===Table of Contents=== - [1] Introduction - [2] Getting Started -- [2.1] Menus -- [2.2] Recommendations -- [2.3] Tweaks - [3] Gameplay -- [3.1] Game Modes -- [3.2] Movement -- [3.3] Weapons -- [3.4] Pickups -- [3.5] Awards & Sprees -- [3.6] Vehicles -- [3.7] Bots -- [3.7.1] Bot List -- [3.7.2] Bot Tactics - [4] Campaign -- [4.1] Act I: Ronin -- [4.2] Act II: With Caesar's Coin -- [4.3] Act III: The Liandri Conflict -- [4.4] Act IV: Calculated Losses -- [4.5] Act V: Disposable Assets -- [4.6] Mission Index - [5] Cheats & Secrets - [6] Version History - [7] Legality, Contact & Credits === [1] Introduction === This is my first FAQ. The strategies and tactics employed are a detailing of my personal experience playing through the Campaign. I have played each chapter several times to discover what works best. Even so, I may have missed things. There may be situations unique to your experience which I cannot account for. The strategies may be obsolete with UT3 v1.1 and v1.2. My advice may require prerequisites that I am not aware of. Any of those cases require a degree of self-sufficiency, by you, which I cannot impart. It has been my intention to write this guide in a way that minimizes the amount of individual 'raw skill' required. It would be all too easy to write a guide that assumes a difficulty of 'Casual' and instructs you to 'just kill 50 guys.' Such a guide would be worthless to many. For that reason, the mission strategies detailed in this guide are assuming a difficulty of "Insane." When I began writing this guide, I was skeptical that I would be able to beat the game on Insane. Any strategy that worked for me on Insane should at least hypothetically work on lower difficulties. It is the only way to write a guide that might work for everyone. To that end, I have played every level on the hardest difficulty, and under the hardest circumstances possible for that map. There are three missions which I could not beat this way without playing a card so I apologize if I cannot provide a solution for you, should you find yourself stuck fighting Loque 4 vs. 6 on HeatRay with a locked Dark Walker. Remember that you can always play a card, select another mission, lower the difficulty and\or replay the chapter to take a different path. This is a first edition and as such there is likely to be a great deal of room for improvement. I've already begun work on several, but if I wait until it's perfect I will never release anything. If you have any questions, corrections or suggestions on how to improve the guide, you can contact me at dalaran51@hotmail.com === [2] Getting Started === Before you can do anything else, you'll need to create a profile. This is very annoying, I know, but if you do not create a profile the game will not save your progress. Once you have done that, you will be taken to the main menu. === [2.1] Menus === Campaign - New Campaign -- Skill Level -- LAN Game - Continue Campaign - Replay Chapter - Join Campaign Instant Action - Game Mode - Map - Settings -- Bot Skill Level Choose the skill level of the AI bots. -- Number of Opponents If there are not this many humans, add bots. -- Goal Score Game score limit. 0 means none. -- Time Limit Game time limit in minutes. 0 means none. -- Force Respawn Force players to respawn? -- Record Demo Record a demo of the match? -- Mutators Specify which mutators you wish to load. -- Bots Specify which bots you wish to include. Multiplayer - Quick Match Instantly join a match of a specific type. -- Match Type Internet or LAN? -- Game Mode Desired game mode. -- Pure Server Exclude servers running mods\mutators? - Join Game Search for all servers with these settings. -- Match Type Internet or LAN? -- Game Mode Desired game mode. -- Pure Server Exclude servers running mods\mutators? -- Show Full Servers Show servers without open player slots? -- Show Empty Servers Show servers without any current players? -- Locked Server Show servers with password protection? - Host Game Create a server for others to join. -- Server Options Change the settings for your server. --- Server Type Internet or LAN? --- Dedicated Server Uncheck if the host wants to play too. --- Max Players Maximum number allowed players. --- Min Players Minimum number of players to start the match. --- Description Description to display on the server browser. --- MOTD Message of the Day shown to joining players. --- Server Password Password protection. Leave blank for none. Community - News View the latest UT3 community news from Epic. - Friends View\manage your friends list. - Messages View messages you have received. - Leaderboards View the online leaderboards. - Demo Playback Play back previously recorded match demos. Settings - Video -- Screen Resolution Change the number of pixels to process. -- Screen Mode Full screen, or windowed? -- Brightness Increase\Decrease the screen's brightness. -- Post Processing Change the type of post processing to use. -- Reduced Gore Toggle whether or not to have reduced gore. -- Subtitles Toggle whether or not to enable subtitles. -- Hardware Physics Enable or disable physics acceleration. -- Screen Percentage Change the amount of screen space to render in. -- Texture Detail Change the detail of textures in-game. -- World Detail Change the detail of world geometry in-game. -- Enable V-Sync Toggle whether or not v-sync is enabled. - Audio -- Hardware OpenAL Toggle whether or not to use hardware OpenAL. -- SFX Volume Weapons & Character sound effects. -- Music Volume Background music. -- Voice Volume Player\Bot voice reports. -- Ambience Volume Background & environmental sound effects. -- Announcer Volume The in-game-event announcer. -- Announcement Type Frequency of announcements in the game. -- Automatic Taunts Automatically play taunts? -- Mute Voice Disable voice chat in multiplayer. -- Text-to-Speech Mode Control which text is converted to speech. - Input -- Invert Y Inverting the Y axis when aiming. -- Auto Aim Toggle whether or not to aid aiming. -- Mouse Smoothing Enable or disable mouse movement smoothing. -- Mouse Sensitivity Tweak mouse sensitivity for the game. -- Configure Keys Customize controls. - Player -- Clan Tag Clan Tag displayed by your name. -- Network Connection Select your internet connection. -- Dynamic Netspeed Is your netspeed is dynamic? -- Allow Custom Characters Allow custom characters? -- Customize Character Create a custom character model for multiplay. - Weapons -- Crosshair Type Weapons use uniform or unique crosshairs. -- Weapon Switch on Pickup Automatically switch weapons upon pickup? -- Weapon Hand Select which hand you hold weapons with. -- Small Weapons Shrinks the weapons displayed in First-person. -- Display Weapon Bar Display your weapon bar.' -- Only Show Available Weapons Display the empty slots of your weapon bar. -- Weapon Priority - HUD -- Zoomed Minimap Default to a zoomed-in rotating minimap? -- Show Map Display the map on the HUD? -- Show Clock Display the match clock on the HUD? -- Show Scoring Display the scoring table on the HUD? -- Show Leaderboard Display the leaderboard on the HUD? -- Show Vehicle Armor Display the vehicle armor count on the HUD? Credits Exit Most of these probably don't need further explaining, but some of them might: 'Force Respawn' forces players who have died to respawn immediately. 'Mutators' are packaged code modules which alter the game mechanics. 'Post Processing' adjusts the way color and lighting effects are displayed. 'Hardware Physics' reduces the workload on the CPU by using a PhysX card. 'Screen Percentage' How much of your screen is dedicated to quality rendering. 'Texture Detail' controls the resolution of textures on surfaces. 'World Detail' controls the number of polygons, objects, and ambient effects. 'V-Sync' makes your monitor display only complete, rather than partial frames. 'Hardware OpenAL' is like Hardware Physics, only for 3D audio. Note that there is currently a problem with OpenAL which can cause UT3 to crash so it is recommended that this be turned off if you encounter any problems. === [2.2] Recommendations === - Video -- 100% Screen Percentage Lower percentages create a blurry seam around the edges of your vision which can be disorienting and artificially reduces your peripheral vision. -- Texture & World Detail As low as you can tolerate, to prevent unnecessary rendering hiccups. -- V-Sync Shouldn't make a huge difference, but turning it off may help maintain a smooth framerate. - Sound -- Volume I like to turn down music & ambience, while turning up SFX. It's important to hear when you are being fired at, or when the enemy has picked up an item nearby. Announcements are also important, particularly in warfare, since they keep you up-to-date on Core, Node, and Orb (or Flag) status. -- Automatic Taunts Annoying for other players if you're playing online. It makes your character verbally taunt after every kill. If everyone did this, it would be constant spam, and even one player doing it can be pretty severe. It's also very bot-esque and carries a 'noob stigma' similar to the name 'Player' since it was a default option which most novice players neglected to turn off in previous UT incarnations. Worse still, there is no way for other players to ignore your taunts without muting their voice volume. I suggest leaving this off if you plan to do any serious online playing, or if you are even the least bit interested in being polite. - Controls -- Auto-Aim I strongly suggest leaving Auto-Aim off. Becoming dependant on such handicaps is not a reliable way to accomplish anything, and it actually interferes with your ability to aim in some cases. -- Mouse Smoothing Isn't useful if you have a decent mouse, and it can also reduce your performance so it's generally best turned off. -- Mouse Sensitivity Personal preference. I have mine set at default so that I don't go into shock if I play someone else's computer and that generally aligns my character's movement with my own, but some people swear by a 360 degree wrist rotation which is arguably more efficient. -- Key Bindings -- Crouch = L-Shift. Having C set to crouch makes no sense. C is only a crouch button in games where crouch is a toggle. It isn't practical to hold down C while moving forward and strafing to the right, and it's really better to avoid situations where moving isn't practical. Left Shift can easily be held down while your other fingers are moving your character and it's on the side with the other non-essential keys. This also frees the C key to be bound to something else. -- Flak Cannon = 7 & C. -- Rocket Launcher = 8 & X -- Sniper Rifle = 9 & Z If you're using the now-standard WASD configuration, or the EDSF config that some people use, the 6-9 buttons used to select the better weapons all require you to move your hand uncomfortably far away from the movement keys. Using Z, X, & C for this purpose is much more convenient. You can use V this way as well if you move the command menu. - HUD -- Weapon Hand is probably best set to 'Hidden' to avoid the weapon model blocking your view. This can happen a lot when you are shooting up at the nodes, unable to see the defenders shooting rockets at you because your gigantic weapon & map are blocking your view at ground level. You can use small weapons as an alternative compromise. -- Weapon Bar I prefer my weapon bar to only show available weapons since it clears up screen space and keeps it reserved for useful information. -- Weapon Switch on Pickup This can be annoying, but if you've got your priorities arranged properly it's nice to avoid having to manually change from the enforcer every time you respawn. -- Zoomed Minimap I don't like this. I find it easier to learn map layouts if I have an objective & directional point-of-reference rather than a rotating & subjective one. I also find it more useful to have an overall view of the battlefield than only my immediate area. -- Clock & Leaderboard I don't find much use for either of these. Both are accessible by opening the scoreboard and that way you get to choose when they clutter your interface. Scoring is useful and compact enough to leave up though. -- Vehicle Armor This is equivalent to health when you're in one, and it's useful for knowing when to eject. -- Weapon Priority 1. Redeemer You only get it when you intend to use it. 2. Rocket Launcher Good, well-rounded weapon. Usually safe to switch to. 3. Flak Cannon Good weapon, but may not want to auto-switch from Rocket. 4. Stinger Minigun Good weapon, but may not want to auto-switch from Flak. 5. Link Gun Effective, but more useful as a tool than the Stinger. 6. Shock Rifle You only want to use it when you intend to. 7. Sniper Rifle Less reliable in mid-range than the Shock Rifle. 8. Bio Rifle Too circumstantial to auto-switch. Maybe #7. 9. Enforcer Starting weapon. Maybe better as #6 instead. 10. Longbow AVRiL You don't want to auto-switch to this. Ever. This may be more efficient to see it as matter of weapon range. If you're not in-combat it's safe to switch to any weapon and priority doesn't matter. If you are in combat, you probably won't want to auto-switch to longer range weapons. Those are specialized for long range combat and have corresponding behaviors. You might want to switch to closer range weapons though since most fights don't involve both players running backwards. === [2.3] Tweaks === For further (and more advanced) settings, you'll want to edit the INI files. To that end, TweakGuides has compiled a very thorough collection of options, including descriptions and their changes. I suggest checking it out and employing some of the adjustments to further optimize your system's performance. http://www.tweakguides.com/UT3_1.html === [3] Gameplay === === [3.1] Game Modes === - Deathmatch - Team Deathmatch - Duel - Capture the Flag - Vehicle Capture the Flag - Warfare === [3.2] Controls === Moving (W) Move Forward (S) Move Backward (A) Move Left (D) Move Right (C) Crouch (Space) Jump Attacking (Mouse 1) Primary Fire (Mouse 2) Secondary Fire Advanced Double Jump: Press space again at the apex of a jump to jump slightly higher. Dodge: Quickly tapping twice in any direction will cause the player to dodge. - Dodging is faster than strafing. Wall Dodging: Performing a dodge next to a wall performs a wall-dodge. - Wall dodges can be performed in the air, even after a double-jump. Boost Jump: Press jump at the top of a lift to increase your vertical momentum. Impact Jump: Use concussion to advantage by attacking the ground while jumping. - Also known as 'Rocket Jumping'. - Impact Jumping is best done with the Impact Hammer. - Combine the various Jumps & Dodges, to reach areas otherwise inaccessible. (F) Feign Death: Causes the player to ragdoll as if they have died. - Feigning players drop the flag\orb if they are carrying one. - Attackers do not receive a kill message. - Feigning players do not drop (or appear to drop) a weapon. - Feigned players can still be killed. - In version 1.0, feign death does not trick bots. === [3.3] Weapons === Impact Hammer The Impact Hammer, originally designed for sub-surface drift mining, can focus several hundred metric tons of pressure into the space of a few square centimeters. The impact, and resulting shock wave, easily destabilizes solid stone to speed ore separation and excavation. After several mining accidents highlighted