the help from your two wingmates.
Tips:
- If you took the optional missions and haven't blown your dough on
torpedos, you should have enough credits to purchase a better ship and
bigger guns by now. I recommend buying an Avenger scout and equipping
it with a Vendetta II gun. The Vendetta's superior rate of fire should
make the Tornado Zone scouts you face in this mission much easier.
- Don't be afraid of getting into a war of attrition with an enemy TZ
scout. In fact, the easiest way to dispose of them is to face them
head-to-head and exchange gunfire. Provided you're got a Vendetta 2 gun
and a better ship than the Toiler, you should be able to destroy them
without taking much damage in return (especially if you aim for their
glowing red cockpit). This tactic works great against Zoner and even
Crawler scouts, but isn't much use against the fast moving Federation
scouts or Schax. It's also suicide to try it against bombers, frigates,
or fully functional Bionts.
- To stop an enemy from attacking something you're supposed to protect,
shoot them a couple of times and they'll go after you instead. Be sure
to actually hit them with your shots for this to work. You'll have to
use this technique many, many times throughout the game.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Pursue the Eco-terrorists
As the mission begins, a pair of Tornado Zone scouts piloted by hostile
environmental activists will stop attacking the ELF-Knot and fleet from
you and your wings. The TZ scouts are weakest enemies you'll face in
the game, and shouldn't be a problem for you to defeat. Chase them down
and destroy them to trigger the next objective.
Mission Objective: Protect the ELF-Station
Proceed to the new nav point, and destroy all the Tornado Zone scouts
around the ELF-Station. Although you're supposed to protect the
station, it has a large amount of shield energy and thus the TZ scouts
shouldn't be able to destroy it with their Vendetta guns. Your two
wingmates are a big help against the scouts, and in fact you can let
them do most of the work. Once all enemy scouts are gone, Sally will
inform you the ELF-Knot is once again under attack.
Mission Objective: Protect the ELF-Knot
Follow the new nav point back to the ELF-Knot, and destroy the few TZ
scouts there. The Knot has less shield energy than the station itself,
but is still difficult for the enemy ships to destroy. Win the mission
by destroying all the enemy scouts.
=======================================================================
JUMPSHIP ACCIDENT:
Overview:
This optional battle against Tornado Zone scouts is somewhat more
hectic than the previous one, due to the fact you'll be facing
considerably more enemies and that you also have to protect a
vulnerable ship that can actually get destroyed. You also only have one
wingmate to help you.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Prevent pirates from escaping with cargo
Pirates driving Tornado Zone scouts will emerge from the Jumpship
wreckage carrying either passenger capsules or cargo crates. El Topo
and Picollini want you to protect the passengers, while Entrox wants
you to rescue the cargo. Don't concern yourself too much, it really
doesn't matter what you do. Just camp near the hole in the jumpship and
blow up the pirates that emerge until a cutscene plays giving you your
next mission objective.
Mission Objective: Protect the transport while it evacuates the
passengers
A transport will dock with the Jumpship to rescue passengers, and will
immedietely come under fire from several pirates that warp into the
area. To prevent the pirates from destroying the transport and causing
you to fail the mission, shoot each of them a couple of times so that
they stop shooting the transport and instead go after you. Be sure the
transport isn't being fired upon before you start destroying your
attackers. New raider ships will gradually warp into the area, but you
should be able to destroy them quicker than they show up. After enough
time passes a cutscene will play showing the transport undocking from
the jumpship and preparing to dipol out of the area. Several more enemy
scouts will appear and open fire on the transport as soon as this
occurs. Repeat the tactics you used against the first wave of raiders.
You win the mission if the transport survives long enough to warp out.
=======================================================================
MAGMA:
Overview:
This is the last mission of the first chapter, and your final battle
against the Bionts (at least until near the end of the game). As before
the Biont scouts are scrap with damaged systems and barely any shield
energy, but this mission ups the odds a notch by pitting you in a
"boss" fight against a tougher opponent... the mighty Biont bomber.
Don't worry, though, just like the Biont scouts the bomber is
considerably less difficult than you might remember from Archimedean
Dynasty.
Tips:
- The Bionts aren't any stronger in this mission, but since you'll be
facing several of them at once it's a good idea to avoid getting
swarmed. Don't be afraid to hide behind Lisa and let her do all the
work if you start taking lots of damage.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Follow and defeat the Bionts scouts
Go ahead and follow the nav point. You should quickly run into a few
biont scouts, but oddly enough they ignore you and start traveling
further into the magma field. Go ahead and blow them up now while
they're oblivious to your presence. When you reach the nav point Bonham
will recognize the wreckage as the remains of a Biont battleship (cue
ominous music). The Biont scouts will now start attacking you, and
several more Bionts will emerge from the wreckage to assist them. With
Lisa's help, however, you should be able to destroy them all without
suffering too much damage.
After you've destroyed all the scouts, Sally will inform you that she
detects the presence of a larger Biontic signature... a Biont bomber.
Sure enough, one warps right in and opens fire on you.
Mission Objective: Defeat the Biont bomber
If you played Archimedean Dynasty and made it through to the finale,
you'll probably remember the Biont bomber was the meanest mother in the
valley, wielding devestating rapid fire weapons and capable of
withstanding enormous amounts of damage. Five years later and Human
weapons technology has made leaps and bounds ahead while the Bionts
have stagnated as barely functional pieces of junk floating in
scrapyards. The Biont Bomber is still a strong opponent, but nowhere
near the behemoths they were five years ago. The Bomber's surprisingly
average armament consists of three Plasma I turrets, one on the tip of
each of the three metal tentacles that stick out of the vessel's front.
The Bomber cannot fire from its sides or back, and it is from there you
should attack it. The Bomber only has half of its shields active, but
it can still absorb a decent amount of damage. it's also accompanied by
a couple of Biont scouts, but you can let Lisa deal with them while you
focus on the Bomber.
You win the mission as soon as the Bomber is destroyed, but a whole
bunch of Bionts will also start warping into the area at the same time.
You COULD stick around and see if you're man enough to take down three
bombers and more than a dozen scouts, but there's really no point in
doing so. Just activate your dipol and get out of there.
*********************************
*Chapter 2 (EnTrOx Corporation):*
*********************************
=======================================================================
SABOTAGE OF TURBINES:
Overview:
Despite what the briefing tells you, this optional mission is actually
really short. There are only three enemy ships, and all you have to do
is destroy one of them. Of course, two of the enemy ships are big ones
(a transport and a bomber), so it's a good idea to upgrade before going
into the mission.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Track down the power stealing Old Entropol ships
Just follow the nav points through the turbine field. After reaching
the fourth nav point you should come into contact with the enemy
Transport.
Mission Objective: Destroy the Old Entropol Transport Kande
The Kande is armed with Vendetta turrets and protected by both an
Entropol scout and a bomber piloted by Chrissi. Ignore the escorting
ships and get behind the transport where its turrets can't reach. Just
blast the transport from behind until it explodes, while moving back
and forth to avoid the attacks from the other enemy ships. Once the
transport's destroyed, your mission ends in success.
If the mission doesn't end even after the Kande is destroyed, kill
the remaining enemy ships. Eventually, you'll win.
=======================================================================
CODE BOOKS:
Overview:
This is probably the first truely challenging mission you'll face. It's
long, divided into several parts, and since you aren't yet able to
recharge your shields during a mission you'll have to take pains to
avoid getting damaged if you want to last til the very end. The good
news is that you don't actually have to destroy any of your enemies, in
fact towards the end where all the heavy fighting is your best survival
strategy is to run away from anything that's shooting at you.
Tips:
- Buy a silator for this mission if you haven't got one already. This
attachment mutes your engines and thus makes the "stealth" part of the
mission much easier.
- I found the Vendetta gattling preferable to the Plasma I gun due to
its faster projectiles and rapid rate of fire, even though each
individual projectile didn't do as much damage as a Plasma shot. You
may feel differently, however.
- The Hitman grenade launcher is a good weapon for use against Entropol
scouts, as it doesn't use ammo and only takes 3 shots to bring one
down. The weapon's slow rate of fire makes it impratical when you're
facing multiple enemies, however.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Disable Gotham's communications
You'll start out near the data broadcaster and its surrounding
buildings, containing many turrets including a nasty missile launcher.
If you want to save your shields for later, go ahead and hide outside
of the turrets' line of fire and let your wingmates take care of them
for you. When the shooting finally stops come out and blow up the six
communication dishes on top of the two broadcaster building to trigger
a cutscene giving you your next objective.
Mission Objective: Disable Gotham's entryway defenses
The idea is to shut off your engines and let the canyon's strong
current take you undetected past the turrets. However if you've got a
silator (and you really should, at least for this mission), you don't
need to shut your engines off while drifting in the stream through the
canyon. Just don't thrust for more than a second or so to avoid being
detected by the turrets. This is super useful since you can tap the
strafing keys to nudge you ship around the mines (you'll need all your
health for the next part of the mission). Once you reach the generator,
blow up all three relays to shut down Entropol's defense system (strafe
like crazy since the turrets will see you as soon as you start
shooting). A cutscene will automatically take you past the turret
defense and inside Gotham.
Mission Objective: Escort DeGrange to the Statue of Liberty
Apparently you only shut down the outer turrets, since the ones around
Gotham City and the Statue seem to be working just fine. Pico and
Harper will leave for another part of the battlefield, leaving you
alone with DeGrange. Follow DeGrange and shoot all the turrets along
the way a couple of times to get them to target you instead of her (you
fail if she dies). You don't need to destroy the turrets, just get
their attention with a couple of shots (You'll probably want to destroy
the annoying missile launcher turret halfway through, however). Once
she reaches the Statue DeGrange and her ship will go inside, leaving
you to hold out against Van Der Waal's Entropol forces.
Mission Objective: Hold position until DeGrange returns
Once DeGrange disappears into the Statue of Liberty, it's just you
against the Entropol scouts and turrets. Your only goal is to stay
alive here. At first you'll only have to deal with two scouts and the
two turrets at the base of the statue, but after a minute or so an
Entropol Bomber accompanied by several more scouts will swim into your
area and start attacking. Destroy whatever enemies you can, but if you
start running low on shields just run away from your enemies using the
buildings as cover until DeGrange is ready to leave with the code
books. Eventually a cutscene will play of DeGrange leaving the Statue
and dipoling out of the area, while Kristina Lloyd will warp in with
her Cape Fear transport/frigate and several more Entropol scouts. This
enemy force is far too large for you to face by yourself, so you should
activate your dipol to end the mission as soon as the game lets you.
=======================================================================
KRUGER'S FREIGHTER:
Overview:
A cakewalk of an optional mission that takes place in a single, small
area and pits you against several weak Tornado Zone scouts. True, you
have to protect a group of vulnerable targets, but the amount of
enemies isn't so large that your clients are ever in any real danger.
You even get a wingmate to help you out.
Tips:
- Once again I recommend the Vendetta gattling over the Plasma I gun,
but your milage may vary.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Protect the Catapillars and the Transport from
raiders
After some radio chatter, several Tornado Zone scouts will warp into
the area and start attacking the Catapillars. With the help of your
wingmate destroying the scouts should be a breeze, but be sure to keep
your eyes out for Zoners attacking the Catapillars or the frigate. The
Zoners' Vendetta guns shouldn't pose much of a threat to the ship and
trucks you're protecting, but you should make sure they don't take too
much damage anyway.
=======================================================================
METHANE HYDRATE:
Overview:
This mission pits you in a series of battles against tough ships,
including a bomber, a transport, and Lloyd's modified scout. However
with the help of all four of your wingmates, this mission should be
fairly easy. There is an instant fail condition, but you'd have to be
asleep at the keyboard for it to occur.
Tips:
- By now you should be able to afford the best ship and equipment
available to you, assuming you've taken all the optional missions.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Destroy the Entropol scouts
You'll face several Entropol scouts, but will receive alot of help from
your four wingmen. Destroy them all to trigger a cutscene and the next
mission objective.
Mission Objective: Stop the bomber from blowing up the Methane Hydrate
The Entropol bomber's covered with deadly turrets, but its underbelly
is relatively unprotected, with only a single turret that has
difficulty swiveling downward. Stay below the bomber on its tail end
and shoot upwards at it. The bomber is easier than it normally would be
since its focused on reaching its objective and will not attempt to
dodge your fire or rotate to attack you with its forward mounted Doom
Mortar. Ignore the two scouts escorting the bomber, your wingmates
should take care of them just fine. There is a time limit here, but
it's quite generous and you should generally be able to blow the bomber
before it reaches the Methane Hydrate plant. After the bomber is
destroyed Lloyd will attempt to destroy another Methane Hydrate field
using her own Cape Fear transport/frigate.
Mission Objective: Stop the Cape Fear from blowing up the Methane
Hydrate
Follow the nav points until the Cape Fear and its protective convoy of
five Entropol scouts comes into view. Your wingmen should distract the
scouts for you, so ignore them and fly right up to the Cape Fear's
unprotected rear and blast away with your weapon of choice while
strafing back and forth to avoid any shots from the scouts. After the
Cape Fear blows, Lloyd's personal modified Entropol scout will emerge
from the wreckage to battle you.
Mission Objective: Defeat Kristina Lloyd
Lloyd's scout can be easily spotted by its black hull and glowing red
viewport. Lloyd's the fastest, most manueverable opponent you've faced
yet, and she fires her plasma shots quickly and with incredible
accuracy. However this fight shouldn't be too hard as you only need to
drop her shield energy a little. After losing a couple of bars of
shield energy, Lloyd will radio a parting insult to you before dipoling
out of the area, ending the mission.
=======================================================================
GULF STREAM:
Overview:
This is the final level of the EnTrOx chapter, and quite fittingly
throws quite a lot of stuff at you. Not only will you have to take out
3 bombers while protecting vulnerable structures without any wingmate
backup, but at the very end you'll be thrust into a very tough
dogfight/boss battle against Kristina "Jigsaw Face" Lloyd.
Tips:
- If you're willing to spend the money, Big Bang torpedos can be pretty
helpful here against the heavier enemies. You really should bring at
least one to destroy Lloyd with, as she's an incredibly tough enemy.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Destroy the Entropol scouts
By now blowing up Entropol scouts should be a cakewalk, especially with
Harper's help, so unless you're completely incompetant you should be
able to destroy the three Entropol scouts before they blow up the
turbine.
Mission Objective: Destroy the 3 Entropol bombers before they blow up 3
turbines
Ignore the Old Entropol scouts, Sergei Chang's New Entropol police
scouts will attack some of them, and you should be able to outmanuever
the rest. Follow Sally's nav arrows to find the bombers. As in the
previous mission, the Entropol bombers are most vulnerable from below.
However in this mission you're dealing with a fairly unforgiving time
limit, as the bombers need to be destroyed before they can blow up more
than two turbines. If you use your regular weapons you'll probably
manage the task within the time limit, but barely (losing one or two
turbines in the process). If you're willing to spare the cash, you can
use big bangs to take out the bombers really quick. If you use a big
bang on each of the first two bombers you can actually destroy them
before they can blow up a single turbine. Also, bombers will stop
attacking the turbines and start attacking you as soon as you start
shooting them, so you can distract the third bomber while wittling away
at its shields with conventional guns.
Once you destroy the last bomber, Lloyd with warp in driving her
modified Entropol scout for the big boss fight.
Mission Objective: Defeat Kristina Lloyd once and for all
Lloyd is, to put it simply, really really hard. She's fast, incredibly
manueverable, shoots rapidly, has great aim, and also has a ton of
shield energy. If you've tried dueling in the Instant Fight, you have a
pretty good idea of how tough and disorienting a one-on-one dogfight
can be in this game, with the opponent zooming around in every
direction. To make matters worse, you can't repair your shields this
early on in the game, so you won't be able to recharge your shields if
you really take a pounding. Lloyd moves too fast for you to lead your
shots if you use the slow moving Plasma Gun or Hitman, so the Vendetta
Gattling is probably the best weapon for this fight since it hits
almost instantly. It's also a good idea to fight Lloyd at medium to
long range since she'll zip around a lot less than if you get close to
her. Even so, you'll have to be an incredible dogfighter to defeat her.
For those of you who aren't flight-sim aces or who are playing with a
mouse instead of a joystick, there is an easier way to beat Lloyd. Just
drive right up to her and blast her with a big bang when she charges at
you and the two of you crash face-to-face. It's a cheap tactic, but
then again she's a cheap opponent. If you don't have a big bang or miss
with the one you do have, another way to defeat Lloyd is to lure her
into one of the spinning turbine blades. The side which doesn't spit
out air bubbles has a suction effect, and sometimes Lloyd will be
caught in it if you keep the turbine between you and her as long as
she's on the suction end.
After Lloyd is dead you can breath a sign of relief. This will be the
last dogfight-style "boss" battle you'll ever have to face, unless of
course you play the Instant Fight and go up against Freeman, the
fightclub, or the Unknown Crawler.
***************************
*Chapter 3 (Tornado Zone):*
***************************
=======================================================================
SEISMOBOMB:
Overview:
The hardest part of this optional mission is finding the Seismobomb
(it's inside the city, don't waste hours searching the oceanbed for
it). After that, you'll have a fairly simple fight against three enemy
scouts (you do have to protect a couple of transports, but you won't
fail instantly if one of them is destroyed, and the enemies will
usually forget about attacking the transports as soon as you start
shooting them).
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Locate the Seismobomb
The Seismobomb you're looking for is a treasure-chest shaped object
inside the city, within a reddish area behind a silo with a large
spinning fan on top. You'll have to actually fly your craft between the
buildings to find it. Once you reach the Seismobomb, Sally will take
care of it from there in a cutscene, after which you'll be sent to deal
with the bomb makers themselves.
Mission Objective: Defeat the Terror Tourists
The three terror tourists are driving Federation scouts, and unlike the
drunken architectural student from before they'll actually use the full
abilities of their crafts. The Federation scouts are the most
annoyingly quick and manueverable ships you've faced yet, and like the
Bionts their thin wedge-shape makes them difficult to hit. To top it
off you're also supposed to protect the transports they're attacking.
First of all, shoot each of the terror tourists a couple of times to
get them to attack you rather than the transports, then proceed to
shoot it out with them as best as you can. Their leader Druid is
equipped with a plasma gun, while the other two sport Vendetta guns.
Because the Federation scouts move quickly and rarely stay still, this
fight can take a while as your enemies can be difficult to hit. After
taking enough damage each ship will warp out of the area. Although King
says he'll give you a bonus for ever enemy you kill, whether or not the
enemy ships escape or are destroyed actually has no effect on your
payment after the mission, so don't worry to much about it.