the Hammer's devastating effect on the human body, the N.E.G. military took interest. To improve the Hammer's effectiveness against vehicles with shock-absorbing armor, an alternate electromagnetic pulse (EMP) mode was added. The EMP violently scrambles onboard computer systems, quickly leading to engine failure. Field testing showed the EMP has a similar effect on infantry powerups, knocking them off soldiers and enabling battlefield recovery. Enforcer For decades, the Enforcer pistol was the combat sidearm of choice. Veteran soldiers appreciated the lightweight handgun's power, accuracy, and balance. In recent years, the ever-burning desire for greater firepower led to general issue of the AR770 assault rifle. Military procurement officers were drawn to the AR770's higher cyclic rate and underslung M355 grenade launcher, but seasoned combatants missed the dependability of the Enforcer. Axon Research listened to the soldiers, and their new Enforcer MP ('Machine Pistol') model provides the best of both worlds. Side-fed magazines provide greater capacity, while balancing the shooter's aim when wielding two pistols. With a deadly accurate semi-automatic mode, and a selectable burst fire mode, the Enforcer is back, and the modern battlefield will never be the same. Bio Rifle The GES BioRifle processes Tarydium from its stable crystalline form into a reactive mutagenic sludge. It can rapidly disperse these toxins for wide-area coverage, or fire a virulent payload of variable, but usually lethal, capacity. In layman's terms, this means the BioRifle can pepper an area with small globs of biosludge, or launch one noxious glob at the target. The BioRifle's ability to carpet an area with a toxic minefield makes it a notoriously effective defensive weapon. Shock Rifle The ASMD Shock Rifle has changed little since its first incorporation into the Liandri Tournament. The ASMD sports two firing modes: a thin photon beam, and a sphere of unstable plasma energy. These modes are each deadly in their own right, but used together they can neutralize opponents in a devastating shockwave. The energy spheres can be detonated with the photon beam, releasing the explosive energy of the anti-photons in the plasma's EM containment field. Link Gun Riordan Dynamic Weapon Systems is best known for their all-purpose combat engineering weapon system, the Advanced Plasma Rifle v24. Its primary mode is a standard rapid-fire plasma weapon. But the alternate mode beam also serves a multitude of engineering uses on the battlefield, from repairing friendly vehicles to constructing power Nodes. The beam lens incorporates IFF detection, so that its dynamic energy matrix automatically switches to a deadly plasma stream when contacting an enemy vehicle or soldier. Contact with a friendly target switches to a harmless carrier stream, offloading energy from the onboard cells to the target. This boosts the output of any teammate who is linked to the rifle -- hence its nickname, the "Link Gun". Stinger Minigun Replacing the Minigun in this year's Tournament, the 'Stinger' is actually a Liandri mining tool converted into military service. The Stinger fires shards of unprocessed Tarydium crystal at an alarming rate, raking opponents with a storm of deadly needles. The alternate fire shoots larger hunks of crystal that can knock back an opponent, sometimes even pinning them to walls. Flak Cannon Trident Defensive Technologies continues to tweak and refine the flak cannon with their newly released Mk4 "Peacekeeper." In spite of its new name, the flak cannon remains banned from most military conflicts for high incidences of maiming and collateral damage. Still, the flak cannon is the weapon of choice for unconventional warfare in urban terrain. The primary mode detonates the flak shell in the barrel, launching shrapnel forward in a deadly shotgun pattern but often deafening the operator. The cannon also lobs an explosive flak shell that detonates on contact, sending shrapnel in a dangerously wide and unpredictable radius. Rocket Launcher Each year, more accidental deaths are caused by the Trident Tri-barrel Rocket Launcher than in vehicular accidents and extreme sports combined. The kill radius for its standard dumbfire rocket is surprisingly high by design -- so accidentally firing upon a nearby wall, or a nearby enemy soldier, can be quite fatal for the operator. The alternate fire adds to this suicidal lethality by loading and firing up to three rockets at once, in a spread, tight spiral, or lobbed like grenades. Regardless of the grim statistics, veteran soldiers still consider the 'old 8 ball' the most expedient way to put explosive ordnance on target. Sniper Rifle The venerable Axon Research long-range target interdiction rifle is the weapon of choice for the discerning sniper. Acquisition of a target at distance requires a steady hand, but the rewards merit the effort: the high-caliber round is lethal at any range. With a precise headshot, the target will be neutralized by the super-sonic bullet long before they hear the report. As they say in the N.E.G. Marines: 'any shot you hear is nothing to be worried about.' Longbow AVRiL The Longbow Anti-Vehicle Rocket Launcher, a.k.a. the AVRiL', gives dismounted infantry a fighting chance in an armored conflict. Its solid fuel missile can be 'dumbfired' as an unguided rocket, but the AVRiL's famed kill percentages come from its optical tracking system. The alternate fire zooms and locks on to a vehicle, guiding the missile towards its target at inescapable speeds. The missile's microdappled control planes use increased surface area to give unprecedented turning radius, guaranteeing delivery of its shaped PolyDiChlorite charge into all but the most nimble vehicles. The AVRiL is notoriously slow to reload, so it should be employed with caution in a pitched battle. Note, the Longbow's targeting laser is standardized for most Axon military equipment, so it can be used in other battlefield applications such as directing spider mines. Redeemer 'Even your least effective soldiers will earn a respectable body count with this tactical nuclear device.' So said the original brochure for the Redeemer, still unchallenged in its role as the most powerful man-portable weapon system known throughout the galaxy. The slow-moving but utterly devastatic missile, affectionately known as "Lola" by veteran soldiers, now uses an Enhanced Radiation payload. This ensures maximum tissue failure without undue property damage, perfect for modern assault-and-capture tactics. The Redeemer's alternate fire mode fires the missile using the disposable fly-by-wire guidance system, though the manual recommends using this mode only in areas of relative safety. Translocator The Translocator was originally designed by Liandri R&D for rapid rescue of expensive mining equipment during tunnel collapses and related emergencies. The technology also saved countless lives, but not without cost; rapid deresolution and reconstitution led to synaptic disruptions, and the debilitating symptoms like Teleportation Related Dementia (TReDs). Today, after years of lucrative military development contracts, portable teleportation technology has been declared "sufficiently safe" for regular use by front-line infantry. === [3.4] Vehicles === - Infantry 100 Health 600 Speed ( 25 MpH) Standard infantry still have a place. Without access to a vehicle, the player can still pick up weapons, such as the AVRiL, Link Gun, or Sniper Rifle, which allow them to serve a valuable purpose even on a battlefield dominated by vehicles. They also have a tactical advantage in their ability to use powerups, exploit terrain, escape notice, and infiltrate areas inaccessible by vehicles. They are the only ones who can pick up or destroy Orbs, Build Nodes, or carry a Flag. The hoverboard and the ability to use teleporters helps ensure their speedy deployment to any area of the battlefield. Still, caution must be taken to avoid the crushing firepower of the new Necris and upgraded Axon technology. - Hoverboard 100 Health 900 Speed ( 38 MpH) Allies beat you to the Manta? Did that jerk drive off alone with the Hellbender again? Are you stuck between nodes after that idiot flipped your tank upside down? In place of a translocator, vehicle based game modes use the portable Hoverboard to quickly transport players from one area to another at 150% of their base movement speed. The primary fire creates a tow cable which latches onto friendly vehicles for even faster movement, allowing non- passenger (including flying!) vehicles to assist in transporting troops. Using the crouch key and the direction keys allows the rider to perform stunts. The hoverboard can be used to speedily transport flags and orbs. Be aware that any damage sustained while hoverboarding will cause a humiliating crash which may also lead to death and loss of flags. - Manta 200 Armor 1500 Speed ( 64 MpH) 30 Second Respawn The fast and maneuverable Manta hovercraft has long been a favorite for quick surprise attacks and it's various tactical applications. Aside from being able to endlessly harass nodes with it's shock cores or literally crush entire lines of infantry into the ground, a skilled Manta pilot can bring down a Goliath tank, or even a Leviathan with it's superior mobility. The primary fire shoots miniature balls of plasma, similar to the Shock Rifle. Crouch or the Alt Fire cause the manta to invert it's upward thrust and pull itself downward instead, bringing it down upon the head of an enemy in a maneuver affectionately called a 'Pancake' or lowering it enough to collide with them directly in one smooth motion. The jump button allows it to quickly boost it's thrust and propel itself upwards for a brief time and enabling it to traverse rough terrain even more quickly, reach areas otherwise inaccessible, or avoid projectiles and other obstacles. Unlike it's wheel-based counterparts, the Manta can also glide across water without sinking. Unfortunately, the Manta's light frame makes its pilots vulnerable to attacks by enemy snipers, and it's apparent lack of a seatbelt can cause the pilot to fall out when under the influence of a Dark Walker horn. - Scorpion 300 Armor 950 Speed ( 40 MpH) 30 Second Respawn The Scorpion has undergone some revision since it's last appearance. Gone are it's linked energy orbs, which have since been replaced by a grenade-like projectile globs. It's trademark retractable blades have been relocated onto the front bumper, somewhat decreasing their ability to find unsuspecting knees to sever. Additionally, due to the scorpion's popularity in community racing & stunt events, turbo boosters are now standard. Activating the boost (jump) can increases it's speed by 210%, enabling it to reach 2000 units per second (or 85 MpH). This drastically decreases it's handling, however, so it is best used on straight-aways. - Hellbender 600 Armor 800 Speed ( 34 MpH) 30 Second Respawn The Hellbender, too, has undergone revision to a more 'modern' style (which is centuries old in the Unreal timeline but whatever.) The twin laser turret has been replaced with a single non-charging one and the modified shock rifle mount has been integrated into the driver's seat, no longer requiring a co- pilot to man it. As a result, the Hellbender now only supports 2 crew members for full potential. The driver's primary fire sends out shock core projectiles. The driver can then detonate them with the alt fire, causing a chain reaction which detonates other nearby shock cores for wide-spread damage while the passenger's primary fire is a concentrated energy blast which deals more focused damage to a single target. - Raptor 300 Armor 2500 Speed (106 MpH) 30 Second Respawn? The Manta's big brother, analogous to the helicopter of today, and one of the few vehicles capable of flight and the fastest average speed of any vehicle, the Raptor remains mostly unchanged. Using the standard movement keys the pilot is able to move the Raptor in any direction, including up (jump) & down (crouch). The primary fire rapidly launches energy projectiles to constantly harass targets over long distances, while the alt fire sends out a guided missile which can lock onto other vehicles. - Circada 500 Armor 2000 Speed ( 85 MpH) 45 Second Respawn The Circada is essentially a flying missile battery. It was originally released as a bonus vehicle in UT2004. The primary fire rapidly launches missiles at the crosshair, while the alternate fire locks onto a specific location while it loads up to 16 missiles in a firing chain and when released, the missiles will travel to that location. The passenger's primary fire is a beam similar to a laser turret, while it's alternate fire drops an energy grenade. - Paladin 800 Armor 700 Speed ( 30 MpH) 45 Second Respawn Another vehicle released as part of a bonus pack in UT2004, This one has no passenger seats. The primary fire shoots a large shock core which detonates upon contact. The alt fire is an energy shield which absorbs up to 1200 damage. The shield recharges in about 3 seconds if it's not being used. Using the primary fire while the shield is up causes a large explosion in an area around the tank. This allows the Paladin to clear a path through enemy forces while simultaneously shielding itself and any allies following in behind. The primary fire is extremely slow, but very powerful, allowing it to demolish nodes and vehicles with a few well placed shots. - Hellfire SPMA 800 Armor 650 Speed ( 28 MpH) 45 Second Respawn The third of the 3 vehicles released in the UT2004 bonus pack. The Hellfire is tank, with stats almost identical to the Paladin. Although it has two seats, it only actually uses 1 at any given time. The primary fire shoots a shock core and the alt fire shoots a shock beam. Essentially a larger version of the shock rifle, the shock beam can of course detonate the shock cores in a shock combo. The Hellfire's main purpose is fulfilled when it switches into artillery mode (jump). This part can be a little confusing, and there are few things more annoying than a newbie hijacking the artillery and then using it like a Hellbender. When the Hellfire is in artillery mode, the primary and alt fire both fire an artillery shell. When a shell is fired, the camera follows the trajectory of the shell to show the driver a trace of where their shots are landing. Pressing either button a second time while the shell is in flight will make the shell convert itself into a floating (stationary) camera. At this point, the alt fire will bring the camera back down. Otherwise, the standard crosshair becomes a target marker on the ground (in the shape of a circle) with a line showing a prediction of the next shot's trajectory. You no longer have to adjust the angle of the barrel, as the gun will do that for you based on your desired target. Any new shots with the primary fire will arc to the marker and, at the apex, explode into a cluster bomb which rains shells down on the enemy like an extremely large Flak Cannon from space! - Goliath 800 Armor 520 Speed ( 22 MpH) 45 Second Respawn Although the Necris bring some new weapons to the table, the Goliath is still the king of the hill in most levels. It's been left mostly unchanged from UT2004 and even though it appears to have received a handling upgrade it's actually slower than it