=======================================================================
SANTIAGO:
Overview:
This mission ties-in with the original Archimedean Dynasty, in which
you defeated Boris Santiago, the previous Warlord of the Tornado Zone.
The last of Santiago's followers are holed up in a cluster of habitats
in the Tornado Zone canyons, and the new Warlord Iwan King wants your
help in flushing them out. This level is divided into two parts: the
first being an easy battle against defense turrets, the second being a
less easy but still not all that difficult shootout where you need to
protect an allied transport from many hostile TZ scouts for several
minutes. Battling Santiago's forces is much easier than the initial
fight against Van Der Waal's Entropol in Code Books, so if you managed
to complete that mission you shouldn't have any trouble with this one.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Disable the Turret defenses around Santiago's
habitat area
The stronghold of Santiago's followers consists of several habitat
buildings, each one protected by a pair of turret guns powered by a
blue, box-shaped power-relay. Destroying the turrets one by one is
impractical, instead you should seek out and destroy the relays thus
shutting down the two turrets connected to that relay. While you and
your wingmates are engaging the turrets, a couple of hostile Tornado
Zone scouts will be floating through the area, but they won't engage
you directly unless you approach them. As soon as all the turrets have
been destroyed or disabled, Sally will inform you that Iwan King is
sending a transport into the area to round up Santiago's supporters
from the habitats.
Mission Objective: Protect the transport from Santiago's scouts
As soon as the transport enters the area, several Tornado Zone scouts
piloted by Santiago's men will emerge and start shooting at the
transport. They're armed only with weak Vendetta guns, but the
transport starts out at only 50% shield energy and thus it is quite
possible for it to be destroyed. To prevent this, you need to find all
the hostile scouts and hit each of them with a few shots to get them to
start chasing you. The scouts attack from long range and it can be
difficult to see them through the fog of war, so you might have to look
for bullet tracers hitting the transport and follow them back to their
source. You'll complete the mission once the transport finally leaves
the area.
=======================================================================
CRAWLER:
Overview:
This is your first encounter with the mysterious Crawlers, the game's
penultimate antagonists. Although you'll destroy a few Crawler scouts,
this is mostly a plot-exposition mission where you'll meet the big bad
guys and almost get obliterated by them, making you more eager for your
inevitable revenge at the end of the game when you're much more
powerful and ready to kick their asses (console RPGs love to do this by
having the big baddy squash you early in the game so you'll look
forward to squashing him later on).
Tips:
- Despite the fact they're the game's main enemies, the Crawlers really
aren't that tough. Crawler scouts are slower and much less annoying
than Federation scouts, and are actually almost as easy to hit as TZ
scouts or Entropol scouts. They don't even have all that impressive
weapons, sticking mostly to Plasma 2 guns and the occasional Vendetta
gattling. Although Crawler scouts have a little more shield energy than
most other scout types, they don't have nearly as much as fully powered
Bionts (who you will meet later on).
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Search for the Crawler presence
Follow the nav points as they come up while listening to the spooked
radio chatter from your wingmates. When you reach the final nav point
and DeGrange tells you your wings have regrouped and are waiting for
you, search the area near the nav point for Crawler catapillars. Blow
up a couple of them and your should provoke a couple of Crawler scouts
to pop out of the ocean floor and attack. Destroy the scouts to trigger
a cutscene.
Mission Objective: Flee from the Crawler fleet
After the cutscene you'll be thrust into the middle of the Crawler
fleet, consisting of a frigate, a couple of bombers, and a whole bunch
of scouts. There's no way you'll be able to take on such a large enemy
force with your current armaments, so just dodge around and try to stay
alive until King and Velasquez give the order to retreat. Use turbo to
speed to safety, following the nav points through the canyon as they
come up. Ignore any Crawler tanks along the way that might shoot at
you, and focus on getting to the last nav point at the end of the
canyon.
Mission Objective: Hold out until the Crawlers retreat
Your wingmates are waiting for you at the last nav point, along with a
handful of Crawler scouts. Help your wings destroy the scouts and
you'll receive a radio transmission saying the Crawlers are retreating,
thus ending the mission.
=======================================================================
BRAINFIRE:
Overview:
This is your first encounter with the Federation's top secret Brainfire
research station around which the game's main plot revolves. The
mission is divided into two parts, in which you and your wingmates
defend Brainfire from both the Crawlers and your old nemesis Creole's
Tornado Zoner forces. Both enemy forces come in managable numbers, and
neither of them is a credible threat to Brainfire, so this mission
should be a cakewalk.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Defend Brainfire from the Crawlers
Brainfire has a huge amount of shields, so you really don't need to
worry too much about it being destroyed. Just take your time blowing up
the Crawler ships and concentrate on keeping your own ass alive. The
Crawler bomber might give you trouble since it's armed with a railgun-
like Sizzler that can knock out large chunks of your shields, so try to
blow it up first (circle strafing usually works well). Ignore Sally's
complaints about Sool's Federation scouts retreating from the battle
for repairs, your wingmen are all the backup you need for this fight.
If you shields start to drop in the red, go ahead and flee from the
battle to regenerate. Brainfire and your wingmates will do fine without
you.
Mission Objective: Stop Creole from attacking Brainfire
As soon as all the Crawlers are dead, Sool's men will return just in
time to see the end of the battle. The mission's not over yet, though.
Your old enemy and troublemaker Creole will warp in with his frigate
(armed with Vendetta Gattling turrets) and several Tornado Zoner
scouts. Ignore the scouts and attack the frigate with whatever weapon
you want. As I said before, Brainfire is tough enough so that you
really don't have to worry about it being destroying (especially by the
Zoner's dinky little Vendetta guns). You can either take your time
attacking Creole's frigate or finish it off quickly with a big bang. In
either case, Creole will retreat as soon as his shield energy drops
below 50%, ending the mission.
=======================================================================
THE BUOY:
Overview:
This is surprisingly relaxed for the end-of-chapter mission. Sure,
there are a couple of "protect the weak target or instantly fail"
objectives, but they're not nearly as annoying as elsewhere in the
game, mostly because you won't be facing all that many enemies. Enjoy
blasting the relatively easy Crawlers, because in the next chapter
you'll be going up against the really tough Federation scouts.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Protect the Techbombers from the Crawlers
The mission begins with two Techbombers being attacked by a couple of
Crawler scouts. As usual, shoot the enemy ships a couple of times to
get them to attack you instead the ships you're trying to protect. You
and your wingmates should make quick work of the two scouts, triggering
the next objective.
Mission Objective: Destroy the junk so the techbombers can dock
Another scrap shooting mission. You've got a time limit on this one,
though, as you have to destroy the scrap before the Crawlers arrive in
force and destroy the Techbombers. To top it off, a couple of Crawler
scouts will warp into the area and attack while you're busy trying to
clean the scrap. Your wingmen should deal with the Crawlers, so just
ignore them and concentrate to finding and blowing up all the scrap.
Sally will inform you when this has been accomplished.
Mission Objective: Battle the Crawlers until Brainfire is ready to
launch the buoy
As soon as the techbombers dock with Brainfire, a large number of
Crawler scouts will warp into the area. Concentrate on staying alive
while destroying as many enemies as possible until Sally tells you
Brainfire's ready to launch the buoy. Immedietely head for the nav
point as soon as it appears to begin the next part of the mission.
Mission Objective: Protect the buoy while it heads for the surface
As soon as the buoy launches, follow it. Creole will once again jump in
with his flagship, this time attempting to shoot down the buoy. There
are no Crawler or Zoner scouts in this part of the mission, you only
have to worry about the frigate. Pound Creole's shields down to 50% as
quickly as possible (a big bang is a great help here, although your
guns works just as well) and he should be forced to warp away before
doing any damage. From there the buoy should be clear, so you can just
sit back and wait for your new orders.
Mission Objective: Wipe out the remaining Crawlers
Go back down to Brainfire and mop up the remaining Crawlers. If the
mission still doesn't end even when there apparently aren't any
Crawlers left, search the seabed to see if you missed one of the
Crawler tanks. Sometimes they get stuck in the holes on the ocean
floor.
**********************************
*Chapter 4 (Atlantic Federation):*
**********************************
=======================================================================
COURIER:
Overview:
The final optional mission that pits you against hostile Tornado Zoner
scouts, who should be insignificant gnats to your mighty sub-o-death
this late into the game. Even the Tornado Zone bomber that comes after
you is sucky, and although you're supposed to prevent vulnerable
structures from being destroyed, the enemy weapons are so ineffective
that you never have to worry about this actually happening.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Check out Zoner activity at scrapyards
Listen to the radio chatter between Brewmeister and Mike, and
eventually you'll be told to check out some Tornado Zoners hanging
around at the scrap yard. Follow the nav point, but once you reach the
scrap yard you'll find out the Tornado Zoner scouts are just non-
hostile scavengers looking for useful junk. However, you'll soon
receive a radio message that several hostile Zoners are attacking the
habitat, so follow the new nav point back to the habitat for the big
fight.
Mission Objective: Protect Helinox containers from Zoner pirates
The Zoner pirate force consists of several scouts led by a Tornado Zone
bomber. The bomber is apparently piloted by a Star Wars fan named
Darklander (get it?), but is armed with only average shields and a
Vendetta gattling and should be easily defeated this far into the game.
The scouts are just as easy, but you do have to make sure they don't
blow up any Helinox containers.
=======================================================================
COUP BEGINS:
Overview:
The first plot-related mission of the chapter pits you against
Federation forces from Admiral Cox's fleet who are rebelling against
the power-mad, neo-fascist New Line government. Dispite the face that
he's got the moral high ground and is also one of your main buddies
from the original Archimedean Dynasty, Cox's rebellion is causing
political chaos and you'll have to shut him down for his own good. Cox
and his men are good guys, attempting to disable rather than destroy
you, and you should try to return the favor. Of course, when you
actually play this mission you might feel less generous towards Cox's
men, as they fly the super-annoying Federation scouts, an annoyance
topped off by the fact that you have to defeat all enemy ships to end
the mission. Throw in unusually lazy wingmates and a particularly
difficult "protect-the-weak-target-or-instantly-fail" scenario, and you
end up with a mission that can be really agrivating.
Tips:
- Since Cox's Federation rebels are still "good guys", they'll only use
EMP weapons against you. EMP attacks can't kill you. Once your EMP
shields reach zero, they'll start recharging and will be restored to
full within a few seconds. During those few seconds you'll be unable to
move or shoot, however.
- Cox's Federation scouts are the most agile ships you've faced yet, so
it'll be difficult to hit them properly with the slow firing EMPactor's
primary fire. The EMPactor's secondary fire does less damage, but fires
rapidly and thus is preferable for hitting the fast moving scouts. EMP
torpedos are not recommended since the scouts are pretty good at faking
them out with beacons.
- If you're having trouble against Cox's Federation scouts, go ahead
and blow them up with normal weapons. Feralli will chew you out at the
end of the mission, but you'll still get paid the same amount of money
and the outcome won't affect any of your future missions or the
reactions of NPCs towards you.
- Your wingmates are surprisingly ineffective during this mission.
They'll disable some of the enemy scouts, but will completely ignore
many of them leaving you to deal with them yourself.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Destroy the communication dishes at the radio
broadcaster
You can immedietely complete the mission objective by destroying the
two com dishes right off the bat, but this is a VERY bad idea as the
initial enemy ships will still be around to bother you on top of the
new enemy ships that warp in after the dishes are destroyed. Instead,
disable the rebel bomber and scouts around the communications center
before destroying the dishes.
Mission Objective: Prevent the Techbomber from being disabled
As soon as the dishes are destroyed, Sally will inform you that a
techbomber will arrive shortly to retake the station. Several rebel
scouts will arrive soon afterwards. Dogfight them as they come, but
keep in mind that your main concern should be to watch out for the
techbomber. While it finally arrives and docks, Sally will tell you
that a pair of rebel scouts have started to attack the broadcasting
station. This is a mistranslation, in reality these two scouts are
attacking the techbomber, and you must prevent them from disabling it
or else you'll fail the mission (this can be annoying since the
techbomber doesn't last long against EMP shots). You don't need to
disable the attacking scouts, just keep them occupied long enough for
the techbomber to retreat from the battlefield. Sally won't tell you
when this happens, but you should be able to notice when the techbomber
is finally gone.
Mission Objective: Disable or destroy all remaining rebel ships
Once the techbomber is gone, you still need to disable all the
remaining rebel scouts before you can finish the mission. Don't expect
any help from your wingmates, as they will simply sit there twiddling
their thumbs. Taking out all the Federation scouts may take a while,
but since the enemy can't actually kill you it should only be a matter
of time.
=======================================================================
VASTIAN GREIGH:
Overview:
This small optional mission puts you in the role of bodyguard to
Vastian Greigh, a grumpy and very unpleasant CEO who ends up getting
attacked on the way to work by disgruntled ex-employees. Although the
map is small and you only have a total of six enemies to fight, those
enemies are driving Federation scouts making them really tough to take
down. To top it off you also have to prevent the destruction of both
Greigh and his workplace, but fortunately your enemies aren't at all
persistent when it comes to attacking those two targets.
Tips:
- Powerful weapons such as the Doom Mortar are best against the agile
Federation scouts, since you don't have to worry about leaving your
enemies alive in this mission.
- Although Harper will accompany you into the mission, he won't provide
much help against your enemies. You're mostly on your own for this
mission.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Protect Greigh from disgruntled ex-employees
Greigh is piloting an Entropol scout, but don't expect him to help out
in this battle. Harper also isn't very helpful in this mission, as he's
more concerned with following Greigh than helping you fight the enemy
ships. At first you'll be facing 3 hostile Federation scouts. The
enemies start out shooting at Greigh's ship, so be sure to shoot them
to get them to attack you. As always the Federation scouts are
difficult opponents, and their leader Seawolf is particularly quick.
These enemies are also using hard ammo (Plasma gun for Seawolf,
Vendetta gattlings for the two other scouts), so forget the EMP from
the previous mission and stick to your Plasma gattling. Ignore Sally
when she tells you to proceed to the nav point and instead concentrate
on destroying the three scouts, as the next mission objective won't
trigger until all three are dead.
Mission Objective: Prevent the disgruntled workers from blowing up the
Helium 17 tanks
After the initial three enemy scouts have been destroyed, Greigh will
radio you to inform you that his ex-employees are now shooting at the
highly explosive Helium 17 tanks. Proceed to the nav point and shoot at
the three new enemy Fed scouts to stop them from blowing up the Helium
17. Kill them all (easier said than done) to end the mission. Once
again, don't expect any help from Greigh or Harper, even though they're
sitting right next to you.
=======================================================================
SNEAKDRIVE:
The game's only stealth mission can be frustrating since you fail
instantly if you're detected, but you should be able to beat it
consistantly once you figure out how it's supposed to be done. There's
also very little fighting, so you won't have the frustration of having
to destroy a bunch of tough Federation scouts like in Coup Begins or
Vastian Greigh. Like in Crawler, this mission also introduces you to
your enemy (Cox's fleet) which you'll have to flee from now but face in
the next mission.
Overview:
Tips:
- Cox's men are playing for keeps now, using normal weapons instead of
EMP. You can do the same, and no one will notice. If you're still
sentimental about nameless, fictional people inside polygonal ships,
you can still use EMP to disable rather than destroy them.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Destroy the communication relay
Ignore the two Federation scouts protecting the relay, instead
concentrating all your attacks on the relay itself. Once it's been
destroyed, proceed to the new nav point while using turbo to ditch the
two pursuing scouts.
Mission Objective: Sneak undetected through the canyon to reach Cox's
fleet
As in the Code Books mission, you're supposed to stop your engines and
use the current to carry your ship undetected past the enemy forces.
The difference here is that if you're detected you'll fail the mission
instantly. You'll be detected if you use your engines too much, fire
your weapons, or if any of the patrolling scouts comes too close to
your ship. To get past this annoying section drift with the current and
let it take you to your destination, but every once in a while use
short engines bursts to hug the sea-bottom to avoid the patrolling
scouts. (You DO have a silator to silence your engine, don't you? Don't
you?!)
Once the current takes you to the last nav point, you'll drift straight
into the middle of Cox's fleet, consisting of his Triops flagship, two
Odysseus-class Federation frigates, and a whole bunch of bombers and
scouts. You'll also trigger a cutscene and receive two pieces of
information: 1) Picollini is under attack at Deepdraft and needs your
assistance, and 2) Cox's ships have detected your presence!
Mission Objective: Assist Picollini at Deepdraft
Cox's fleet is simply too powerful for you to take on by yourself, so
use turbo to get the hell out of there as fast as possible. Cox himself
is invincible, so don't bother trying to attack his Triops flagship.
Follow the nav points while using turbo to lose any pursuing scouts,
until you reach Deepdraft and Picollini. Picollini is under attack from
a Federation frigate, a bomber, and a couple of scouts, and the two of
you will have to destroy or disable them all before the mission can
end. This is easier than it sounds as Picollini can hold his own
against the scouts, and the bomber and frigate succumb surprisingly
quickly to your EMPactor shots as unlike the agile scouts they are
unable to dodge.
=======================================================================
DEFEAT:
Overview:
The good news is that this is your last major battle against Federation
forces, for which you can utter a sign of relief. From here on you'll
be facing the easier, slower, less manueverable Crawlers for the
majority of the missions. The bad news is that you'll be facing a LOT
of Federation forces, and will have to protect a vulnerable techbomber
as well. Follow the walkthrough and you should be able to make it
through the first half (at least in a few tries). The second half is a
straightforward cakewalk.
Tips:
- Attempting to destroy Commodore Sool now will only result in you
failing the mission. There's no way for you to interfer with the game's
scripted events, so you'll just have to let them play out.
- Both friendly Sool scouts and hostile Cox scouts will be on the
battlefield, and the two are identical in appearance. Make sure you pay
attention to your friend/foe indicator to avoid blasting your allies.
- Once again Cox's forces will limit themselves to EMP, but keep in
mind certain enemies (such as the frigates and the tanks) will still be
using hard ammo, so it is possible to die if you're not paying
attention.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Disable the turret defenses around Parliment
As soon as the mission starts, Commodore Sool will order you to disable
the Parliment building's turret defenses so they won't destroy Cox's
ships when they show up. Do NOT do this, because you WILL need all the
help you can get in the coming battle. Don't worry, the game won't
bother you if a few of Cox's pilots end up getting killed in this
mission, which makes sense considering the big event at the end of the
mission. Not disabling the turrets also nets you an interesting
sarcastic comment from Sool when Cox's fleet arrives.
After a minute or so, Cox's fleet will jump in. Consisting of two
frigates, one transport, and a whole bunch of bombers and fighters,
this is the biggest enemy fleet you've faced yet (aren't you glad you
didn't shut off the turrets?). The transport's invincible and your
allies should deal with the frigates, so ignore them and concentrate on
disabling the bombers and scouts. Pretty soon the transport will dock
and Cox will seize Parliment. Sool will send a techbomber with narcotic
gas to re-take the building, which you'll have to protect.
Mission Objective: Protect the Techbomber while it docks with Parliment
The techbomber is the reason you left all those turrets operational.
Normally any of Cox's scouts that are still functional will attack it
once it docks, and you'll fail the mission if it's destroyed. Still
operational, the turrets should distract or destroy a fair share of the
scouts, making defending the techbomber much easier. A few scouts may
still decide to attack the techbomber, so you should shoot them a
couple of times to get them to attack you instead. As before you don't
need to destroy the scouts, just keep them occupied until the
techbomber can finish its mission.
Mission Objective: Help Sool against Cox's Tanks
As soon as the techbomber completes its mission, a cutscene will play
showing Sool battling several of Cox's tanks. Sool will order you to
finish off the tanks while he pursues Admiral Cox's frigate, the
Triops. Go to the nav point and kill or disable the tanks. The Tanks
are equipped with Sizzlers and Plasma guns, so take your time and don't
get yourself killed if you don't want to replay the annoying first half
of the mission again. While fighting the tanks a pair of rebel scouts
will attack you, and you'll have to disable them in addition to the
tanks. Your wingmates will follow you to help out against the tanks,
but you'll have to deal with the scouts on your own.
As soon as the tanks and scouts have been disabled/destroyed, Sool's
Ghost will engage Cox's Triops in a frigate vs. frigate duel. Sool will
reveal his true nature, switching from EMP to hard ammo in an attempt
to destroy Admiral Cox. Obviously, you'll want to stop him.
Mission Objective: Stop Sool from killing Admiral Cox
As soon as the cutscene is over, Sool's fleet (1 Federation frigate, a
bomber, and several scouts) will warp into the area equipped with
Plasma weapons and will quickly turn hostile on you. Ignore them and
use turbo to get to the nav point as quickly as possible. Watch the
cutscene and the tragic end to the mission and this chapter.
***************************
*Chapter 5 (Tornado Zone):*
***************************
=======================================================================
LEISURE TRIP:
Overview:
The Bionts are back, and this time they mean business! This mission is
actually very short, but the Bionts make really tough opponents this
time around. Don't worry, however, this is the last time you'll be
pitted against them in combat.
Tips:
-Whatever else you do, buy a laser gattling before going into this
mission. It's the best rapid-fire weapon you can get in the game, and
it'll be a big help against the Biont scouts in this mission.
- The Biont scouts have gone from being rather easy to rather hard.
Don't be lulled into thinking they'll be the same easily shot down
pieces of scrap from Chapter 1.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Fight the Bionts
On your way to a leisure trip at Scavenger you, Harper, and Picollini
will run into a large group of disabled Federation ships being preyed
upon by mineral-and-protein-hungry Bionts. These Bionts aren't the
floating pieces of scrap you might remember from the first chapter.
Their shields and systems are at full 100% capacity (allowing them to
absorb exceptionally large amounts of damage), and their rate of fire
is dramatically faster. They're also a bit more manueverable, but
fortunately nowhere nearly as fast as Federation or even Crawler
scouts. Engage the Bionts in combat for a minute or so, but bear in
mind that you're just killing time until Sally gives you your next
mission objective.
Mission Objective: Protect the rescue capsules
Sally will soon tell you to proceed to the new nav point and protect
the ejection capsules from the Bionts there. Don't worry about the
Biont bomber Sunjammer you pass on the way to the nav point, Harper and
Picollini will take care of it. Your job is to engage the three Biont
scouts in combat. Don't worry too much about the rescue capsules, and
focus on doing as much damage to the scouts as possible. Eventually a
rescue transport from Scavenger will show up, which you'll have to
protect.
Mission Objective: Protect the rescue transport
The good news is that no additional Bionts will show up to harrass the
transport. The bad news is that the three Biont scouts can be
surprisingly difficult to destroy, so your main objective should be to
keep all three of them occupied until the transport can complete its
rescue mission and leave the area. Don't get into a war of attrition
with the Bionts, their rapid-fire Plasma 2 shots can eat away at your
shields quite quickly. As long as you can keep the transport alive by
preventing the Bionts from attacking it, you should be able to complete
this mission even if you don't manage to kill a single Biont yourself.
=======================================================================
ATACAMA IS BURNING:
Overview:
This is the largest battle against the Crawlers you've faced yet. Not
only will you have to take out a total of three frigates, more than
half a dozen bombers, and more scouts and tanks than you can count, but
the Crawler's huge battleship Magma Eater will also make a brief
appearance at the end of the level. Fortunately, your new laser
gattling and improved ship will make destroying Crawler ships (even
frigates) much easier, and you'll have quite a bit of help from both
your wingmates and Iwan King's fleet.
Tips:
- Crawler frigates have no turret coverage at their rear and thus this
is the ideal spot to shoot them from. Attacking a Crawler frigate from
the front is ill-advised as they have a forward-mounted Sizzler laser.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Help King's fleet defeat the Crawlers
As soon as you enter the mission, you'll fly into a battle between
King's fleet and the Crawlers near the city of Atacama. King's forces
consist of his mighty flagship Creole Girl, along with a Tornado Zone
frigate, a bomber, and several scouts and buggys. The Crawler forces
consist of a frigate, 2 bombers, and several scouts and tanks. Go after
the frigate and bombers first, then mop up the scouts and tanks. Your
wingmates fight fiercely here, and your new laser gattling should make
destroying the larger Crawler ships much easier than a couple of
chapters ago.
Mission Objective: Defend Brainfire from the Crawlers
As soon as the Crawlers have been defeated, a cutscene will play
showing a Crawler attack on the Brainfire station. Even though Sool
wants to do bad things with Brainfire and the orbital laser, you and
your allies still need the technology aboard and thus must defend the
station. Brainfire is at 50% shields when you reach it, but it's still
incredibly durable and thus you shouldn't worry too much about it being
destroyed. The attacking Crawler forces consist of the usual assortment
of bomber, scouts, and tanks, and all of them need to be destroyed
before the next mission objective is triggered.
Mission Objective: Help King's fleet against another wave of Crawlers
As soon as the area around Brainfire is cleared, King will send a
message stating that his fleet is once again under attack. Follow the
new nav point back to where you came from, and you should find King's
forces once shooting it out with a Crawler fleet consisting of a
frigate, a couple of bombers, and several scouts. When the area is
finally cleared of Crawlers, a cutscene will play giving you a new
objective.
Mission Objective: Search the Canyon for Crawlers
After the cutscene, follow the nav point down the canyon. Once you
reach the nav point you should find a Crawler bomber accompanied by a
few scouts and tanks, which you should promptly destroy. As soon as
they're all dead you'll hear messages of renewed fighting over the
radio, and soon King will once again order you back to Atacama to help
against the Crawlers. Follow the new nav point as soon as it appears
for the final enemy wave.
Mission Objective: Help King's fleet against the third and final wave
of Crawlers
Same deal as usual. Crawler frigate, bombers, scouts. However THIS time
when the Crawler frigate is destroyed a massive energy signature will
be detected and Major Mad Sam Korhonen himself will warp in with his
huge flagship Magma Eater (the largest frickin' entity in the game save
for the final boss) and engage King's Creole Girl in combat. Don't
attempt to attack the Magma Eater yourself, just concentrate on
fighting any remaining Crawler scouts and bombers. Eventually the
Creole Girl, although badly damaged, will be able to drive off the
Magma Eater.
=======================================================================
THE BIG BANG:
Overview:
At first this level is just another routine skirmish against Crawler
fighters, but towards the end you'll find yet another potential instant
mission failure situation when you find yourself in the ridiculous
position of preventing the Crawlers from blowing up a frigate that
you're going to detonate anyway.
Tips:
- Your wingmates are invincible during this mission. They'll lose
shield energy when shot, but when they finally reach 0% shields they'll
keep fighting instead of ejecting from their ships like they usually
do.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Capture the Crawler frigate
The Crawler frigate is initially protected by several Crawler scouts,
catapillars, and tanks. King's Tornado Zone tank and buggies should
take care of the Crawler's ground forces, so you should concentrate on
helping your wingmates blow up the scouts while taking care not to fire
on the frigate itself. As the battle progresses more Crawler ships
including a bomber will arrive to fight you, but they shouldn't be a
problem. After all the Crawlers are destroyed, Harper will dock with
the frigate and will start piloting it through the canyon while your
wingmates fly in formation behind it. After a minute or two, the
frigate will reach the open ocean and be attacked by a swarm of Crawler
scouts coming from the ocean depths.
Mission Objective: Prevent the Crawlers from destroying the frigate
You must prevent the Crawlers from destroying the frigate. These
Crawler scouts are dedicated, they will continue firing on the frigate
even if you start shooting them. Fortunately, this makes them easier to
kill as they won't try to dodge your shots. Destroy the Crawlers one
after the other as quickly as possible while keeping an eye on the
frigate's shield energy. Although the Crawlers are only armed with
Vendetta gattlings, there are so many of them that they can quickly
wittle away the frigate's shields down to nothing. When Harper says
he's activated the frigate's self destruct and Sally tells you to
retreat to the nav point before the frigate explodes, DON'T LISTEN. You
MUST eliminate all Crawlers attacking the frigate no matter what, or
else you will still fail the mission when they destroy it before it
explodes. Once you've made sure no Crawlers are left to attack the
frigate, go ahead and flee tothe nav point. You probably won't make it
before the cutscene plays showing the frigate exploding, but you
shouldn't be harmed by the explosion either and will finish the mission
successfully.
=======================================================================
SOOL:
Overview:
This end-of-chapter mission is surprisingly easy and relaxed, even
though you'll once more and for the last time be pitted against agile
enemy Federation scouts. Once again the combat takes place around
Brainfire, only this time you'll be assaulting the station rather than
protecting it from Crawlers or Zoners. The only tough part comes at the
very end when Sool sends all of his remaining Federation scouts out to
kill you, but even then it's not too much trouble since you only have
to avoid their attacks for a couple of minutes to win the mission.
Tips:
- The Sizzler laser is an excellent weapon against the fast moving
Federation scouts, it hits instantly and only takes about 2 shots to
destroy one enemy.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Knock out as many of Commodore Sool's defenses
around Brainfire as possible
Your first order of business should be to destroy the Odysseus-class
frigate. Just circle strafe while blasting with the laser gattling
until it explodes. Resist the urge to attack Sool's flagship, the
Ghost, as it's marked as a neutral target and you will fail the mission
if you fire upon it (weird, I know. At least it doesn't shoot at you).
Follow up by destroying as many bombers and scouts as you can.
Eventually an allied Techbomber will appear to take back the station.
Mission Objective: Defend the techbomber while it docks with Brainfire
Sool's scouts won't bother the Techbomber. However the hostile
Federation bomber guarding the docking bay will, so obviously you
should destroy it (the bomber, not the docking bay).
Mission Objective: Survive against Sool's final wave of Federation
scouts until the conflict inside the station is resolved.
Once the techbomber docks, Sally will start giving you a play-by-play
of what's going on inside the station which lasts for several minutes.
Additionally, a large swarm of Sool's Federation scouts will enter the
battle soon after the Techbomber docks. Your wingmates won't last very
long against them, and your should be more concerned with avoiding
their attacks and staying alive than destroying them. Just let them
chase you around and around the station for a couple of minutes and
eventually the ending cutscene of Sool escaping with the satellite
uplink codes will play, ending the mission.
***********************************
*Chapter 6 (Atlantic Federation):*
***********************************
=======================================================================
MAGMA EATER:
Overview:
This mission is essentially one big battle against Mad Sam Korhonen's
massive flagship Magma Eater, which you first saw in Atacama Burning.
This mission also introduces a new faction in the form of the
monsterous Old Ones (also referred to as "Squids" by the inhabitants of
Aqua) that were released when Sool fired the orbital laser and blew a
huge hole in the planet. There's one annoying part where you can die
instantly for no good reason, but otherwise this mission isn't too
frustrating.
Tips:
- Like Federation scouts, the sperm-like Squid scouts know as Schax are
fast moving and difficult to hit, not to mention slightly smaller than
the other scout-type enemies in the game. At this point in the game the
Sizzler laser is probably the best weapon to use against them, even
though it takes 2-3 shots to kill a single one. The easiest way to
fight Schax is to put some distance between you and them with turbo,
then snipe at them with the Sizzler's sniper secondary fire. Enemies
don't move around much at long range and thus are much easier to hit.
Two consecutive Hammerhead missiles will also kill a Schax.
- Besides physical damage, the energy attacks of Schax and other Old
One units do a respectable amount of EMP damage as well. There's a bug
where in certain missions at the end of the game, if your EMP shields
drop to 0 they won't recharge and your ship will simply sit there doing
nothing. If this happens to you, try shutting off your engines, then
starting them back up again after a minute or so. That sometimes works.
If not, you'll just have to restart the mission.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Sneak past the Crawlers to reach Deepdraft
Don't bother cutting your engines, you shouldn't be spotted by the
Crawlers no matter what you do. It doesn't matter much anyway, since as
soon as you reach the nav point Sally will inform you that you've been
detected.
Mission Objective: RUN past the Crawlers to reach Deepdraft
Ignore the Crawler frigate and scouts and use your boost to reach the
next nav point quickly (take the time to dodge the mines, though).
After the cutscene, following the new nav point to reach the Magma
Eater. A fierce battle between Federation scouts and turrets and
Crawler scouts will rage around the Magma Eater, but you should resist
getting involved as you need to keep your shields near 100% for reasons
which will be explained later. DeGrange will soon ask you to find a
weak spot.
Mission Objective: Seek out a weak spot on the Magma Eater
Do NOT approach the front of the Magma Eater (the part that looks like
a giant fish head) as it's equipped with a nasty super-weapon called
the scalar howitzer than can blow you to bits in one hit. Instead stay
near the rear of the Magma Eater (the part that looks like a giant
drill) as it has no turret coverage back there so you should be
relatively safe. Don't worry about the mission objective, it will
fulfill itself after a minute or so.
Mission Objective: Destroy the Magma Eater's propulsion system
When DeGrange orders you to destroy the propulsion system, just start
blasting away at the Magma Eater's rear with your laser gattling. As
long as you stay behind it you should be able to hit the Magma Eater
without being hit back. Take care of any Crawler scouts that stray by
and start targeting you. The Magma Eater has a truly enormous amount of
shield energy (A big bang II strike doesn't even take off one energy
bar), but you only need to hurt it a little to trigger the next mission
objective.
Mission Objective: Destroy the Magma Eater's turrets
Just ignore the order to destroy the turrets when it comes through, and
continue shooting at the propulsion system with your laser gattling.
The next mission objective will trigger when enough time has passed or
when the Magma Eater is reduced to a certain amount of health,
regardless of whether or not the turrets are still active.
Mission Objective: Fight the Schax
After the Magma Eater loses a couple of bars of shield energy, a
cutscene will play where Picollini warns that the ocean is coming alive
just before a wave of scout-sized, sperm-shaped creatures burst onto
the scene. Beware! As soon as you regain control of your ship, you'll
find yourself in the path of the Schax swarm which will do enormous
damage to your ship if any of them crash into you (don't worry, this
only occurs in this particular mission). You'll also find yourself
directly in the path of the Magma Eater's scalar howitzer, which will
blast you a few seconds after the cutscene ends. To avoid dying again
and again in this part of the mission, you should make sure you're at
near full health when going into the cutscene. Anyway, the newly
arrived Schax will start attacking the Crawlers as well as you and your
allies. Just use your turbo to get away from the bulk of the fighting,
and take your time blasting the four Schax which follow you. Your
allies and the Crawlers should take care of the Schax which stay
behind. The Magma Eater will retreat from the battle after you've
killed the Schax that specifically attack you. You'll then receive
orders to kill any remaining Crawlers.
Mission Objective: Destroy the remaining Crawlers
This is a routine clean-up. Blow up any surviving Crawler scouts until
you're told to return to base.
=======================================================================
WAR IN NEOPOLIS:
Overview:
A climatic mission very close to the endgame, you'll have everything
thrown at you except the kitchen sink. Not only will you be scooting
back and forth all over Neopolis repelling both Crawlers and Squids,
but you'll also receive help from all the folks you met during the
game, including the Federation, Sergei Chang's Entropol, and Iwan
King's pirates. Even the Bionts chip in against the Squids at the end.
This mission is big, yet not particularly hard. A whole bunch of stuff
happens plotwise and actionwise, yet there aren't any annoyingly
difficult areas or any parts where you have to worry about instant
mission failure (expect perhaps the very last part, if you're playing
on normal or higher difficulty).
Tips:
- Your wingmates are indestructible right until the very last part of
the mission, so don't be shy about letting them do the brute of the
fighting, especially against the Magma Eater.
- Despite what the mission briefing says, you don't need to bring EMP
weapons into this fight. Your allies will able to disable the Magma
Eater without your help. Instead, stick to the standard laser
gattling/sizzler combination.
- You really should bring a couple of Big Bangs and some good guided
torpedos (i.e. Hammerheads) into this mission. This mission will
introduce you to a couple very nasty Marax monsters (the Squid
equivalent of the bomber) which can do lots of damage to you with its
energy shots and eye-beam attack. These Marax are best dealt with
quickly with a Big Bang II followed by a burst of laser gattling fire.
The guided torpedos are useful in the final battle against the Schax,
and should be used against any Schax that start attacking the Creole
Girl.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Defeat the Crawler fleet attacking Navy Headquarters
Follow the nav point to Navy HQ, which is under siege from a pair of
Crawler frigates, a few bombers, and several scouts. The HQ itself is
fairly well protected by friendly Federation bombers, scouts, and
turrets. You should first destroy the two frigates with your laser
gattling (your wingmates will help out alot with torpedos and big
guns), then start blowing up as many other Crawler ships as possible.
Eventually a cutscene will interrupt the fighting and send you off to
your next mission objective.
Mission Objective: Defeat the Crawler fleet attacking Parliament
The situation at Parliament is pretty much the same as at Navy
Headquarters: Federation bombers, scouts, and turrets defending against
a pair of Crawler frigates, some bombers, and several scouts. As
before, destroy the frigates followed by whatever other Crawler ships
you can manage, and eventually you'll be given your next mission
objective in the middle of the battle.