used to be, relative to infantry. The driver gets to man the main turret, the primary fire shoots a shell which is possibly the fastest projectile in the game, and does a tremendous amount of damage. (360 in a 40 ft. radius, enough to kill anyone within 10 feet of the blast.) The passenger controls a machine gun which is decidedly less exciting. The machine gun is still useful to offset the slow rotation of the main turret though, and the two compliment each other well. Both guns can also zoom in with their alt-fire. - Leviathan 6500 Armor 600 Speed ( 25 MpH) 120 Second Respawn The only one to earn the designation of 'Super-Vehicle'. The Leviathan is huge. Effectively a mobile battle platform, sporting 4 passenger turrets *and* it's main cannon. Each of the 4 turrets have their own Armor (1000) independent of the main vehicle, and each comes equipped with a shield (alt fire) that protects it from damage for 4 seconds. The front-left turret has a shock beam, similar to the Shock Rifle primary fire. The front-right turret fires 4 rockets in rapid succession. The back left turret fires stinger shards similar to the minigun, and the back right turret fires shock cores similar to the Manta. The main cannon fires a series of slow-moving bolt projectiles. It's a little tricky to hit infantry but it rips through larger targets with less mobility. The alt fire zooms the cannon in and out. The Leviathan also has the ability to transform into an Ion Cannon (jump). It cannot move while in this mode, and it takes 2 seconds for it's targeting laser to finish 'painting' but when it does, the primary fire becomes a devastating area-effect blast similar to a redeemer explosion. - Viper 200 Armor 1500 Speed ( 64 MpH) 30 Second Respawn The Necris Viper is analogous to the Axon Raptor and it's features are nearly identical. Instead of miniature shock-cores, the Viper fires a series of small yellow bolts which bounce off nearby walls. Very strange. The viper also has a self-destruct feature (activated by holding the jump button and pressing the alt fire) which causes it to hover in the air for a moment before it ejects the pilot, spirals forward, and detonates on contact. - Scavenger 200 Armor 700 Speed ( 30 MpH) 30 Second Respawn The Scavenger is perhaps the most unique of the New vehicles. It's a small (comparatively) walking tripod with a rotating body. The Scavenger can jump fairly high, allowing it some extra mobility. It can also crouch, which serves little purpose. They should have left in it's ability to climb walls. Oh well. The primary fire locks onto a target and sends out a light saber training remote which then orbits the target and zaps it with a laser. The alt-fire causes the tripod to curl up in a ball, which increases it's speed by 215% (to 1500, or 64MpH). Using the primary fire While in this mode causes the Scavenger to extend it's legs and use them as rotating blades to cut down infantry, much like the Scorpion's bumper-mounted retractable blades. - Nightshade 600 Armor 900 Speed ( 38 MpH) 45 Second Respawn This is an interesting one. It controls similar to the Manta, only much slower. The Nightshade becomes invisible whenever it is being driven, and can only be seen when it fires. The primary fire uses a link gun which can be used to repair nodes & vehicles or damage enemies. The alt fire toggles the cloak on and off. When the cloak is off, the Nightshade is visible (duh) and moves at full speed. When the cloak is on, the Nightshade only moves at 45% of it's normal speed (405 units/second or 17 MpH). In addition to the Link Beam, the Nightshade can also switch to 'Deploy Mode' (jump) and lay a number of different types of mines: The 'Spider-Mine Trap' releases several explosive robotic spiders which chase down and face-hug any enemies who come within range of the trap. The 'Slow Field Generator' causes anyone caught within it's radius to move in slow motion. The 'EMP Mine' disables any vehicles which pass nearby (including hoverboards) and the 'Energy Shield' intercepts any attacks which enter nearby (up to 4000 damage worth). The Nightshade cannot move while it is deploying mines, nor can it lay mines too close together. It also disables it's cloak in this mode. The Nightshade isn't a combat vehicle, it's primary fire is extremely weak but with infinite link gun ammo, traps, and the ability to avoid unnecessary combat, the Nightshade is easily among the most useful vehicles in Warfare mode.. If only it were on more maps. - Fury 400 Armor 1500 Speed ( 64 MpH) 30 Second Respawn The Fury is the Necris equivalent of the Raptor & Circada and it controls the same way. The primary fire uses a recharging energy beam which locks onto the target, dealing 200 damage over 1.5 seconds, but must cool down for 0.5 second between blasts. The alt fire activates a speed boost which increases the Fury's speed (in any direction) by ~2x for 1 second. - Nemesis 600 Armor 500 Speed ( 21 MpH) 30 Second Respawn The Nemesis is the Necris' attempt at creating a Tank. As such, it controls like an Axon tank. Additionally, this vehicle has 3 modes which somewhat alter it's statistics. By default, it moves at 500 units/second, roughly equivalent to 21 MpH. It's alternating lasers do 50 damage per shot and are capable of releasing almost 2.8 rounds per second. (138 Damage per Second). By pressing the crouch button, the driver is able to lower the turret of the Nemesis, nesting it between the treads. This increases it's speed by 220% (to 1100 or 47 MpH) but disabling the ability to rotate the turret independent of the vehicle. Pressing jump will raise the turret back to default. Pressing jump when the turret is at it's default position will cause the turret to raise up, diverting power from the engines and reallocating it to the lasers instead. This decreases the tank's speed by 250% to a measly 200 (9 MpH), but increases it's rate of fire by 33%, to 3.7 rounds/second (185 Damage per Second). This should make it's function obvious: Low to travel, default for light skirmishes, and high for defense & assault. - Dark Walker 1000 Armor 350 Speed ( 15 MpH) 45 Second Respawn War of the Worlds isn't even a subtle theme here. Easily one of the most intimidating vehicles, the Dark Walker towers over the battlefield. Along with it's little brother, the Scavenger, the Dark walker encompasses an entirely unique class of vehicles. Below the surface and cosmetic differences, the Dark Walker pilots much like a Tank. The 'body' of the Dark Walker functions as a turret, allowing it to rotate in 360 degrees. The Dark Walker can crouch, which actually does come in handy at times due to it's enormous height. The primary fire sprays a beam of molten metal which deals 120 damage over 1.5 seconds with a 1.5 second recharge rate. IE, it's damage is largely front- loaded, making it immensely powerful in a series of short exchanges, but somewhat average in prolonged encounters. The alt-fire is an ominous horn. Yes, a horn. The horn creates some kind of force around the Dark Walker which throws enemies backwards and creates temporary paralysis which causes them to fall down. This can even eject the pilots of some vehicles. The Dark Walker can also carry a passenger which gets access to a rapid-fire energy turret built with technology that suspiciously seems to have been present on the Skaarj mothership. Like the Goliath machine gun, the energy turret proves itself complimentary to the primary seize weapon and makes up for the Dark Walker's most obvious weakness. - StealthBender 900 Armor 900 Speed (38 MpH) 45 Second Respawn Unfortunately, the Stealthbender was not included with the game. Originally, it was intended to be part of the WAR-ColdHarbor mission. You were supposed to use the Stealthbender to sneak into the base, but the mission was never included on release and the Stealthbender was never completed. The game's source doesn't provide many details about what the Stealthbender was supposed to be able to do, other than that it could cloak and moved at 1/3 speed while doing so. It may have gone on to become the Nightshade, but that's just speculation. === [3.5] Pickups === - Health Vial +5 Health, 199 Max. 30 Sec Spawn. - Health Kit +20 Health, 100 Max. 30 Sec Spawn. - Super Health +100 Health, 199 Max. 1 Min Spawn. - Helmet +20 Armor, Protects against 1 Headshot. 30 Sec Spawn. - Armor Vest +50 Armor, 30 Sec Spawn. - Thighpads +30 Armor, 30 Sec Spawn. - Shield Belt +100 Armor, 1 Min Spawn. - Jump Boots Double-Jump Higher, Reduce Fall Dmg. 3 Uses. 30 Sec Spawn. - UDamage Double Damage. 30 Sec. 90 Sec Spawn. - Invisibility Player becomes transparent. 30 Sec. 90 Sec Spawn. - Berserk Full Ammo & Double Rate-of-Fire. 30 Sec. 90 Sec Spawn. - Invulnerability Immune to all attacks. 30 Seconds. 2 Min Respawn. === [3.6] Awards & Sprees === - First Blood Be the first person in the match to score a kill. - Double Kill Kill 2 people within 4 seconds of each other. - Multi Kill Kill a 3rd person within 4 seconds of a Double Kill. - Mega Kill Kill a 4th person within 4 seconds of a Multi Kill. - Ultra Kill Kill a 5th person within 4 seconds of a Mega Kill. - Monster Kill Kill a 6th person within 4 seconds of an Ultra Kill. - Killing Spree Score 5 Kills without dying. - Rampage Score 10 kills without dying. - Dominating Score 15 kills without dying. - Unstoppable Score 20 kills without dying. - Godlike Score 25 kills without dying. - Massacre Score 30 kills without dying. - Jackhammer 15 Kills with the Impact Hammer. - Gun Slinger 15 Kills with the Enforcer. - BioHazard 15 Kills with the Bio Rifle. - Combo King 15 Kills by Shock Combo. - Shaft Master 15 Kills with the Link Gun alt fire. - Blue Streak 15 Kills with the Minigun. - Flak Master 15 Kills with the Flak Cannon. - Rocket Scientist 15 Kills with the Rocket Launcher. - Head Hunter 15 Kills by HeadShot with the Sniper Rifle. - Big Game Hunter 15 Kills with the AVRiL. - Hat Trick Score 3 flag captures. - Node Buster Capture 10 Nodes with the Orb. - Bullseye Kill someone with the Viper self-destruct. - Headshot Score a kill by headshot with the Sniper Rifle. - Denied Kill a Flag\Orb carrier near an objective. (Also destroying Viper\Redeemer pre-detonation.) - Juggernaut Simultaneously control two Mega-Powerups. - Hit & Run Run over someone. - Road Rage Hit & Run with a killcount divisible by 4 (-2) - Vehicular Manslaughter Hit & Run with a killcount divisible by 4 (-1) - Road Kill Hit & Run with a killcount divisible by 4. - Road Rampage Run over 10 people. - Pancake Land on top of someone with a vehicle. - Carjacked Steal an abandoned enemy Car. - Hijacked Steal an abandoned enemy Vehicle. - Top Gun Shoot down one flying vehicle with another. - Eagle Eye Shoot down a flying unit with a tank projectile. === [3.7] Bots === === [3.7.1] Bot List === Ronin Agg CS Tac SA Acc Jump Favorite Weapon - Reaper 0.4 0.5 0.0 1.0 0.5 0.0 Rocket Launcher - Bishop 0.4 0.2 0.0, 0.0 0.0 0.0 Sniper Rifle - Othello 0.6 0.3 0.3, 0.0 0.0 0.0 Stinger - Jester 0.4 0.5 0.0, 0.2 0.0 0.4 Rocket Launcher - Arashi 0.4 0.2 0.0, 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Kensai 0.4 0.2 0.0, 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Rook 0.4 0.2 0.0, 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Ushido 0.4 0.2 0.0, 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Connor 0.4 0.2 0.0, 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Harkin 0.4 0.2 0.0, 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Hunter 0.4 0.2 0.0, 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Cassidy 0.4 0.2 0.0, 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Kira 0.4 0.2 0.0, 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Kai 0.4 0.2 0.0, 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Metridia 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None Iron Guard Agg CS Tac SA Acc Jump Favorite Weapon - Lauren 0.4 0.2 1.0 1.0 0.5 0.0 Shock Rifle - Barktooth 0.5 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Flak Cannon - Harlin 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0, None - Slain 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0, None - Cain 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0, None - Johnson 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0, None - Karag 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0, None - Wraith 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0, None - Blain 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0, None - Drake 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0, None - Kregore 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0, None - Talan 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0, None - Ariel 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0, None - Avalon 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0, None - Blackjack 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0, None - Desiree 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0, None Liandri Agg CS Tac SA Acc Jump Favorite Weapon - Matrix 0.4 0.2 1.0 1.0 0.4 0.25 Stinger - Aspect 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Cathode 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Enigma 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Collossus 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Entropy 0.5 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Flak Cannon - Monarch 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - OSC 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Evolution 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Mihr 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Raptor 0.7 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Shock Rifle - Syntax 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Torque 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None Krall Agg CS Tac SA Acc Jump Favorite Weapon - Scythe 0.4 0.2 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.5 Link Gun - Cerberus 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Gnasher 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Scorn 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Lockjaw 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Scar 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Sharptooth 0.4 0.2 0.5 0.5 0.25 0.5 Rocket Launcher - Worg 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Claw 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Bargest 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Blackfang 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Hellhound 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None Necris Agg CS Tac SA Acc Jump Favorite Weapon - Akasha 0.4 0.2 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.25 Shock Rifle - Loque 0.4 0.2 1.0 0.5 1.0 0.25 Sniper Rifle - Damian 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Kragoth 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Malakai 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Grail 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Judas 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Nocturne 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Samael 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Harbinger 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Pagan 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Thannis 