Mission Objective: Defend the Data Broadcaster from the Magma Eater
A cutscene will bring you into the middle of a battle between the Magma
Eater and Sergei Chang's Entropol forces, consisting of a bomber, a
scout, and another bomber piloted by Chang himself. Don't worry too
much about fighting the Magma Eater, your wingmates and Chang will do
enough damage to the Crawler battleship on their own. If you want to be
useful anyway, go ahead and use your Sizzler to snipe the Magma Eater's
turrets from outside their range of fire. After a couple minutes of
fighting, a cutscene will play where you pursue the Magma Eater as it
attempts to retreat towards the Parliament.
Mission Objective: Disable the Magma Eater
As soon as the cutscene ends, King will bring the Creole Girl broadside
with the Magma Eater, and the two capital ships will begin exchanging
fire. Don't worry about King, he and your wingmates will be able to
disable the Magma Eater before the Creole Girl sustains too much
damage. In fact, the Creole Girl's shields are restored to 100% as soon
as the Magma Eater is defeated. If you want to make yourself useful
during the fight, go ahead and blow up the two Crawler bombers that
show up, then snipe at the Magma Eater's turrets with your Sizzler
laser.
Mission Objective: Protect the Magma Eater and the techbomber from the
Schax
A few minutes into the battle and just before the Magma Eater is fully
disabled, several Marax and Schax will enter the area. Sally tells you
to protect the Magma Eater from the Squids until the Federation can
capture the Crawler's Scalar technology, but you don't need to worry
about it. Do NOT attack the two Marax that begin blasting at the Magma
Eater, the Crawler flagship is simply too tough for them to do any
significant damage to it, and wasting time fighting the Marax will only
make it easier for the Schax to kill you. You also don't need to worry
about protecting the techbomber that docks with the Magma Eater either,
since the Schax never seem to attack it. The Schax WILL however go
after you, and can kill you quite quickly if you're not prepared.
Dogfight them if you're able, but don't be afraid to use turbo to flee
the battlefield if you feel yourself being overwhelmed.
After the techbomber leaves with the Scalar Howitzer technology, a
cutscene will play with Iwan King calling for help as the Marax and
Schax gang up on his flagship. Surprisingly, none other than the Bionts
come to the rescue.
Mission Objective: Defeat all of the Schax while protecting the Creole
Girl
The Bionts are on your side, so don't shoot them. They're pretty good
help against the Squids. Your first order of business should be to kill
the Marax before it destroys the Biont bomber (your wingmates will help
you gang up on this Marax, and the bomber may also have weakened it
during the cutscene). There's another Marax patrolling the battlefield,
as well as several Schax. Deal with the second Marax if it starts to
attack you or the Creole Girl, otherwise your first priority should be
to attack any Schax that start shooting at the Creole Girl. The Creole
Girl has 50% shields and only one functional turret, and loses shield
energy surprisingly quickly. You'll have to replay the entire mission
if the Creole Girl is destroyed, so make damn sure that doesn't happen
(be especially sure not to hit it with your own stray shots, since it's
such a big target on the battlefield). Don't get so caught up in
protecting the Creole Girl that you let the Schax gang up on and
destroy your own ship, however. Your wingmates will help you out
initially but will quickly leave without telling you as the battle goes
on. Fortunately the Biont bomber and two Biont scouts will stick around
until they are destroyed or the mission ends. The Bionts aren't quick
enough to actually kill the Schax, but at least they provide a helpful
distraction. You'll have to hold out for quite some time against the
Schax before the mission ends, but don't worry it does eventually end.
**********************************
*Chapter 7 (Atlantic Federation):*
**********************************
=======================================================================
CROCELL:
Overview:
The plot starts to come to a head in this, the second to last mission.
You'll meet the biggest monster yet, lose one of your wingmates, and
face the long-awaited final battle against your megalomaniacal nemesis
Commodore Sool. This mission is also a rather tough one, since for the
first half you lose instantly if Bonham dies and for the second half
you'll be facing a series of consecutive battles against heavy targets.
Tips:
- Load your ship with big bang IIs. You'll have to take down several
heavy targets in this mission, including a Crawler frigate, a Squid
Crocell, and Sool's modified Federation frigate.
- Your brand new scalar howitzer is an excellent weapon against the
Schax, it hits almost instantly and kills with one shot. Make your
shots count, however, as the weapon takes several seconds to recharge
between shots.
- Harper's invincible throughout this mission, which can be useful.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Protect Lisa Bonham while she defuses the power
plant
Although Commander Feralli tells you to go after Mad Sam Korhonen in
his Tursas (the squid-shaped Crawler scout/bomber) your real objective
here is to clear the way for Bonham to dock with the power plant.
Korhonen will leave the battle very soon anyway, so damaging him is
irrelevant. Besides, he's got his own personal scalar howitzer and can
be a real pain if you tick him off.
You need to protect Bonham throughout the first half of this mission.
If she dies, you fail. Start out by destroying the Crawler frigate
hanging around the power plant with a couple of big bangs, then blow
away anything else that starts shooting at Bonham when she docks with
the power plant. After a couple of minutes of fighting, several
successive waves of Schax will warp in along with a Marax. The Crawlers
will also stick around for a minute or so, but they'll warp out soon so
there's no point in fighting them any more.
Mission Objective: Fight the Schax
You still need to keep Bonham alive to finish the mission, but
fortunately her health is restored to full when she undocks with the
power plant. The Marax tends to target Bonham, so blow it away with a
big bang and your laser gattling as soon as possible. Make sure to also
blast any Schax that start to attack Bonham with your S. howitzer. It
seems to be purely random whether the Schax concentrate on Bonham or
your other wingmen, so if she dies real quick just play the mission
again and hopefully you'll have better luck next time. Ignore Charlotte
when she tells you to attack the Head-schax, and instead wait for her
to announce the appearance of the Crocell. When it shows up, turbo
right up to it and start blasting it with everything you've got
including a couple of big bangs (don't bother aiming for the sonar dome
or flashpocks as Gilmore suggests, since the important thing is to hurt
it real quick before the Schax or the Crocell can kill Bonham). If you
can halve the Crocell's health before Bonham dies, a cutscene will play
and move you to the next part of the mission where the Schax will no
longer attack and Bonham will be safe.
Mission Objective: Fight the Crocell
It's just you, Harper, and Chaka (if her ship's still active) against
the Crocell. While you're fighting the big fish, you'll hear Bonham
battling Crawlers and Schax off-screen over the radio, but she's pretty
much invincible so don't worry about her and take your time attacking
the Crocell. You can hang back and snipe at it while letting your
wingmen do the brute of the work, or if you've still got lots of
shields go ahead and use the same in-your-face tactics as before to
beat it quickly. After doing enough damage to it, yet another cutscene
will play with Commodore Sool making his grand entrance and giving you
yet another reason to hate him. Guess you won't have to worry about
Lisa anymore.
Mission Objective: Send Sool to Hell once and for all
It's time for the big showdown with your bitterest enemy, Commodore
Sool. If you're badly damaged from the fight with the Crocell, go ahead
and rest a while to heal your ship. There's no time limit for this
fight. When you're ready, follow the nav point for the battle with
Sool. Bristling with laser gattling turrets, Sool's Ghost is much
nastier than the regular Federation frigates. The circle-strafe-until-
dead tactics you might have used against the Odysseus-class frigates
won't work. Instead use your turbo to get right in Sool's face and cram
a big bang down his throat, followed by a scalar howitzer blast, and
finally blast him with the laser gattling until he croaks. The turrets
will have trouble locking on to you as long as you cling directly to
the Ghost's hull, so you should manage to avoid taking too much damage.
Ignore the hostile Federation scouts that warp in, they'll flee as soon
as Sool dies. If for whatever reason you take a lot of damage before
you can reduce Sool's shields to zero, use turbo to retreat and restore
your shields before returning to finish him off.
Mission Objective: Finish off the Crocell
The Crocell will emerge once again after Sool's done giving his little
see-you-in-hell speech, and Harper's still busy fighting it. Go ahead
and take your time finishing the big guy off, and feel free to back off
and regenerate your shields if they start running low (the last thing
you want is to replay the mission all over again just because you died
here).
=======================================================================
FORNEUS:
Overview:
This is it, the final battle for the fate of Aqua. You and all your
wings, the Federation Army, Iwan King's pirates, and the Biont remnants
against Samuel Korhonen's Crawler Fleet and a limitless army of Squids.
And that's the easy part. Towards the end, you'll be thrust into battle
against the Squid big bad endboss and be forced into one of the most
annoyingly difficult "protect the targets" missions yet.
Tips:
- A good torpedo compliment for this mission is 4 big bang IIs and 8
hammerheads. The big bangs are useful against large targets like
the Crocell and Headschax, and the hammerheads will help you shoot
down the Schax during the intense final shootout.
- Your wingmates are invincible for the duration of this mission, so
don't worry about them.
- If you're having trouble beating this mission, you might want to
switch to a lower difficulty setting. Especially if you're tired of
getting a Mission Failed! message in the "protect transports from
Schax" section over and over.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Defend power plant from Schax
Ignore the Schax fighting your allies and instead concentrate on the
ones attacking the power plant. You lose if the power plant is
destroyed, so it's a good idea to minimize the damage it takes early
on. The Schax tend to cluster on one side of the plant. Blast them with
your s-howitzer but be sure not to hit the power plant by mistake.
Trying to distract the Schax with warning shots won't do any good,
they'll dodge around for a few seconds but will soon continue attacking
the power plant.
After all but a few of the Schax have been destroyed, Crawler scouts
and bombers will start dipoling into the area. You'll probably want to
ignore them for half a minute or so and eliminate any remaining Schax
to prevent them from shooting the power plant. In a minute or so
Korhonen himself will jump in piloting his personal Tursas fighter and
accompanied by two frigates, five bombers, and some more scouts.
Mission Objective: Prevent Crawlers from docking with power plant
Korhonen will attempt to goad you into a dogfight by talking smack
about all the people you care about that he's killed, but you should
ignore him and instead concentrate on preventing the four Crawler
bombers from docking with the power plant. Let your allies deal with
the Crawler fleet and 2 Crawler Frigates. Instead, turbo over to the
power plant and destroy the four bombers attempting to dock (they won't
fight back, but you will have to dodge around a little to avoid the
fire from the Crawler scouts). When all of the bombers have been
destroyed a cutscene will play showing Korhonen warping away to a
remote area.
Mission Objective: Defeat Mad Sam Korhonen
Korhonen wants to throw down mano-a-mano, so follow him for the final
battle. Ignore any Crawler scouts that might still be shooting at you,
just use turbo to outrun them. When you finally reach Korhonen a
cutscene will play of your Phobocaster against his Tursas, but before
the two of you can begin fighting the biggest monster you've ever seen
appears behind him... and eats him! It's time to pay your respects to
the great God Forneus, the mightest of the Old Ones. Chaka will warp in
to lend you some firepower, but this fight is really all up to you.
Mission Objective: Destroy Forneus' sonar dome
In case the dramatic last boss music didn't clue you in, this is the
big finale. Ignore the mass of giant tentacles, the huge egg sac,or the
body bristling with flashpocks. Your only concern is Forneus' turtle-
like head. Your goal is to destroy Forneus' sonar dome, the white spot
in the center of his forehead surrounded by a triangle of three glowing
blue flashpocks. The sonar dome can only be destroyed by precise shots
(splash damage has no effect on it), and it's difficult to hit with
guided torpedos (although you can certainly try if my method doesn't
work for you). Fly in as close as possible directly in front of
Forneus' forehead, ignoring the flurry of energy blasts and beams he
shoots from his flashpocks. Shoot the sonar dome with s-howitzer shots
or stanley torpedos, using the targeting reticule to tell whether or
not you've got a precise shot. Forneus likes to slowly swing his head
back and forth, so your target won't stand still for very long. He will
also occasionally turn away from you, forcing you to use turbo to
reposition yourself back near his forehead. There's a time limit on
this fight, so don't take too long or you'll lose automatically.
Locking onto the sonar dome is tough because the name doesn't appear in
the targeting box, so you won't know if you've locked onto the dome,
Forneus' body, or one of his flashpocks. If you want to use guided
torpedos and are trying to lock onto Forneus' sonar dome instead of
Forneus himself, try pressing the targeting key only when the aiming
reticule is directly over the sonar dome. Another tactic that might
work is to hit the dome once with a s. howitzer shot, then rapidly
target it until it appears in the target box. You'll know you've
targeted the dome because it will have a large chunk of its health
missing. Even with guided torpedoes, you need to be directly in
front of the dome to hit it, or else your torpedo will harmlessly
explode against the side of Forneus' head.
Mission Objective: Protect transports from Schax
This is probably the toughest, most annoying part of the entire mission
and perhaps the game. With Forneus disabled for now, you're sent back
to the power plant area, where you have to protect the power plant and
the evacuation transports from everything the Squids can throw at you
including a Crocell, two Head-Schax, and wave after wave of unlimited
respawning Schax. If more than two transports or the power plant are
destroyed, you fail the mission. Start out by destroying the two Head-
Schax as quickly as possible with your remaining big bangs to make the
Schax less aggressive (one Head-Schax is floating near a sphere-shaped
building underneath the Creole Girl, the other is floating in open
ocean several hundred feet ahead of the front of the Creole Girl).
Next, kill the Crocell with whatever you've got left. Spend your
remaining time blasting all the Schax you can find with your
hammerhead torps and s-howitzer. Drive by the power plant once or
twice to see if any Schax are shooting at it, but mainly you should
be protecting the transports. Your allies will help out quite a bit,
so don't worry about killing every single Schax. Just shoot targets
of opportunity as they come along. If you manage to hold out long
enough the transports will evacuate, but before you can declare
a victory the restored Forneus will appear out of nowhere and start
blasting the power plant.
Mission Objective: Destroy Forneus' flash pocks
Things actually get EASIER when Forneus shows up again. The Transports
and the Creole Girl will warp outta there so you no longer need to
worry about them, and the power plant doesn't seem to take much damage
from Forneus' attacks, so you don't need to concern yourself with the
fact he's really laying into it. Ignore the order to destroy Forneus'
flashpocks, all you have to do is stay alive a while longer. Your
wingmen should distract Forneus, so all you have to do is blast any
Schax that decide to attack you (to be absolutely safe, you might also
want to shoot any that start attacking the power plant). After shooting
Forneus for a while Harper will complain that it can't be killed with
weapons, and Gillmore will realize the only way to destroy Forneus is
to blow the power plant.
Mission Objective: Destroy the two power plant relays
Destroy the two remaining relays around the base of the power plant (DO
NOT shoot the Power Plant itself), then when Sally tells you to run
like hell flee to the new nav point as soon as possible. Dodge, dodge,
dodge away from anything that's still shooting at you. You'll probably
smash your computer if you get yourself killed now. Once you reach the
nav point, you win the mission and the game. Enjoy the ending.
Copyright 2003 Alan Chan
by Alan Chan (joylock@hotmail.com)
The Usual:
This document is mine. Please don't rip it off or take credit for it.
That being said, feel free to post it on any site you want, provided
you a) don't make any changes to it, and b) don't charge money for it. You
don't even have to get my permission to post it (as long as it remains
unaltered), but it would be nice if you emailed me and let me know
(joylock@hotmail.com).
Why?:
I wrote this rather average walkthrough of Aquanox since one doesn't
exist yet (in English at least). Most of the game's missions are
straightforward and I've probably gone into WAY more detail than I
needed to, but a few are kind of tough and/or confusing and a
walkthrough would certainly save some people a lot of frustration.
Warning:
I don't discuss the plot in detail, but I also don't make any effort to
conceal SPOILERS. If you don't want to know what happens in the game,
don't read ahead.
This walkthrough only covers how to beat each specific mission. It
doesn't tell you the dialogue choices you have to take to make those
missions available or the specific equipment you should outfit your sub
with.
This walkthrough was written while playing through on normal
difficulty. The amount of enemies and their toughness in combat will
vary if you play on a different setting.
Contents:
Chapter 1 Missions:
- Asylum
- Terror
- Biont Scrap
- ELF-Terror
- Jumpship Accident
- Magma
Chapter 2 Missions:
- Sabotage of Turbines
- Code Books
- Kruger's Freighter
- Methane Hydrate
- Gulf Stream
Chapter 3 Missions:
- Seismobomb
- Santiago
- Crawler
- Brainfire
- Buoy
Chapter 4 Missions:
- Courier
- Coup Begins
- Vastian Griegh
- Sneakdrive
- Defeat
Chapter 5 Missions:
- Leisure Trip
- Atacama is Burning
- The Big Bang
- Sool
Chapter 6 Missions:
- Magma Eater
- War in Neopolis
Chapter 7 Missions:
- Crocell
- Forneus
******************
*Version History:*
******************
The latest version of this FAQ can be found at www.gamefaqs.com
1.0: Initial FAQ containing full walkthroughs of all 29 missions
1.1: Added linebreaks to make FAQ navigation easier
1.2: Misc corrections and additions
*******************************
*Chapter 1 (The Tornado Zone):*
*******************************
=======================================================================
ASYLUM:
Overview:
Your first mission is quite similar to the first mission in Archimedean
Dynasty. Once again, El Topo's given you a old clunker of a ship and
sent you out to blow up the scrap floating outside his asylum. This
mission should be a cakewalk, all but one of your targets is stationary
and won't shoot back. There is one slightly tricky part where you have
to protect a weak target from being destroyed, or else your mission
fails. The game is full of these and some of them can be quite
frustrating, so you might as well get used to them.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Go to the nav point and blow up all the biont scrap
Pretty straightforward. After you've blown up the larger biont parts,
the remaining pieces may be tough to find. Trying driving off a short
distance to get a different perspective, and press your targetting
button repeatedly until you lock onto some scrap. You can also crank
the detail setting on your radar all the way up to full to see the red
dots representing the scrap pieces. If you're still having trouble
spotting the scrap you might want to turn up the brightness on your
monitor. A cutscene giving you a new mission objective will show after
you've destroyed all the scrap.
Mission Objective: Escort the transport through the debris field
This part can be annoying if you're still getting familiar with the
game's control scheme. The transport barely has any health, so if it
runs into more than a few pieces of scrap it'll blow up and you'll fail
the mission. The transport moves slowly in a straight line, so try
facing the transport's side, strafing just a little bit ahead of it and
blow up all the scrap in its path. Things get a little tricky when a
biont scout shows up, as it will start shooting at the transport. Shoot
the scout a few times to get it to attack you instead of the transport,
but don't concentrate too much on the scout lest you allow some scrap
parts to slip by you and collide with the transport. The biont's attack
shouldn't do much damage to you, so you can afford to ignore it. Once
the transport's path is clear of scrap for a few seconds, go ahead and
blow up the scout (it should only take a few seconds, as the biont has
less than 1 shield energy bar) before going back to clearing the
debris.
=======================================================================
TERROR:
Overview:
Your first optional mission pits you in a one-on-one duel against a
Neopolis terror-tourist (basically a yuppie gone bad). As duels go,
this one's a cakewalk since your opponent is too drive to drunk.
Basically, he'll just sit in place and rotate to shoot at you.
Tips:
- Don't use torpedos during optional missions if you plan to make a
profit from them. Most are fairly simple/straightforward, but pay you a
corrispondingly low amount of credits for your work. Torpedos are so
expensive they should generally be saved for situations in plot-
required missions where you'd have trouble progressing otherwise.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Defeat the Terror Tourist Randis Albion
This is a straight-out duel between you and the otaku Terror-Tourist.
The Tourist is driving a Federation Bomber, a tough ship with powerful
weapons and a large amount of shield energy. Fortunately for you, your
enemy is driving drunk and thus has problems manuevering and aimming
his weapons. Just circle strafe around him while pounding him with your
weapons, and despite his tough shields and strong guns he should blow
up before you do. The Federation Bomber's armament consists of a Doom
Mortar and a couple of plasma turrets. The D. Mortar's a powerful gun,
but its projectiles are relatively slow moving and you should be able
to avoid them by constantly strafing. The plasma shots are tougher to
dodge, but do only minor damage. If you're having trouble against the
Tourist, you can always try taking cover behind the surrounding
buildings. Also, if you circle him quicker than he can rotate, you can
attack him from his rear, his top, or his bottom where his weapons have
difficulty aiming.
=======================================================================
BIONT SCRAP:
Overview:
This is your first fight against multiple opponents, as you fight a few
Biont scouts in the midst of a field of Biont debris. The Bionts are
easy opponents, and unlike the first mission you won't have to worry
too much about protecting allied targets.
Tips:
- The Bionts are surprisingly easy opponents. They've got low health,
they don't move around all that much, don't shoot very fast, and their
green plasma shots don't do much damage to you either. The only
disadvantage you have while fighting Bionts is that their thin wedge
shape (suspiciously similar to the Millenium Falcon's) makes them
difficult to hit when you're facing them head-on, and even this is
counteracted by their slow speed.
- Like many future missions, this mission doesn't end automatically.
Instead a Mission Accomplished message will appear on your HUD. When
this happens, press ESC and select Activate Dipol to end the mission.
You can stick around and kill more enemies, but you won't be rewarded
for doing so.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Escort the Catapillar through the debris field
Harper and Bonham will circle around overhead, while Sally orders you
to escort the Catapillar through the debris field. Follow the
Catapillar, and Sally will soon warn you that one of the Biont scrap
parts is starting to come alive. The Biont scout that begins to emerge
from the debris field will take a few seconds to power up, but will
begin attacking the Catapillar once it does. As in Asylum, the Biont is
slow moving and severely weakened, so destroying it shouldn't be too
difficult. Further along the Catapillar's route you'll encounter
another Biont scout, followed by a pair of Bionts after that, but they
shouldn't be a problem. To make things even easier Sally or your
wingmates will warn you each time before the Bionts attack.
Mission Objective: Protect the Catapillars from the attacking Bionts
Once the Catapillar reaches its destination, a cutscene will play
showing a group of Catapillars under attack from three Biont scouts.
Your wingmates will enter the fray and should make quick work of the
badly weakened Bionts, but you can chip in if you want to. After the
fight is over you'll be given the opportunity to stick around and
search the debris field for more Bionts, but you don't have to. Just
hit ESC as soon as the Mission Accomplished message appears and
activate your dipol to finish the mission.
=======================================================================
ELF-TERROR:
Overview:
Your first mission against normal human enemies pits you against pro-
environmental, anti-ELF activists. The Tornado Zone scouts you fight in
this mission have full shield energy and systems,unlike the Bionts, but
use weaker weapons and are still pretty slow. Overall, another easy and
relaxing mission, especially with the help from your two wingmates.
Tips:
- If you took the optional missions and haven't blown your dough on
torpedos, you should have enough credits to purchase a better ship and
bigger guns by now. I recommend buying an Avenger scout and equipping
it with a Vendetta II gun. The Vendetta's superior rate of fire should
make the Tornado Zone scouts you face in this mission much easier.
- Don't be afraid of getting into a war of attrition with an enemy TZ
scout. In fact, the easiest way to dispose of them is to face them
head-to-head and exchange gunfire. Provided you're got a Vendetta 2 gun
and a better ship than the Toiler, you should be able to destroy them
without taking much damage in return (especially if you aim for their
glowing red cockpit). This tactic works great against Zoner and even
Crawler scouts, but isn't much use against the fast moving Federation
scouts or Schax. It's also suicide to try it against bombers, frigates,
or fully functional Bionts.
- To stop an enemy from attacking something you're supposed to protect,
shoot them a couple of times and they'll go after you instead. Be sure
to actually hit them with your shots for this to work. You'll have to
use this technique many, many times throughout the game.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Pursue the Eco-terrorists
As the mission begins, a pair of Tornado Zone scouts piloted by hostile
environmental activists will stop attacking the ELF-Knot and fleet from
you and your wings. The TZ scouts are weakest enemies you'll face in
the game, and shouldn't be a problem for you to defeat. Chase them down
and destroy them to trigger the next objective.
Mission Objective: Protect the ELF-Station
Proceed to the new nav point, and destroy all the Tornado Zone scouts
around the ELF-Station. Although you're supposed to protect the
station, it has a large amount of shield energy and thus the TZ scouts
shouldn't be able to destroy it with their Vendetta guns. Your two
wingmates are a big help against the scouts, and in fact you can let
them do most of the work. Once all enemy scouts are gone, Sally will
inform you the ELF-Knot is once again under attack.
Mission Objective: Protect the ELF-Knot
Follow the new nav point back to the ELF-Knot, and destroy the few TZ
scouts there. The Knot has less shield energy than the station itself,
but is still difficult for the enemy ships to destroy. Win the mission
by destroying all the enemy scouts.
=======================================================================
JUMPSHIP ACCIDENT:
Overview:
This optional battle against Tornado Zone scouts is somewhat more
hectic than the previous one, due to the fact you'll be facing
considerably more enemies and that you also have to protect a
vulnerable ship that can actually get destroyed. You also only have one
wingmate to help you.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Prevent pirates from escaping with cargo
Pirates driving Tornado Zone scouts will emerge from the Jumpship
wreckage carrying either passenger capsules or cargo crates. El Topo
and Picollini want you to protect the passengers, while Entrox wants
you to rescue the cargo. Don't concern yourself too much, it really
doesn't matter what you do. Just camp near the hole in the jumpship and
blow up the pirates that emerge until a cutscene plays giving you your
next mission objective.
Mission Objective: Protect the transport while it evacuates the
passengers
A transport will dock with the Jumpship to rescue passengers, and will
immedietely come under fire from several pirates that warp into the
area. To prevent the pirates from destroying the transport and causing
you to fail the mission, shoot each of them a couple of times so that
they stop shooting the transport and instead go after you. Be sure the
transport isn't being fired upon before you start destroying your
attackers. New raider ships will gradually warp into the area, but you
should be able to destroy them quicker than they show up. After enough
time passes a cutscene will play showing the transport undocking from
the jumpship and preparing to dipol out of the area. Several more enemy
scouts will appear and open fire on the transport as soon as this
occurs. Repeat the tactics you used against the first wave of raiders.
You win the mission if the transport survives long enough to warp out.
=======================================================================
MAGMA:
Overview:
This is the last mission of the first chapter, and your final battle
against the Bionts (at least until near the end of the game). As before
the Biont scouts are scrap with damaged systems and barely any shield
energy, but this mission ups the odds a notch by pitting you in a
"boss" fight against a tougher opponent... the mighty Biont bomber.
Don't worry, though, just like the Biont scouts the bomber is
considerably less difficult than you might remember from Archimedean
Dynasty.
Tips:
- The Bionts aren't any stronger in this mission, but since you'll be
facing several of them at once it's a good idea to avoid getting
swarmed. Don't be afraid to hide behind Lisa and let her do all the
work if you start taking lots of damage.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Follow and defeat the Bionts scouts
Go ahead and follow the nav point. You should quickly run into a few
biont scouts, but oddly enough they ignore you and start traveling
further into the magma field. Go ahead and blow them up now while
they're oblivious to your presence. When you reach the nav point Bonham
will recognize the wreckage as the remains of a Biont battleship (cue
ominous music). The Biont scouts will now start attacking you, and
several more Bionts will emerge from the wreckage to assist them. With
Lisa's help, however, you should be able to destroy them all without
suffering too much damage.
After you've destroyed all the scouts, Sally will inform you that she
detects the presence of a larger Biontic signature... a Biont bomber.
Sure enough, one warps right in and opens fire on you.
Mission Objective: Defeat the Biont bomber
If you played Archimedean Dynasty and made it through to the finale,
you'll probably remember the Biont bomber was the meanest mother in the
valley, wielding devestating rapid fire weapons and capable of
withstanding enormous amounts of damage. Five years later and Human
weapons technology has made leaps and bounds ahead while the Bionts
have stagnated as barely functional pieces of junk floating in
scrapyards. The Biont Bomber is still a strong opponent, but nowhere
near the behemoths they were five years ago. The Bomber's surprisingly
average armament consists of three Plasma I turrets, one on the tip of
each of the three metal tentacles that stick out of the vessel's front.
The Bomber cannot fire from its sides or back, and it is from there you
should attack it. The Bomber only has half of its shields active, but
it can still absorb a decent amount of damage. it's also accompanied by
a couple of Biont scouts, but you can let Lisa deal with them while you
focus on the Bomber.
You win the mission as soon as the Bomber is destroyed, but a whole
bunch of Bionts will also start warping into the area at the same time.
You COULD stick around and see if you're man enough to take down three
bombers and more than a dozen scouts, but there's really no point in
doing so. Just activate your dipol and get out of there.
*********************************
*Chapter 2 (EnTrOx Corporation):*
*********************************
=======================================================================
SABOTAGE OF TURBINES:
Overview:
Despite what the briefing tells you, this optional mission is actually
really short. There are only three enemy ships, and all you have to do
is destroy one of them. Of course, two of the enemy ships are big ones
(a transport and a bomber), so it's a good idea to upgrade before going
into the mission.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Track down the power stealing Old Entropol ships
Just follow the nav points through the turbine field. After reaching
the fourth nav point you should come into contact with the enemy
Transport.
Mission Objective: Destroy the Old Entropol Transport Kande
The Kande is armed with Vendetta turrets and protected by both an
Entropol scout and a bomber piloted by Chrissi. Ignore the escorting
ships and get behind the transport where its turrets can't reach. Just
blast the transport from behind until it explodes, while moving back
and forth to avoid the attacks from the other enemy ships. Once the
transport's destroyed, your mission ends in success.
If the mission doesn't end even after the Kande is destroyed, kill
the remaining enemy ships. Eventually, you'll win.
=======================================================================
CODE BOOKS:
Overview:
This is probably the first truely challenging mission you'll face. It's
long, divided into several parts, and since you aren't yet able to
recharge your shields during a mission you'll have to take pains to
avoid getting damaged if you want to last til the very end. The good
news is that you don't actually have to destroy any of your enemies, in
fact towards the end where all the heavy fighting is your best survival
strategy is to run away from anything that's shooting at you.
Tips:
- Buy a silator for this mission if you haven't got one already. This
attachment mutes your engines and thus makes the "stealth" part of the
mission much easier.
- I found the Vendetta gattling preferable to the Plasma I gun due to
its faster projectiles and rapid rate of fire, even though each
individual projectile didn't do as much damage as a Plasma shot. You
may feel differently, however.
- The Hitman grenade launcher is a good weapon for use against Entropol
scouts, as it doesn't use ammo and only takes 3 shots to bring one
down. The weapon's slow rate of fire makes it impratical when you're
facing multiple enemies, however.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Disable Gotham's communications
You'll start out near the data broadcaster and its surrounding
buildings, containing many turrets including a nasty missile launcher.
If you want to save your shields for later, go ahead and hide outside
of the turrets' line of fire and let your wingmates take care of them
for you. When the shooting finally stops come out and blow up the six
communication dishes on top of the two broadcaster building to trigger
a cutscene giving you your next objective.
Mission Objective: Disable Gotham's entryway defenses
The idea is to shut off your engines and let the canyon's strong
current take you undetected past the turrets. However if you've got a
silator (and you really should, at least for this mission), you don't
need to shut your engines off while drifting in the stream through the
canyon. Just don't thrust for more than a second or so to avoid being
detected by the turrets. This is super useful since you can tap the
strafing keys to nudge you ship around the mines (you'll need all your
health for the next part of the mission). Once you reach the generator,
blow up all three relays to shut down Entropol's defense system (strafe
like crazy since the turrets will see you as soon as you start
shooting). A cutscene will automatically take you past the turret
defense and inside Gotham.
Mission Objective: Escort DeGrange to the Statue of Liberty
Apparently you only shut down the outer turrets, since the ones around
Gotham City and the Statue seem to be working just fine. Pico and
Harper will leave for another part of the battlefield, leaving you
alone with DeGrange. Follow DeGrange and shoot all the turrets along
the way a couple of times to get them to target you instead of her (you
fail if she dies). You don't need to destroy the turrets, just get
their attention with a couple of shots (You'll probably want to destroy
the annoying missile launcher turret halfway through, however). Once
she reaches the Statue DeGrange and her ship will go inside, leaving
you to hold out against Van Der Waal's Entropol forces.
Mission Objective: Hold position until DeGrange returns
Once DeGrange disappears into the Statue of Liberty, it's just you
against the Entropol scouts and turrets. Your only goal is to stay
alive here. At first you'll only have to deal with two scouts and the
two turrets at the base of the statue, but after a minute or so an
Entropol Bomber accompanied by several more scouts will swim into your
area and start attacking. Destroy whatever enemies you can, but if you
start running low on shields just run away from your enemies using the
buildings as cover until DeGrange is ready to leave with the code
books. Eventually a cutscene will play of DeGrange leaving the Statue
and dipoling out of the area, while Kristina Lloyd will warp in with
her Cape Fear transport/frigate and several more Entropol scouts. This
enemy force is far too large for you to face by yourself, so you should
activate your dipol to end the mission as soon as the game lets you.
=======================================================================
KRUGER'S FREIGHTER:
Overview:
A cakewalk of an optional mission that takes place in a single, small
area and pits you against several weak Tornado Zone scouts. True, you
have to protect a group of vulnerable targets, but the amount of
enemies isn't so large that your clients are ever in any real danger.
You even get a wingmate to help you out.
Tips:
- Once again I recommend the Vendetta gattling over the Plasma I gun,
but your milage may vary.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Protect the Catapillars and the Transport from
raiders
After some radio chatter, several Tornado Zone scouts will warp into
the area and start attacking the Catapillars. With the help of your
wingmate destroying the scouts should be a breeze, but be sure to keep
your eyes out for Zoners attacking the Catapillars or the frigate. The
Zoners' Vendetta guns shouldn't pose much of a threat to the ship and
trucks you're protecting, but you should make sure they don't take too
much damage anyway.
=======================================================================
METHANE HYDRATE:
Overview:
This mission pits you in a series of battles against tough ships,
including a bomber, a transport, and Lloyd's modified scout. However
with the help of all four of your wingmates, this mission should be
fairly easy. There is an instant fail condition, but you'd have to be
asleep at the keyboard for it to occur.
Tips:
- By now you should be able to afford the best ship and equipment
available to you, assuming you've taken all the optional missions.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Destroy the Entropol scouts
You'll face several Entropol scouts, but will receive alot of help from
your four wingmen. Destroy them all to trigger a cutscene and the next
mission objective.
Mission Objective: Stop the bomber from blowing up the Methane Hydrate
The Entropol bomber's covered with deadly turrets, but its underbelly
is relatively unprotected, with only a single turret that has
difficulty swiveling downward. Stay below the bomber on its tail end
and shoot upwards at it. The bomber is easier than it normally would be
since its focused on reaching its objective and will not attempt to
dodge your fire or rotate to attack you with its forward mounted Doom
Mortar. Ignore the two scouts escorting the bomber, your wingmates
should take care of them just fine. There is a time limit here, but
it's quite generous and you should generally be able to blow the bomber
before it reaches the Methane Hydrate plant. After the bomber is
destroyed Lloyd will attempt to destroy another Methane Hydrate field
using her own Cape Fear transport/frigate.
Mission Objective: Stop the Cape Fear from blowing up the Methane
Hydrate
Follow the nav points until the Cape Fear and its protective convoy of
five Entropol scouts comes into view. Your wingmen should distract the
scouts for you, so ignore them and fly right up to the Cape Fear's
unprotected rear and blast away with your weapon of choice while
strafing back and forth to avoid any shots from the scouts. After the
Cape Fear blows, Lloyd's personal modified Entropol scout will emerge
from the wreckage to battle you.
Mission Objective: Defeat Kristina Lloyd
Lloyd's scout can be easily spotted by its black hull and glowing red
viewport. Lloyd's the fastest, most manueverable opponent you've faced
yet, and she fires her plasma shots quickly and with incredible
accuracy. However this fight shouldn't be too hard as you only need to
drop her shield energy a little. After losing a couple of bars of
shield energy, Lloyd will radio a parting insult to you before dipoling
out of the area, ending the mission.
=======================================================================
GULF STREAM:
Overview:
This is the final level of the EnTrOx chapter, and quite fittingly
throws quite a lot of stuff at you. Not only will you have to take out
3 bombers while protecting vulnerable structures without any wingmate
backup, but at the very end you'll be thrust into a very tough
dogfight/boss battle against Kristina "Jigsaw Face" Lloyd.
Tips:
- If you're willing to spend the money, Big Bang torpedos can be pretty
helpful here against the heavier enemies. You really should bring at
least one to destroy Lloyd with, as she's an incredibly tough enemy.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Destroy the Entropol scouts
By now blowing up Entropol scouts should be a cakewalk, especially with
Harper's help, so unless you're completely incompetant you should be
able to destroy the three Entropol scouts before they blow up the
turbine.
Mission Objective: Destroy the 3 Entropol bombers before they blow up 3
turbines
Ignore the Old Entropol scouts, Sergei Chang's New Entropol police
scouts will attack some of them, and you should be able to outmanuever
the rest. Follow Sally's nav arrows to find the bombers. As in the
previous mission, the Entropol bombers are most vulnerable from below.