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Alanna 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Arachne 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Freylis 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Malise 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Raven 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None - Visse 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 None === [3.7.2] Bot Tactics === Before I go into the campaign, I want to detail some differences between playing against bots and humans. This is important because strategies which are committed to instinct when playing online are obsolete when playing against a bot. The reverse is also true. A number of factors can be easily misunderstood as 'cheating' and are difficult to figure out by observation alone. This really comes down to the way the bots perceive the world. A bot does not have eyes or a monitor. While they do have a 'field of vision' the same way a player does, they don't have human limitations on that vision - such as reduction in quality over distance, camouflage, etc. What this means is that peeking out from behind an obstruction on the furthest reaches of the map does not make you any harder to see than you would be standing completely out it in the open. If they see you, even a small part of you, they see you. A bot does not have ears or a speaker. Yet they do 'hear' you. This is an important detail to be aware of. Whenever you do something in the level - Fire a shot, pick up ammo, jump, etc. The bot can 'hear' you. If you make a sound and they hear it, they will know exactly where you are (through walls, floors, etc) for the next several seconds. If you round a corner just in time to meet rocket that was fired before the bot had even seen you, that is why: They heard you and knew exactly where you were, and what direction you were headed. A bot does not have arms or a mouse. They do not much care how fast you are moving when they aim at you. They do not aim at where you are, they aim at where you are going to be based on vector calculations. Players do not have access to the coordinates & velocity of their target, nor can we do complex math in the middle of combat. This is one of the biggest gameplay differences. When you Dodge\Jump against a player, the sudden movement throws them off and they have to realign with your new location. If you time your attacks or adjust to your movement accurately, this gives you an advantage. A human may be smart enough to wait to fire until you commit to a jump\dodge in order to lead you more accurately, but this is an exception rather than the rule. With bots, it's the exact opposite. When you move in a specific direction, you become *more* vulnerable and the bot's prediction comes true. They intuitively wait until you commit to a dodge\jump and time their shots accordingly. It's not much harder for a bot to hit you while you are moving than it is to hit you when you're standing still. Moving before the bot fires just tells the bot -where- to fire. The game is running a script that tells the bots to increase their difficulty under different circumstances and decrease it under other circumstances. In deathmatch, this means that the better you do, the harder the enemy team becomes. This can quickly spiral out of control. Sometimes it is better to try *not* to get points, but to evade the enemy to avoid giving them points or increasing their difficulty (and indirectly giving them points) while you distract them so your allies can get points. In version 1.0, the bots also prioritize the player over other bots, which can become problematic when you are outnumbered, on a high difficulty, and\or playing with vehicles. There are several weapons (such as the redeemer alt fire) which transfer the player's identity into a camera. The bots will focus-fire on this as if it were the player, leading to them shooting down the redeemer or artillery camera with amazing consistency while more or less ignoring them when used by a bot (or with the primary fire). Bots also time the powerups much as a skilled player might. They know 5 seconds in advance when a powerup is going to spawn regardless of who picked it up last, when, or where the bot was when it happened. They do not understand the level layout, they only travel along pre-specified path nodes. Most of these things have a weakness which balance them out so equality isn't the problem. The reason these things matter is not because the bots are better than a human, but because the bots are different than a human, and require a different approach. To summarize: Don't attack targets simply because you see them. Avoiding unnecessary combat is extremely useful in Warfare & Capture the Flag. Even in Deathmatch, attacking at the wrong time just alerts the enemy to your presence. Don't make unnecessary noise outside of combat. Purposeless jumping gives away your location and is ultimately counter-productive. Don't put yourself out in the open, where you will be seen by many enemies, if you can avoid it. Don't try to move erratically against a bot. It doesn't trick them. Don't expose yourself to vehicle fire if you are not in a vehicle yourself. Don't put valuable vehicles in danger by trying to pilot them yourself. Never use the Redeemer alt-fire. Instead, try to sneak up on (or past) the bots. Only jump when it serves a purpose worth exposing yourself for. Stick to back alleys and hallways where the bots have trouble functioning intelligently. Strafe rapidly back and forth when fighting. - The bots can't predict your location if you keep changing your momentum. Offset the bot->player focus by using a quick & evasive fighting style, attacking from obscure locations where they can't reach you. Avoid lopsided combat and focus your efforts on the Orb & the Nodes to provide your allies with more vehicles, and your enemies with less. === [4] Campaign === Difficulty In theory, the difficulty you select for your campaign roughly corresponds with the difficulty of the bots you will be facing: Casual Experienced Normal Skilled Hard Inhuman Insane Godlike However, this is not concrete. A number of factors can change the difficulty of the bots: If they outnumber you, their skill decreases by 0.5 If you outnumber them, their skill increases by 0.75 If you are losing their skill decreases per point difference. (Min -1.25) If you are winning, their skill increases per point difference (Max +1.25) Loque receives an additional bonus of +0.75 Akasha receives an additional bonus of +1.50 Your allies only receive half the benefit of the handicap. (IE, Max +0.625) Your allies do not get any bonus/penalty for the number of opponents. Different game modes increase\decrease (based on score) at different rates. Deathmatch: 1 Point = +/- 0.25, 2 = 0.17, 3 = 0.12, and 0.1 for each thereafter Capture the Flag: 0.5 per point difference. Warfare: 0.0125 per 1% difference between PowerCores. The difficulty does not raise if you are losing, or lower if you are winning. Because of this, even on casual playing against Akasha means you will be fighting a Masterful bot after about 13 kills. On Normal she starts off as a Masterful bot and is Godlike after 13 kills. This is an incredible jump in difficulty considering the entire rest of the campaign you will be fighting Average-Skilled bots so keep that in mind when you begin. During the campaign you will get cards which can be played to influence settings on the next map. These are effectively mutators which can be selectively activated. I will list these in the appropriate chapter. You will also unlock characters and their meshes for use in customizing your own character model in multiplayer. Not all of the characters can be unlocked by playing through the campaign. For more details on those characters, see the Cheats & Secrets section. In the following sections I will detail each chapter of the campaign and the choices available to you for directing your course through the story. The map I have provided contains the map name and mission I.D. in parenthesis. Use the search function to quickly scroll between the chapter index and the corresponding mission ID. It's clumsy, I know. In future revisions I would like to rearrange the mission index to make it more organized and less redundant. === [4.1] Act I: Ronin === - Rising Sun (Mission 001) I'm not sure how they get away with calling this Act I. This is an introduction or prelude. They should have smashed this together with Act II and called *that* Act I, or let us play out TwinSouls. Actually they should have done that anyway. Whatever. There are 5 acts and 2 of them are disproportionately short. This is one of them. === [4.2] Act II: With Caesar's Coin === 002 003 004 005 006 |----------007----------| |----008----| 122 111 009 |----123----| |-112-| 010 124 130 113 118 011 125 131 114 120 |-012-| |-126-| |-132-| 116 119 013 107 127 126 133 136 115 121 014 109 128 120 134 137 117 015 108 129 119 135 138 110 121 (002) Shangri La (003) Reflection (004) Sinkhole (005) Market District (006) Tank Crossing (007) Kargo The first 6 missions are always the same. After that, you get to choose between Hydrosis and Torlan Delta. Hydrosis represents attacking Axon, while Torlan basically represents fortifying the Izanagi. (008) Hydrosis (111) vCTF-Suspense (009) Torlan (D) (112) WAR-Downtown (010) Suspense (113) Defiance (118) Diesel (011) Serenity (114) Serenity (120) Kargo (012) Downtown (116) Kargo (119) Serenity (013) Defiance (107) Diesel (115) Diesel (121) Torlan (D) (014) Kargo (109) Kargo (117) Torlan (L) (015) Torlan (L) (108) Serenity (013) Defiance (110) Torlan (D) (122) Torlan Delta (123) Hydrosis (124) Suspense (130) Serenity (125) Downtown (131) Suspense (126) Defiance (132) Downtown (127) Serenity (126) Diesel (133) Defiance (136) Diesel (128) Kargo (120) Kargo (134) Kargo (137) Kargo (129) Torlan (L) (119) Serenity (135) Serenity (138) Serenity (121) Torlan (D) The first two choices determine how you conduct the war against Axon. Because you make this choice twice, you basically have four options between Offense\Defense, Aggressive\Reserved. The third choice determines whether or not you accept Axon's surrender when you defeat them. Doing Hydrosis first means the enemy will be slightly stronger on Hydrosis. Hydrosis-Torlan means the enemy will be slightly stronger on Suspense. Doing Torlan first means an easy fight in Torlan (now and later). Torlan->Serenity means the enemy can't invade Torlan. Helps in later missions. Diesel gives you the 'Iron Guard Reinforcements' Card. Defiance gives you access to a Leviathan on the final Torlan mission. The hardest mission is Serenity #108. It's 4 vs. 8! The easiest path overall is Torlan #122, Serenity #13, and Diesel #136. This bypasses a 4 vs. 6 on Kargo, Torlan and Serenity in addition to the 4 vs. 7 on Torlan and the 4 vs. 8 on Serenity. This is also the best path, providing you the Iron Guard Reinforcements card, and makes the most sense in the context of the story. Cards Tactical Diversion: Beat Kargo (007) Reduces the # of opponents in the next match by 2. Enhanced Respawners: Beat Diesel (118, 107, 136) Increase your starting health by 25. Iron Guard Reinforcements: Beat Defiance (013, 133) or Serenity (114, 127) Gain 2 Iron Guard team members in the next mission. Unlockable Characters Lauren Beat DM-Diesel (107, 118, 136) === [4.3] Act III: The Liandri Conflict === (016) Arsenal (017) HeatRay (083) Dusk (018) Dusk (063) Islander (084) PowerSurge (019) PowerSurge (064) Dusk (020) Coret (020) Coret (021) HeatRay (057) CarbonFire (022) Islander (053) Containment (058) Containment (023) Strident (054) Strident (059) Islander (010) Gateway (052) Containment | | (060) Strident (055) Islander (056) Gateway (062) Gateway (061) HeatRay (064) Dusk (065) PowerSurge (072) Coret (066) Coret (073) Heatray (078) Containment (067) Containment | (074) CarbonFire (079) HeatRay (068) HeatRay (075) Strident (080) CarbonFire (069) Strident (077) Gateway | (082) Gateway | (070) CarbonFire (071) Gateway (081) Strident (081) Strident (084) PowerSurge (085) Heatray (095) Islander (086) Coret (096) HeatRay (087) CarbonFire (097) Coret (088) Containment (093) Islander (098) Containment (103) CarbonFire (089) Islander (094) Containment (099) Strident (104) Strident (090) Strident | (100) CarbonFire (106) Gateway | (092) Gateway | (102) Gateway | (105) Containment (091) HeatRay (101) Containment This chapter's layout is terribly confusing and seems to be unfinished. There are many junctions which give you the illusion of choice, many different missions which - although unique - are exactly the same as others. Some choices to visit containment which should be available aren't, and only one instance of HeatRay was done properly. You have dozens of options mostly pertaining to the order in which you play the missions. Unfortunately I was forced to separate the chapter map into three segments in order for it to fit. The most important choice you will make is whether or not you will play Containment before you attack Hyperion. You are also given several opportunities to play Gateway, but this isn't necessary or meaningful. Dusk, CarbonFire, Coret, Islander, Strident, Gateway, and Containment are pretty much always the same. PowerSurge and HeatRay are the only missions with major variations. HeatRay #017 -> Islander #063 leads to either PowerSurge #065 (a 4 vs. 8) or a locked Dark Walker on HeatRay #073 - the two hardest missions in the chapter, and among the hardest missions in the game. Dusk #083 -> Islander #095 leads to a locked Dark Walker on HeatRay. Unlike the other locked Dark Walker missions, this one has no alternative mission to avoid it, so once you beat Islander you're stuck. HeatRay #017 -> Islander #063 -> PowerSurge #065 -> HeatRay #068 -> Gateway #071 is the hardest path, including the aforementioned PowerSurge 4:8 and HeatRay 4:6 with Loque and a locked Dark Walker. Dusk #083 -> HeatRay #085 is the best path. It has the easiest versions of HeatRay & PowerSurge. Gateway is optional, and all the other missions are the same. (The only choice is whether to play Containment or Islander first.) Once again, the easy route also makes the most sense in terms of storyline. Cards Heavy Armor: Beat DM-Arsenal Increases the armor of your vehicles by 40%. Liandri Reinforcements: Beat CTF-Strident Gain 2 Liandri security bots in the next mission. Unlockable Characters Matrix Beat DM-Gateway === [4.4] Act IV - Calculated Losses === (025) Islander | (026) Market District / \ (027) Shangri La (049) Corruption / \ / \ (028) Corruption (046) Defiance (049) Suspense (051) Shangri La | \ / | | \ / | | (140) Deck--\ | | /--(139) Deck | (029) Suspense (047) Torlan Delta (050) Defiance |------------(045) BioHazard------------| (030) Onyx Coast (032) Avalanche (033) Deimos There aren't as many variations this time around. The two routes are reflections of each other. BioHazard is optional. The easiest route is probably Shangri La->Corruption->Suspense->Onyx Coast, since this gives you 4vs4 instead of 4vs6 on corruption and bypasses Torlan and the other deathmatch levels. On the other hand, Corruption -> Suspense -> Torlan might be easier for some people than the deathmatch. The hardest route would probably be Shangri La -> Defiance - Deck -> Torlan -> Bio Hazard since all but Torlan are deathmatch and Torlan is a hard mission anyway. I do suggest stopping off at the Decks to kill Scythe out of principle, however. Unlockable Characters Kragoth Beat WAR-Islander Damian Beat WAR-Islander Malakai Beat WAR-Islander Scythe Beat DM-Deck === [4.5] Act V - Disposable Assets === (034) Omicron Dawn (035) Sandstorm (036) Sanctuary (042) Fearless (148) Fearless (044) Sanctuary (038) Necropolis (039) Vertebrae (040) FloodGate (041) Sentinel Your only choice here is whether you do Fearless or Sanctuary first. If you do Sanctuary first, you'll have a lower kill limit and some different bots, but Fearless is exactly the same regardless of which order you play them in. Cards Instagib: Beat CTF-Necropolis Next mission is played using Instagib rifles. (Must be played now, if at all.) Unlockable Characters Loque Beat CTF-OmicronDawn Akasha Beat DM-Sentinel === [4.6] Mission Index === Mission 001 - Rising Sun ( DM-RisingSun ) Goal: 10 Kills Faction: TwinSouls Allies: None Enemies: Jester Map Details Tokaido, Ghost Legion training grounds. The legendary Samurai of Earth's Lotus Guard used to train within the walls of the Imperial Palace. This small section of the Kimpu Market District was built to mirror those courtyards, and now serves as the entrance to the Ghost Legion training grounds. Briefing Objectives - Keep enemies in check until their Respawner charges are depleted. - Maintain battlefield control by holding the high ground. - Use audio cues to track enemy movement. Strategy & Tactics You start off in a secluded area that functions as a brief tutorial which you can skip by pressing ESC. Jester is waiting for you in the arena. If she were smart she would be collecting weapons and powerups while you're trapped in your cage. Anyway, take some time to get a feeling for the controls if you need to. When you're ready, double jump over the curbs and grab the shock rifle. Shoot the switches next to the door with your primary and then alternate fire. The door opens. Crawl under the door, and switch to your Impact Hammer. Smash the droid and continue on to another door that you must open with your shock rifle. At this point, Jester will activate and the match begins. Grab the link gun and head down the hallway to your left. Jester spawns on the opposite side of the courtyard where you entered, and will run straight for the rocket launcher in the center of the stage. This is a good opportunity to kill her before she can even leave the first hallway. From then on she will primarily run a Square or Triangle route between the Stinger, Link Gun, and Rocket Launcher (Her favorite weapon) via the trench or the corner buildings. The level puts a lot of focus on the mid range weapons, and she ignores the Shock Rifle for the most part. This creates tactical opportunities at both long & short range, which can be exploited. Like the briefing says, you'll want to monopolize the center of the map. The Body Armor, the Health Kits, the Flak Cannon and the vials up top. From here, you can also restrict her access to any of the weapons. There is no particular reason to visit the extreme edges of the map except the Flak Ammo near the Link Gun. There are health vials in the front side of the trench which should also be claimed. You can quickly run a circuit through the trench, up the stairs, loop through the left building to the Flak Ammo, and then elevator jump up to the vials above the Flak Cannon, or to the underside to collect the armor. You can also extend it to a half circle and integrate the vials in both hallways if you so choose but those hallways are vulnerable. By leaving the health vials in them, you encourage her to enter them. Once she enters she is very susceptible to splash damage and has to effectively walk into your projectiles in order to shoot back. I found the Bio Rifle and Flak Cannon to be particularly useful, but the Stinger can also be very effective. The game will continue regardless of whether you win or lose. Mission 002 - Shangri La ( DM-ShangriLa ) Goal: 40 Kills Faction: Iron Guard Allies: Jester, Kensai, Ushido Enemies: Talan, Kregore, Drake, Blain Map Details Tokaido, Shangri La sector The springtime blossoms of the Shangri La sector are universally renowned for their beauty and serenity. But the district sits along the northern shore of Tokaido, and the locals are forced to retreat into the sweltering heat of the underground mines to avoid the fierce cold snaps that leave the grounds largely abandoned during winter months. Briefing "Looks like we're stuck doing some crap jobs before the Izanagi trust us. We're headed up north to investigate some 'disturbances' along the coast. Axon scouts have been sneaking across the bay and setting up shop inside Tokaido. We've got a field respawner and a full weapons compliment, but the Izanagi set up some random captain to baby-sit us. Keep your cool and try not to use the UDamage against them. Much." Objectives - Keep enemies in check until their Respawner charges are depleted. - UDamage powerup is located in the central courtyard. Strategy & Tactics This is one of the maps released for the UT3 beta demo. If you played it, then you already know the map layout. The main courtyard connects to the 2nd courtyard, the rooftops, and the Flak Room. The Flak Room connects with the Courtyard and the Rocket Launcher Room, which in turn connects to the 2nd Courtyard, and out to the Courtyard & Rooftops. There are also lots of acrobatic maneuvers you can do to take shortcuts. The main feature of the map is the UDamage which spawns in the main courtyard. You can reach it by dodging or double jumping from the bridge, from the rooftops, or by jumping up the ridges on the platform itself. You can also impact jump over the platform. There is a shield belt above the 2nd courtyard. I find it most useful to run straight to the Shield Belt - sometimes it spawns by the time you get there - and then circle around (in either direction) to the Armor\Jump Boots between the Rocket & Flak rooms. The Flak room is a good place to roam since it's roughly the center of the level. There is health nearby, and the ramp gives quick access to the rooftops, the 2nd courtyard, or the Rocket Launcher. The UDamage is nice, but the bots can be very annoying with precision weapons and they haunt the courtyard so I tend to avoid it unless I'm playing on Novice-Skilled. Because this is Team Deathmatch, your goal is about kills vs. deaths - not just kills, so teamwork is important. If you leave your allies to their own devices they will feed the enemy points. If you tell them to hold position, they will cluster together, run out of health\ammo, and lose by attrition. The best strategy seems to be to put your team on 'Cover Me' and quickly (but cautiously) lead them around the level. This should keep them reasonably healthy and well-equipped. It also ensures that if the enemy attempts to pursue you, they will have to do so one at a time, from the doorways where they are more vulnerable. Knowing how to time the powerups is very useful here. On Masterful and higher, the bots have a 5-second head start on powerup timing, so keep that in mind. Mission 003 - Reflection ( CTF-Reflection ) Goal: 3 Captures Faction: Iron Guard Allies: Jester, Othello, Bishop Enemies: Cain, Johnson, Karag, Wraith Map Details Tokaido border territories Surrounded by tranquil waterfalls and traditional architecture, these grounds are known as the Reflection Gardens. They're buried deep in the heart of downtown Tokaido, where people can retreat to a place of quiet meditation amidst the bustle of a popular mining colony. Briefing "The Izanagi may not like us, but they like results. Bishop, Othello, welcome to the team. Intel picked up another Axon cell inside Tokaido. This one's dug in, with a field lattice generator powering their respawner. We need to work as a team to retrieve the enemy FLaG units, power down their respawner, and clear them out." Objectives - Disable the enemy Respawner by removing its FLaGs. - Link with a teammate to multiply the power of your Link Gun. - Translocators can teleport you across short distances. FLaGs can not be teleported. - The Helmet will give you 20 extra armor and protect you from a single sniper headshot. Strategy & Tactics This map is also fairly small and straight-forward. There are upper and lower levels, and a few diverging (and converging) side-paths. The bots will primarily stick to the main paths to and from the base. Jester is set to flag capture by default. She won't be much use on the lower levels so it may be better to put her on defense in that case to prevent her from running to her death and getting the enemy flag lost in the wilderness somewhere, but she can succeed on higher levels. Regardless, you'll want to stick to the outer-most paths for the most part. You can get all the way into the enemy's base without being noticed and, in some cases, all the way back out again. The Flak Cannon is particularly useful since the enemies will try to literally tackle you, begging you to lodge burning shrapnel in their face. Even though they took out dodge jumping, standard dodging and wall dodging seems to help speed up the egress. There is a 'Super Health' in the center of the map between the two bases, and an Armored Helmet up above it. I didn't find either especially useful since everyone else is so fixated on them that they actually became a distraction and a liability. There is no doubt that the extra health would be useful, so it may be wise to follow the main path to the entrance and check for it before crossing over to the outer path. I'm not sure I'd risk it on the return journey. Crossing center-field with the flag is almost guaranteed to result in a morbid display of affection. If you find yourself holding the flag without a flag to return it to - which is likely on such a small, fast-paced level - your best bet is to hide in the tunnels on either side of the flag platform and wait for your team to get the flag back. It's not particularly safe, but it gives you a little extra room to move if the enemy finds you. There is health - or a speedy capture - nearby for contingency. Mission 004 - Sinkhole ( WAR-SinkHole ) Goal: 1 Core Destroyed ( No Orbs, No Hoverboard ) Faction: Iron Guard Allies: Jester, Othello, Bishop Enemies: Talan, Kregore, Blain Map Details Downtown Tokaido, beneath Kimpu Market District These underground tunnels were discovered when Izanagi assessment teams first started their geological survey of Taryd, and they were used to house munitions and supplies for the first wave of colonists. As the surface cities expanded, the caverns were forgotten until large sink holes started to form, destroying large portions of the city above. Briefing "Axon scouts were discovered sneaking through the tunnels, and we've traced their movements to a central base of operations. Orders are simple: Destroy the base and seal the tunnels for good." Objectives - Link your Core to the Prime Node in the center of the sinkhole. - Destroy the enemy Core. Strategy & Tactics I'm not sure if it's an accident but you actually outnumber the enemy on this mission. The orders are indeed simple. Whenever Jester gets done talking about her anus, go take the prime node in the center of the map. If the enemy has the prime node, you'll need to destroy it. The safest way to do this is to climb up to the catwalk in your base and crouch. You should be able to get a clear line of fire on the node from quite a ways away, effectively safe from retribution. Once the node falls, keep it down until your allies start to construct one, then move in and heal it with the Link Gun, stopping to grab the shield if you like. Once you have a friendly node established, it's all about maintaining the node, so just continually repair the node. If you run out of link ammo and you think it's safe to do so, you can do a suicide mission into the enemy core (stealing their shield\berserk powerup on the way) and respawn in time to help protect your prime node. The Manta can help for defending the prime node, allowing you to head the enemy off at their base entrance and simply run them over. It also does a lot of damage to the prime node if the enemy tries to construct one. Just keep doing suicide missions into the enemy core to whittle away at it, or stay back and protect the node. - As long as you know how to stop the enemy from constructing one of their own, they won't have many opportunities to damage your core. Amusingly, you can stand idly on the Prime Node and the enemy will prioritize attacking the Node. When the node is destroyed, a new one will immediately begin construction (since you're standing on it) and the bots will immediately attack the new node instead of you. They'll even sit a few feet away from you in a Manta blasting away at the Node, oblivious to the futility of their existence. You can use this to destroy them with impunity. (Almost.) The UDamage & Berserk powerups on either side of the base exits will allow you to quickly destroy\repair a node. Mission 005 - Market District ( WAR-MarketDistrict ) Goal: 1 Core Destroyed Faction: Iron Guard Allies: Jester, Othello, Bishop Enemies: Cain, Johnson, Karag, Wraith Map Details Downtown Tokaido, Kimpu Market District Life in Tokaido relies heavily on the infrastructure of the Kimpu Market District. People purchase food there, shop, gather for social occasions, and even buy their fuel in this one centralized location. In a surprise move, a terrorist cell has invaded the Market, scared off the locals, and shut down all business in and out of the district. Briefing "Time to take down another power core. The old market centers both have nodes powering defense turrets. If we can take them both, we'll overload the enemy core shields and their core will be raised and exposed. Then we use the turrets to finish them off from a distance. We're using the 'Node Buster' Orb and Hoverboards this time. Expect more intel on the field." Objectives - Control the Prime Node to access your enemy's Core. - Control Support Nodes to unlock mobile laser turrets. - Use the mobile turrets to protect the Prime Node. - Short Circuit the enemy Core's coolant system by controlling both Support Nodes simultaneously. - An overheated Core raises into the open air and is vulnerable to turret fire. Strategy & Tactics Another Warfare mission. This one is more like normal, although still not completely. You now have Hoverboards and the Orb. In this mission, you have 3 nodes. The prime node - in the center - needs to be under your control before you can damage the enemy core. The two support nodes on the side are not useful in that respect, but if you have all three nodes simultaneously it will raise the enemy core up onto the top of the base where it can then be attacked by turrets as an added bonus. The strategy works like this: You can focus on the prime node, but if the side nodes are left undefended the enemy will claim them both easily. Once they have both nodes, all they have to do is get their Orb carrier to your prime node and your Core is completely exposed. On the other hand, if you focus on the side nodes, the enemy can take the Prime node and assault your Core unopposed. The logical conclusion is to have a minimal force attack the support nodes - to