However in this mission you're dealing with a fairly unforgiving time
limit, as the bombers need to be destroyed before they can blow up more
than two turbines. If you use your regular weapons you'll probably
manage the task within the time limit, but barely (losing one or two
turbines in the process). If you're willing to spare the cash, you can
use big bangs to take out the bombers really quick. If you use a big
bang on each of the first two bombers you can actually destroy them
before they can blow up a single turbine. Also, bombers will stop
attacking the turbines and start attacking you as soon as you start
shooting them, so you can distract the third bomber while wittling away
at its shields with conventional guns.
Once you destroy the last bomber, Lloyd with warp in driving her
modified Entropol scout for the big boss fight.
Mission Objective: Defeat Kristina Lloyd once and for all
Lloyd is, to put it simply, really really hard. She's fast, incredibly
manueverable, shoots rapidly, has great aim, and also has a ton of
shield energy. If you've tried dueling in the Instant Fight, you have a
pretty good idea of how tough and disorienting a one-on-one dogfight
can be in this game, with the opponent zooming around in every
direction. To make matters worse, you can't repair your shields this
early on in the game, so you won't be able to recharge your shields if
you really take a pounding. Lloyd moves too fast for you to lead your
shots if you use the slow moving Plasma Gun or Hitman, so the Vendetta
Gattling is probably the best weapon for this fight since it hits
almost instantly. It's also a good idea to fight Lloyd at medium to
long range since she'll zip around a lot less than if you get close to
her. Even so, you'll have to be an incredible dogfighter to defeat her.
For those of you who aren't flight-sim aces or who are playing with a
mouse instead of a joystick, there is an easier way to beat Lloyd. Just
drive right up to her and blast her with a big bang when she charges at
you and the two of you crash face-to-face. It's a cheap tactic, but
then again she's a cheap opponent. If you don't have a big bang or miss
with the one you do have, another way to defeat Lloyd is to lure her
into one of the spinning turbine blades. The side which doesn't spit
out air bubbles has a suction effect, and sometimes Lloyd will be
caught in it if you keep the turbine between you and her as long as
she's on the suction end.
After Lloyd is dead you can breath a sign of relief. This will be the
last dogfight-style "boss" battle you'll ever have to face, unless of
course you play the Instant Fight and go up against Freeman, the
fightclub, or the Unknown Crawler.
***************************
*Chapter 3 (Tornado Zone):*
***************************
=======================================================================
SEISMOBOMB:
Overview:
The hardest part of this optional mission is finding the Seismobomb
(it's inside the city, don't waste hours searching the oceanbed for
it). After that, you'll have a fairly simple fight against three enemy
scouts (you do have to protect a couple of transports, but you won't
fail instantly if one of them is destroyed, and the enemies will
usually forget about attacking the transports as soon as you start
shooting them).
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Locate the Seismobomb
The Seismobomb you're looking for is a treasure-chest shaped object
inside the city, within a reddish area behind a silo with a large
spinning fan on top. You'll have to actually fly your craft between the
buildings to find it. Once you reach the Seismobomb, Sally will take
care of it from there in a cutscene, after which you'll be sent to deal
with the bomb makers themselves.
Mission Objective: Defeat the Terror Tourists
The three terror tourists are driving Federation scouts, and unlike the
drunken architectural student from before they'll actually use the full
abilities of their crafts. The Federation scouts are the most
annoyingly quick and manueverable ships you've faced yet, and like the
Bionts their thin wedge-shape makes them difficult to hit. To top it
off you're also supposed to protect the transports they're attacking.
First of all, shoot each of the terror tourists a couple of times to
get them to attack you rather than the transports, then proceed to
shoot it out with them as best as you can. Their leader Druid is
equipped with a plasma gun, while the other two sport Vendetta guns.
Because the Federation scouts move quickly and rarely stay still, this
fight can take a while as your enemies can be difficult to hit. After
taking enough damage each ship will warp out of the area. Although King
says he'll give you a bonus for ever enemy you kill, whether or not the
enemy ships escape or are destroyed actually has no effect on your
payment after the mission, so don't worry to much about it.
=======================================================================
SANTIAGO:
Overview:
This mission ties-in with the original Archimedean Dynasty, in which
you defeated Boris Santiago, the previous Warlord of the Tornado Zone.
The last of Santiago's followers are holed up in a cluster of habitats
in the Tornado Zone canyons, and the new Warlord Iwan King wants your
help in flushing them out. This level is divided into two parts: the
first being an easy battle against defense turrets, the second being a
less easy but still not all that difficult shootout where you need to
protect an allied transport from many hostile TZ scouts for several
minutes. Battling Santiago's forces is much easier than the initial
fight against Van Der Waal's Entropol in Code Books, so if you managed
to complete that mission you shouldn't have any trouble with this one.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Disable the Turret defenses around Santiago's
habitat area
The stronghold of Santiago's followers consists of several habitat
buildings, each one protected by a pair of turret guns powered by a
blue, box-shaped power-relay. Destroying the turrets one by one is
impractical, instead you should seek out and destroy the relays thus
shutting down the two turrets connected to that relay. While you and
your wingmates are engaging the turrets, a couple of hostile Tornado
Zone scouts will be floating through the area, but they won't engage
you directly unless you approach them. As soon as all the turrets have
been destroyed or disabled, Sally will inform you that Iwan King is
sending a transport into the area to round up Santiago's supporters
from the habitats.
Mission Objective: Protect the transport from Santiago's scouts
As soon as the transport enters the area, several Tornado Zone scouts
piloted by Santiago's men will emerge and start shooting at the
transport. They're armed only with weak Vendetta guns, but the
transport starts out at only 50% shield energy and thus it is quite
possible for it to be destroyed. To prevent this, you need to find all
the hostile scouts and hit each of them with a few shots to get them to
start chasing you. The scouts attack from long range and it can be
difficult to see them through the fog of war, so you might have to look
for bullet tracers hitting the transport and follow them back to their
source. You'll complete the mission once the transport finally leaves
the area.
=======================================================================
CRAWLER:
Overview:
This is your first encounter with the mysterious Crawlers, the game's
penultimate antagonists. Although you'll destroy a few Crawler scouts,
this is mostly a plot-exposition mission where you'll meet the big bad
guys and almost get obliterated by them, making you more eager for your
inevitable revenge at the end of the game when you're much more
powerful and ready to kick their asses (console RPGs love to do this by
having the big baddy squash you early in the game so you'll look
forward to squashing him later on).
Tips:
- Despite the fact they're the game's main enemies, the Crawlers really
aren't that tough. Crawler scouts are slower and much less annoying
than Federation scouts, and are actually almost as easy to hit as TZ
scouts or Entropol scouts. They don't even have all that impressive
weapons, sticking mostly to Plasma 2 guns and the occasional Vendetta
gattling. Although Crawler scouts have a little more shield energy than
most other scout types, they don't have nearly as much as fully powered
Bionts (who you will meet later on).
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Search for the Crawler presence
Follow the nav points as they come up while listening to the spooked
radio chatter from your wingmates. When you reach the final nav point
and DeGrange tells you your wings have regrouped and are waiting for
you, search the area near the nav point for Crawler catapillars. Blow
up a couple of them and your should provoke a couple of Crawler scouts
to pop out of the ocean floor and attack. Destroy the scouts to trigger
a cutscene.
Mission Objective: Flee from the Crawler fleet
After the cutscene you'll be thrust into the middle of the Crawler
fleet, consisting of a frigate, a couple of bombers, and a whole bunch
of scouts. There's no way you'll be able to take on such a large enemy
force with your current armaments, so just dodge around and try to stay
alive until King and Velasquez give the order to retreat. Use turbo to
speed to safety, following the nav points through the canyon as they
come up. Ignore any Crawler tanks along the way that might shoot at
you, and focus on getting to the last nav point at the end of the
canyon.
Mission Objective: Hold out until the Crawlers retreat
Your wingmates are waiting for you at the last nav point, along with a
handful of Crawler scouts. Help your wings destroy the scouts and
you'll receive a radio transmission saying the Crawlers are retreating,
thus ending the mission.
=======================================================================
BRAINFIRE:
Overview:
This is your first encounter with the Federation's top secret Brainfire
research station around which the game's main plot revolves. The
mission is divided into two parts, in which you and your wingmates
defend Brainfire from both the Crawlers and your old nemesis Creole's
Tornado Zoner forces. Both enemy forces come in managable numbers, and
neither of them is a credible threat to Brainfire, so this mission
should be a cakewalk.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Defend Brainfire from the Crawlers
Brainfire has a huge amount of shields, so you really don't need to
worry too much about it being destroyed. Just take your time blowing up
the Crawler ships and concentrate on keeping your own ass alive. The
Crawler bomber might give you trouble since it's armed with a railgun-
like Sizzler that can knock out large chunks of your shields, so try to
blow it up first (circle strafing usually works well). Ignore Sally's
complaints about Sool's Federation scouts retreating from the battle
for repairs, your wingmen are all the backup you need for this fight.
If you shields start to drop in the red, go ahead and flee from the
battle to regenerate. Brainfire and your wingmates will do fine without
you.
Mission Objective: Stop Creole from attacking Brainfire
As soon as all the Crawlers are dead, Sool's men will return just in
time to see the end of the battle. The mission's not over yet, though.
Your old enemy and troublemaker Creole will warp in with his frigate
(armed with Vendetta Gattling turrets) and several Tornado Zoner
scouts. Ignore the scouts and attack the frigate with whatever weapon
you want. As I said before, Brainfire is tough enough so that you
really don't have to worry about it being destroying (especially by the
Zoner's dinky little Vendetta guns). You can either take your time
attacking Creole's frigate or finish it off quickly with a big bang. In
either case, Creole will retreat as soon as his shield energy drops
below 50%, ending the mission.
=======================================================================
THE BUOY:
Overview:
This is surprisingly relaxed for the end-of-chapter mission. Sure,
there are a couple of "protect the weak target or instantly fail"
objectives, but they're not nearly as annoying as elsewhere in the
game, mostly because you won't be facing all that many enemies. Enjoy
blasting the relatively easy Crawlers, because in the next chapter
you'll be going up against the really tough Federation scouts.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Protect the Techbombers from the Crawlers
The mission begins with two Techbombers being attacked by a couple of
Crawler scouts. As usual, shoot the enemy ships a couple of times to
get them to attack you instead the ships you're trying to protect. You
and your wingmates should make quick work of the two scouts, triggering
the next objective.
Mission Objective: Destroy the junk so the techbombers can dock
Another scrap shooting mission. You've got a time limit on this one,
though, as you have to destroy the scrap before the Crawlers arrive in
force and destroy the Techbombers. To top it off, a couple of Crawler
scouts will warp into the area and attack while you're busy trying to
clean the scrap. Your wingmen should deal with the Crawlers, so just
ignore them and concentrate to finding and blowing up all the scrap.
Sally will inform you when this has been accomplished.
Mission Objective: Battle the Crawlers until Brainfire is ready to
launch the buoy
As soon as the techbombers dock with Brainfire, a large number of
Crawler scouts will warp into the area. Concentrate on staying alive
while destroying as many enemies as possible until Sally tells you
Brainfire's ready to launch the buoy. Immedietely head for the nav
point as soon as it appears to begin the next part of the mission.
Mission Objective: Protect the buoy while it heads for the surface
As soon as the buoy launches, follow it. Creole will once again jump in
with his flagship, this time attempting to shoot down the buoy. There
are no Crawler or Zoner scouts in this part of the mission, you only
have to worry about the frigate. Pound Creole's shields down to 50% as
quickly as possible (a big bang is a great help here, although your
guns works just as well) and he should be forced to warp away before
doing any damage. From there the buoy should be clear, so you can just
sit back and wait for your new orders.
Mission Objective: Wipe out the remaining Crawlers
Go back down to Brainfire and mop up the remaining Crawlers. If the
mission still doesn't end even when there apparently aren't any
Crawlers left, search the seabed to see if you missed one of the
Crawler tanks. Sometimes they get stuck in the holes on the ocean
floor.
**********************************
*Chapter 4 (Atlantic Federation):*
**********************************
=======================================================================
COURIER:
Overview:
The final optional mission that pits you against hostile Tornado Zoner
scouts, who should be insignificant gnats to your mighty sub-o-death
this late into the game. Even the Tornado Zone bomber that comes after
you is sucky, and although you're supposed to prevent vulnerable
structures from being destroyed, the enemy weapons are so ineffective
that you never have to worry about this actually happening.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Check out Zoner activity at scrapyards
Listen to the radio chatter between Brewmeister and Mike, and
eventually you'll be told to check out some Tornado Zoners hanging
around at the scrap yard. Follow the nav point, but once you reach the
scrap yard you'll find out the Tornado Zoner scouts are just non-
hostile scavengers looking for useful junk. However, you'll soon
receive a radio message that several hostile Zoners are attacking the
habitat, so follow the new nav point back to the habitat for the big
fight.
Mission Objective: Protect Helinox containers from Zoner pirates
The Zoner pirate force consists of several scouts led by a Tornado Zone
bomber. The bomber is apparently piloted by a Star Wars fan named
Darklander (get it?), but is armed with only average shields and a
Vendetta gattling and should be easily defeated this far into the game.
The scouts are just as easy, but you do have to make sure they don't
blow up any Helinox containers.
=======================================================================
COUP BEGINS:
Overview:
The first plot-related mission of the chapter pits you against
Federation forces from Admiral Cox's fleet who are rebelling against
the power-mad, neo-fascist New Line government. Dispite the face that
he's got the moral high ground and is also one of your main buddies
from the original Archimedean Dynasty, Cox's rebellion is causing
political chaos and you'll have to shut him down for his own good. Cox
and his men are good guys, attempting to disable rather than destroy
you, and you should try to return the favor. Of course, when you
actually play this mission you might feel less generous towards Cox's
men, as they fly the super-annoying Federation scouts, an annoyance
topped off by the fact that you have to defeat all enemy ships to end
the mission. Throw in unusually lazy wingmates and a particularly
difficult "protect-the-weak-target-or-instantly-fail" scenario, and you
end up with a mission that can be really agrivating.
Tips:
- Since Cox's Federation rebels are still "good guys", they'll only use
EMP weapons against you. EMP attacks can't kill you. Once your EMP
shields reach zero, they'll start recharging and will be restored to
full within a few seconds. During those few seconds you'll be unable to
move or shoot, however.
- Cox's Federation scouts are the most agile ships you've faced yet, so
it'll be difficult to hit them properly with the slow firing EMPactor's
primary fire. The EMPactor's secondary fire does less damage, but fires
rapidly and thus is preferable for hitting the fast moving scouts. EMP
torpedos are not recommended since the scouts are pretty good at faking
them out with beacons.
- If you're having trouble against Cox's Federation scouts, go ahead
and blow them up with normal weapons. Feralli will chew you out at the
end of the mission, but you'll still get paid the same amount of money
and the outcome won't affect any of your future missions or the
reactions of NPCs towards you.
- Your wingmates are surprisingly ineffective during this mission.
They'll disable some of the enemy scouts, but will completely ignore
many of them leaving you to deal with them yourself.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Destroy the communication dishes at the radio
broadcaster
You can immedietely complete the mission objective by destroying the
two com dishes right off the bat, but this is a VERY bad idea as the
initial enemy ships will still be around to bother you on top of the
new enemy ships that warp in after the dishes are destroyed. Instead,
disable the rebel bomber and scouts around the communications center
before destroying the dishes.
Mission Objective: Prevent the Techbomber from being disabled
As soon as the dishes are destroyed, Sally will inform you that a
techbomber will arrive shortly to retake the station. Several rebel
scouts will arrive soon afterwards. Dogfight them as they come, but
keep in mind that your main concern should be to watch out for the
techbomber. While it finally arrives and docks, Sally will tell you
that a pair of rebel scouts have started to attack the broadcasting
station. This is a mistranslation, in reality these two scouts are
attacking the techbomber, and you must prevent them from disabling it
or else you'll fail the mission (this can be annoying since the
techbomber doesn't last long against EMP shots). You don't need to
disable the attacking scouts, just keep them occupied long enough for
the techbomber to retreat from the battlefield. Sally won't tell you
when this happens, but you should be able to notice when the techbomber
is finally gone.
Mission Objective: Disable or destroy all remaining rebel ships
Once the techbomber is gone, you still need to disable all the
remaining rebel scouts before you can finish the mission. Don't expect
any help from your wingmates, as they will simply sit there twiddling
their thumbs. Taking out all the Federation scouts may take a while,
but since the enemy can't actually kill you it should only be a matter
of time.
=======================================================================
VASTIAN GREIGH:
Overview:
This small optional mission puts you in the role of bodyguard to
Vastian Greigh, a grumpy and very unpleasant CEO who ends up getting
attacked on the way to work by disgruntled ex-employees. Although the
map is small and you only have a total of six enemies to fight, those
enemies are driving Federation scouts making them really tough to take
down. To top it off you also have to prevent the destruction of both
Greigh and his workplace, but fortunately your enemies aren't at all
persistent when it comes to attacking those two targets.
Tips:
- Powerful weapons such as the Doom Mortar are best against the agile
Federation scouts, since you don't have to worry about leaving your
enemies alive in this mission.
- Although Harper will accompany you into the mission, he won't provide
much help against your enemies. You're mostly on your own for this
mission.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Protect Greigh from disgruntled ex-employees
Greigh is piloting an Entropol scout, but don't expect him to help out
in this battle. Harper also isn't very helpful in this mission, as he's
more concerned with following Greigh than helping you fight the enemy
ships. At first you'll be facing 3 hostile Federation scouts. The
enemies start out shooting at Greigh's ship, so be sure to shoot them
to get them to attack you. As always the Federation scouts are
difficult opponents, and their leader Seawolf is particularly quick.
These enemies are also using hard ammo (Plasma gun for Seawolf,
Vendetta gattlings for the two other scouts), so forget the EMP from
the previous mission and stick to your Plasma gattling. Ignore Sally
when she tells you to proceed to the nav point and instead concentrate
on destroying the three scouts, as the next mission objective won't
trigger until all three are dead.
Mission Objective: Prevent the disgruntled workers from blowing up the
Helium 17 tanks
After the initial three enemy scouts have been destroyed, Greigh will
radio you to inform you that his ex-employees are now shooting at the
highly explosive Helium 17 tanks. Proceed to the nav point and shoot at
the three new enemy Fed scouts to stop them from blowing up the Helium
17. Kill them all (easier said than done) to end the mission. Once
again, don't expect any help from Greigh or Harper, even though they're
sitting right next to you.
=======================================================================
SNEAKDRIVE:
The game's only stealth mission can be frustrating since you fail
instantly if you're detected, but you should be able to beat it
consistantly once you figure out how it's supposed to be done. There's
also very little fighting, so you won't have the frustration of having
to destroy a bunch of tough Federation scouts like in Coup Begins or
Vastian Greigh. Like in Crawler, this mission also introduces you to
your enemy (Cox's fleet) which you'll have to flee from now but face in
the next mission.
Overview:
Tips:
- Cox's men are playing for keeps now, using normal weapons instead of
EMP. You can do the same, and no one will notice. If you're still
sentimental about nameless, fictional people inside polygonal ships,
you can still use EMP to disable rather than destroy them.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Destroy the communication relay
Ignore the two Federation scouts protecting the relay, instead
concentrating all your attacks on the relay itself. Once it's been
destroyed, proceed to the new nav point while using turbo to ditch the
two pursuing scouts.
Mission Objective: Sneak undetected through the canyon to reach Cox's
fleet
As in the Code Books mission, you're supposed to stop your engines and
use the current to carry your ship undetected past the enemy forces.
The difference here is that if you're detected you'll fail the mission
instantly. You'll be detected if you use your engines too much, fire
your weapons, or if any of the patrolling scouts comes too close to
your ship. To get past this annoying section drift with the current and
let it take you to your destination, but every once in a while use
short engines bursts to hug the sea-bottom to avoid the patrolling
scouts. (You DO have a silator to silence your engine, don't you? Don't
you?!)
Once the current takes you to the last nav point, you'll drift straight
into the middle of Cox's fleet, consisting of his Triops flagship, two
Odysseus-class Federation frigates, and a whole bunch of bombers and
scouts. You'll also trigger a cutscene and receive two pieces of
information: 1) Picollini is under attack at Deepdraft and needs your
assistance, and 2) Cox's ships have detected your presence!
Mission Objective: Assist Picollini at Deepdraft
Cox's fleet is simply too powerful for you to take on by yourself, so
use turbo to get the hell out of there as fast as possible. Cox himself
is invincible, so don't bother trying to attack his Triops flagship.
Follow the nav points while using turbo to lose any pursuing scouts,
until you reach Deepdraft and Picollini. Picollini is under attack from
a Federation frigate, a bomber, and a couple of scouts, and the two of
you will have to destroy or disable them all before the mission can
end. This is easier than it sounds as Picollini can hold his own
against the scouts, and the bomber and frigate succumb surprisingly
quickly to your EMPactor shots as unlike the agile scouts they are
unable to dodge.
=======================================================================
DEFEAT:
Overview:
The good news is that this is your last major battle against Federation
forces, for which you can utter a sign of relief. From here on you'll
be facing the easier, slower, less manueverable Crawlers for the
majority of the missions. The bad news is that you'll be facing a LOT
of Federation forces, and will have to protect a vulnerable techbomber
as well. Follow the walkthrough and you should be able to make it
through the first half (at least in a few tries). The second half is a
straightforward cakewalk.
Tips:
- Attempting to destroy Commodore Sool now will only result in you
failing the mission. There's no way for you to interfer with the game's
scripted events, so you'll just have to let them play out.
- Both friendly Sool scouts and hostile Cox scouts will be on the
battlefield, and the two are identical in appearance. Make sure you pay
attention to your friend/foe indicator to avoid blasting your allies.
- Once again Cox's forces will limit themselves to EMP, but keep in
mind certain enemies (such as the frigates and the tanks) will still be
using hard ammo, so it is possible to die if you're not paying
attention.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Disable the turret defenses around Parliment
As soon as the mission starts, Commodore Sool will order you to disable
the Parliment building's turret defenses so they won't destroy Cox's
ships when they show up. Do NOT do this, because you WILL need all the
help you can get in the coming battle. Don't worry, the game won't
bother you if a few of Cox's pilots end up getting killed in this
mission, which makes sense considering the big event at the end of the
mission. Not disabling the turrets also nets you an interesting
sarcastic comment from Sool when Cox's fleet arrives.
After a minute or so, Cox's fleet will jump in. Consisting of two
frigates, one transport, and a whole bunch of bombers and fighters,
this is the biggest enemy fleet you've faced yet (aren't you glad you
didn't shut off the turrets?). The transport's invincible and your
allies should deal with the frigates, so ignore them and concentrate on
disabling the bombers and scouts. Pretty soon the transport will dock
and Cox will seize Parliment. Sool will send a techbomber with narcotic
gas to re-take the building, which you'll have to protect.
Mission Objective: Protect the Techbomber while it docks with Parliment
The techbomber is the reason you left all those turrets operational.
Normally any of Cox's scouts that are still functional will attack it
once it docks, and you'll fail the mission if it's destroyed. Still
operational, the turrets should distract or destroy a fair share of the
scouts, making defending the techbomber much easier. A few scouts may
still decide to attack the techbomber, so you should shoot them a
couple of times to get them to attack you instead. As before you don't
need to destroy the scouts, just keep them occupied until the
techbomber can finish its mission.
Mission Objective: Help Sool against Cox's Tanks
As soon as the techbomber completes its mission, a cutscene will play
showing Sool battling several of Cox's tanks. Sool will order you to
finish off the tanks while he pursues Admiral Cox's frigate, the
Triops. Go to the nav point and kill or disable the tanks. The Tanks
are equipped with Sizzlers and Plasma guns, so take your time and don't
get yourself killed if you don't want to replay the annoying first half
of the mission again. While fighting the tanks a pair of rebel scouts
will attack you, and you'll have to disable them in addition to the
tanks. Your wingmates will follow you to help out against the tanks,
but you'll have to deal with the scouts on your own.
As soon as the tanks and scouts have been disabled/destroyed, Sool's
Ghost will engage Cox's Triops in a frigate vs. frigate duel. Sool will
reveal his true nature, switching from EMP to hard ammo in an attempt
to destroy Admiral Cox. Obviously, you'll want to stop him.
Mission Objective: Stop Sool from killing Admiral Cox
As soon as the cutscene is over, Sool's fleet (1 Federation frigate, a
bomber, and several scouts) will warp into the area equipped with
Plasma weapons and will quickly turn hostile on you. Ignore them and
use turbo to get to the nav point as quickly as possible. Watch the
cutscene and the tragic end to the mission and this chapter.
***************************
*Chapter 5 (Tornado Zone):*
***************************
=======================================================================
LEISURE TRIP:
Overview:
The Bionts are back, and this time they mean business! This mission is
actually very short, but the Bionts make really tough opponents this
time around. Don't worry, however, this is the last time you'll be
pitted against them in combat.
Tips:
-Whatever else you do, buy a laser gattling before going into this
mission. It's the best rapid-fire weapon you can get in the game, and
it'll be a big help against the Biont scouts in this mission.
- The Biont scouts have gone from being rather easy to rather hard.
Don't be lulled into thinking they'll be the same easily shot down
pieces of scrap from Chapter 1.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Fight the Bionts
On your way to a leisure trip at Scavenger you, Harper, and Picollini
will run into a large group of disabled Federation ships being preyed
upon by mineral-and-protein-hungry Bionts. These Bionts aren't the
floating pieces of scrap you might remember from the first chapter.
Their shields and systems are at full 100% capacity (allowing them to
absorb exceptionally large amounts of damage), and their rate of fire
is dramatically faster. They're also a bit more manueverable, but
fortunately nowhere nearly as fast as Federation or even Crawler
scouts. Engage the Bionts in combat for a minute or so, but bear in
mind that you're just killing time until Sally gives you your next
mission objective.
Mission Objective: Protect the rescue capsules
Sally will soon tell you to proceed to the new nav point and protect
the ejection capsules from the Bionts there. Don't worry about the
Biont bomber Sunjammer you pass on the way to the nav point, Harper and
Picollini will take care of it. Your job is to engage the three Biont
scouts in combat. Don't worry too much about the rescue capsules, and
focus on doing as much damage to the scouts as possible. Eventually a
rescue transport from Scavenger will show up, which you'll have to
protect.
Mission Objective: Protect the rescue transport
The good news is that no additional Bionts will show up to harrass the
transport. The bad news is that the three Biont scouts can be
surprisingly difficult to destroy, so your main objective should be to
keep all three of them occupied until the transport can complete its
rescue mission and leave the area. Don't get into a war of attrition
with the Bionts, their rapid-fire Plasma 2 shots can eat away at your
shields quite quickly. As long as you can keep the transport alive by
preventing the Bionts from attacking it, you should be able to complete
this mission even if you don't manage to kill a single Biont yourself.
=======================================================================
ATACAMA IS BURNING:
Overview:
This is the largest battle against the Crawlers you've faced yet. Not
only will you have to take out a total of three frigates, more than
half a dozen bombers, and more scouts and tanks than you can count, but
the Crawler's huge battleship Magma Eater will also make a brief
appearance at the end of the level. Fortunately, your new laser
gattling and improved ship will make destroying Crawler ships (even
frigates) much easier, and you'll have quite a bit of help from both
your wingmates and Iwan King's fleet.
Tips:
- Crawler frigates have no turret coverage at their rear and thus this
is the ideal spot to shoot them from. Attacking a Crawler frigate from
the front is ill-advised as they have a forward-mounted Sizzler laser.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Help King's fleet defeat the Crawlers
As soon as you enter the mission, you'll fly into a battle between
King's fleet and the Crawlers near the city of Atacama. King's forces
consist of his mighty flagship Creole Girl, along with a Tornado Zone
frigate, a bomber, and several scouts and buggys. The Crawler forces
consist of a frigate, 2 bombers, and several scouts and tanks. Go after
the frigate and bombers first, then mop up the scouts and tanks. Your
wingmates fight fiercely here, and your new laser gattling should make
destroying the larger Crawler ships much easier than a couple of
chapters ago.
Mission Objective: Defend Brainfire from the Crawlers
As soon as the Crawlers have been defeated, a cutscene will play
showing a Crawler attack on the Brainfire station. Even though Sool
wants to do bad things with Brainfire and the orbital laser, you and
your allies still need the technology aboard and thus must defend the
station. Brainfire is at 50% shields when you reach it, but it's still
incredibly durable and thus you shouldn't worry too much about it being
destroyed. The attacking Crawler forces consist of the usual assortment
of bomber, scouts, and tanks, and all of them need to be destroyed
before the next mission objective is triggered.
Mission Objective: Help King's fleet against another wave of Crawlers
As soon as the area around Brainfire is cleared, King will send a
message stating that his fleet is once again under attack. Follow the
new nav point back to where you came from, and you should find King's
forces once shooting it out with a Crawler fleet consisting of a
frigate, a couple of bombers, and several scouts. When the area is
finally cleared of Crawlers, a cutscene will play giving you a new
objective.
Mission Objective: Search the Canyon for Crawlers
After the cutscene, follow the nav point down the canyon. Once you
reach the nav point you should find a Crawler bomber accompanied by a
few scouts and tanks, which you should promptly destroy. As soon as
they're all dead you'll hear messages of renewed fighting over the
radio, and soon King will once again order you back to Atacama to help
against the Crawlers. Follow the new nav point as soon as it appears
for the final enemy wave.
Mission Objective: Help King's fleet against the third and final wave
of Crawlers
Same deal as usual. Crawler frigate, bombers, scouts. However THIS time
when the Crawler frigate is destroyed a massive energy signature will
be detected and Major Mad Sam Korhonen himself will warp in with his
huge flagship Magma Eater (the largest frickin' entity in the game save
for the final boss) and engage King's Creole Girl in combat. Don't
attempt to attack the Magma Eater yourself, just concentrate on
fighting any remaining Crawler scouts and bombers. Eventually the
Creole Girl, although badly damaged, will be able to drive off the
Magma Eater.
=======================================================================
THE BIG BANG:
Overview:
At first this level is just another routine skirmish against Crawler
fighters, but towards the end you'll find yet another potential instant
mission failure situation when you find yourself in the ridiculous
position of preventing the Crawlers from blowing up a frigate that
you're going to detonate anyway.
Tips:
- Your wingmates are invincible during this mission. They'll lose
shield energy when shot, but when they finally reach 0% shields they'll
keep fighting instead of ejecting from their ships like they usually
do.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Capture the Crawler frigate
The Crawler frigate is initially protected by several Crawler scouts,
catapillars, and tanks. King's Tornado Zone tank and buggies should
take care of the Crawler's ground forces, so you should concentrate on
helping your wingmates blow up the scouts while taking care not to fire
on the frigate itself. As the battle progresses more Crawler ships
including a bomber will arrive to fight you, but they shouldn't be a
problem. After all the Crawlers are destroyed, Harper will dock with
the frigate and will start piloting it through the canyon while your
wingmates fly in formation behind it. After a minute or two, the
frigate will reach the open ocean and be attacked by a swarm of Crawler
scouts coming from the ocean depths.
Mission Objective: Prevent the Crawlers from destroying the frigate
You must prevent the Crawlers from destroying the frigate. These
Crawler scouts are dedicated, they will continue firing on the frigate
even if you start shooting them. Fortunately, this makes them easier to
kill as they won't try to dodge your shots. Destroy the Crawlers one
after the other as quickly as possible while keeping an eye on the
frigate's shield energy. Although the Crawlers are only armed with
Vendetta gattlings, there are so many of them that they can quickly
wittle away the frigate's shields down to nothing. When Harper says
he's activated the frigate's self destruct and Sally tells you to
retreat to the nav point before the frigate explodes, DON'T LISTEN. You
MUST eliminate all Crawlers attacking the frigate no matter what, or
else you will still fail the mission when they destroy it before it
explodes. Once you've made sure no Crawlers are left to attack the
frigate, go ahead and flee tothe nav point. You probably won't make it
before the cutscene plays showing the frigate exploding, but you
shouldn't be harmed by the explosion either and will finish the mission
successfully.
=======================================================================
SOOL:
Overview:
This end-of-chapter mission is surprisingly easy and relaxed, even
though you'll once more and for the last time be pitted against agile
enemy Federation scouts. Once again the combat takes place around
Brainfire, only this time you'll be assaulting the station rather than
protecting it from Crawlers or Zoners. The only tough part comes at the
very end when Sool sends all of his remaining Federation scouts out to
kill you, but even then it's not too much trouble since you only have
to avoid their attacks for a couple of minutes to win the mission.
Tips:
- The Sizzler laser is an excellent weapon against the fast moving
Federation scouts, it hits instantly and only takes about 2 shots to
destroy one enemy.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Knock out as many of Commodore Sool's defenses
around Brainfire as possible
Your first order of business should be to destroy the Odysseus-class
frigate. Just circle strafe while blasting with the laser gattling
until it explodes. Resist the urge to attack Sool's flagship, the
Ghost, as it's marked as a neutral target and you will fail the mission
if you fire upon it (weird, I know. At least it doesn't shoot at you).
Follow up by destroying as many bombers and scouts as you can.
Eventually an allied Techbomber will appear to take back the station.
Mission Objective: Defend the techbomber while it docks with Brainfire
Sool's scouts won't bother the Techbomber. However the hostile
Federation bomber guarding the docking bay will, so obviously you
should destroy it (the bomber, not the docking bay).
Mission Objective: Survive against Sool's final wave of Federation
scouts until the conflict inside the station is resolved.
Once the techbomber docks, Sally will start giving you a play-by-play
of what's going on inside the station which lasts for several minutes.
Additionally, a large swarm of Sool's Federation scouts will enter the
battle soon after the Techbomber docks. Your wingmates won't last very
long against them, and your should be more concerned with avoiding
their attacks and staying alive than destroying them. Just let them
chase you around and around the station for a couple of minutes and
eventually the ending cutscene of Sool escaping with the satellite
uplink codes will play, ending the mission.
***********************************
*Chapter 6 (Atlantic Federation):*
***********************************
=======================================================================
MAGMA EATER:
Overview:
This mission is essentially one big battle against Mad Sam Korhonen's
massive flagship Magma Eater, which you first saw in Atacama Burning.
This mission also introduces a new faction in the form of the
monsterous Old Ones (also referred to as "Squids" by the inhabitants of
Aqua) that were released when Sool fired the orbital laser and blew a
huge hole in the planet. There's one annoying part where you can die
instantly for no good reason, but otherwise this mission isn't too
frustrating.
Tips:
- Like Federation scouts, the sperm-like Squid scouts know as Schax are
fast moving and difficult to hit, not to mention slightly smaller than
the other scout-type enemies in the game. At this point in the game the
Sizzler laser is probably the best weapon to use against them, even
though it takes 2-3 shots to kill a single one. The easiest way to
fight Schax is to put some distance between you and them with turbo,
then snipe at them with the Sizzler's sniper secondary fire. Enemies
don't move around much at long range and thus are much easier to hit.
Two consecutive Hammerhead missiles will also kill a Schax.
- Besides physical damage, the energy attacks of Schax and other Old
One units do a respectable amount of EMP damage as well. There's a bug
where in certain missions at the end of the game, if your EMP shields
drop to 0 they won't recharge and your ship will simply sit there doing
nothing. If this happens to you, try shutting off your engines, then
starting them back up again after a minute or so. That sometimes works.
If not, you'll just have to restart the mission.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Sneak past the Crawlers to reach Deepdraft
Don't bother cutting your engines, you shouldn't be spotted by the
Crawlers no matter what you do. It doesn't matter much anyway, since as
soon as you reach the nav point Sally will inform you that you've been
detected.
Mission Objective: RUN past the Crawlers to reach Deepdraft
Ignore the Crawler frigate and scouts and use your boost to reach the
next nav point quickly (take the time to dodge the mines, though).
After the cutscene, following the new nav point to reach the Magma
Eater. A fierce battle between Federation scouts and turrets and
Crawler scouts will rage around the Magma Eater, but you should resist
getting involved as you need to keep your shields near 100% for reasons
which will be explained later. DeGrange will soon ask you to find a
weak spot.
Mission Objective: Seek out a weak spot on the Magma Eater
Do NOT approach the front of the Magma Eater (the part that looks like
a giant fish head) as it's equipped with a nasty super-weapon called
the scalar howitzer than can blow you to bits in one hit. Instead stay
near the rear of the Magma Eater (the part that looks like a giant
drill) as it has no turret coverage back there so you should be
relatively safe. Don't worry about the mission objective, it will
fulfill itself after a minute or so.
Mission Objective: Destroy the Magma Eater's propulsion system
When DeGrange orders you to destroy the propulsion system, just start
blasting away at the Magma Eater's rear with your laser gattling. As
long as you stay behind it you should be able to hit the Magma Eater
without being hit back. Take care of any Crawler scouts that stray by
and start targeting you. The Magma Eater has a truly enormous amount of
shield energy (A big bang II strike doesn't even take off one energy
bar), but you only need to hurt it a little to trigger the next mission
objective.