prevent the enemy from controlling both - while your remaining forces (and the orb carrier) focus on taking and holding the prime node. If the enemy removes forces from the support nodes to fortify the prime node, you've successfully reversed the situation. You'll have the Prime Node, and both support nodes as a matter of course. If the enemy takes forces off the prime node to hold the support nodes, he'll still have trouble holding both of them and to make matters worse he won't have the necessary forces to do anything with them once he has them. Bishop is probably your least useful character on this level, so he'd make the best candidate for attacking the support nodes. The bots are completely inept with the Orb, so your job is to carry the Orb to the Prime Node. Once the node is in your control, do your best to push (or sneak) into the enemy base and attack their core. Their Orb carrier will charge straight for the Prime Node just about every time. On the lower difficulties you can win the level by just shutting down their orb carrier, but on the harder levels it's easier said than done. It'll probably be a tug-of-war for the Prime Node, making it difficult to tell when to push in and when to fall back. If you go back to your base and get a second Orb, you can use it to fortify the Prime Node and prevent the bots from taking it back, but not forever, and your bots aren't particularly good at infiltrating so this is slow at best. The enemy can still kill you and rush your core to quickly undo your gains as well. On the other hand, it's very difficult to get into the enemy base yourself and your bots aren't very good at holding the prime node either. The best bet seems to be to use your 'extra' health to attack the Core. If the Prime Node looks sturdy enough to suffer your absence for a moment, Go attack the Core. If you've just fought off a wave of enemies and have a little extra health to spare before you die anyway - attack the core. Just try to time it so that you make it back to the prime node with the orb before the enemy has a chance to make it to your core. If your allies manage to capture both the support nodes, you can attack the enemy core directly from the Prime Node platform with any long range weapon. (Like the Link Gun) Also, if you manage to get into the enemy base, you can stand behind the Core on the far side (Left, when facing the Core). The bots sometimes get confused and don't know how to get you, so you can deal quite a bit of damage before you, it, or the prime node are destroyed. The bots ignore the turrets. If you use them you can help defend the prime\support nodes. The west turret can attack the blue core, and any enemies approaching yours, while the east turret can attack the orb carrier approaching the prime node. This isn't incredibly useful on harder difficulties since your turret will be targeted and destroyed. The bots also ignore most of the powerups, so if you have time, you can take advantage of them yourself. - Especially the UDamage in the alley across the courtyard from the either core. Mission 006 - TankCrossing ( WAR-TankCrossing ) Goal: 1 Core Destroyed Faction: Iron Guard Allies: Jester, Othello, Bishop Enemies: Johnson, Barktooth, Harlin, Cain Map Details Tokaido border territories This area serves as the demilitarized buffer zone between the Axon and Izanagi Corporations. Because the bridges along this narrow strip of land are the only roads that connect the two territories, the isthmus is considered a key military objective that must be controlled. Briefing "We need to blow the Axon core but - surprise - it's protected by blast doors. We can lower the doors if we can steal a heavy tank and drive it onto the pressure pad. Good news is there's a tank factory in the vicinity. Bad news? We need to get it across a drawbridge powered by the node underneath it. So Job One: Get the tank. Job Two: Hold the drawbridge and get the tank across. Job Three: Protect the tank while we take out the core. Job Four? Watch the fireworks." Objectives - Activate the Bridge Node to lower the drawbridge. - Drive your Goliath tank across the bridge. - Park the tank on the pressure pad to open the blast doors. - Destroy the enemy Core. Strategy & Tactics This is one of the missions they tried to make more reminiscent of Assault. There is only one Node here but rather than simply expose the core, it also lowers a bridge that allows your tank to cross the chasm into the enemy base. Once inside, you have to drive the tank onto a pressure pad to expose the core. Plow your turret into their core and blast it point-blank a few times to destroy it. This was a pretty easy mission even on Insane. Jester is on Orb duty. Normally I loathe to let bots do anything important, but it's either that or let them drive the tank. That doesn't mean you can sit up topside in your tank waiting for your bots to do all the work. Actually it probably does. But don't. That's rude. Near the bridge is a short staircase, and if you look down over the ledge you can see the bridge node. This is a good opportunity to interfere with the enemy. Once Jester arrives with the Orb, the bridge will lower and you can jump directly into your tank. Drive it across the bridge and down the left path. It's fairly linear. You'll reach a dead-end with a metal rectangle on the ground. Park on the rectangle and the core will open right in front of you. Blast it. There is a fence to your right and the enemy bots will annoyingly stare at you and throw things through the bars. If you have a bot in the tank with you, they can help gun down the hecklers, but otherwise you'll have to do it yourself. I'm not sure whether it's faster to switch and kill them with machine gun or to rotate the turret and make them swallow a mortar, but either way they have to die since there is a chance they would destroy your tank with their mischief if left to their own devices. Mission 7 - Kargo ( vCTF-Kargo ) Goal: 3 Captures Faction: Iron Guard Allies: Jester, Othello, Bishop Enemies: Slain, Johnson, Talan, Drake Map Details Alluvion river valley The harbors of the Alluvion River are the primary entry points for colonial supply lines. These shipping lanes are shared by all factions, and monitored by an N.E.G. peacekeeping force. This port is a highly contested supply point on the edge of Axon territory, with the Izanagi mainland just across the bay. Briefing "These harbors are full of vehicles loading cargo, moving personnel, and maintaining the perimeter. To even the odds, supply requisitioned a few longbows for us. The Anti vehicle rocket launcher - A.K.A. the 'AVRiL Longbow' - fires armor piercing missiles using an onboard optical tracking system. If all that fancy tech works as advertised, it sounds like a sniper rifle for blowing up vehicles. Bishop, have fun." Objectives - Disable the enemy Respawner by removing its FLaGs. - Control the boat in the mid-ground to access a Goliath. - Line up a Scorpion boost to jump from ramp to ramp across the boat. Strategy & Tactics This map can be extremely irritating. The bots have this tendency to prioritize human players over other bots. Normally it's not too big of a deal, but it becomes obvious when you've got a large number of bots or in this case, a bot in a tank. The map has a neutral Goliath that spawns and travels along a conveyor before being deployed right in the middle of the level, in an enclosure. It's effectively a very large turret. Each team also has Hellbenders and Scorpions in their garage. Aside from the Tank, the middle of the map is also home to a shield belt and a redeemer. There are a few unique weapons on this level. The 'Slow Field Generator' is effectively a trap which, when activated, causes anyone caught within it's radius to move very slowly. Works for catching (or saving) flag runners. There is also an EMP mine, which disables vehicles. There are a few ways in\out of the base, but ultimately they lead to one of two directions. The 'Street' curves around and leads directly to the loading docks for which the level gets it's name. The other is more of a back-alley which circles behind some obstructions, making it (nearly) safe passage from the troll in the Tank. The back alley also has body armor - in both bases - and health along the way. You can use the Scorpion's Speed Boost to hit the pipes in the center of the Cargo bay and use them as a ramp to launch you onto the other side of the field, but since the bots use the street almost exclusively, it wouldn't be very wise to use it regularly. Generally, the best way is to just get into the base as quickly as possible and then use the back alley route as an escape. The enemy usually only has one bot defending the flag room with a link gun, flak cannon or shock rifle which is easy enough to get past, but the others will cut you off in the parking- garage-like buildings. You can use your hoverboard, but only after you've rounded a corner where the enemy has no line-of-sight, and only for a few seconds at a time. It's very easy to get knocked off the board when you think you're safe. If you can capture the flag one time, all you have to do is hold out for the remainder of the mission. Another option is to mercilessly seize and exploit the tank in the center of the map to make it virtually impossible for the bots to leave their base. This becomes most useful on the harder difficulties where flag running becomes ever more perilous. Somewhat counter-intuitively however, you don't want to actually kill the bots perpetually. If you kill them, they respawn in their base, and that means they'll attack your allies when they come to take the flag. You want to time it so that their flag gets taken while they are out front. They'll turn around to go ambush the flag carrier, and if you kill them they'll respawn at their base. Too far away to do anything about the flag runner, least of all without you forcibly sending them home again. If the Tank is destroyed it will begin respawning quickly - as in, within 20 seconds. I say 'begin' respawning because it has to travel along a conveyor which drops it onto the track. Beating this mission unlocks the 'Tactical Diversion' Card. Save it for a rainy day. After the mission you can choose between WAR-TorlanDelta (Mission 122) and CTF-Hydrosis (Mission 008). This is effectively a defense\offense decision, deciding whether you want to focus on the immediate war with the Axon, or prepare for a future war with the Necris. Taking CTF-Hydrosis first is not only a harder level but can lead to some of the hardest missions in the chapter - if not the entire campaign. This is not set in stone however. I suggest taking Torlan, both because it is an easier mission which leads to an easier campaign, and because it makes more sense in the context of the story that Reaper would be more interested in a long-term plan against the necris than this trivial war with the Axon. Mission 008 - Hydrosis ( CTF-Hydrosis ) Goal: 3 Captures Faction: Iron Guard Allies: Jester, Othello, Bishop, Rook, Kensai Enemies: Harlin, Slain, Karag, Wraith, Kregore, Talan Map Details Alluvion river valley The canals of the Alluvion river are gated by this Axon hydro-facility, which serves as an emergency power backup and Tarydium processing plant. Destroying the plant would put serious stress on Axon energy production, but capturing it would mean diverting those essential resources for Izanagi use. Briefing "This should be a straightforward infantry assault. We take out their respawner and we're in control. Bishop, there's plenty of high ground and clear lines of sight, so provide cover when we cross the bridges. The rest of you, keep your heads up and watch for snipers." Objectives - Disable the enemy Respawner by removing its FLaGs. - The central bridge area has several dangerous sniping positions. - Protect the FLaG carrier to ensure their safe return. Strategy & Tactics This is a remake of a UT Classic map. The long open bridges, limited escape routes and higher number of bots means you're guaranteed to be shot at. The strategy for this map will be identical to the strategy for Mission 123, except that in this case the extra bot makes things harder, not easier. The enemy's extra bot will be guarding their flag. He always stands near the entrance on the bio-rifle side, although sometimes he lingers near the minigun after respawning. The extra bot means it's harder to even get -to- the flag, much less all the way back out with it, so it's kind of hit-and-miss. There are two main roads to and from the bases and a long narrow central courtyard between them, connected by a series of narrow bridges which span a chasm. Obviously, falling off the bridge is fatal. There are buildings on either side of the chasm which serve both as sniper bunkers and as medians to keep the two paths from the bases mostly separated. You can run between the chasm and the bunkers for a 'change up' but I find that dangerous and wasteful. If you don't have the flag, you can also translocate through the window of the bunker rather than run across the exposed bridge. The bots can (and will) do that as well. There are two paths, left and right, which will take you through separate routes before connecting in the middle (the flag room). The left path is shorter and generally less confusing, while the right path provides better cover, armor powerups, and a little bit of obscurity. The first room on the left path is a winding room with generators. There is health to the left of the door, and a few vials up on top of the first generator. There is a rocket launcher on top of the second generator. Beyond that room is a hallway that leads to the Bio Rifle and immediately past that, the enemy flag room with a stinger minigun on the ledge above the door and more health by the door opposite. Beyond that, there is another hallway which leads to the Link Gun, which in turn leads to another room. This room has the Body Armor in the center, and the Flak Cannon along the wall. It's easy to get turned around here, because the exit to the room is on the same wall you entered through. Once you know your way around, a dodge\translocate and a couple sharp turns will take you through this room before the bots have time to focus on you. Past that room is a small hallway which leads to the last room - the entrance to the 'right path' - which spawns the Shock rifle and the Armored Helmet. I prefer the right path for a couple reasons. On the left path, there is health right by the entrance - or exit - to the base, but if you already need health when you're first entering the base, or if you're low enough that it makes a difference when you're leaving, there is a good chance you'll die in the long courtyard anyway, and either way you're likely to be exposed to further damage for a while before you find more. The left path also has easy translocator shortcuts that you cannot use while carrying the flag, meaning the bots will have an easier time catching you should you attempt to exit along that route. The right path, on the other hand, can use the winding corridors to provide cover fire from the enemies for almost half of the journey, provides armor pickups to keep you shielded *and* has health inside the enemy flag room when you arrive (or to top off your health before the escape attempt). The biggest downside to this route is that you can get ambushed in the corridors. There are a couple 'secrets' on this level. Between the left & right path, immediately behind the entrance to the sniper bunkers near where the sniper rifle spawns, there is a ventilation shaft in the 'ceiling' which you can throw your translocator into. This will take you into the Flak\Armor room and bypass the Shock\Helmet room. On the wall behind the Bio Rifle, there is an access hatch which turns into the enemy Flag, allowing you to enter from 'behind enemy lines.' It's not incredibly useful, but the bots will use this. Finally - and this is the game winner - there is a Shield belt above the Stinger platform in either team's flag room. The stinger platform 'loops around' for no obvious reason, but if you look up there is a pipe running along the ceiling. If you translocate onto that, you'll find the shield belt. If it's already been taken, you can also wait there safely for it to respawn. You can get the shield belt in the red base and use it to get inside the blue base, stock up on health and replace the broken shield, and then grab the flag and make an escape with 100/100. If you take the right path, you can sometimes grab an Armor Vest and\or Helmet on your way out. This factor alone should allow you to make it outside and to the first bridge, where your team can (possibly) pick up where you left off if you die. Another useful trick is to use the Bio Rifle alt fire to clear the hallways if anyone tries to ambush you. A lot of people dislike the Bio Rifle, but in situations like this it can be more useful than the Flak Cannon. Quickly 'Zigzagging' is also a must, since it reduces the enemy accuracy by about 60%. If you're still having trouble with this, you can linger in your own base collecting the health vials on top of the generators, the armor helmet, vest, and belt until you're 175/199. That should give you enough energy to get into the blue base and replace your shield before attempting the capture. The 175 shield should get you outside, and the extra 99 health might help getting across the bridge. After the mission you have another choice: WAR-TorlanDelta (Mission 009) or vCTF-Suspense (Mission 111)? This is another defense\offence choice, the same as the last one. Now that you've attacked Axon, do you want to fortify your gains or push deeper into Axon territory? Suspense is the last bridge defending Oxida Nova, so if you take that you'll be within striking distance of their capital. Since you're already committed to attacking the Axon, attempting to turn around now leads to some of the hardest missions in the campaign. I suggest vCTF-Suspense. If you were going to take the Torlan Delta, you should have done it before you moved in hard against the Axon, Mission 009 - Torlan Delta ( WAR-Torlan ) Goal: 1 Core Destroyed Faction: Iron Guard Allies: Jester, Othello, Bishop, Connor, Harkin Enemies: Cain, Karag, Kregore, Drake, Barktooth, Harlin Map Details Torlan river delta Thanks to stringent monitoring by the New Earth Government, all three Corporations have used the fields of the Torlan Delta to power their combined mining efforts. But with the recent threat of full scale war, N.E.G. forces have pulled out, and everyone is scrambling to take control of this valuable territory. Briefing "Advance teams established an improvised base on the border, but Axon forces are amassing a huge force across the central gorge. We need to destroy the enemy core to establish a firm command of the area. When the N.E.G. pulled out, they left a support node intact hidden underneath the bridge. If we can take that node, we'll get some extra firepower we can use against the core." Objectives - Link together Nodes to access the enemy Core. - A Support Node below the central bridge will provide your team with extra fire power. Strategy & Tactics Those of you who played Onslaught in UT2004 (or the Demo) are undoubtedly familiar with this remake of ONS-Torlan. This time it's linked differently, and there are two extra nodes, along with the Bonus vehicles from UT2004. The starting base for both teams have a Hellbender, Raptor, Manta, and an Orb. In the red base, the Hellbender is on the south-west side of the base near the gate, the Manta spawns on the northwest side along with the Orb, and the Raptor spawns up the stairs, near the PowerCore. There are also Laser turrets on the wall, but are only useful in a pinch. The Red Prime-Node is south-central, west of the Red Base. From there, you must take the West 'Road' Node, or the East 'Road' Node, both of which converge on the Blue Prime-Node in north-central. From there, you can attack the enemy core. There are three support nodes on this mission. Each Prime Node links to a 'Tank' Node in the Northeast or Southwest corner of the map. The third support Node is the 'Center' Node in the center of the map. The 'Bridge' Node isn't linked to any other node, so it can be attacked at any time. The Prime nodes spawn a Laser Turret, a Manta, and a Scorpion. The Northeast and Southwest 'Tank' Nodes spawn a Goliath and a Manta. The East and West nodes spawn SPMA Artillery and a Manta. The Center node spawns a Circada (Bridge), and a Scorpion (Bottom). The Orb can spawn at your base, the east\west Nodes, or the Center node. Finally, there are teleporters at the nodes which allow you to quickly transport to any node which is not being attacked. (You can't teleport with the orb, or a vehicle.) The bots will try to grab the orb and take it to the node north\south of their base. Usually this means that the Red team will have the South nodes, and East node, while the Blue will control the north and west. They will mostly fix their efforts on controlling the main nodes, so if they don't have both the East and the West node, they'll try to cut off your opportunities to attack their prime node while they attack yours. They don't pay much attention to the support nodes - the center node isn't linked to any others, and the corner nodes collapse when the prime node is destroyed - but they don't ignore them completely either. If they have both the east and west nodes, they'll focus on taking out your prime node and 'mopping up' the unclaimed nodes. If they succeed in doing so you'll have a hard time getting back up again. If they destroy your prime node, you'll have to claim it, hold it, claim a side node, hold it, and destroy their prime node. It's doable, but it'd be an upset. So the goal here is to destroy their prime node - as quickly as possible - before they destroy yours. It's not as important to actually claim and hold the enemy prime node as it is to keep it destroyed. Their tank node will collapse, and their East\West nodes will be useless until they get it back up. They will send their orb carrier to reclaim it, but while they are trying to recover their prime node, your allies will be sweeping their other nodes off the map. By the time they get their prime node rebuilt, you'll be in position to destroy it again with more nodes than you had last time. If you can actually claim their prime node, consider going and claiming their Tank node as well. With a Goliath so close to their base, you can all but prevent their orb carrier from reclaiming the prime node, and therefore win by attrition. Jester will be the assigned Orb carrier on this mission, and there is a good chance she'll beat you to the orb. She'll probably run to the east node, but since she's only got a Hoverboard, she'll probably be cut-off by an enemy - your evil counterpart - piloting a Manta. If she fails to construct a Red node there before the Orb respawns at the Red base, the enemy will be in great position to lay siege to your Prime Node. Initially I let her push the east node while I went and claimed the center node unopposed. There are a couple reasons to do this. The first is that, even if Jester dies, there is a good chance that the enemy will leave the node undefended, meaning she can make it back and claim the east node before the orb respawns. Another is that, when the center node is taken, the orb will respawn there instead of all the way back at the Red Base. It's faster than going back to the base, getting the orb, and coming all the way back. This worked like a charm for me, however in retrospect, this is very risky. Had she failed, the Orb may have respawned at the red base anyway (if the center node wasn't finished) and in either case I'd have to run it to the east node myself. Assuming I succeeded, I'd still have to destroy their prime node before they destroyed mine, which would be under attack by then. It's possible to recover from such a spectacular failure by -quickly- bringing the orb back to your prime node and finishing the assault on theirs, but it may be better to avoid this altogether and simply assist Jester in claiming the east node from the start. There are several approaches to this mission. You can pilot the raptor and attack the nodes from the air. Parking the raptor on the Tower in the center places you in a diamond of Nodes, all of which are important. This gives you a pretty clear vantage point to constantly wear away at the enemy nodes and prevent construction. You can also use the manta to do this from the ground, trading mobility (slightly) for speed, ground-cover, and the ability to participate in reconstruction. You can also forego the entire strategy and charge straight to the Tank node, using it as a battering ram of sorts. I found the Manta to be the most effective strategy because, on the harder difficulties, the tank and raptor seem to make you a larger, more exposed target and the manta is also faster, which is important. There are several places that let you attack the nodes from far away - usually too far away for the bots to hit you accurately - and if you sneak around the backside, you can reclaim nodes without drawing attention to yourself. Usually these locations are near the center of the map and out-of-the-way of Bot patrol routes. Most notably, you can attack the enemy prime node from near their tank node, or from the mountains in the center of the map. Using the 'edges' of the rocks as cover from enemy fire. The Link Gun and Shock Rifle are good at this, but if you can do it in a Raptor or a Manta it's even better. In general, just try to avoid the enemy troops without drawing attention to yourself and focus on destroying their nodes - especially the prime node - from places where they can't see or reach you and let your team mates pick up the slack. Mission 010 - Suspense ( vCTF-Suspense ) Goal: 3 Captures Faction: Iron Guard Allies: Jester, Othello, Bishop, Ushido, Rook Enemies: Johnson, Wraith, Kregore, Blain, Slain, Barktooth Map Details Oxida Nova border territories Suspense is the only bridge across the Alluvion strong enough to support the weight of heavy combat vehicles. Without the bridge, it would take Axon forces several days to respond to any battles across of the river. As such, it is always under guard by an Axon mechanized division, with military checkpoints at each end. Briefing "We need to clear the military checkpoints at each end of this bridge. Izanagi recon took the southern point, and they called us to take the more heavily guarded northern point. So we'll sortie from the south to attack their respawner. We will have vehicle support. Bishop, the central bridge towers should make great sniper nests. Don't forget a longbow to take out enemy armor. Recon team also found a path under the bridge, so keep that in mind as our number-two option." Objectives - Disable the enemy Respawner by removing its FLaGs. - The towers of the bridge are ideal sniping positions. - There is a Redeemer on the lower path, under the bridge. Strategy & Tactics This is the vCTF mission included in the demo, and all the same tricks work. It's very simple geometrically, and it shouldn't take more than a couple minutes to learn the layout. You've got a Goliath and a Raptor on the East edge of your base, a Scorpion, Hellbender, and Manta on the West, and an SPMA Artillery in the Northwest. The sniper rifle spawns between the two halves, and another spawns up near the SPMA artillery. You can use the support cables on the bridge to run (or Hoverboard) up to the top of the bridge in a scene very reminiscent of FFX (except they didn't fall on their face and roll off the edge to their death.) Most of your weapons will be acquired from weapon lockers near your spawn point so there is much more emphasis on vehicles for this map. The biggest asset at your disposal will be the Super Health which spawns near the Sniper Rifle and SPMA Artillery, up the ramp from your flag and around the corner. Jester will pilot the Goliath, making her very useful. Trying to pilot the Goliath yourself just draws a ton of enemy fire, you lose the tank and it doesn't help your allies get the flag (since they basically can't). Hellbenders, and Scorpions will have to drive down the main road, making them very vulnerable. Mantas can get away with it to some extent, but it's still more vulnerable than the Raptor. You'll want to hop on over and get the Super Health on your side of the map first, then take your Raptor across and land it near theirs. It's much better to take the powerups in enemy territory to deprive them of the benefit. When you've got 199 health, discreetly (wait for the Goliath to pass if you need to) walk into the enemy flag room and take it. Run back up the ramp to where the Super Health spawns and take a sharp right. Run along the narrow ledge against the wall of the building. Jump across to the doorway on the bridge's support pillar and run inside. This puts you on the bridge. Take a left and run outside along the edge of the bridge, being careful not to fall off or leave yourself exposed to fire from behind you. You can use the pillars as cover to some extent, but you'll want to keep moving. Once you get inside the second doorway, you're almost home free. I've found it better to keep running straight for a short way after leaving the doorway rather than trying to cut across the bridge immediately. Either way, cross the bridge and put the flag away. No sweat. Then, just get the Super Health again and repeat the process. The redeemer spawns on the island under the bridge. Falling off the bridge can result in a ragdoll, dropping the flag, and possibly getting killed by the bots who like to play down there. If you survive you can climb the ramp on the opposite side and come up in about the same place as you would have if you'd run along the bridge. I tend to avoid the hoverboard on this map, but there are a couple opportunities to use it in brief intervals inside the buildings and around corners. Note: If you're playing Co-op you can use the Raptor and Hoverboard grapple to bring a friend into the enemy base with you, and quickly tow them back out with the flag. It may be possible to accomplish this kind of extraction with the bots as well, by piloting the raptor near them when they grab the enemy flag. Mission 011 - Serenity ( WAR-Serenity ) Goal: 1 Core Destroyed Faction: Iron Guard Allies: Jester, Othello, Bishop, Hunter Enemies: Lauren, Slain, Johnson, Karag Map Details Alluvion river valley There's a small Tarydium mine buried deep in the trees of this old forest. While it's not large enough to be a major source of income for the Axon, they