Mission Objective: Destroy the Magma Eater's turrets
Just ignore the order to destroy the turrets when it comes through, and
continue shooting at the propulsion system with your laser gattling.
The next mission objective will trigger when enough time has passed or
when the Magma Eater is reduced to a certain amount of health,
regardless of whether or not the turrets are still active.
Mission Objective: Fight the Schax
After the Magma Eater loses a couple of bars of shield energy, a
cutscene will play where Picollini warns that the ocean is coming alive
just before a wave of scout-sized, sperm-shaped creatures burst onto
the scene. Beware! As soon as you regain control of your ship, you'll
find yourself in the path of the Schax swarm which will do enormous
damage to your ship if any of them crash into you (don't worry, this
only occurs in this particular mission). You'll also find yourself
directly in the path of the Magma Eater's scalar howitzer, which will
blast you a few seconds after the cutscene ends. To avoid dying again
and again in this part of the mission, you should make sure you're at
near full health when going into the cutscene. Anyway, the newly
arrived Schax will start attacking the Crawlers as well as you and your
allies. Just use your turbo to get away from the bulk of the fighting,
and take your time blasting the four Schax which follow you. Your
allies and the Crawlers should take care of the Schax which stay
behind. The Magma Eater will retreat from the battle after you've
killed the Schax that specifically attack you. You'll then receive
orders to kill any remaining Crawlers.
Mission Objective: Destroy the remaining Crawlers
This is a routine clean-up. Blow up any surviving Crawler scouts until
you're told to return to base.
=======================================================================
WAR IN NEOPOLIS:
Overview:
A climatic mission very close to the endgame, you'll have everything
thrown at you except the kitchen sink. Not only will you be scooting
back and forth all over Neopolis repelling both Crawlers and Squids,
but you'll also receive help from all the folks you met during the
game, including the Federation, Sergei Chang's Entropol, and Iwan
King's pirates. Even the Bionts chip in against the Squids at the end.
This mission is big, yet not particularly hard. A whole bunch of stuff
happens plotwise and actionwise, yet there aren't any annoyingly
difficult areas or any parts where you have to worry about instant
mission failure (expect perhaps the very last part, if you're playing
on normal or higher difficulty).
Tips:
- Your wingmates are indestructible right until the very last part of
the mission, so don't be shy about letting them do the brute of the
fighting, especially against the Magma Eater.
- Despite what the mission briefing says, you don't need to bring EMP
weapons into this fight. Your allies will able to disable the Magma
Eater without your help. Instead, stick to the standard laser
gattling/sizzler combination.
- You really should bring a couple of Big Bangs and some good guided
torpedos (i.e. Hammerheads) into this mission. This mission will
introduce you to a couple very nasty Marax monsters (the Squid
equivalent of the bomber) which can do lots of damage to you with its
energy shots and eye-beam attack. These Marax are best dealt with
quickly with a Big Bang II followed by a burst of laser gattling fire.
The guided torpedos are useful in the final battle against the Schax,
and should be used against any Schax that start attacking the Creole
Girl.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Defeat the Crawler fleet attacking Navy Headquarters
Follow the nav point to Navy HQ, which is under siege from a pair of
Crawler frigates, a few bombers, and several scouts. The HQ itself is
fairly well protected by friendly Federation bombers, scouts, and
turrets. You should first destroy the two frigates with your laser
gattling (your wingmates will help out alot with torpedos and big
guns), then start blowing up as many other Crawler ships as possible.
Eventually a cutscene will interrupt the fighting and send you off to
your next mission objective.
Mission Objective: Defeat the Crawler fleet attacking Parliament
The situation at Parliament is pretty much the same as at Navy
Headquarters: Federation bombers, scouts, and turrets defending against
a pair of Crawler frigates, some bombers, and several scouts. As
before, destroy the frigates followed by whatever other Crawler ships
you can manage, and eventually you'll be given your next mission
objective in the middle of the battle.
Mission Objective: Defend the Data Broadcaster from the Magma Eater
A cutscene will bring you into the middle of a battle between the Magma
Eater and Sergei Chang's Entropol forces, consisting of a bomber, a
scout, and another bomber piloted by Chang himself. Don't worry too
much about fighting the Magma Eater, your wingmates and Chang will do
enough damage to the Crawler battleship on their own. If you want to be
useful anyway, go ahead and use your Sizzler to snipe the Magma Eater's
turrets from outside their range of fire. After a couple minutes of
fighting, a cutscene will play where you pursue the Magma Eater as it
attempts to retreat towards the Parliament.
Mission Objective: Disable the Magma Eater
As soon as the cutscene ends, King will bring the Creole Girl broadside
with the Magma Eater, and the two capital ships will begin exchanging
fire. Don't worry about King, he and your wingmates will be able to
disable the Magma Eater before the Creole Girl sustains too much
damage. In fact, the Creole Girl's shields are restored to 100% as soon
as the Magma Eater is defeated. If you want to make yourself useful
during the fight, go ahead and blow up the two Crawler bombers that
show up, then snipe at the Magma Eater's turrets with your Sizzler
laser.
Mission Objective: Protect the Magma Eater and the techbomber from the
Schax
A few minutes into the battle and just before the Magma Eater is fully
disabled, several Marax and Schax will enter the area. Sally tells you
to protect the Magma Eater from the Squids until the Federation can
capture the Crawler's Scalar technology, but you don't need to worry
about it. Do NOT attack the two Marax that begin blasting at the Magma
Eater, the Crawler flagship is simply too tough for them to do any
significant damage to it, and wasting time fighting the Marax will only
make it easier for the Schax to kill you. You also don't need to worry
about protecting the techbomber that docks with the Magma Eater either,
since the Schax never seem to attack it. The Schax WILL however go
after you, and can kill you quite quickly if you're not prepared.
Dogfight them if you're able, but don't be afraid to use turbo to flee
the battlefield if you feel yourself being overwhelmed.
After the techbomber leaves with the Scalar Howitzer technology, a
cutscene will play with Iwan King calling for help as the Marax and
Schax gang up on his flagship. Surprisingly, none other than the Bionts
come to the rescue.
Mission Objective: Defeat all of the Schax while protecting the Creole
Girl
The Bionts are on your side, so don't shoot them. They're pretty good
help against the Squids. Your first order of business should be to kill
the Marax before it destroys the Biont bomber (your wingmates will help
you gang up on this Marax, and the bomber may also have weakened it
during the cutscene). There's another Marax patrolling the battlefield,
as well as several Schax. Deal with the second Marax if it starts to
attack you or the Creole Girl, otherwise your first priority should be
to attack any Schax that start shooting at the Creole Girl. The Creole
Girl has 50% shields and only one functional turret, and loses shield
energy surprisingly quickly. You'll have to replay the entire mission
if the Creole Girl is destroyed, so make damn sure that doesn't happen
(be especially sure not to hit it with your own stray shots, since it's
such a big target on the battlefield). Don't get so caught up in
protecting the Creole Girl that you let the Schax gang up on and
destroy your own ship, however. Your wingmates will help you out
initially but will quickly leave without telling you as the battle goes
on. Fortunately the Biont bomber and two Biont scouts will stick around
until they are destroyed or the mission ends. The Bionts aren't quick
enough to actually kill the Schax, but at least they provide a helpful
distraction. You'll have to hold out for quite some time against the
Schax before the mission ends, but don't worry it does eventually end.
**********************************
*Chapter 7 (Atlantic Federation):*
**********************************
=======================================================================
CROCELL:
Overview:
The plot starts to come to a head in this, the second to last mission.
You'll meet the biggest monster yet, lose one of your wingmates, and
face the long-awaited final battle against your megalomaniacal nemesis
Commodore Sool. This mission is also a rather tough one, since for the
first half you lose instantly if Bonham dies and for the second half
you'll be facing a series of consecutive battles against heavy targets.
Tips:
- Load your ship with big bang IIs. You'll have to take down several
heavy targets in this mission, including a Crawler frigate, a Squid
Crocell, and Sool's modified Federation frigate.
- Your brand new scalar howitzer is an excellent weapon against the
Schax, it hits almost instantly and kills with one shot. Make your
shots count, however, as the weapon takes several seconds to recharge
between shots.
- Harper's invincible throughout this mission, which can be useful.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Protect Lisa Bonham while she defuses the power
plant
Although Commander Feralli tells you to go after Mad Sam Korhonen in
his Tursas (the squid-shaped Crawler scout/bomber) your real objective
here is to clear the way for Bonham to dock with the power plant.
Korhonen will leave the battle very soon anyway, so damaging him is
irrelevant. Besides, he's got his own personal scalar howitzer and can
be a real pain if you tick him off.
You need to protect Bonham throughout the first half of this mission.
If she dies, you fail. Start out by destroying the Crawler frigate
hanging around the power plant with a couple of big bangs, then blow
away anything else that starts shooting at Bonham when she docks with
the power plant. After a couple of minutes of fighting, several
successive waves of Schax will warp in along with a Marax. The Crawlers
will also stick around for a minute or so, but they'll warp out soon so
there's no point in fighting them any more.
Mission Objective: Fight the Schax
You still need to keep Bonham alive to finish the mission, but
fortunately her health is restored to full when she undocks with the
power plant. The Marax tends to target Bonham, so blow it away with a
big bang and your laser gattling as soon as possible. Make sure to also
blast any Schax that start to attack Bonham with your S. howitzer. It
seems to be purely random whether the Schax concentrate on Bonham or
your other wingmen, so if she dies real quick just play the mission
again and hopefully you'll have better luck next time. Ignore Charlotte
when she tells you to attack the Head-schax, and instead wait for her
to announce the appearance of the Crocell. When it shows up, turbo
right up to it and start blasting it with everything you've got
including a couple of big bangs (don't bother aiming for the sonar dome
or flashpocks as Gilmore suggests, since the important thing is to hurt
it real quick before the Schax or the Crocell can kill Bonham). If you
can halve the Crocell's health before Bonham dies, a cutscene will play
and move you to the next part of the mission where the Schax will no
longer attack and Bonham will be safe.
Mission Objective: Fight the Crocell
It's just you, Harper, and Chaka (if her ship's still active) against
the Crocell. While you're fighting the big fish, you'll hear Bonham
battling Crawlers and Schax off-screen over the radio, but she's pretty
much invincible so don't worry about her and take your time attacking
the Crocell. You can hang back and snipe at it while letting your
wingmen do the brute of the work, or if you've still got lots of
shields go ahead and use the same in-your-face tactics as before to
beat it quickly. After doing enough damage to it, yet another cutscene
will play with Commodore Sool making his grand entrance and giving you
yet another reason to hate him. Guess you won't have to worry about
Lisa anymore.
Mission Objective: Send Sool to Hell once and for all
It's time for the big showdown with your bitterest enemy, Commodore
Sool. If you're badly damaged from the fight with the Crocell, go ahead
and rest a while to heal your ship. There's no time limit for this
fight. When you're ready, follow the nav point for the battle with
Sool. Bristling with laser gattling turrets, Sool's Ghost is much
nastier than the regular Federation frigates. The circle-strafe-until-
dead tactics you might have used against the Odysseus-class frigates
won't work. Instead use your turbo to get right in Sool's face and cram
a big bang down his throat, followed by a scalar howitzer blast, and
finally blast him with the laser gattling until he croaks. The turrets
will have trouble locking on to you as long as you cling directly to
the Ghost's hull, so you should manage to avoid taking too much damage.
Ignore the hostile Federation scouts that warp in, they'll flee as soon
as Sool dies. If for whatever reason you take a lot of damage before
you can reduce Sool's shields to zero, use turbo to retreat and restore
your shields before returning to finish him off.
Mission Objective: Finish off the Crocell
The Crocell will emerge once again after Sool's done giving his little
see-you-in-hell speech, and Harper's still busy fighting it. Go ahead
and take your time finishing the big guy off, and feel free to back off
and regenerate your shields if they start running low (the last thing
you want is to replay the mission all over again just because you died
here).
=======================================================================
FORNEUS:
Overview:
This is it, the final battle for the fate of Aqua. You and all your
wings, the Federation Army, Iwan King's pirates, and the Biont remnants
against Samuel Korhonen's Crawler Fleet and a limitless army of Squids.
And that's the easy part. Towards the end, you'll be thrust into battle
against the Squid big bad endboss and be forced into one of the most
annoyingly difficult "protect the targets" missions yet.
Tips:
- A good torpedo compliment for this mission is 4 big bang IIs and 8
hammerheads. The big bangs are useful against large targets like
the Crocell and Headschax, and the hammerheads will help you shoot
down the Schax during the intense final shootout.
- Your wingmates are invincible for the duration of this mission, so
don't worry about them.
- If you're having trouble beating this mission, you might want to
switch to a lower difficulty setting. Especially if you're tired of
getting a Mission Failed! message in the "protect transports from
Schax" section over and over.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Defend power plant from Schax
Ignore the Schax fighting your allies and instead concentrate on the
ones attacking the power plant. You lose if the power plant is
destroyed, so it's a good idea to minimize the damage it takes early
on. The Schax tend to cluster on one side of the plant. Blast them with
your s-howitzer but be sure not to hit the power plant by mistake.
Trying to distract the Schax with warning shots won't do any good,
they'll dodge around for a few seconds but will soon continue attacking
the power plant.
After all but a few of the Schax have been destroyed, Crawler scouts
and bombers will start dipoling into the area. You'll probably want to
ignore them for half a minute or so and eliminate any remaining Schax
to prevent them from shooting the power plant. In a minute or so
Korhonen himself will jump in piloting his personal Tursas fighter and
accompanied by two frigates, five bombers, and some more scouts.
Mission Objective: Prevent Crawlers from docking with power plant
Korhonen will attempt to goad you into a dogfight by talking smack
about all the people you care about that he's killed, but you should
ignore him and instead concentrate on preventing the four Crawler
bombers from docking with the power plant. Let your allies deal with
the Crawler fleet and 2 Crawler Frigates. Instead, turbo over to the
power plant and destroy the four bombers attempting to dock (they won't
fight back, but you will have to dodge around a little to avoid the
fire from the Crawler scouts). When all of the bombers have been
destroyed a cutscene will play showing Korhonen warping away to a
remote area.
Mission Objective: Defeat Mad Sam Korhonen
Korhonen wants to throw down mano-a-mano, so follow him for the final
battle. Ignore any Crawler scouts that might still be shooting at you,
just use turbo to outrun them. When you finally reach Korhonen a
cutscene will play of your Phobocaster against his Tursas, but before
the two of you can begin fighting the biggest monster you've ever seen
appears behind him... and eats him! It's time to pay your respects to
the great God Forneus, the mightest of the Old Ones. Chaka will warp in
to lend you some firepower, but this fight is really all up to you.
Mission Objective: Destroy Forneus' sonar dome
In case the dramatic last boss music didn't clue you in, this is the
big finale. Ignore the mass of giant tentacles, the huge egg sac,or the
body bristling with flashpocks. Your only concern is Forneus' turtle-
like head. Your goal is to destroy Forneus' sonar dome, the white spot
in the center of his forehead surrounded by a triangle of three glowing
blue flashpocks. The sonar dome can only be destroyed by precise shots
(splash damage has no effect on it), and it's difficult to hit with
guided torpedos (although you can certainly try if my method doesn't
work for you). Fly in as close as possible directly in front of
Forneus' forehead, ignoring the flurry of energy blasts and beams he
shoots from his flashpocks. Shoot the sonar dome with s-howitzer shots
or stanley torpedos, using the targeting reticule to tell whether or
not you've got a precise shot. Forneus likes to slowly swing his head
back and forth, so your target won't stand still for very long. He will
also occasionally turn away from you, forcing you to use turbo to
reposition yourself back near his forehead. There's a time limit on
this fight, so don't take too long or you'll lose automatically.
Locking onto the sonar dome is tough because the name doesn't appear in
the targeting box, so you won't know if you've locked onto the dome,
Forneus' body, or one of his flashpocks. If you want to use guided
torpedos and are trying to lock onto Forneus' sonar dome instead of
Forneus himself, try pressing the targeting key only when the aiming
reticule is directly over the sonar dome. Another tactic that might
work is to hit the dome once with a s. howitzer shot, then rapidly
target it until it appears in the target box. You'll know you've
targeted the dome because it will have a large chunk of its health
missing. Even with guided torpedoes, you need to be directly in
front of the dome to hit it, or else your torpedo will harmlessly
explode against the side of Forneus' head.
Mission Objective: Protect transports from Schax
This is probably the toughest, most annoying part of the entire mission
and perhaps the game. With Forneus disabled for now, you're sent back
to the power plant area, where you have to protect the power plant and
the evacuation transports from everything the Squids can throw at you
including a Crocell, two Head-Schax, and wave after wave of unlimited
respawning Schax. If more than two transports or the power plant are
destroyed, you fail the mission. Start out by destroying the two Head-
Schax as quickly as possible with your remaining big bangs to make the
Schax less aggressive (one Head-Schax is floating near a sphere-shaped
building underneath the Creole Girl, the other is floating in open
ocean several hundred feet ahead of the front of the Creole Girl).
Next, kill the Crocell with whatever you've got left. Spend your
remaining time blasting all the Schax you can find with your
hammerhead torps and s-howitzer. Drive by the power plant once or
twice to see if any Schax are shooting at it, but mainly you should
be protecting the transports. Your allies will help out quite a bit,
so don't worry about killing every single Schax. Just shoot targets
of opportunity as they come along. If you manage to hold out long
enough the transports will evacuate, but before you can declare
a victory the restored Forneus will appear out of nowhere and start
blasting the power plant.
Mission Objective: Destroy Forneus' flash pocks
Things actually get EASIER when Forneus shows up again. The Transports
and the Creole Girl will warp outta there so you no longer need to
worry about them, and the power plant doesn't seem to take much damage
from Forneus' attacks, so you don't need to concern yourself with the
fact he's really laying into it. Ignore the order to destroy Forneus'
flashpocks, all you have to do is stay alive a while longer. Your
wingmen should distract Forneus, so all you have to do is blast any
Schax that decide to attack you (to be absolutely safe, you might also
want to shoot any that start attacking the power plant). After shooting
Forneus for a while Harper will complain that it can't be killed with
weapons, and Gillmore will realize the only way to destroy Forneus is
to blow the power plant.
Mission Objective: Destroy the two power plant relays
Destroy the two remaining relays around the base of the power plant (DO
NOT shoot the Power Plant itself), then when Sally tells you to run
like hell flee to the new nav point as soon as possible. Dodge, dodge,
dodge away from anything that's still shooting at you. You'll probably
smash your computer if you get yourself killed now. Once you reach the
nav point, you win the mission and the game. Enjoy the ending.
Copyright 2003 Alan Chan
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