have been known to use it as a supply depot and refueling center for their shipping convoys. Briefing "With the Alluvion blocked, the Axon are trying to sneak their Leviathan super- vehicle behind our lines. That kind of firepower on our flank would *not* be pretty so we need to hit 'em quickly. Their convoy stopped near a supply depot to refuel, and it's ambush time. Our forces used dense forest cover to establish a small base and now Ronin does the real work. Don't forget the mine node. We can use it to construct our own Leviathan. That'd wake 'em up." Objectives - Link together Nodes to access the enemy Core. - When Tarydium stockpiles are maxed, Leviathan production begins automatically. - Proceed with caution, Axon forces already have a Leviathan at their disposal. Strategy & Tactics This one is pretty straightforward, but it introduces a new feature: Countdown Nodes. This time all of the nodes are connected in basically a straight line, and like the Torlan Delta, the center support node is not connected to any other nodes. Controlling the center node begins a 40 second countdown. When the countdown ends, a Leviathan spawns in the small canyon west of the Node for whoever completed the countdown. The enemy, however, already has a Leviathan up and running, and they will try to claim the Mine Node early to keep it under their control. This is the easiest version of Serenity. You actually outnumber the enemy, so you don't have to do much to win. Regardless, you should approach this level just like the harder versions. Your first order of business is to take the Mine Node away from the enemy. Then you have to destroy their leviathan. Once you have done those things, you'll be able to construct your own leviathan at the mine node. From there it's just a matter of driving it into the enemy prime node and on to their core. There isn't anything terribly unique to these steps, just use the Orb and then go after the Leviathan, either with a Goliath, an AVRiL or some other kind of long-range weapon. If you position yourself properly, you can hit the back-end of the Leviathan without any fear of retribution. The bots aren't very smart about piloting it so bringing it down is a matter of time more than anything. With you manning the Leviathan, your allies should be able to claim the prime nodes without a problem, and then all you have to do is push in and destroy the core. Mission 012 - Downtown ( WAR-Downtown ) Goal: 1 Core Destroyed Faction: Iron Guard Allies: Jester, Othello, Bishop Enemies: Lauren, Harlin, Wraith, Talan Map Details Downtown Oxida Nova With the blockade on the Alluvion River, the warehouse district of Oxida Nova has been plunged into chaos. The storage facilities located there are the only remaining supply points available to Axon forces, and they've enforced martial law to ensure that their supplies remain unthreatened. Briefing "The Izanagi are taking Oxida Nova City and we're on point. I don't have to tell you about urban terrain, even 3:1 odds is rolling the dice - and today, we're straight up. We move downtown, flush the Axon into the open, and take out their power grid. The sooner we get heavy vehicles in play, the better - either by blowing the barricades outside the Axon base, or capturing the tank factory at the central node. Stay alert. We're on their home turf now and they'll use that to advantage." Objectives - Link together Nodes to access the enemy Core. - Use the shaped charge or Redeemer to destroy barricades. - With the barricades destroyed, heavy vehicles gain access to the main battlefield. - Axon forces have a strong foothold in this area. Defend your core at all costs. Strategy & Tactics WAR-Downtown will be harder than the other Warfare missions we've played so far. It's similar to WAR-Serenity, in that all of the nodes are linked in succession with an unlinked support node which, again, spawns a tank. This time, the tank is a Goliath, and there is an extra node in the middle to fight over. Furthermore, every node has an orb spawner, so it will be a tug of war between the orb carriers. Even worse, the enemy starts will all of the nodes already in their control, so your core is immediately vulnerable. Your role in this mission is to stabilize the situation, putting you in a support role. You're gonna be on defense this time, a defensive-offense, and your bots are all on offense by default. Jester will pretty much camp the orb, so it's difficult to get a hold of, and the enemy will be constantly pushing on your base as well. Your bots will basically ignore the tank node, and the Goliath it spawns, while the enemy team - Lauren in particular - will not. This means your first order of business is to take the Tank node and use the Goliath it spawns to help your allies push the enemy off your Prime Node and back to the center node. You can park your Goliath near your Prime Node, safely away from most of the fighting, and use it to shut down their Orb carrier, but they can circumvent this by taking the Tank node out from under you so it's better to be quick and try to get the center node back to neutral status. If you lose your goliath, go get another one. Taking out the center node is difficult because they've got a laser turret - and a number of Scorpions - which will decimate your tank. If you can just destroy the node whether or not you claim it yourself (using abandoned enemy vehicles as cover sometimes works) they will lose these vehicles until they can recover it, making it easier for you to capture and hold the node yourself. At this point, whoever controls the tank node is 'winning'. For the most part, the idea of the early game is to keep the Tank node under your control and use it as a counterweight to prevent the enemy from reclaiming anything your allies take from them. This is the hardest part. Once you've got control of both the center node and the tank node, the dynamics change. For one, you don't have to do anything else except maintain control and you will win by attrition if the time runs out. At this point you might find it better to switch entirely to defense using the Orb to shield & hold the center node while your allies fight over the enemy prime node. If the enemy prime falls, you can then run over and build a friendly node in it's place, and repeat the process there while your allies attack the enemy core. Another option might be to assist attacking the enemy prime node yourself, although this can be difficult and potentially costly if the enemy counter- attacks. Once you have their prime node, you can attack their core. On the easier settings I find this more productive than defending because the bots are so slow and it's easy to recover the node if they destroy it. On the harder levels there is less room to play around, I prefer to be conservative and let the enemy wear out slowly-but-surely, using my now-obsolete orb to defend the enemy prime node and preventing them from getting back up. If you have an opening between waves of enemies, you can run over and take the Tank node back at this point (if you lost it). You can actually park the Goliath inside the prime node building, making it impossible for the enemy to reclaim their node. If you decide to attack their base, there is an alleyway off the main road that leads to their core. You can get in and shoot it a couple times before the bots catch on. If you've got a secure hold on the prime node and the enemies are siege in their base, you can drive the Goliath through their front gate without much fuss as well. All-in-all the first 50% is the hard part and it's all downhill from there. Mission 013 - Defiance ( DM-Defiance ) Goal: 50 Kills Faction: Iron Guard Allies: Jester, Othello, Bishop Enemies: Lauren, Barktooth, Harlin, Slain Map Details Downtown Oxida Nova Downtown Oxida Nova is a busy hub for Axon colonists. The area is surrounded by tall buildings, including the central rail station, employment offices, and shopping centers that are designed to resemble those back home on Earth. Briefing "Now that we've taken Oxida Nova, Axon defenses are crumbling. There's only a few pockets of resistance left, but that includes the Iron Guard. These guys are Axon-elite, ex-military--very experienced. And very pissed. They've got a make-shift command point near the transport center. Our job is to take control of the area before they spark a city-wide riot." Objectives - Keep enemies in check until their Respawner charges are depleted. - The tight corridors of the lower level are very dangerous. - More powerful items can be found in the center's upper levels. Strategy & Tactics Hit & Run reigns supreme on this level, although the tunnels by the rocket launcher provide a nice campsite. I set up Jester and Othello on top of the ramps opposite the door, with Bishop on the rocket launcher, and myself up on the thighpads with the Sniper Rifle\Rocket Launcher. - This was extremely successful tactically, but it made too many 'economic' compromises to be a valid strategy overall. I also tried having the bots follow me, as per Shangri- La, but the level design didn't seem to accommodate that as well. The strategy from Arsenal and Carbon Fire seems to work the best: let your bots do what they want while you follow them around to distract the enemy. The rest of the time, stay out of the way and use guerilla tactics. Mission 014 - Kargo ( vCTF-Kargo ) Goal: 3 Captures Faction: Krall Allies: Jester, Othello, Bishop Enemies: Hellhound, Scorn, Gnasher, Cerberus, Scar, Worg Map Details Alluvion river valley The harbors of the Alluvion River are the primary entry points for colonial supply lines. These shipping lanes are shared by all factions, and monitored by an N.E.G. peacekeeping force. This port is a highly contested supply point on the edge of Axon territory, with the Izanagi mainland just across the bay. Briefing "I don't like what's going on here. The Axon are quiet - no attempts to recapture the Alluvion Corridor. Four recon teams went into Oxida Nova. Only one made it out. They reported I quote, "Overwhelming hordes of Krall mercenaries slaughtering everyone wholesale." Before we could get defenses online, the Krall crossed the bay and hit our supply-lines. We need to move quickly, or this entire op is going up in smoke. We've seen what these bastards can do first hand. This time, they don't have the element of surprise but we're still heavily outnumbered. Don't kid yourselves. Respawners or not, every time we fight the Krall, we're fighting for survival." Objectives - Disable the enemy Respawner by removing its FLaGs. - Control the boat in the mid-ground to access a Goliath. - Line up a Scorpion boost to jump from ramp to ramp across the boat. Strategy & Tactics You'll be outnumbered by two this time, making it significantly more difficult than last time. It can be hard to get even one capture on this mission and if you let your guard down the enemy can win very quickly. I didn't have much success using the tank because my bots could hardly get to the flag room let alone back out again. It's possible to score this way, but you could easily play to overtime without doing so and still lose on a rough transition. The best bet seems to be to alternate between the tank and a flag attempt. The tank keeps the enemy in line and prevents them from getting too many people on your side of the board, reducing the chance that somebody might capture your flag in the time between your tank's destruction and your flag run. It also reduces the likelihood that the tank will fall into enemy hands. For the actual run, the shield belt would help immensely if you can get a hold of it. Either way, you want to approach from the Hellbender side and stay away from midfield where the enemy vehicles congregate. Aside from avoiding a lot of unnecessary damage, it also provides you a small area to restock on health and armor before you enter the flag room. There will probably be two defenders guarding the flag since they can afford it. If you drop down into the scorpion garage and then use the jump pad in the back, you'll come up right in front of one of the defenders. If you turn around and step onto it, you can come up facing him and can gib him with the Flak Cannon before he has a chance to return fire. Then you can grab the flag and jump over the rail to the Hellbender exit. If you moved quickly out of the base - and especially if you have the shield belt - you should have enough time to use your hoverboard to get behind the crates. You may even be able to reach the garage. Take the same route home that you took to reach the base and hope the enemy didn't take the tank while you were away. If they did, you'll probably have to kill the tank and try again, but sometimes you can escape before it targets you. The redeemer can make short work of the tank, just don't use the alt-fire or they will shoot it down with their incredible aim. Mission 015 - Torlan Delta ( WAR-Torlan_Leviathan ) Goal: 1 Core Destroyed Faction: Krall Allies: Jester, Othello, Bishop Enemies: Hellhound, Scar, Worg, Lockjaw, Claw, Bargest, Blackfang Map Details Torlan river delta Thanks to stringent monitoring by the New Earth Government, all three Corporations have used the fields of the Torlan Delta to power their combined mining efforts. But with the recent threat of full scale war, N.E.G. forces have pulled out, and everyone is scrambling to take control of this valuable territory. Briefing "With three corporations at each other’s throats, the Torlan Delta's in chaos. Krall forces are swarming at the central Torlan gorge, looking to take advantage. All we've got is a forward observation post at the border. The outlying nodes will give us more vehicles, but intel says they're already corrupted by the necris. The Torlan Delta's about as strategic as it gets, so this isn't optional. We have to push out the Krall if we're gonna win this war. Good thing we picked up that Leviathan. Let's give the Krall a little surprise." Objectives - Link together Nodes to access the enemy Core. - A Support Node below the central bridge will provide your team with extra fire power. - Krall forces will attempt to overwhelm enemies by attacking in packs. - Some Nodes are already under the control of the Krall forces. Strategy & Tactics This mission is terrible. The bot AI is horribly buggy - but only for your allies. Meanwhile, the enemy outnumbers you almost 2:1, and they are organized, aggressive, and arguably better equipped. On higher difficulties they'll even use their Vipers to tow the Orb carrier between the nodes. You have no choice but to use the Leviathan. If you allow your bots to pilot it, they will almost certainly get stuck on the wall of the base. Even if they don't get stuck, they will drive it to the prime node where it essentially waits to be destroyed so you can start the level over. You want Jester and Othello on offense, and Bishop covering you. Bishop will get in the leviathan with you and man one of the turrets. We use Bishop because he is the most accurate and the least useful on foot. Othello will go to the Prime node, while Jester will carry the orb to the center node. If Othello has the orb, he will take it to the prime node like an idiot, but Jester will still go to the center node. If you have Othello *and* Bishop in the Leviathan, Jester will take the orb to the C